in the denominations and that thereby the same body may be conceiued to be more or lesse impartible then it is actiue or heauy As for example lett vs of a dense Element take any one least part which must of necessity be in its owne nature and kind absolutely impartible and yet it is euident that the grauity of this part must be exceeding litle by reason of the litlenesse of its quantity so that thus you see an extremity of the effect of density ioyned together in one body by the accident of the litlenesse of it with a contrary extremity of the effect of grauity or rather with the want of it each of them within the limits of the same species In like manner it happeneth that the same body in one circumstance is more weighty in an other or rather in the contrary is more partible so water when it is in a payle because it is thereby hindered froÌ„ spreading abroad hath the effect of grauity predominating in it but if it be poured out it hath the effect of partibility more And thus it happeneth that meerely by the gradation of rarity and density one dense body may be apt out of the generall course of naturall causes to be more diuisible theÌ„ to be a diuider though according to the nature of the degrees considered absolutely in theÌ„selues what is more powerfull to diuide is also more resisteÌ„t and harder to be diuided And this arriueth in that degree which maketh water for the falling and beating of the atomes vpon water hath the power both to diuide it and to makâ— it descend but so that by making it descend it diuideth it And therefore we say that it hath more grautty then density though it be the very density of it which is the cause that maketh it partible by the working of one part vpon an other for if the atomes did not find the body so dense as it is they could not by their beating vpon one part make an other be diuided So that a dense body to be more heauy then dense signifyeth nothing else but that it is in such a degree of density â—hat some of its owne partes by their being assisted and sett on worke by a generall cause which is the fall of the atomes are powerfull enough to diuide other adioyning partes of the same density with them one from an other in such sort as we see that water poured out of an eawer into a basen where there is already other water hath the power to diuide the water in the basen by the assistance of the celerity which it getteth in descending And now I hope the reader is fully satisfyed that there is no contradiction in putting Density and Grauity to be the same thing materially and that neuerthelesse the same thing may be more heauy then dense or more dense then heauy as we tooke it to our seuerall purposes in the inuestigation of the Elements Hauing thus layed an intelligible ground to discouer how these motions that are generall to all bodies and are naturall in chiefe are contriued by nature we will now endeauour to shew that the contrary position is not onely voluntary but also impossible Lett vs therefore suppose that a body hath a quality to mooue it downewardes And first wee shall aske what downewardes signifyeth for eyther it signifyeth towardes a fixed point of imaginary space or towardes a fixed point of the vniuerse or towardes some mooueable point As for the first who would maintaine it must haue more imagination then iudgment to thinke that a naturall quality could haue an essence determined by a nothing because we can frame a conceit of that nothing As for the second it is very vncertaine whether any such point be in nature for as for the center of the earth it is cleare that if the earth be carryed about the center of it can not be a fixed point Againe if the center signifyeth a determinate point in the earth that is the medium of grauity or of quantity it is changed as often as any dust lighteth vnequally vpon any one side of the earth which would make that side bigger then it was and I doubt a quality can not haue morall considerations to thinke that so litle doth no harme As for the third position likewise it is not intelligible how a quality should change its inclination or essence according to the change that should light to make now one point now an other be the center vnto which it should tend Againe lett vs consider that a quality hath a determinate essence Then seeing its power is to mooue and to moue signifyeth to cutt the mediuÌ„ it is mooued in it belongeth vnto it of its nature to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time So that if no other cause be added but that you take precisely and in abstracto that quality that medium and that time this effect will follow that so much motion is made And if this effect should not follow it is cleare that the being able to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time is not the essence of this quality as it was supposed to be Diuiding then the time and the medium halfe the motion should de made in halfe the time a quarter of the motion in a quarter of the time and so without end as farre as you can diuide But this is demonstratiuely impossible sithhence it is demonstrated that a mooueable coming from rest must of necessity passe through all degrees of tardity and therefore by the demonstration cited out of Galileus we may take a part in which this grauity can not mooue its body in a proportionate part of time through a proportionate part of the mediuÌ„ But because in naturall Theorems experiences are naturally required lett vs see whether nature giueth vs any testimony of this verity To that purpose we may consider a plummet hanged in a small string from a beame which being lifted vp gentlely on the one side att the extent of the string and permitted to fall meerely by the power of grauity it will ascend very neere as high on the contrary side as the place it was held in from whence it fell In this experiment we may note two thinges the first that if grauity be a quality it worketh against its owne nature in lifting vp the plumett seing its nature is onely to carry it downe For though it may be answered that it is not the grauity but an other quality called vis impressa which carrieth it vp neuerthelesse it can not be denyed but that grauity is either the immediate or at least the mediate cause which maketh this vis impressa the effect whereof being contrary to the nature of grauity it is absurd to make grauity the cause of it that is the cause of an essence whose nature is contrary to its owne And the same argument will proceede though you putt not vis impressa but suppose some other thing to be
the cause of the plummets remounting as long as grauity is said to be a quality for still grauity must be the cause of an effect contrary to its owne inclination by setting on foote the immediate cause to produce it The second thing we are to note in this experiment of the plummets ascent is that if grauity be a quality there must bee as much resistance to its going vp as there was force to its coming downe Therefore there must be twice as much force to make it ascend as there was to make it descend that is to say there must be twice as much force as the naturall force of the grauity is for there must be once as much to equalise the resistance of the grauity and then an other time as much to carry it as farre through the same medium in the same time But it is impossible that any cause should produce an effect greater then it selfe Againe the grauity must needes be in a determinate degree and the vertue that maketh the plummett remount whatsoeuer it be may be putt as litle as we please and consequently not able to ouersway the grauity alone if it be an intrinsecall quality and yet the plummet will remount in which case you putt an effect without a cause An other experience we may take from the force of sucking for take the barrell of a long gunne perfectly bored and sett it vpright with the breech vpon the ground and take a bullett that is exactly fitt for it but so as it sticke not any where both the barrell and it being perfectly polished and then if you sucke att the mouth of the barrell though neuer so gently the bullett will come vp so forcibly that it will hazard the striking out of your teeth Now lett vs consider what force were necessary to sucke the bullett vp and how very slowly it would ascend if in the barrell it had as much resistance to ascend as in the free ayre it hath inclination to goe downe But if it had a quality of grauity naturall to it it must of necessity haue such resistance whereas in our experiment we see it cometh as easily as the very ayre So that in this example as well as in the other nature teacheth vs that grauity is no quality And all or most of the arguments which we haue vrged against the quality of grauity in that explication we haue considered it in haue force likewise against it although it be said to be an inclination of its subiect to mooue it selfe vnto vnity with the maine stocke of its owne nature as diuers witty men do putt it for this supposition doth but chāge the intention or end of grauity and is but to make it an other kind of intellectuall or knowing Entity that determineth it selfe to an other end which is as impossible for a naturall quality to do as to determine it selfe to the former endes And thus much the arguments we haue proposed do conuince euidently if they be applyed against this opinion THE TWELTH CHAPTER Of Violent Motion ANd thus we haue giuen a short scātling whereby to vnderstand in some measure the causes of that motion which we call naturall by reason it hath its birth from the vniuersall oeconomy of nature here among vs that is from the generall working of the sunne whereby all naturall thinges haue their course and by reason that the cause of it is att all times and in all places constantly the same Next vnto which the order of discourse leadeth vs to take a suruay of those forced motions whose first causes the more apparent they are the more obscurity they leaue vs in to determine by what meanes they are continued When a tennis ball is strucken by a rackett or an arrow is shott from a bow we plainely see the causes of their motion namely the stringes which first yielding and then returning with a greater celerity do cause the missiues to speed so fast towardes their appoynted homes Experience informeth vs what qualities the missiues must be endued withall to mooue fast and steadily They must be so heauy that the ayre may not breake their course and yet so light that they may be within the command of the stroake which giueth them motion the striker must be dense and in its best velocity the angle which the missiue is to mount by if we will haue it goe to its furthest randome must be the halfe of a right one and lastly the figure of the missiue must be such as may giue scope vnto the ayre to beare it vp and yet not hinder its course by taking too much hold of it All this we see but when withall wee see that the moouer deserteth the moueable as soone as he hath giuen the blow wee are att a stand and know not where to seeke for that which afterwardes maketh it flye for motion being a transient not a permanent thing as soone as the cause ceaseth that begott it in that very point it must be att an end and as long as the motion continueth there must be some permanent cause to make it do so so that as soone as the rackett or bowstring goe backe and leaue the ball or arrow why should not they presently fall straight downe to the ground Aristotle and his followers haue attributed the cause hereof to the ayre but Galileo relisheth not this conception His arguments against it are as I remember to this tenor first ayre by reason of its rarity and diuisibility seemeth not apt to conserue motion next we see that light thinges are best carried by the ayre and it hath no power ouer weighty ones lastly it is euident that ayre taketh most hold of the broadest superficies and therefore an arrow would flye faster broadwayes then longwayes if this were true Neuerthelesse since euery effect must haue a proportionable cause from whence it immediately floweth and that a body must haue an other body to thrust it on as long as it mooueth lett vs examine what bodies do touch a moueable whilest it is in motion as the onely meanes to find an issue out of this difficulty for to haue recourse vnto a quality or impressed force for deliuerance out of this straight is a shift that will not serue the turne in this way of discourse we vse In this Philosophy no knott admitteth such a solution If then we enquire what body it is that immediately toucheth the ball or arrow whiles it flyeth we shall find that none other doth so but the ayre and the atomes in it after the stringes haue giuen their stroake and are parted from the missiue And although we haue Galileos authority and arguments to discourage vs from beleeuing that the ayre can worke this effect yet since there is no other body besides it left for vs to consider in this case lett vs att the least examine how the ayre behaueth it selfe after the stroake is giuen by the stringes First then it is euident that as soone
leafe doth not incorporate it selfe with an other but as soone as they feele the heate of the sunne after they are broken out into liberty their tender branches by litle and litle grow more straight the concaue partes of them drawing more towardes the sunne because he extracteth and sucketh their moysture from their hinder partes into their former that are more exposed to his beames and thereby the hinder partes are contracted and grow shorter and those before grow longer Which if it be in excesse maketh the leafe become crooked the contrary way as we see in diuers flowers and in sundry leafes during the summers heate wittenesse the yuy roses full blowne tulipes and all flowers in forme of bells and indeede all kindes of flowers whatsoeuer when the sunne hath wrought vpon them to that degree we speake of and that their ioyning to their stalke and the next partes thereunto allow them scope to obey the impulse of those outward causes And when any do vary from this rule we shall as plainely see other manifest causes producing those different effects as now we do these working in this manner As for fruites though we see that when they grow att liberty vpon the tree they seeme to haue a particular figure alloted them by nature yet in truth it is the ordered series of naturall causes and not an intrinsecall formatiue vertue which breedeth this effect as is euident by the great power which art hath to change their figures att pleasure whereof you may see examples enough in Campanella and euery curious gardner can furnish you with store Out of these and such like principles a man that would make it his study with lesse trouble or tediousnesse then that patient contemplator of one of natures litle workes the Bees whom we mentioned a while agone might without all doubt trace the causes in the growing of an Embryon till he discouered the reason of euery bones figure of euery notable hole or passage that is in them of the ligaments by which they are tyed together of the membranes that couer them and of all the other partes of the body How out of a first masse that was soft and had no such partes distinguishable in it euery one of thē came to be formed by contracting that masse in one place by dilating it in an other by moystening it in a third by drying it here hardening it there Vt his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener hominis concreuerit orbis till in the end this admirable machine and frame of mans body was composed and fashioned vp by such litle and almost insensible steppes and degrees Which when it is looked vpon in bulke and entirely formed seemeth impossible to haue beene made and to haue sprung meerely out of these principle without an Intelligence immediately working and moulding it att euery turne from the beginning to the end But withall we can not choose but breake out into an extasye of admiration and hymnes of prayse as great Galen did vpon the like occasion when we reuerently consider the infinite wisedome and deepe farrelooking prouidence of the allseeing Creator and orderer of the world in so punctually adapting such a multitude and swarme of causes to produce by so long a progresse so wonderfull an effect in the whole course of which if any one the very least of them all went neuer so litle awry the whole fabrike would be discomposed and changed from the nature it is designed vnto Out of our short suruay of which answerable to our weake talents and slender experience I persuade my selfe it appeareth euident enough that to effect this worke of generation there needeth not be supposed a forming vertue or Vis formatrix of an vnknowne power and operation as those that consider thinges soddainely and but in grosse do vse to putt Yet in discourse for conueniency and shortenesse of expression we shall not quite banish that terme from all commerce with vs so that what we meane by it be rightly vnderstood which is the complexe assemblement or chayne of all the causes that concurre to produce this effect as they are sett on foote to this end by the great Architect and Moderator of them God almighty whose instrument nature is that is the same thing or rather the same thinges so ordered as we haue declared but expressed and comprised vnder an other name THE SIX AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How motion beginneth in liuing creatures And of the motion of the hart circulation of the bloud Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death BVt we must not take our leaue of this subiect vntill we haue examined how motion beginneth in liuing thinges as well plants as sensitiue creatures We can readily pitch vpon the part we are to make our obseruations in for retriuing the origine of this primary motion for hauing concluded that the rootes of plants and the harts of animals are the partes of them which are first made and from which the forming vertue is deriued to all the rest it were vnreasonable to seeke for their first motion any where else But in what manner and by what meanes doth it beginne there For rootes the difficulty is not great for the moysture of the earth pressing vpon the seede and soaking into it the hoat partes of it which were imprisoned in cold and dry ones are thereby stirred vp and sett on worke then they mingling themselues with that moysture do ferment and distend the whole seede till making it open and breake the skinne more iuice cometh in which incorporating it selfe with the heate those hoat and now moyst partes will not be contained in so narrow a roome as att the first but struggling to gett out on all sides and striuing to enlarge thēselues they thrust forth litle partes which if they stay in the earth do grow white and make the roote but those which ascēd and make their way into the ayre being lesse compressed and more full of heate and moysture do turne greene and as fast as they grow vp new moysture coming to the roote is sent vp through the pores of it and this faileth not vntill the heate of the roote it selfe doth faile For it being the nature of heate to rarify and eleuate there must of necessity be caused in the earth a kind of sucking in of moysture into the roote frō the next partes vnto it to fill those capacities which the dilating heate hath made that else would be empty and to supply the roomes of those which the heate continually sendeth vpwardes for the moysture of the roote hath a continuity with that in the earth and therefore they adhere together as in a pumpe or rather as in filtration and do follow one an other when any of them are in motion and still the next must needes come in and fill the roome where it findeth an empty space immediate to it The like of which happeneth to the ayre when we breath for our lunges being like a bladder
intention in this Treatise And for this intent we must looke vpon those actions of man which are peculiarly his and vpon those thinges which result out of them and are called Opera or labores hominum as houses Townes Tillage Handicrafts Armes shippes Commonwealthes Armies Bookes and the like in which great mens lifes and thoughts haue beeue spent In all these we find one generall thridde to runne quite through them and that all of them are composed of the same stuffe and are built vpon the same foundation which is a long chaine of discourses whereof euery little part or linke is that which schollers do call a Syllogisme and Syllogismes we know are framed of enuntiations and they of single or vncomposed apprehensions All which are actions wrought by the vnderstanding of a man But beyond these we can not proceede to any further subdiuision of partes and containe our selues within the orbe of humane Actions for simple apprehensions can not be further resolued into other partes beyond the degree of apprehensions and yet still remaine actions peculiar to a man so that we may be sure we shall haue left nothing out of enquiry concerning Mans actions as he is Man if we beginne with anatomizing his first bare apprehensions and so goe on by degrees compounding them till we come to faddome those great and admirable machines of bookes and workes which he as I may say weaueth out of his owne bowels and the like of which is done by no other creature whatsoeuer vpon the face of our contemptible Earth These then which are all comprised vnder the names of Apprehensions of Enuntiations or Iudgements and of Discourses shall be the subiect of this second Treatise and in it we will first consider these operations in themselues which being done we will endeauour to proue out of the nature and manner of performing them that the soules vnto whom they belong are Immateriall and Immortall THE SECOND TREATISE DECLARING THE NATVRE AND OPERATIONS OF MANS SOVLE THE FIRST CHAPTER Of simple Apprehensions THAT we may duely vnderstand what a right Apprehension is lett vs consider the preeminence that a man who apprehendeth a thing rightly hath ouer him who misseth of doing so This latter can but roue wildely at the nature of the thing he apprendeth and will neuer be able to draw any operation into act out of the apprehension he hath framed of it As for example if a man be to worke vpon gold and by reason of its resemblance vnto brasse hath formed an apprehension of brasse insteed of an apprehension of gold and then knowing that the action of fire will resolue brasse into its least partes and seuer its moist from its drye ones will go about to calcine gold in the same manner as he would do brasse he will soone find that he looseth his labour and that ordinary fire is not an adequate Agent to destroy the homogeneall nature and to seuer the minute partes of that fixed mettall all which happeneth out of the wrong apprehension he hath made of gold Whereas on the other side he that apprehendeth a thing rightly if he pleaseth to discourse of what he apprehendeth findeth in his apprehension all the partes and qualities which are in the thing he discourseth of for example if he apprehendeth rightly a knife or a beetle or a siuue or any other thing whatsoeuer in the knife he will find hafte and blade the blade of iron thicke on the backe and thinne on the edge tempered to be hard and tough thus beaten so ground in such manner softened thus quenched and whatsoeuer else concerneth the Being or the making of a knife and all this he draweth out of his notion or apprehension of a knife which is that it is an instrument fitted to cutt such and such thinges in such a manner for hence he findeth that it hath an haft fitt to hold it by in ones hand to the end it may not hurt the hand whiles it presseth vpon the knife and that the blade is apt to flide in betwixt the partes of the thing which is to be cutt by the motion of being pressed or drawne by the hand and so he proceedeth on descending to the qualities of both partes and how they are to be ioyned and held fast together In the like manner he discourseth of a beetle of a siuue or of whatsoeuer else cometh in his way And he doth this not only in such manufacturers as are of mans inuention but if he be capable he doth the like in beastes in birdes in trees in herbes in fishes in fossiles and in what creature soeuer he meeteth withall within the whole extent of nature He findeth what they are made for and hauing discouered natures ayme in their production he can instruct others what partes and manner of generation they haue or ought to haue and if he that in this manner apprehendeth any thing rightly hath a minde to worke vpon it eyther to make it or to vse and order it to some end of his owne he is able by his right apprehension to compare it vnto other thinges to prepare what is any way fitting for the making of it to apply it vnto what it will worke its effect vpon and to conserue it from what may wrong or destroy it so if he haue framed a right apprehension of a siuue he will not employ it in drawing water if of a beetle he will not go about to cutt with it neyther will he offer if he haue a due apprehension of a knife to cutt stone or steele with it but wood or what is softer He knoweth what will whette and maintaine the edge of it and vnderstandeth what will blunt or breake it In fine he vseth it in such sort as the knife it selfe had it knowledge and will would wish to be vsed and moueth it in such a manner as if it had power of motion it would moue it selfe he goeth about the making it euen as nature would do were it one of her plantes and in a word the knife in this apprehension made in the man hath those causes proprieties and effects which are naturall vnto it and which nature would giue it if it were made by her and which are propotionable to those partes causes proprieties and effects that nature bestoweth on her children and creatures according to their seuerall essences What then can we imagine but that the very nature of a thing apprehended is truly in the man who doth apprehend it And that to apprehend ought is to haue the nature of that thing within ones selfe And that man by apprehending doth become the thing apprehended not by change of his nature vnto it but by assumption of it vnto his Here peraduenture some will reply that we presse our inference to farre and will peremptorily deny the thinges reall being in our minde when we make a true and full apprehension of it accounting it sufficient for our purpose that some likenesse or image of the
sense the Author doth admitt of qualities 3 Fiue arguments proposed to proue that light is not a body 4 The two first reasoÌ„s to proue light to be a body are the resemblance it hath with fire and because if it were a quality it would alwayes produce an equall to it selfe 5 The third reason because if we imagine to our selues the substance of fire to be rarifyed it will haue the same appearances which light hath 6 The fourth reason from the manner of the generation and corruption of light which agreeth with fire 7 The fifth reason because such properties belong to light as agree only vnto bodies 1 That all light is hoat and apt to heate 2 The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feele the heate of pure light 3 The experience of burning-glasses and of soultry gloomy weather proue light to be fire 4 Philosophers ought not to iudge of thinges by the rules of vulgar people 5 The different names of light and fire proceede from different notions of the same substance 6 The reason why many times fire and heate are depriued of light 7 What becometh of the body of light when it dyeth 8 An experiment of some who pretend that light may be precipitated into pouder 9 The Authors opinion concerning lampes pretended to haue been found in tombes with inconsumptible lights 1 Light is not really in euery part of the roome it enlighteneth not filleth entirely any sensible part of it though it seeme to vs to do so 2 The least sensible poynt of a diaphanous body hath roome sufficient to containe both ayre and light together with a multitude of beames issuing from seuerall lights without penetrating one an other Willebrord Snell 3 That light doth not enlight en any roome in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion doth make it imperceptible to our senses 4 The reason why the motion of light is not discerned coming towardes vs and that there is some reall tardity in it 5 The planets are not certainely euer in that place where they appeare to be 6 The reason why light being a body doth not by its motion shatter other bodies into pieces 7 The reason why the body of lighlt is neuer perceiued to be fanned by the wind 8 The reasons for and against lights being a body compared together 9 A summary repetition of the reasons which proue that light is fire 1 No locall motion can be performed without succession 2 Time is the common measure of all succession 3 What velocity is and that it can not be infinite 4 No force so litle that is not able to moue the greatest weight imaginable 5 The chiefe principle of Mechanikes deduced out of the former discourse 6 No moueable can passe from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degrees which are below the obtained degree 7 The conditions which helpe to motioÌ„ in the moueable are three in the medium one Dialog 1. of Motion 8 No body hath any intrinsecall vertue to moue it selfe towardes any determinate part of the vniuerse 9 The encrease of motion is alwayse made in the proportion of the odde numbers 10 No motion can encrease for euer without coming to a periode 11 Certaine problemes resolued concerning the proportion of some mouing Agents compared to their effects 12 When a moueable cometh to rest the motion doth decrease according to the rules of encrease 1 Those motions are called naturall which haue constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them 2 The first and most generall operation of the sunne is the making and raising of atomes 3 The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causeth two streames in the ayre the one ascending the other desceÌ„ding and both of them in a perpendicular line 4 A dense body placed in the ayre betweene the ascending and descending streame must needes descend 5 A more particular explicatioÌ„ of all the former doctrine touching grauity 6 Grauity and leuity do not signify an intrinsecall inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselues which are termed heauy and light 7 The more deÌ„se a body is the more swiftly it descendeth 8 The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be betweene their seuerall densities 9 More or lesse grauity doth produce a swifter or a slower descending of a heauy body Aristotles argument to disproue motion in vacuo is made good 10 The reason why att the inferiour quarter of a circle a body doth descend faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord â—f it 1 The first obiection answered why a hollow body descendeth slower then a solide one 2 The second obiection answered and the reasons shewne why atomes do continually ouertake the descending dense body 3 A curious question left vndecided 4 The fourth obiection answered why the descent of the same heauy bodies is equall in so great inequality of the atomes which cause it 5 The reason why the shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder ti 6 The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme 7 The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames 8 The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres 9 The 7th obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beat coÌ„tinually vpon vs. 10 How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing 11 The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason 12 The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences 1 The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2 That the medium is the onely cause which continueth â—â—â—lent motioÌ„ 3 A further explication of the former doctrine 4 That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable Dial. 1. of motion pag. 98. 5 An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent moâ—â— cometh to cease 6 An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies 7 An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then loÌ„gwayes 1 That reflexion is a kind of violeÌ„t motion 2 Reflexion is made at equall angles 3 The causes and properties of vndulation 5 A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction 6 An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion 7 The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and att its going out from the reflecting body 8 A generall rule to know the nature of reflexions and refractions in all sortes of
of intension and Remission and others do not ibid. § 7. That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure Elements are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke pag. 142. CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies pag. 144. § 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters ibid. § 2. That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward heat aud how this is performed pag. 145. § 3. Of the great effects fo Rarefaction pag. 147. § 4. The first manner of condensation by heate pag. 148. § 5. The second manner of condensation by cold pag. 149. § 6. That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed pag. 151. § 7. How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed pag. 152. § 8. How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation pag. 153. § 9. Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receiue more of an other pag. 154. § 10. The true reason of the former effect pag. 155. § 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others pag. 156. CHAP. XVIII Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall pag. 157. § 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceedeth ibid. § 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity pag. 158. § 3. The true reason of attraction pag. 159. § 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer pag. 160. § 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons ibid § 6. That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe pag. 161. § 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire pag. 162. § 8. Concerning attraction made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. pag. 163. § 9. The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall ibid. CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction pag. 166. § 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected ibid. § 2. What causeth the water in filtration to ascend pag. 167. § 3. Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water ibid. § 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not pag. 168. § 5. Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely pag. 170. § 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch pag. 171. § 7. How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles ibid. § 8. Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it pag. 172. § 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motions pag. 174. CHAP. XX. Of the Loadestones generation and its particular motions pag. 175. § 1. The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiake draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone ibid. § 2. The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other pag. 176. § 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to te other pag. 177. § 4. Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone pag. 179. § 5. This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone ibid. § 6. A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect pag. 181. § 7. The loadestones generation by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe ibid. § 8. Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames pag. 182. CHAP. XXI Positions drawne out of the former doctrine and confirmed by experimentall proofes pag. 185. .1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities ibid. § 2. Obiections against the former position answered pag. 186. § 3. The loadestone is imbued with his vertue from an other body ibid. § 4. The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 188. § 5. The vertue of the laodestone worketh more strongly in the Poles of it then in any other part ibid. § 6. The laodestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out ibid. § 7. Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one laodestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone pag 189. § 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone it toucheth ibid. § 9. The vertue of the laodestone goeth from end to end in lines almost paralelle to the axis pag. 191. § 10. The vertue of loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such pag. 192. § 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies ibid. § 12. The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone ibid. § 13. The laodestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth pag. 193. § 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges ibid. CHAP. XXII A solution of certaine Problemes concerning the loadestone and a short summe of the whole doctrine touching it pag. 194. § 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone ibid. § 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue ibid. § 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes pag. 195. § 4. Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other ibid. § 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe ibid. § 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted pag. 196. § 7. The Authors solution to the former questions pag. 197. § 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iron from the greater pag. 198. § 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole pag. 199. § 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the north and att an other time lesse pag. 200. § 11. The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short pag. 201. CHAP. XXIII A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plantes and Animals and how they are framed in common
consider further that as this superficies hath in it selfe so the body enclosed in it gaineth a certaine determinate respect unto the stable and immoouable bodies that enuiron it As for example we vnderstand such a tree to be in such a place by hauing such and such respects to such a hill neere it or to such a house that standeth by it or to such a riuer that runneth vnder it or to such an immoouable point of the heauen that from the sunnes rising in the aequinox is called east and such like To which purpose it importeth not whether these that we call immoouable bodies and pointes be truly so or do but seeme so to mankinde For man talking of thinges according to the notions he frameth of them in his minde speech being nothing else but an expression to an other man of the images he hath within himselfe and his notions being made according to the seeming of the thinges he must needes make the same notions whether the thinges be truly so in themselues or but seeme to be so when that seeming or appearance is alwayes constantly the same Now then when one body diuiding an other getteth a new immediate cloathing and consequently new respects to the stable and immoouable bodies or seeming such that enuiron it we do vary in our selues the notion we first had of that thing conceiuing it now accompanied with other circumstances and other respects then formerly it had Which notion we expresse by saying it hath changed its place and is now no longer where it was att the first And this change of place we call Locall motion to witt the departing of a body from that hollow superficies which inclosed it and its changing vnto an other whereby it gaineth new respects to those partes of the world that haue or in some sort may seeme to haue immobility and fixed stablenesse So as hence it is euident that the substance of locall motion consisteth in diuision and that the alteration of Locality followeth diuision in such sort as becoming like or vnlike of one wall to an other followeth the action whereby one of them becometh white And therefore in nature we are not to seeke for any entity or speciall cause of applying the mooued body to a place as place which is but a respect consequent to the effect of diuision but onely to consider what reall and physicall action vniteth it to that other body which is called its place and truly serueth for that effect And consequently they who thinke they haue discouered a notable subtility by bringing in an Entity to vnite a body to its place haue strained beyond theire strength and haue grasped but a shadow Which will appeare yet more euident if they but marke well how nothing is diuisible but what of it selfe abstracting from diuision is one For the nature of diuision is the making of many which implyeth that what is to be diuided must of necessity be not many before it be diuided Now quantity being the subiect of diuision it is euident that purely of it selfe and without any force or adioyned helpes it must needes be one wheresoeuer some outward agent doth not introduce multiplicity vpon it And whensoeuer other thinges worke vpon quantity as quantity it is not the nature and power of theire operation to produce vnity in it and make it one for it is already one but contrariwise the immediate necessary effect that floweth from them in this case is to make one quantity many according to the circumstances that accompany the diuider and that which is to be diuided And therefore although wee may seeke causes why some one thing sticketh faster together then some other yet to aske absolutely why a body sticketh together were preiudiciall to the nature of quantity whose essence is to haue partes sticking together or rather to haue such vnity as without it all diuisibility must be excluded Out of which discourse it followeth that in locall motion we are to looke only for a cause or power to diuide but not for any to vnite For the very nature of quantity vniteth any two partes that are indistant from one an other without needing any other cement to glew them together as we see the partes of water and all liquide substances do presently vnite themselues to other partes of like bodies when they meete with them and to solide bodies if they chance to be next vnto them And therefore it is vaine to trouble our heades with Vnions and imaginary Moodes to vnite a body to the place it is in when theire owne nature maketh them one as soone as they are immediate to each other And accordingly if when we see a boule mooue we would examine the causes of that motion we must consider the quantity of ayre or water it maketh to breake from the partes next vnto it to giue place vnto it selfe and not speculate vpon an intrinsecall relation from the body to a certaine part of the imaginary space they will haue to runne through all thinges And by ballancing that quantity of ayre or water which it diuideth we may arriue to make an estimate of what force the boule needeth to haue for its motion Thus hauing declared that the locality of motion is but an extrinsecall denomination and no reality in the thing mooued wee may now cast an eye vpon a vast consequence that may be deduced out of what wee haue hitherto said For if we consider the nature of a body that is that a body is a body by quantity and that the formall notion of quantity is nothing else but diuisibility and that the adaequate act of diuisibility is diuision it is euident there can be no other operation vpon quantity nor by consequence among bodies but must eyther be such diuision as we haue here explicated or what must necessarily follow out of such diuision And diuision as we haue euen now explicated being locall motion it is euident that all operations among bodies are either locall motion or such as follow out of locall motion Which conclusion howsoeuer vnexpected and may att the first hearing appeare a Paradoxe will neuerthelesse by the ensuing worke receiue such euidence as it can not be doubted of and that not onely by force of argumentation and by necessity of notions as is already deduced but also by experience and by declaration of particulars as they shall occurre But now to apply what we haue said to our proposed subiect it is obuious to euery man that seeing the diuider is the agent in diuision and in locall motion and that dense bodies are by theire nature diuiders the earth must in that regard be the most actiue among the Elements since it is the most dense of them all But this seemeth to be against the common iudgement of all the searchers of nature who vnanimously agree that fire is the most actiue Element As also it seemeth to impugne what we our selues haue determined when we said there were two
find both the effects we haue already touched for two such partes must make one and moreouer they must haue some resistance to diuisibility The first of these effects we haue already assigned vnto the nature of quantity And it being the formall effect of quantity it can not wheresoeuer it is found haue any other formall cause then quantity and therefore eyther the two litle partes of different Elements do not become one body or if they doe we must agree that it is by the nature of quantity which worketh as much in heterogeneall partes as it doth in homogeneall ones And it must needes do so because Rarity and Dēsity which are the proper differencies of Quantity can not change the common nature of Quantity that is their Genus which by being so to them must be vniuocally in them both And this effect cometh precisely from the pure notion of the Genus and consequently must be seene as well in two partes of different natures as in two partes of the same nature but in partes of the same nature which once were two and afterwardes become one there can be no other reason why they are one then the very same for which those partes that were neuer seperated but that may be seperated are likewise one and this most euidently is the nature of quantity Experience seemeth to confirme thus much when pouring water out of a basin some of it will remaine sticking to the sides of the mettall for if the quantity of the basin and of the water had not beene one and the same by its owne nature the water considering the plyablenesse of its partes would certainely haue commen all away and haue glided from the vneuennesse of the basin by the attractive vnity of its whole and would haue preserued the vnity of its quantity within it selfe rather then by sticking to the basin haue suffered diuision in its owne quantity which we are sure was one whiles the water was altogether in the basin but that both the basin and the water making but one quantity and a diuision being vnauoydable in that one quantity it was indifferent in regard of the quantity considered singly by it selfe where this diuision should be made whether in the partes of the basin or in the partes of the water and then the other circumstances determined it in that part of the water which was neerest to the ioyning of it with the basin The second effect which was resistance to diuisibility we assigned vnto density And of that same cause must also depend the like effect in this case of the sticking together of the two partes of different Elements when they are ioyned to one an other for if the two partes whereof one is dense the other is rare do not exceede the quantity of some other part of one homogeneall rare Element for the diuiding whereof such a determinate force and no lesse can suffice then seeing that the whole composed of these two partes is not so diuisible as the whole consisting of that one part the assigned force will not be able to diuide them Wherefore it is plaine that if the rare part had beene ioyned to an other rare part in steed of the dense one it is ioyned vnto it had beene more easily diuidable from that then now it is from the dense part And by consequence it sticketh more closely to the dense part then it would to an other of its owne nature Out of what we haue said a steppe is made vs to vnderstand why soft and liqnid bodies do easily ioyne and incorporate into one continued body but hard and dry bodies so difficulty as by experience we find to be true Water with water or wine eyther with other wine or with water so vniteth that it is very hard to part them but sand or stones can not be made to sticke together without very great force and industry The reasons whereof must necessarily depend of what we haue said aboue To witt that two bodies can not touch one an other without becoming one and that if two bodies of one degree of density do touch they must sticke together according to the force of that degree of density Out of which two is manifestly inferred that if two hard thinges should come to touch they must needes be more difficultly seperated then two liquid thinges And consequently they can not come to touch without as much difficulty as that whereby they are made one But to deduce this more particularly lett vs consider that all the litle surfaces by which one hard body may be conceiued to touch an other as for example when a stone lyeth vpon a stone must of necessity be eyther plane or concaue or conuexe Now if a plane superficies should be supposed to touch an other plane one coming perpendicularly to it it must of necessity be granted to touch it as soone in the middle as on the sides Wherefore if there were any ayre as of necessity there must be betwixt the two surfaces before they touched it will follow that the ayre which was in the middle must haue fled quite out from betweene the two surfaces as soone as any part of the surfaces do touch that is as soone as the ayre which was betweene the vtmost edges of the surfaces did fly out and by consequence it must haue moued in an instant But if a plane surface be said to touch a conuexe surface it toucheth it onely by a line as Mathematicans demonstrate or onely by a point But to touch by a line or a point is in truth not to touch by the forme or notion of Quantity which requireth diuisibility in all that belongeth vnto it and dy consequence among bodies it is not to touch and so one such surface doth not touch the other Now for a plaine surface to touch a concaue euery man seeth is impossible Likewise for two cōuexe surfaces to touch one an other they must be allowed to touch eyther in a line or in a point which we haue shewed not to be a physicall touching And if a conuexe surface should bee said to touch a concaue they must touch all att once as we said of plane surfaces and therefore the same impossibility will arise therein so that it is euident that no two surfaces mouing perpendicularly towardes one an other can come to touch one an other if neyther of them yieldeth and changeth its hew Now then if it be supposed that they come slidingly one ouer an other in the same line whereby first the very tippes of the edges come to touch one an other and still as you shooue the vpermost on forwardes and that it slideth ouer more of the nether surface it gaineth to touch more of it I say that neither in this case do they touch immediately one an other for as soone as the two first partes should meete if they did touch and that there were no ayre betweene them they must presently become one quantity or body as we
breaketh and diuideth them into lesser atomes and so bringeth some of them into the state of fire which you may remember is nothing else but a body brought into such a degree of littlenesse and rarity of its partes And this is the reason why such hard and dry bodies as haue an vnctuous substance in them are by motion eyther easily sett on fire or att the least fire is easily gotten out of them As happeneth in flintes and in diuers other stones which yield fire when they are strucken and if presently after you smell vnto them you shall perceiue an odour of brimstone and of burning which is a certaine signe that the motion did conuert into fire the naturall brimstone that was mingled with the flint and whose denser partes were growne cold and so stucke to the stone And in like manner the iuywood and diuers others as also the Indian canes which from thence are called firecanes being rubbed with some other sticke of the same nature if they be first very dry will of themselues sett on fire and the like will happen to coach wheeles in summer if they be ouerheated with motion To conclude our discourse of rarefaction we may looke a little into the power and efficacity of it which is no where to be seene so clearly as in fire And as fire is the generall cause of rarefaction so is it of all bodies that which is most rarifyed And therefore it is no maruayle if its effects be the greatest that are in nature seeing it is the proper operatioÌ„ of the most actiue Element The wonderfull force of it we dayly see in thunder in gunnes in granados and in mines of which continuall experience as well as seuerall historyes wittnesseth litle lesse then miracles Leauing them to the remarkes of curious Persons we will onely looke into the way by which so maine effects do proceed from causes that appeare so slender It is euident that fire as we haue said before dilateth it selfe spherically as nature sheweth vs manifestly in bubbles of boyling water and of mike and generally of such substances as are of a viscous composition for those bubbles being round do assure vs that the cause which made them did equally dilate them from the center vnto all partes Now then remembring the infinite multiplication which is in fire we may conceiue that when a graine of gunnepouder is turned thereinto there are so many little bubbles of a viscous substance one backing an other with great celerity as there are partes of fire more then there were of gunnepouder And if we make a computation of the number and of the celerity of these bubbles we shall find that although euery one of them single do seeme to be of an inconsiderable force yet the whole number of them together will exceed the resistance of the body moued or broken by them especially if we note that when hard substances haue not time allowed them to yield they break the sooner And then we shall not so much admire the extremities we see acted by these meanes Thus hauing looked into the nature of rarefaction and traced the progresse of it from the motion of the sunne and fire in the next place we are to examine the nature of condensation And we shall oftentimes find it likewise an effect of the same cause otherwise working for there being two different wayes to dry any wett thing the one by taking away that iuice which maketh a body liquid the other by putting more drought to the wett body that it may imbibe the moisture this latter way doth as well as the former condense a body for by the close sticking of wett to dry the most part of condensation is effected in compounded bodies The first of these wayes doth properly and immediately proceed from heate for heate entering into a body incorporateth it selfe with the moist and viscous partes it findeth there as purging medicines do with the humors they worke vpon which when the stomacke can no longer entertaine by reason of their vnruly motions in wrestling together they are both eiected grappling with one an other and the place of their contention is thus by the superuenience of a guest of a contrary nature that will not stay long there purged from the superaboundance of the former ones that annoyed it Euen so the fire that is greedily drunke vp by the watry and viscous partes of a compounded body and whose actiuity and restlesse nature will not endure to be long emprisoned there quickly pierceth quite through â—he body it entereth into and after a while streameth out att the opposite side as fast as it entered on the side next to it and carryeth away with it those glewy partes it is incorporated with and by their absence leaueth the body they part from dryer then att the first it was Which course we may obserue in sirupes that are boyled to a consistence and in brothes that are consumed vnto a gelly ouer which whiles they are making by the fire vnder them you see a great steame which is the watry partes that being incorporated with fire fly away in smoake Likewise when the sea water is condensed into salt you see it is an effect of the sunne or fire that exhaleth or boyleth away all the palpable moisture And so when wett clothes are hanged eyther in the sunne or att the fire we see a smoake about the clothes and heate within them which being all drawne out from them they become dry And this deserueth a particular note that although they should be not quite dry when you take them from the fire yet by then they are coole they will be dry for the fire that is in them when they are remoued from the maine stocke of fire flying away carryeth with it the moisture that was incorporated with it and therefore whiles they were hoat that is whiles the fire was in them they must also be moist because the fire and the moisture were growne to be one body and could not become through dry with that measure of fire for more would haue dryed them euen whiles they where hoat vntill they were also growne through cold And in like manner sirupes hydromels gellies and the like grow much thicker after they are taken off from the fire then they were vpon the fire and much of their humidity flyeth away with the fire in their cooling whereby they lessen much of their quantity euen after the outward fire hath ceased from working vpon them Now if the moist partes that remaine after the drying be by the heate well incorporated in the dry partes and so do occasion the dry partes to sticke close together then that body is condensed and will to the proportion of it be heauyer in a lesse bulke as we see that mettalls are heauyer then stones Allthough this effect be in these examples wrought by heate yet generally speaking it is more proper to cold which is the second way of drying a moist body As
and water into a decompound of two saltes and water vntill all his partes be anew impregnated with the second grosser salt as before the pure water was with the first subtiler salt And so it will proceed on if proportionate bodies be ioyned vntill the dissoluing composition do grow into a thicke body Vnto which discourse we may adde that when the water is so fully impregnated with the first salt as it will receiue no more remayning in the temper it is in yet if it be heated it will then afresh dissolue more of the same kind Which sheweth that the reason of its giuing ouer to dissolue is for want of hauing the water diuided into partes little enough to sticke vnto more salt which as in this case the fire doth so peraduenture in the other the acrimoniousnesse of the salt doth it And this is sufficient to giue curious wittes occasion by making further experiments to search out the truth of this matter Onely we may note what happeneth in most of the experiencies we haue mentioned to witt that thinges of the same nature do ioyne better and more easily then others that are more estranged from one an other Which is very agreeable to reason seeing that if nature do intend to haue thinges consist long together she must fitt them for such consistence Which seemeth to proceed out of their agreement in foure qualities first in weight for bobies of diuers degrees in weight if they be att liberty do seeke diuers places and consequently substances of like weight must of necessity find one an other out and croud together as we haue shewed it is the natute of heate to make them do now it is apparent that thinges of one nature must in equall partes haue the same or a neere proportion of weight seeing that in their composition they must haue the same proportion of Elements The second reason of the consistence of bodies together that are of the same nature is the agreement of their liquid partes in the same degree of rarity and density for as it is the nature of quantity in common to make all partes be one quantity so it is the nature of the degrees of quantity when two partes do meete that are of the same degree to make them one in that degree of quantity which is to make them stick together in that degree of sticking which the degree of density that is common to them both maketh of its owne nature Whereas partes of different densities can not haue this reason of sticking though peraduenture they may vpon some other ground haue some more efficacious one And in this manner the like humide partes of two bodies becoming one the holes or receptacles in which those humide partes are contained must also needes be vnited The third reason is the agreeable proportion which their seuerall figures haue in respect of one an other for if any humidity be extracted out of a mixed body especially by the vertue of fire it must haue left pores of such figures as the humidity that is drawne out of them is apt to be cutt into for euery humide body not being absolutely humide but hauing certaine dry partes mixed with it is more apt for one kind of figure and greatnesse then for an other and by consequence whensoeuer that humidity shall meete againe with the body it was seuered from it will easily runne through and into it all and will fill exactly the cauities and pores it possessed before The last quality in which bodies that are to consist long together do agree is the biggnesse of the humide and dry partes of the same body for if the humide partes be too bigge for the dry ones it is cleare that the dry ones must needes hang loosely together by them because their glew is in too greate a quantity But if the humide partes bee too little for the dry ones then of necessity some portion of euery little dry part must be vnfurnished of glew by meanes whereof to sticke vnto his fellow and so the sticking partes not being conueniently proportioned to one an other their adhesion can not be so solide as if each of them were exactly fitted to his fellow THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall HAuing thus ended the two motions of rarefaction and of condensation the next that offer themselues are the locall motions which some bodies haue vnto others These are sometimes performed by a plaine force in the body towardes which the motion is and other whiles by a hidden cause which is not so easily discerned The first is chiefely that which is ordinarily said to be done by the force of nature to hinder Vacuum and is much practised by nature as in drawing our breath in sucking and in many other naturall operations which are imitated by art in making of pumpes syphons and such other instruments and in that admirable experiment of taking vp a heauy marble stone meerely by an other lying flatt and smoothly vpon it without any other connexion of the two stones together as also by that sport of boyes when they spread a thinne moystned leather vpon a smooth broad stone and presse it all ouer close to it and then by pulling of a string fastened att the middle of the leather they draw vp likewise the heauy stone In all which the first cause of the motion proceedeth from that body towardes which the motion is made And therefore is properly called Attraction For the better vnderstanding and declaring of which lett vs suppose two marble stones very broad and exceeding smoothly polished to be laid one flatt vpon the other and lett there be a ring fastened att the backe part of the vppermost stone and exactly in the middle of it Then by that ring pull it vp perpendicularly and steadily and the vndermost will follow sticking fast to the ouermost and though they were not very perfectly polished yet the nethermost would follow for a while if the ring be suddainely plucked vp but then it will soone fall downe againe Now this plainely sheweth that the cause of their sticking so strongly together when both the stones are very well polished is for that nothing can well enter between them to part them and so it is reduced to the shortnesse of the ayre that is betwixt them which not being capable of so great an expansion nor admitting to be diuided thickewayes so much as is necessary to fill the first growing distance between the two stones till new ayre findeth a course thither that so the swelling of the one may hinder vacuity till the other come in to the rescue the two stones must needes sticke together to certaine limits which limits will depend of the proportion that is between the weight and the continuity of the nethermost stone And when we haue examined this we shall vnderstand in what sense it is meaned that Nature abhorreth from Vacuity and what
not dayly the effects If then we can but arriue to decypher the first characters of the hidden Alphabet we are now taking in hand and can but spellingly reade the first syllabes of it we neede not doubt but that the wise Author of nature in the masterpiece of the creature which was to expresse the excellency of the workeman would with excellent cunning and art dispose all circumstances so aptly as to speake readily a complete language rising from those Elements and that should haue as large an extent in practise and expression beyond those first principles which we like children onely lispe out as the vast discourses of wisest and most learned men are beyond the spellinges of infantes and yet those discourses spring from the same roote as the others spellinges doe and are but a raysing of them to a greater height as the admired musike of the best player of a lute or harpe that euer was is deriued from the harsh twanges of course bowestringes which are composed together and refined till att length they arriue to that wonderfull perfection And so without scruple we may in the businesse we are next falling vpon conclude that the admirable and almost miraculous effects we see are but the eleuating to a wonderfull height those very actions and motions which we shall produce as causes and principles of them Letr vs then suppose that there is a solide hard body of an vnctuous nature whose partes are so subtile and fiery that with a little agitation they are much rarifyed and do breath out in steames though they be too subtile for our eyes to discerne like vnto the steame that issueth from sweating men or horses or like the steame that flyeth from a candle when it is putt out but that these steames as soone as they come into the cold ayre are by that cold soddainely condensed againe and by being condensed do shorten themselues and by little and little do retire till they settle themselues vpon the body from whence they sprung in such manner as you may obserue the little tender hornes of snailes vse to shrinke backe if any thing touch them till they settle in little lumpes vpon their heades If I say these stringes of bituminous vapour should in their way outwardes meete with any light and spungie body they would pierce into it and settle in it and if it were of a competent biggenesse for them to wield they would carry it with them which way soeuer they goe so that if they shrinke backe againe to the fountaine from whence they came they must needes carry backe with them the light spungy body they haue fixed their dartes in Consider then that how much heate rarifyeth so much cold cōdenseth and therefore such partes as by agitatiō were spūne out into a subtile thridde of an inch long for exāple as they coole do grow bigger and bigger and consequently shorter and shorter till att length they gather thēselues backe into their maine body and there they settle againe in cold bitumen as they were att the first and the light body that they sticke vnto is drawne backe with them and consequently sticketh to the superficies of the bitumen As if something were tyed att one end of a lutestring extended to its vtmost capacity and the other end were fastened to some pinne as the string shrinketh vp so that which is tyed att it must needes moue neerer and neerer the pinne which artifice of nature iugglers do imitate when by meanes of an vnseene haire they draw light bodies to them Now if all this operation be done without your seeing the little thriddes which cause it the matter appeareth wonderfull and strange But when you consider this progresse that we haue sett downe you will iudge it possible And this seemeth to be the case of those bodies which we call Electricall as yellow amber iett and the like All which are of a bituminous vnctuous nature as appeareth by their easy combustibility and smell when they are burned And if some do not so apparently shew this vnctuous nature it is because eyther they are too hard or else they haue a high degree of aqueous humidiry ioyned with their vnctuosity and in them the operation will be duller in that proportion for as we see that vnctuous substances are more odoriferous then others and do send their steames further off and more efficaciously so we can not doubt but that such bodies as consist in a moist nature do accordingly send forth their emanations in a feebler proportion Yet that proportion will not be so feeble but that they may haue an Electricall effect as well as the more efficacious Electricall bodies which may be perceptible if exact experience be made by an instrument like the mariners needle as our learned countryman Doctor Gilbert teacheth But that in those eminent agents the spirits whereby they attract are vnctuous is plaine because the fire consumeth them and so if the agents be ouerheated they can not worke but moderate heate euen of fire encreaseth their operation Againe they are clogged by mysty ayre or by wetting and likewise are pierced through and cutt asunder by spiritt of wine or aquae ardentes but oyle doth not hurt them Likewise they yield more spirits in the sunne then in the shade and they continue longer when the ayre is cleared by North or by Easterne windes They require to be polished eyther because the rubbing which polisheth them doth take off from their surfaces the former emanations which returning backe do sticke vpon them and so do hinder the passage of those that are within or else because their outsides may be foule or lastly because the pores may be dilated by that smoothing Now that hardnesse and solidity is required doth argue that these spirits must be quicke ones that they may returne smartly and not be lost through their languishing in the ayre Likewise that all bodies which are not eyther exceeding rare or else sett on fire may be drawne by these vnctuous thriddes concludeth that the quality by which they do it is a common one that hath no particular contrarieties such a one as we see is in grease or in pitch to sticke to any thing from which in like manner nothing is exempted but fire and ayre And lastly that they worke most efficaciously when they are heated by rubbing rather then by fire sheweth that their spirits are excitated by motion and are thereby made to flye abroad in such manner as we see in pomanders and in other perfumes which must be heated if you will haue them communicate their sent and alike effect as in them agitation doth in iett yellow amber and such other Electricall bodies for if vpon rubbing them you putt them presently to your nose you will discerne a strong bituminous smell in them all which circumstances do shew that this Electricall vertue consisteth in a certaine degree of rarity or density of the bodies vnctuous emanations Now if these refined and viscous
thriddes of iett or amber do in their streaming abroad meete with a piece of straw or of hay or of a dryed leafe or some such light and spungy body it is no maruayle if they glew themselues vnto it like birdlime and that in their shrinking backe by being condensed againe and repulsed through the coldnesse of the ayre they carry it along with them to their entire body Which they that onely see the effect and can not penetrate into a possibility of a naturall cause thereof are much troubled withall And this seemeth vnto me to beare a fairer semblance of truth then what Cabeus deliuereth for cause of Electricall attractions Whose speculation herein though I can not allow for solide yet I must for ingenious And certainely euen errors are to be commended when they are witty ones and do proceed from a casting further about then the beaten tracke of verball learning or rather termes which explicate not the nature of the thing in question He sayth that the coming of strawes and such other light bodies vnto amber iett and the like proceedeth from a wind raysed by the forcible breaking out of subtile emanations from the Electricall bodies into the ayre which bringeth those light bodies along with it to the Electricall ones But this discourse can not hold for first it is not the nature of vnctuous emanations Generally speaking to cause smart motions singly of themselues Secondly although they should rayse a wind I do not comprehend how this wind should driue bodies directly backe to the source that raysed it but rather any other way and so consequently should driue the light bodies it meeteth with in its way rather from then towardes the Electricall body Thirdly if there should be such a wind raysed and it should bring light bodies to the Electricall ones yet it could not make them sticke therevnto which we see they do turne them which way you will as though they were glewed together Neyther do his experiences conuince any thing for what he sayth that the light bodies are sometimes brought to the Electricall body with such a violence that they rebound backe from it and then returne againe to it maketh rather against him for if wind were the cause of their motion they would not returne againe after they had leaped backe from the Electricall body no more then we can imagine that the wind it selfe doth The like is of his other experience when he obserued that some little graines of sawdust hanging att an Electricall body the furthermost of them not onely fell of but seemed to be driuen away forcibly for they did not fall directly downe but sidewayes and besides did fly away with a violence and smartnesse that argued some strong impulse The reason whereof might be that new emanations might smite them which not sticking and fastening vpon them whereby to draw them neerer must needes push them further or it might be that the emanations vnto which they were glewed shrinking backe vnto their maine body the latter graines were shouldered of by others that already besieged the superficies and then the emanations retiring swiftly the graines must breake of with a force or else we may conceiue it was the force of the ayre that bore them vp a little which made an appearance of their being driuen away as we see feathers and other light thinges descend not straight downe THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER Of the Loadstones generation and its particular motions THere is yet remaining the great mystery of the Loadstone to discourse of Which all Authors both auntient and moderne haue agreed vpon as an vndenyable example and euidence of the shortenesse of mans reach in comprehending and of the impossibility of his reason in penetrating into and explicating such secrets as nature hath a mind to hide from vs. Wherefore our reader I am sure will not in this subiect expect cleare satisfaction or plaine demonstrations att our handes but will iugde we haue fairely acquitted our selues if what we say be any whitt plausible Therefore to vse our best endeauours to content him lett vs reflect vpon the disposition of partes of this habitable globe whereof we are tenants for liues And we shall find that the sunne by his constant course vnder the zodiake heateth a great part of it vnmeasurably more then he doth the rest And consequently that this zodiake being in the middest betweene two as it were endes which we call the Poles these poles must necessarily be extremely cold in respect of the torride zone for so we call that part of the earth which lyeth vnder the zodiake Now looking into the consequence of this we find that the sunne or the sunnes heate which reflecteth from the earth in the torride zone must rarify the ayre extremely and according to the nature of all heate and fire must needes carry away from thence many partes of the ayre and of the earth sticking to that heate in such sort as we haue formerly declared Whence it followeth that other ayre must necessarily come from the regions towardes both the poles to supply what is carryed away from the middle as is the course in other fires and as we haue explicated aboue especially cōsidering that the ayre which cometh from the polewardes is heauyer then the ayre of the torride zone and therefore must naturally presse to be still neerer the earth and so as it were shouldereth vp the ayre of the torride zone towardes the circumference by rouling into its place and this in great quantities and consequently the polar ayre must draw a great trayne after it Which if we consider the great extent of the torride zone we shall easily persuade our selues that it must reach on each side to the very pole for taking from Archimedes that the sphericall superficies of a portion of a spher◠is to the superficies of the whole sphere according as the part of the axis of that sphere comprised within the said portion is to the whole axis and considering that in our case the part of the axis comprised within the torride zone is to the whole axis of the earth in about the proportion of 4. to 10 it must of necessity follow that a fire or great heate raigning in so vast an extent will draw ayre very powerfully from the rest of the world Neyther lett any man apprehend that this course of the sunnes eleuating so great quantities of atomes in the torride zone should hinder the course of grauity there for first the medium is much rarer in the torride zone then in other partes of the earth and therefore the force of the descending atomes needeth not to be so great there as in other places to make bodies descend there as fast as they do else where Secondly there being a perpetuall supply of fresh ayre from the polar partes streaming continually into the torride zone it must of necessity happen that in the ayre there come atomes to the torride zone of that grossenesse that
they can not soddainely be so much rarifyed as the subtiler partes of ayre that are there and therefore the more those subtiler partes are rarifyed and thereby happen to be carried vp the stronger and the thicker the heauyer atomes must descend And thus this concurse of ayre from the polar partes mainetayneth grauity vnder the zodiake where otherwise all would be turned into fire and so haue no grauity Now who coÌ„sidereth the two hemispheres which by the aequator are diuided will find that they are not altogether of equall complexions but that our hemisphere in which the Northpole is comprised is much dryer then the other by reason of the greater coÌ„tinent of land in this and the vaster tract of sea in the other and therefore the supply which cometh froÌ„ the diuers hemispheres must needes be of differeÌ„t natures that which cometh from towardes the Southpole being compared to that which cometh froÌ„ towardes the North as the more wett to the more dry Yet of how different coÌ„plexions soeuer they be you see they are the emanations of one and the same body Not vnlike vnto what nature hath instituted in the ranke of animals among whom the male and the female are so distinguished by heate and cold moysture and drought that neuerthelesse all belongeth but to one nature and that in degrees though manifestly different yet so neere together that the body of one is in a manner the same thing as the body of the other Euen so the complexions of the two hemispheres are in such sort different in the same qualities that neuerthelesse they are of the same nature and are vnequall partes of the same body which we call the earth Now Alchymistes assure vs that if two extractions of one body do meete together they will incorporate one with the other especially if there be some little difference in the complexion of the extractions Whence it followeth that these two streames of ayre making vp one continuate floud of various currents from one end of the world to the other each streame that cometh to the equator from its owne Pole by the extraction of the sunne and that is still supplyed with new matter flowing from its owne pole to the aequator before the sunne can sufficiently rarify and lift vp the atomes that came first perpendicularly vnder its beames as it vseth to happen in the effects of Physicall causes which can not be rigorously aiusted but must haue some latitude in which nature inclineth euer rather to aboundance then to defect will passe euen to the other pole by the conduct of his fellow in case he be by some occasion driuen backe homewardes For as we see in a boule or paile full of water or rather in a pipe through which the water runneth along if there be a little hole att the bottome or side of it the water will wriggle and change its course to creepe out att that pipe especially if there be a little spigott or quill att the outside of the hole that by the narrow length of it helpeth in some sort as it were to sucke it So if any of the files of the army or flould of atomes sucked from one of the Poles to the aequator do there find any gappes or chinkes or lanes of retiring files in the front of the other poles batalia of atomes they will presse in there in such manner as we haue aboue declared that water doth by the helpe of a labell of cotton and as is exemplyfied in all the attractions of venime by venimous bodies whereof we haue giuen many examples aboue and they will go along with them the course they goe For as when a thicke short guilded ingott of siluer is drawne out into a long subtile wyre the wyre continuing still perfectly guilded all ouer doth manifestly shew that the outside and the inside of the ingott do strangely meete together and intermixe in the drawing out so this little streame which like an eddy current runneth backe from the aequator towardes its owne Pole will continue to the end still tincted with the mixture of the other Poles atomes it was incorporated with att its coming to the aequator Now that some little riuolets of ayre and atomes should runne backe to their owne Pole contrary to the course of their maine streame will be easily enough to conceiue if we but consider that att certaine times of the yeare windes do blow more violently and strongly from some determinate part or Rombe of the world then they do att other times and from other partes As for example our East India Mariners tell vs of the famous Monâ—ones they find in those partes which are strong windes that raigne constantly six monthes of the yeare from one polewardes and the other six monthes from the other pole and beginne precisely about the sunnes entering into such a signe or degree of the zodiake and continue till about its entrance into the opposite degree And in our partes of the world certaine smart Easterly or Northeasterly windes do raigne about the end of March and beginning of Aprill when it seemeth that some snowes are melted by the spring heates of the sunne And other windes haue their courses in other seasons vpon other causes All which do euidently conuince that the course of the ayre and of vapors from the poles to the equator can not be so regular and vniforme but that many impediments and crosses do light in the way to make breaches in it and thereby to force it in some places to an opposite course In such sort as we see happeneth in eddy waters and in the course of a tide wherein the streame running swiftly in the middle beateth the edges of the water to the shore and thereby maketh it runne backe att the shore And hence we may conclude that although the maine course of ayre and atomes for example from north to south in our hemisphere can neuer faile of going on towardes the aequator constantly att the same rate in grosse neuerthlesse in seuerall particular little partes of it and especially att the edges of those streames that are driuen on faster then the rest by an extraordinary and accidentall violent cause it is variously interrupted and sometimes entirely stopped and other times euen driuen backe to the northwardes And if peraduenture any man should thinke that this will not fall out because each streame seemeth to be alwayes coming from his owne Pole to the aequator and therefore will oppose and driue backe any bodies that with lesse force should striue to swimme against it or if they sticke vnto them will carry them backe to the aequator We answere that we must not conceiue that the whole ayre in body doth euery where equally encroach from the polewardes vpon the torride zone but as it were in certaine brookes or riuolets according as the contingency of all causes putt together doth make it fall out Now then out of what we haue said it will follow that since
applyed we must be beholding to that admirable searcher of the nature of the loadestone Doctor Gilbert by meanes of whom and of Doctor Haruey our Natiō may claime euen in this latter age as deserued a crowne for solide Philosophicall learning as for many ages together it hath done formerly for acute and subtile speculations in Diuinity But before I fall to particulars I thinke it worth warning my Reader how this great man arriued to discouer so much of Magneticall Philosophy that he likewise if he be desirous to search into nature may by imitation aduance his thoughts and knowledge that way In short then all the knowledge he gott of this subiect was by forming a little loadestone into the shape of the earth By which meanes he compassed a wonderfull designe which was to make the whole globe of the earth maniable for he found the properties of the whole earth in that little body which he therefore called a Tertella or little earth and which he could manage and trye experiences vpon att his will And in like manner any man that hath an ayme to aduance much in naturall sciencies must endeauour to draw the matter he enquireth of into some small modell or into some kind of manageable methode which he may turne and wind as he pleaseth And then lett him be sure if he hath a competent vnderstanding that he will not misse of his marke But to our intent the first thing we are to proue is that the loadestone is generated in such sort as we haue described for proofe whereof the first ground we will lay shall be to consider how in diuers other effects it is manifest that the differences of being exposed to the north or to the south do cause very great variety in the same thing as hereafter we shall haue occasion to touch in the barkes and graines of trees and the like Next we find by experience that this vertue of the loadestone is receiued into other bodies that resemble its nature by heatinges and coolinges for so it passeth in iron barres which being throughly heated and then layed to coole north and south are thereby imbued with a Magnetike vertue heate opening their bodies and disposing them to sucke in such atomes as are conuenient to their nature that flow vnto them whiles they are cooling So that we can not boubt but that conuenient matter fermenting in its warme bed vnder the earth becometh a loadestone by the like sucking in of affluent streames of a like complexion to the former And it fareth in like manner with those fiery instruments as fireforkes tonges shouels and the like which do stand constantly vpwardes and downewardes for they by being often heated and cooled againe do gaine a very strong verticity or turning to the Pole and indeede they can not stand vpwardes and downewardes so little a while but that they will in that short space gaine a manifest verticity and change it att euery turning Now since the force and vigour of this verticity is in the end that standeth downewardes it is euident that this effect proceedeth out of an influence receiued from the earth And because in a loadestone made into a globe or considered so to the end you may reckon hemispheres in it as in the great earth eyther hemisphere giueth vnto a needle touched vpon it not onely the vertue of that hemisphere where it is touched but likewise the vertue of the contrary hemisphere we may boldly conclude that the vertue which a loadestone is impregnated with in the wombe or bed of the earth where it is formed and groweth proceedeth as well from the contrary hemisphere of the earth as from that wherein it lyeth in such sort as we haue aboue described And as we feele oftentimes in our owne bodies that some cold we catch remaineth in vs a long while after the taking it and that sometimes it seemeth euen to change the nature of some part of our body into which it is chiefely entered and hath taken particular possession of so that whensoeuer new atomes of the like nature do againe range about in the circumstant ayre that part so deepely affected with the former ones of kinne to these doth in a particular manner seeme to rissent them and to attract them to it and to haue its guestes within it as it were wakened and roused vp by the stroakes of the aduenient ones that knocke att their dores Euen so but much more strongly by reason of the longer time and lesse hinderances we may conceiue that the two vertues or atomes proceeding from the two different hemispheres do constitute a certaine permanent and constant nature in the stone that imbideth them which then we call a loadestone and is exceeding sensible as we shall hereafter declare of the aduenience to it of new atomes alike in nature and complexion to those that it is impregnated with And this vertue consisting in a kind of softer and tenderer substance then the rest of the stone becometh thereby subiect to be consumed by fire From whence we may gather the reason why a loadestone neuer recouereth its magnetike vertue after it hath once lost it though iron doth for the humidity of iron is inseparable from its substance but the humidity of a loadestone which maketh it capable of this effect may be quite consumed by fire and so the stone be left too dry for euer being capable of imbibing any new influence from the earth vnlesse it be by a kind of new making it In the next place we are to proue that the loadestone doth worke in that manner as we haue shewed for which end lett vs consider how the atomes that are drawne from each Pole and hemisphere of the earth to the aequator making vp their course by a manuduction of one an other the hindermost can not choose but still follow on after the foremost And as it happeneth in filtration by a cotton cloth if some one part of the cotton haue its disposition to the ascent of the water more perfect and ready then the other partes haue the water will assuredly ascend faster in that part then in any of the rest so if the atomes do find a greater disposition for their passage in any one part of the medium they range through then in an other they will certainely not faile of taking that way in greater aboundance and with more vigour and strength then any other But it is euident that when they meete with such a stone as we haue described the helpes by which they aduance in their iourney are notably encreased by the floud of atomes which they meete coming out of that stone which being of the nature of their opposite pole they seise greedily vpon them and thereby do plucke themselues faster on like a ferryman that draweth on his boate the swiftlyer the more vigourously he tuggeth and pulleth att the rope that lyeth thwart the riuer for him to hale himselfe ouer by And therefore we
discouered vnto vs and that out of the variety of these tempers the influence of the earthy partes may be diuers in respect of one certaine place it is not impossible but that such variation may be especially in England which Iland lying open to the north by a great and vast ocean may receiue more particularly then other places the speciall influences and variation of the weather that happen in those northeasterne countries from whence this influence cometh vnto vs. If therefore there should be any course of weather whose periode were a hundred yeares for example or more or lesse and so might easily passe vnmarked this variation might grow out of such a course But in so obscure a thing we haue already hazarded to guesse too much And vpon the whole matter of the loadestone it serueth our turne if we haue proued as we conceiue we haue done fully that its motions which appeare so admirable do not proceed from an occult quality but that the causes of them may be reduced vnto locall motion and that all they may be performed by such corporeall instruments and meanes though peraduenture more intricately disposed as all other effects are among bodies Whose ordering and disposing and particular progresse there is no reason to despaire of finding out would but men carefully apply themselues to that worke vpon solide principles and with diligent experiences But because this matter hath beene very long and scatteringly diffused in many seuerall branches peraduenture it will not be displeasing to the Reader to see the whole nature of the loadestone summed vp in short Lett him then cast his eyes vpon one effect of it that is very easy to be tryed and is acknowledged by all writers though we haue not as yet mentioned it And it is that a knife drawne from the pole of a loadestone towardes the aequator if you hold the point towardes the pole it gaineth a respect to one of the poles but contrawise if the point of the knife be held towardes the aequator and be thrust the same way it was drawne before that is towardes the aequator it gaineth a respect towardes the contrary pole It is euident out of this experience that the vertue of the loadestone is communicated by way of streames and that in it there are two contrary streames for otherwise the motion of the knife this wâ—y or that way could not change the efficacity of the same partes of the loadestone It is likewise euident that these contrary streames do come from the conrrary endes of the loadestone As also that the vertues of them both are in euery part of the stone Likewise that one loadestone must of necessity turne certaine partes of it selfe to certaine partes of an other loadestone nay that it must goe and ioyne to it according to the lawes of attraction which we haue aboue deliuered and consequently that they must turne their disagreeing partes away from one an other and so one loadestone seeme to fly from an other if they be so applyed that their disagreeing partes be kept still next to one an other for in this case the disagreeing and the agreeing partes of the same loadestone being in the same straight line one loadestone seeking to draw his agreeing part neere to that part of the other loadestone which agreeth with him must of necessity turne away his disagreeing partes to giue way vnto his agreeing part to approach neerer And thus you see that the flying from one an other of two endes of two loadestones which are both of the same denomination as for example the two south endes or the two north endes doth not proceed from a pretended antipathy between those two endes but from the attraction of the agreeing endes Furthermore the earth hauing to a loadestone the nature of a loadestone it followeth that a loadestone must necessarily turne it selfe to the poles of the earth by the same lawes And consequently must tend to the north must vary from the north must incline towardes the center and must be affected with all such accidents as we haue deduced of the loadestone And lastly seeing that iron is to a loadestone a fitt matter for it to impresse its nature in and easily retaineth that magnetike vertue the same effects that follow betweeÌ„ two loadestones must necessarily follow between a loadestone and a peece of iron fittly proportionated in their degrees excepting some litle particularities which proceed out of the naturalnesse of the magnetike vertue to a loadestone more then to iron And thus you see the nature of the loadestone summed vp in grosse the particular ioyntes and causes whereof you may find treated att large in the maine discourse Wherein we haue gouerned our selues chiefely by the experiences that are recorded by Gilbert and Cabeus to whom we remitt our reader for a more ample declaration of particulars THE THREE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plants and Animals and how they are framed in common to performe vitall motion HItherto we haue endeauoured to follow by a continuall thridde all such effects as we haue mett with among bodies and to trace theÌ„ in all their windinges and to driue them vp to their very roote and originall source for the nature of our subiect hauing beene yet very common hath not exceeded the compasse and power of our search and enquiry to descend vnto the chiefe circumstances and particulars belonging vnto it And indeede many of the conueyances whereby the operations we haue discoursed of are performed be so secret and abstruse as they that looke into them with lesse heedefullnesse and iudgment then such a matter requireth are too apt to impute them to mysterious causes aboue the reach of humane nature to compreheÌ„d and to calumniate them of being wrought by occult and specifike qualities whereof no more reason could be giuen then if the effects were infused by Angelicall handes without assistance of inferiour bodies which vseth to be the last refuge of ignorant men who not knowing what to say and yet presuming to say something do fall often vpon such expressioÌ„s as neyther themselues nor their hearers vnderstand and that if they be well scanned do imply contradictions Therefore we deemed it a kind of necessity to straine ourselues to prosecute most of such effects euen to their notionall connexions with rarity and density And the rather because it hath not been our lucke yet to meet with any that hath had the like designe or hath done any considerable matter to ease our paines Which can not but make the readers iourney somewhat tedious vnto him to follow all our stepps by reason of the ruggednesse and vntrodenesse of the pathes we haue walked in But now the effects we shall hence forward meedle withall do grow so particular and do swarme into such a vast multitude of seuerall little ioyntes and wreathy labyrinthes of nature as were impossible in so summary a treatise as we intend to deliuer
as they partake more or lesse of this heate which is the Architect that mouldeth and frameth them all Vndoubtedly this can be none other but the hart whose motion and manner of working euidently appeareth in the twinckling of the first red spotte which is the first change in the egge and in the first matter of other liuing creatures Yet I do not intend to say that the hart is perfectly framed and completely made vp with all its partes and instruments before any other part be begunne to be made but only the most vertuous part and as it were the marrow of it which serueth as a shoppe or a hoat forge to mould spirits in from whence they are dispersed abroad to forme and nourish other partes that stand in neede of them to that effect The shootings or litle red stringes that streame out from it must surely be arteries through which the bloud issuing from the hart and there made and imbued with the nature of the seede doth runne till encountring with fitt matter it engrosseth it selfe into braine liuer lightes c. From the braine cheifely groweth the marrow and by consequent the bones containing it which seeme to be originally but the outward part of the marrow baked and hardened into a strong cruste by the great heate that is kept in as also the sinnewes which are the next principall bodies of strength after the bones The marrow being very hoat dryeth the bones and yet with its actuall moysture it humecteth and nourisheth them too in some sort The spirits that are sent from the braine do the like to the sinewes And lastly the arteries and veines by their bloud to cherish and bedew the flesh And thus the whole liuing creature is begunne framed and made vp THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How a Plant or Animal cometh to that figure it hath BVt before we goe any further and search into the operations of this animall a wonderfull effect calleth our consideration vnto it which is how a plant or animal cometh by the figure it hath both in the whole and in euery part of it Aristotle after he had beaten his thoughts as farre as he could vpon this question pronunced that this effect could not possibly be wrought by the vertue of the first qualites but that it sprung from a more diuine origine And most of the contemplators of nature since him do seeme to agree that no cause can be rendered of it but that it is to be referred meerely to the specificall nature of the thing Neyther do we intend to derogate from eyther of these causes since that both diuine prouidence is eminently shewne in contriuing all circumstances necessary for this worke and likewise the first temperament that is in the seede must needes be the principall immediate cause of this admirable effect This latter then being supposed our labour and endeauour will be to vnfold as farre as so weake and dimme eyes can reach the excellency and exactnesse of Gods prouidence which can not be enough adored when it is reflected vpon and marked in the apt laying of adequate causes to produce such a figure out of such a mixture first layed From them so artificially ranged we shall see this miracle of nature to proceed and not from an immediate working of God or nature without conuenient and ordinary instruments to mediate and effect this configuration through the force and vertue of their owne particular natures Such a necessity to interest the cheife workeman att euery turne in particular effects would argue him of want of skill and prouidence in the first laying of the foundations of his designed machine he were an improuident clockemaker that should haue cast his worke so as when it were wound vp and going it would require the masters hand att euery houre to make the hammer strike vpon the bell Lett vs not then too familiarly and irreuerently ingage the Almighty Architect his immediate handy worke in euery particular effect of nature Tali non est dignus vindice nodus But lett vs take principles within our owne kenning and consider how a body hath of its owne nature three dimensions as Mathematicians vse to demonstrate and that the variety which we see of figures in bodies proceedeth out of the defect of some of these dimensions in proportion to the rest As for example that a thing be in the forme of a square tablette is for that the cause which gaue it length and breadth could not also giue it thickenesse in the same proportion for had it beene able to giue profundity as well as the other two it had made a cube instead of a tablette In like manner the forme of a lamine or very long square is occasioned by some accident which hindereth the cause from giuing breadth and thickenesse proportionable to the length And so other figures are made by reason that their causes are somewayes bound to giue more of some dimension to one part then to an other As for example when water falleth out of the skye it hath all the litle corners or extancies of its body grated of by the ayre as it rouleth and tumbleth downe in it so that it becometh round and continueth in that forme vntill that settling vpon some flatt body as grasse or a leafe it receiueth a litle plainenesse to the proportion of its weight mastering the continuity of it And therefore if the droppe be great vpon that plaine body it seemeth to be halfe a sphere or some lesse portion of one but if it be a litle droppe then the flatt part of it which is that next vnto the grasse is very litle and vndiscernable because it hath not weight enough to presse it much and spread it broad vpon the grasse and so the whole seemeth in a manner to be a sphere but if the externe causes had pressed vpon this droppe only broadwayes and thickewayes as when a turner maketh a round pillar of a square one then it would haue proued a cylinder nothing working vpon it to grate off any of its length but only the corners of the breadth and thickenesse of it And thus you see how the fundamentall figures vpon which all the rest are grounded are contriued by nature not by the worke of any particular Agent that immediately imprinteth a determinate figure into a particular body as though it wrought it there att once according to a foreconceiued designe or intelligent ayme of producing such a figure in such a body but by the concurrence of seuerall accidentall causes that do all of them ioyne in bringing the body they file and worke vpon into such a shape Only we had like to haue forgotten the reason and cause of the concaue figure in some partes of plantes which in the ordinary course of nature we shall find to grow from hence that a round outside being filled with some liquor which maketh it grow higher and higher it happeneth that the succeeding causes do contract this liquor and do
sinnewy circle wherevnto is fastened the case of the hart called the Pericardium This Diaphragma is very sensible receiuing its vertue of feeling from the aboue mentioned branch of the sixt couple of nerues and being of a trembling nature is by our respiration kept in continuall motion and flappeth vpon all occasions as a drumme head would do if it were slacke and moyst or as a sayle would do that were brought into the wind Out of this description of it it is obuious to conceiue that all the changes of motion in the hart must needes be expressed in the Diaphragma For the hart beating vpon the Pericardium and the Pericardium being ioyned to the Diaphragma such iogges and vibrations must needes be imprinted and ecchoed there as are formed in the hart which from thence can not choose but be carryed to the braine by the sixt couple of nerues And thus it cometh about that we feele and haue sensation of all the passions that are moued in our hart Which peraduenture is the reason why the Greekes do call this part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from it deriue the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in latine signifyeth Sapere with vs to sauour or to like for by this part of our body we haue a liking of any obiect or a motion of inclination towardes it from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is deriued by composition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prudent man is he that liketh and is moued to compasse wholesome and good thinges Which Etymology of the word seemeth vnto me more naturall then from the phrenesy from whence some deriue it because a great distemper or inflammation in the Diaphragma often causeth that disease Now because the obiect is cōueyed frō the braine to the hart some part of its way by the same passage as the motion of the hart is reconueyed backe to the braine it must of necessity follow that who is more attētiue to outward sense doth lesse consider or reflect vpō his passion and who is more attentiue to obserue and be gouuerned by what passeth in his hart is lesse wrought vpon by externall thinges For if his fantasy draweth strongly vnto it the emanations from outward agents vpon the senses the streame of those emanations will descend so strongly from the ouerfilled fantasy into the hart that it will hinder the ascent of any fewer and weaker spirits by the same pipe But if the current do sett strongest vpwardes from the hart by the Diaphragma to the braine then it will so fill the pipe by which it ascendeth that little of a weaker tyde can make a contrary eddy water in the same channell And by this meanes nature effecteth a second pleasure or paine in a liuing creature which moueth it oftentimes very powerfully in absence of the primary obiect as we may obserue when thinking of any pleasing or displeasing action we find about our hart a motion which enticeth vs to it or auerteth vs from it for as the first pleasure was occasioned by the stroake which the obiect applyed to the outward sense made vpon the fantasy which can iudge of nothing without being strucken by it so the second pleasure springeth from the spirits moued in the hart by messengers from the braine which by the Diaphragma do rebound a stroake backe againe vpon the fantasy And from hence it proceedeth that memory delighteth or afflicteth vs and that we think of past thinges with sweetenesse or with remorse and thereby assuefaction is wrought in beastes as farre as the appetitiue part doth contribute therevnto to perfect what was begunne in their cognoscitiue part by the ingression of corporeall speciefes into their fantasy in order to the same effect as we haue touched before But now lett vs examine how so small a quantity of a body as cometh from an obiect into our sense can be the cause of so great a motion about our hart To which purpose we are to remember that this motion is performed in the most subtile and thinne substance that can be imagined they are the vitall spirits that do all this worke which are so subtile so agile and so hoat that they may in some sort be termed fire Now if we reflect how violent fire is we neede not wonder at the suddaine and great motion of these passions But we must further take notice that they are not in the greatest excesse but where the liuing creature hath beene long inured and exercised vnto them eyther directly or indirectly so that they arriue not to that pitch so much out of the power of the agent as out of the preparation and disposition of the patient as when cold water hath beene often heated by extinguishing red hoat irons in it after some repetitions a few quenchinges will reduce it from cold to boyling that at the first would scarce haue made it lukewarme and accordingly we see a hart that for a long time hath loued and vehemently hath desired enioying is transported in a high degree at the least sight and renuance of stroakes from its beloued obiect and is as much deiected vpon any the least depriuation of it for to such an obiect the liuing creature is hurried away by a force much resembling the grauity or celerity of a dense body that is sett on running downe a steepe hill vnto which the only taking away of a weake lett or the least stoppe giueth a precipitate course not out of the force of what is done to it but out of the force which was formerly in the thing though for the present it lay there vndiscouered and so likewise in these cases the obiect rather giueth the occasion of the violent motion then the force or power to it These thinges being thus determined some peraduenture may aske how it cometh to passe that the spirits which cause motion being sent on their arrant by the braine do alwayes hitt the right way and light duely into those very sinnewes which moue the liuing creature according as is requisite for its nature Since all the passages are open what is it that gouerneth them so as they neuer mistake and the animal is neuer driuen towardes harme insteed of flying from it Who is their guide in these obscure pathes But it were to impute ignorance to the maker to think that he framed all the passages alike and so euery one of them promiscuously apt to receiue into them all sorts of spirits howsoeuer they be moued and therefore we may assure our selues that since in these diuersities of occasions there are likewise diuers kinds of motions from the hart◠eyther there is proportionable vnto them diuers kindes of passages fitt to receiue and entertaine the spirits according to the condition they are in so as the passages which are aiusted to one kind of spirits will not admitt any of an other nature or else the first motions of liking or disliking in the hart which as we haue said
found conformable vnto its nature The baboone we haue mentioned might be taught some lessons made on purpose with very few stoppes and vpon an instrument whereon all the stringes may be strucken with one blow and but one frette to be vsed at a time and that frette to be stopped with one finger of which much labour and time might beget a habit in him and then imitation of the sound might make him play in due measure And if we will marke it in our selues we shall see that although in the first learning of a lesson vpon the lute we employ our reason and discourse about it yet when we haue it very perfect our fingers guided by a slight fantasy do fall by custome without any reflexion at all to play it as well as if we thought neuer so carefully vpoÌ„ it And there is no comparison betweene the difficulty of a guitarre and of a lute I haue beene told that at the Duke of Florence his marriage there was a dance of horses in which they kept exact time of musike The meanes vsed for bringing them to it is said to haue beene by tying and hampering their legges in such a sort that they could lift them vp but in a determinate way and then setting them vpon a pauement that was heated vnderneath so hott as they could not endure to stand still whiles such musicall ayres were played to them as fitted their motions All which being often repeated the horses tooke a habitt that in hearing those ayres they would lift vp their legges in that fashion and so danced to the tune they had beene taught Of the Elephantes it is said that they may be taught to write and that purely vpon wordes and commanding them they will do what they are bidden and that they are able to keepe account and will leaue working at a precise number of reuolutions of the same action which measureth out their taske vnto them All which as I said before if it were plainely and litterally true would require very great consideration but because the teachers of beastes haue certaine secrets in their art which standers by do not reach vnto we are not able vpon such scanty relations as we haue of them to make sufficient iudgement how such â—hinges are done vnlesse we had the managing of those creatures whereby to try them in seuerall occasions and to obserue what cause produceth euery operation they doe and by what steppes they attayne vnto their instructions and seruiceablenesse It is true the vncontrolled reports of them oblige vs to beleeue some extraordinary matter of their docility and of strange thinges done by them but withall the example of other taught beastes among vs and of the strange iudgements that are made of them by persons who do not penetrate into their causes may instruct vs how easy it is to mistake the matter and assure vs that the relations which are made vs do not alwayes punctually agree with the truth of what passed He that should tell an Indian what feates Bankes his horse would do how he would restore a gloue to the due owner after his master had whispered that mans name in his eare how he would tell the iust number of pence in any piece of siluer coyne barely shewed him by his master and euen obey presently his command in discharging himselfe of his excrements whensoeuer he bad him So great a power art may haue ouer nature would make him I beleeue admire more at this learned beast then we do at their docile Elephantes vpon the relations we haue of them Whereas euery one of vs knoweth by what meanes his painefull tutor brought him to do all his trickes and they are no whitte more extraordinary then a fâ—wkeners manning of a hawke and trayning her to kill partridges and to fly at the retriue but do all of them both these and all other iuggling artificies of beastes depend vpon the same or like principles and are knowne to be but directions of nature ordered by one that composeth and leuelleth her operations to an end further off in those actions then she of her selfe would ayme at The particulars of which we neede not trouble ourselues to meddle with But it is time that we come to the third sort of actions performed by beastes which we promised to discourse of These seeme to be more admirable then any we haue yet touched and are chiefely concerning the breeding of their yong ones Aboue all others the orderly course of birds in this affaire is most remarkable After they haue coupled they make their nest they line it with mosse straw and feathers they lay their egges they sett vpon them they hatch them they feede their yong ones and they teach them to flye all which they do with so continuate and regular a methode as no man can direct or imagine a better But as for the regularity orderlinesse and continuance of these actions the matter is easy enough to be conceiued for seeing that the operation of the male maketh a change in the female and that this change beginning from the very first groweth by time into diuers proportions it is no wonder that it breedeth diuers dispositions in the female which cause her to do different actions correspondent to those diuers dispositions Now those actions must of necessity be constant and orderly because the causes whence they proceed are such But to determine in particular how it cometh to passe that euery change in the female disposeth her to such and such actions there is the difficulty and it is no small one as well for that there are no carefull and due obseruations made of the effects and circumstances which should guide vs to iudge of their causes as because these actions are the most refined ones of sensitiue creatures and do flow from the toppe and perfection of their nature and are the last straine of their vtmost vigour vnto which all others are subordinate As in our enquiry into the motions and operations of the bodies of a lower orbe then these we mett with some namely the loadestone and such like of which it is very hard to giue an exact and plaine account the Author of them reseruing something from our cleare and distinct knowledge and suffering vs to looke vpon it but through a miste in like manner we can not but expect that in the depth of this other perfecter nature there must be somewhat whereof we can haue but a glimmering and imperfect notion But as in the other it serued our turne to trace out a way how those operations might be effected by bodies and by locall motion though peraduenture we did not in euery circumstance hitt exactly vpon the right thereby to defend ourselues from admitting those chymericall qualities which we had already condemned vpon all other occasions So I conceiue it will be sufficient for vs in this to shew how these actions may be done by the senses and by the motion of corporeall spirits
should still be as farre to seeke for the causes whence they proceed What should moue a lambe to tremble at the first sight of a wolfe or a henne at a kite neuer before seene neither the grimmest mastife or the biggest owle will at all affright them That which in the ordinary course of nature causeth beastes to be affraide of men or of other beastes is the hurt and the euill they receiueÌ„ from them which coming into their fantasie together with the Idaea of him that did it is also lodged together with it in the memory from whence they come linked or glewed together whensoeuer the stroake of any new obiect calleth eyther of them backe into the fantasie This is confirmed by the tamenesse of the birdes and beastes which the first discouerers of Islandes not inhabitated by men did find in those they mett withall there Their stories tell vs that at their first arriuall vpon those coastes where it seemeth men had neuer beene the birdes would not flye away but suffered the marriners to take them in their handes nor the beastes which with vs are wilde would runne from them but their discourteous guestes vsed them so hardely as they soone changed their confidence into distrust and auersion and by litle they grew by their commerce with men and by receiuing iniuries from them to be as wilde as any of the like kind in our partes From the dammes and sires this apprehension and feare at the sight of men so deepely rooted in them is doubtlessely transmitted to their yong ones for it proceedeth out of the disposition of the body and out of the passion which is immediately made in the hart and that is as truly a materiall motion as any whatsoeuer can be and must haue settled materiall instruments sitted to it if it be constant as well as any other naturall operation whatsoeuer and this passion of the hart proceedeth againe from a perpetuall connexion of the two obiects in the memory which being a perpetually constant thing is as true a quality of that beastes braine in whome it is as the being of a quicke or dull apprehension or the being apt to know one kind of meate from an other which is natural to the whole species or any other quality whatsoeuer residing in that beast Wherefore it is no wonder that it passeth by generation to the offspring which is a thing so common euen in man kinde as there can be no doubt of it and is at the first made by a violent cause that greatly altereth the body and consequently their seede must be imbewed with a like disposition and so it passeth together with the nature of the fire or of the damme into the broode From hence proceedeth that children do loue the same meates and exercises that their fathers and mothers were affected with and feare the like harmes This is the reason why a grandchilde of my Lord of Dorset whose honoured name must neuer be mentioned by me without a particular respect and humble acknowledgement of the noble and steady frendshippe he hath euer beene pleased to honour we with was alwayes extremely sicke if but the nurse did eate any capers against which my Lords antipathy is famous whiles she gaue sucke to that pretty infant The children of great Mathematicians who haue beene vsed to busye their fantasies continually with figures and proportions haue beene oftentimes obserued to haue a naturall bent vnto those sciences And we may note that euen in particular gestures and in litle singularities in familiar conuersation children will oftentimes resemble their parents as well as in the lineaments of their faces The yong ones of excellent setting doggs will haue a notable aptitude to that exercise and may be taught with halfe the paines that their sire or damme was if they were chosen out of a race of spaniels not trained to setting All which effects can proceed from no other cause but as we haue touched already that the fantasy of the parent altereth the temper and the disposition of his body and seede according as it selfe is tempered and disposed and consequently such a creature must be made of it as retaineth the same qualities in such sort as it is said that sufficient tartar putt at the roote of a tree will make the fruite haue a winy tast But nothing doth confirme this so much as certaine notable accidents whereof though euery one in particular would seeme incredible yet the number of them and the weight of the reporters who are the witnesses can not choose but purchase a generall creditt to the kind of them These accidents are that out of some strong imagination of the parents but especially of the mothers in the time of conception the children draw such maine differences as were incredible if the testifying authority were not so great but being true they conuince beyond all question the truth we haue proposed of the parents imagination working vpon and making an impression in the seede whereof children or yong ones of their kind are made Some children of white parents are reported to haue beene blacke vpon occasion of a blacke moores picture too much in the mothers eye Others are said to haue beene borne with their skinnes all hairy out of the sight of St. Iohn Baptistes picture as he was in the desert or of some other hairy image An other childe is fâ—med to haue beene borne deformed in such sort as diuels are painted because the father was in a diuels habitt when he gott the childe There was a Lady a kâ—nswoman of mine who vsed much to weare blackâ— patches vpon her face as was the fashion among yong women which I to putt her from vsed to tell her in iest that the next childe she should go with whiles the sollicitude and care of those patches was so strong in her fantasy would come into the world with a great blacke spott in the middest of its forehead and this apprehension was so liuely in her imagination at the times she proued with childe that her daughter was borne maâ—kâ—d iust as the mother had fansied which there are at hand witnesses enough to confirme but none more pregnant then the yong Lady herselfe vpon whom the marke is yet remaining Among other creatures it is said that a henne hatched a chicken with a kites bill because shâ— was frighâ—ed with a kite whiles the cocke was treading her The story of Iacobs sheepe is knowne to all and some do write that the painting of beautifull coloured pigeons in a douehouse will make the following race become like them and in Authors store of such examples may be found To giue a reasonable and fully satisfying cause of this great effect I confesse is very difficult seeing that for the most part the parents seede is made long time before the accoupling of the male and female and though it were not we should be mainely to seeke for a rationall ground to discourse in particular vpon it Yet not to leaue
tender skinne of it the bloud in some measure piercing the skinne and not returning wholy into its naturall course which effect is not permanent in the mother because her skinne being harder doth not receiue the bloud into it but sendeth it backe againe without receiuing a tincture from it Farre more easy is it to discouer the secret cause of many antipathies or sympathies which are seene in children and endure with them the greatest part if not the whole terme of their life without any apparent ground for them as some do not loue cheese others garlike others duckes others diuers other kindes of meate which their parents loued well and yet in token that this auersion is naturall vnto them and not arising from some dislike accidentally taken and imprinted in their fantasy they will be much harmed if they chance to eate any such meate though by the much disguising it they neither know nor so much as suspect they haue done so The story of the Lady HeÌ„nage who was of the bedchamber to the late Queene Elizabeth that had her checke blistered by laying a rose vpon it whiles she was a sleepe to try if her antipathy against that flower were so great as she vsed to pretend is famous in the Court of England A kinsman of mine whiles he was a childe had like to haue dyed of drought before his nurse came to vnderstand that he had an antipathy against beere or wine vntill the tender nature in him before he could speake taught him to make earnest signes for water that by accident he saw the greedy drinking of which cured presently his long languishing and pining sickenesse and such examples are very frequent The cause of these effects many times is that their mothers vpon their first suppression of their vsuall euacuations by reason of their being with child toke some strong dislike to such thinges their stomackes being then oppressed by vnnaturall humours which ouerflow their bodies vpon such retentions and which make them oftentimes sicke and prone to vomiting especially in the mornings whiles they are fasting and sometimes to desire earnestly which they call longing to feede vpon some vnwholesome as well as some particular wholesome thinges and otherwhiles to take auersion against meates which at other seasons they affected well Now the child being nourished by the so imbued bloud of the mother no wonder if it taketh affections or dislikes conformable to those which at that present raigne in the mother the which for the most part vsed to be purged away or are ouerwhelmed by the mastering qualities of better aliments succeding but if by some mischance they become too much grafted in the childes stomacke or in some other part through which the masse of bloud must passe then the child getteth an auersion from those meates and we often see that people retaine a strong conuersion to such meates or drinkes as their mothers affected much or longed for whiles they bred child of them And thus we will leaue this particular adding only one note why there are more persoÌ„s generally who haue antipathy against cheese theÌ„ against any one sort of meate besides whatsoeuer A principal reason of which symptome where the precedent one hath not place I coÌ„ceiue to be that their nurses proued with child whiles they gaue them sucke for I haue by experience found it to haue beene so in as many as I haue made inquiry into And it is very conformable to reason for the nurses milke curdling in her brest vpon her breeding of child and becoming very offensiue to the childes tender stomacke whose being sicke obligeth the parents to change the nurse though peraduenture they know nothing of the true reason that maketh her milke vnnaturall he hath a dislike of cheese which is strong curdled milke euer after settled in him as people that haue once surfeted violently of any meate seldome arriue to brooke it againe Now as concerning those animals who lay vp in store for winter and seeme therein to exercise a rationall prouidence who seeth not that it is the same humour which moueth rich misers to heape vp wealth euen at their last gaspe when they haue no child nor frend to giue it to nor think of making any body their heires Which actions because they haue no reason in them are to be imputed to the passion or motion of the materiall appetite In the doing of them these steppes may be obserued first the obiect presenting it selfe to the eye prouoketh loue and desire of it especially if it be ioyned with the memoâ—y of former want then this desire stirreth vp the animal after he hath fedde himselfe to gather into the place of his chiefe residence as much of that desired obiect as he meeteth withall and whensoeuer his hunger returning bringeth backe into his fantasy the memory of his meate it being ioyned with the memory of that place if he be absent from it he presently repaireth thither for reliefe of what presseth him and thus dogges whâ—n they are hungry do rake for bones they had hidden when â—heir bellies were full Now if this foode gathered by such prouidence which is nothing else but the conformity of it working vpon him by his sense and layâ—d vp in the place where the owner of it resideth as the corne is which the auntes gather in summer be easily portable he will carry it abroad wiâ—h him the first time he stirreth after a long keeping in for then nothing worketh so powerfully in his fantasy as his store and he will not easily part from it though other circumstances inuite him abroad From hence it proceedeth that when a faire day cometh after long foule weather the auntes who all that while kept close in their dennes with their corne lying by them do then come abroad into the sunne and do carry their graine along with them or peraduenture it happeneth because the precedent wett weather hath made it grow hoat or musty or otherwise offensiue within and therefore they carry it out as soone as themselues dare peepe abroad which is when the faire weather and heate of the day inuiteth them out into the open ayre and before night that they returne into their holes the offensiue vapours of the corne are exhaled and dryed vp and moue their fantasies no longer to auersion wherevpon they carry it backe againe hauing then nothing but their long contracted loue vnto it to worke vpon them The like whereof men doing by discourse to ayre their corne and to keepe it sweete and the same effect following herein they will presently haue it that this is done by the auntes for the same reason and by designe Then the moysture of the earth swelling the graine and consequently making it beginne to shoote at the endes as we declared when we spoke of the generation of plantes and as we see in the moystening of corne to make malt of it those litle creatures finding that part of it more tender and iuicy then the
vpon her yet so that of her selfe she still is what she is And therefore as soone as she is out of the passible oore in which she suffereth by reason of that oore she presently becometh impassible as being purely of her owne nature a fixed substance that is a pure Being Both which states of the soule may in some sort be aduÌ„brated by what we see passeth in the coppelling of a fixed mettall for as long as any lead or drosse or allay remaineth with it it continueth melted flowing and in motion vnder the muffle but as soone as they are parted from it and that it is become pure without any mixture and singly it selfe it contracteth it selfe to a narrower roome and at that very instant ceaseth from all motion groweth hard permanent resistent vnto all operations of fire and suffereth no change or diminution in its substance by any outward violence we can vse vnto it THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body ONe thing may peraduenture seeme of hard digestion in our past discourse and it is that out of the groundes we haue layed it seemeth to follow that all soules will haue an equality since we haue concluded that the greatest shall see or know no more then the least and indeed there appeareth no cause why this great and noble creature should lye imprisoned in the obscure dungeon of noysome flesh if in the first instant in which it hath its first knowledge it hath then already gained all whatsoeuer it is capable of gaining in the whole progresse of a long life afterwardes Truly the Platonike Philosophers who are persuaded that a humane soule doth not profitt in this life nor that she acquired any knowledge here as being of her selfe completely perfect and that all our discourses are but her remembringes of what she had forgotten will find themselues ill bestedd to render a Philosophicall and sufficient cause of her being locked into a body for to putt forgettfulnesse in a pure spiritt so palpable an effect of corporeity and so great a corruption in respect of a creature whose nature is to know of it selfe is an vnsufferable errour Besides when they tell vs that she can not be changed because all change would preiudice the spirituall nature which they attribute to her but that well she may be warned and excitated by being in a body they meerely trifle for eyther there is some true mutation made in her by that which they call a warning or there is not if there be not how becometh it a warning to her Or what is it more to her then if a straw were wagged at the Antipodes But if there be some mutation be it neuer so litle made in her by a corporeall motion what should hinder why she may not by meanes of her body attaine vnto science she neuer had as well as by it receiue any the least intrinsecall mutation whatsoeuer For if once we admitt any mutability in her from any corporeall motion it is farre more conformable vnto reason to suppose it in regard of that which is her naturall perfection and of that which by her operations we see she hath immediately after such corporeall motions and whereof before them there appeared in her no markes at all then to suppose it in regard of a darke intimation of which we neyther know it is nor how it is performed Surely no Rationall Philosopher seeing a thing whose nature is to know haue a being whereas formerly it existed not and obseruing how that thing by little and little giueth signes of more and more knowledge can doubt but that as she could be changed from not being to being so may she likewise be changed from lesse knowing to more knowing This then being irrefragably settled that in the body she doth encrease in knowledge lett vs come to our difficulty and examine what this encrease in the body auaileth her seeing that as soone as she parteth from it she shall of her owne nature enioy and be replenished with the knowledge of all thinges why should she laboriously striue to anticipate the getting of a few droppes which but encrease her thirst and anxiety when hauing but a litle patience she shall at one full and euerlasting draught drinke vp the whole sea of it We know that the soule is a thing made proportionably to the making of its body seeing it is the bodies compartener and we haue concluded that whiles it is in the body it acquireth perfection in that way which the nature of it is capable of that is in knowledge as the body acquireth perfection its way which is in streÌ„gth and agility Now then lett vs coÌ„pare the proceedinges of the one with those of the other substance and peraduenture we may gaine some light to discerne what aduantage it may proue vnto a soule to remaine long in its body if it make right vse of its dwelling there Lett vs coÌ„sider the body of a man well and exactly shaped in all his members yet if he neuer vse care nor paines to exercise those well framed limbes of his he will want much of those corporeall perfections which others will haue who employ them sedulously Though his legges armes and handes be of an exact symmetry yet he will not be able to runne to wrestle or to throw a dart with those who labour to perfect themselues in such exercises though his fingers be neuer so neately moulded or composed to all aduantages of quicke and smart motion yet if he neuer learned and practised on the lute he will not be able with them to make any musike vpon that instrument euen after he seeth plainely and comprehendeth fully all that the cunningest Lutenist doth nether will he be able to playe as he doth with his fingers which of themselues are peraduenture lesse apt for those voluble motions then his are That which maketh a man dexterous in any of these artes or in any other operations proper to any of the partes or limbes of his body is the often repetitions of the same actes which do amend and perfect those limbes in their motions and which make them fitt and ready for the actions they are designed vnto In the same manner it fareth with the soule whoâ—e essence is that which she knoweth her seuerall knowledges may be compared to armes handes fingers legges thighes c in a body and all her knowledges taken together do compose as I may say and make her vp what she is Now those limbes of hers though they be when they are at the worst entire and well shaped in bulke to vse the comparison of bodies yt they are susceptible of further perfection as our corporeall limbes ae by often and orderly vsage of them When we iterate our acts of our vnderstanding any obiect the second act is of the same nature as she first the third as the second and so of
she would in the first instant of her being be perfect in knowledge or she would not if she were then would she be a perfect and complete immateriall substance not a soule whose nature is to be a compartner to the body and to acquire her perfection by the mediation and seruice of corporeall senses but if she were not perfect in science but were only a capacity therevnto and like vnto white paper in which nothing were yet wâ—â—tten then vnlesse she were putt in a body she could neuer arriue to know any thing because motion and alteration are effects peculiar to bodies therefore it must be agreed that she is naturally designed to be in a body but her being in a body is her being one thing with the body she is said to be in and so she is one part of a whole which from its weaker part is determined to be a body Againe seeing that the matter of any thing is to be prepared before the end is prepared for which that matter is to serue according to that Axiome Quod est primum in intentione est vltimum in executione we may not deny but that the body is in being some time before the soule or at the least that it existeth as soone as she doth and therefore it appeareth wholy vnreasonable to say that the soule was first made out of the body and was afterwardes thrust into it seeing that the body was prepared for the soule before or at the least as soone as she had any beginning and so we may conclude that of necessity the soule must be begunne layed hatched and perfected in the body And although it be true that such soules as are separated from their bodies in the first instant of their being there are notwithstanding imbued with the knowledge of all thinges yet is not their longer abode therein vaine not only because thereby the species is multiplyed for nature is not content with barely doing that without addition of some good to the soule it selfe but as well for the wonderfull and I may say infinite aduantage that may thereby accrew to the soule if she make right vse of it for as any act of the abstracted soule is infinite in comparison of the acts which men exercise in this life according to what we haue already shewed so by consequence must any encrease of it be likewise infinite and therefore we may conclude that a long life well spent is the greatest and most excellent guift which nature can bestow vpon a man The vnwary reader may perhapps haue difficulty at our often repeating of the infelicity of a miserable soule since we say that it proceedeth out of the iudgements she had formerly made in this life which without all doubt were false ones and neuerthelesse it is euident that no false iudgements can remaine in a soule after she is separated from her body as we haue aboue determined How then can a soules iudgements be the cause of her misery But the more heedefull reader will haue noted that the misery which we putt in a soule proceedeth out of the inequality not out of the falsity of her iudgements for if a man be inclined to a lesser good more then to a greater he will in action betake himselfe to the lesser good and desert the greater wherein neyther iudgemeÌ„t is false nor eyther inclination is naught meerely out of the improportion of the two inclinations or iudgements to their obiects for that a soule may be duely ordered and in a state of being well she must haue a lesser inclination to a lesse good and a greater inclination to a greater good and in pure spirits these inclinations are nothing else but the strength of their iudgements which iudgements in soules whiles they are in their bodies are made by the repetition of more acts from stronger causes or in more fauourable circumstances And so it appeareth how without any falsity in any iudgement a soule may become miserable by her conuersation in this world where all her inclinations generally are good vnlesse the disproportion of them do make them bad THE TWELFTH CHAPTER Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth her selfe in at her first separation from her body THus we haue brought mans soule out of the body she liued in here and by which she conuersed and had commerce with the other partes of this world and we haue assigned her her first array and stole with which she may be seene in the next world so that now there remaineth only for vs to consider what shall betide her afterwardes and whether any change may happen to her and be made in her after the first instant of her being a pure spiritt separated from all consortshippe with materiall substances To determine this point the more clearely lett vs call to minde an axiome that Aristotle giueth vs in his logike which teacheth vs That as it is true if the effect be there is a cause so likewise it is most true that if the cause be in act or causing the effect must also be Which Axiome may be vnderstood two wayes the one that if the cause hath its effect then the effect also is and this is no great mystery or for it are any thankes due to the teacher it being but a repetition and saying ouer againe of the same thing The other way is that if the cause be perfect in the nature of being a cause then the effect is which is as much as to say that if nothing be waÌ„ting to the cause abstracting precisely from the effect then neyther is the effect wanting And this is the meaning of Aristotles Axiome of the truth and euidence whereof in this sense if any man should make the least doubt it were easy to euince it as thus if nothing be wanting but the effect and yet the effect doth not immediately follow it must needes be that it can not follow at all for if it can and doth not then something more must be done to make it follow which is against the supposition that nothing was wanting but the effect for that which is to be done was wanting To say it will follow without any change is senselesse for if it follow without change it followeth out of this which is already putt but if it do follow out of this which is precisely putt then it followeth against the supposition which was that it did not follow although this were putt This then being euident lett vs apply it to our purpose and lett vs putt three or more thinges namely A. B. C. and D whereof none can worke otherwise then in an instant or indiuisibly and I say that whatsoeuer these foure thinges are able to do without respect to any other thing besides them is completely done in the first instant of their being putt and if they remayne for all eternity without communication or respect to any other thing there shall neuer be any innouation in any of them or
connexion of things is so linked together that proceeding from any one you reach the knowledge of many and from many you cannot faile of attaining vnto all so that a separated soule which doth but know herselfe can not choose but know her body too and from her body she cannot misse in proceeding from the causes of them both as farre as immediate causes do proceede from others ouer them and as litle can she be ignorant of all the effects of those causes she reacheth vnto And thus all that huge masse of knowledge and happinesse which we haue coÌ„sidered in our last reflexion amounteth to no more then the seeliest soule buried in warme blood can and will infallibly attaine vnto when its time cometh Wee may then assure our selues that iust nature hath prouided and designed a greater measure of such felicity for longer liuers and so much greater as may well be worth the paines and hazards of so miserable and tedious a passage as here my soule thou strugglest through For certainely if the dull percussion which by natures institution hammereth out a spirituall soule from grosse flesh and bloud can atcheiue so wondrous an effect by such blunt instruments as are vsed in the contriuing of a man how can it be imagined but that fifty or a hundred yeares beating vpon farre more subtile elements refined in so long a time as a child is becoming a man and arriuing to his perfect discourse must necessarily forge out in such a soule a strange and admirable excellency aboue the vnlicked forme of an abortiue embryon Surely those innumerable strokes euery one of which maketh a strong impression in the soule vpon whom they beate cannot choose but worke a mighty difference in the subiect that receiueth them changing it strangely from the condition it was in before they begunne to new mould it What if I should say the oddes betweene two such soules may peraduenture be not vnlike the difference betweene the wittes and iudgements of the subtilest Philosopher that euer was and of the dullest child or idiote liuing But this comparison falleth too short by farre euen so much that there is no resemblance or proportion betweene the thinges compared for as the excesse of great numbers ouer one an other drowneth the excesse of small ones and maketh it not considerable in respect of theirs although they should be in the same proportion so the aduantages of a soule forged to its highest perfection in a mans body by its long abode there and by its making right vse of that pretious time allowed it must needes in positiue valew though not in geometricall proportion infinitely exceed when it shall be deliuered out of prison the aduantages which the newly hatched soule of an abortiue infant shall acquire att the breaking of its chaines In this case I beleeue no man would be of Cesars mind when he wished to be rather the first man in a contemptible poore village he passed through among the desert mountains then the second man in Rome Lett vs suppose the wealth of the richest man in that barren habitation to be one hundred Crownes and that the next to him in substance had but halfe as much as he in like manner in that opulent citty the head of the world where millions were as familiar as pence in other places lett the excesse of the richest mans wealth be but as in the former double ouer his that cometh next vnto him and there you shall find that if the poorest of the two be worth fifty millions the other hath fifty millions more then he whereas the formers petty treasure exceedeth his neighbours but by fifty crownes What proportion is there in the common estimation of affaires betweene that triuiall summe and fifty millions Much lesse is there betweene the excellency of a separated soule first perfected in its body and an other that is sett loose into complete liberty before its body arriued in a naturall course to be deliuered into this world and by its eyes to enioy the light of it The change of euery soule att its separation from the body to a degree of perfectioÌ„ aboue what it enioyed in the body is in a manner infinite and by a like infinite proportion euery degree of perfection it had in the body is also then multiplyed what a vast product then of infinity must necessarily be raysed by this multiplying instaÌ„t of the soules attaining liberty in a well moulded soule infinitely beyond that perfection which the soule of an infant dying before it be borne arriueth vnto And yet we haue determined that to be a in manner infinite Here our skill of Arithmetike and proportions fayleth vs. Here wee find infinite excesse ouer what we also know to be infinite How this can be the feeble eyes of our limited vnderstanding are too dull to penetrate into but that it is so we are sure the rigour of discourse conuinceth and necessarily concludeth it That assureth vs that since euery impression vpon the soule whiles it is in its body maketh a change in it were there no others made but meerely the iterating of those actes which brought it from ignorance to knowledge that soule vpon which a hundred of those actes had wrought must haue a hundred degrees of aduantage ouer an other vpon which only one had beaten though by that one it had acquired perfect knowledge of that thing and then in the separation these hundred degrees being each of them infinitely multiplyed how infinitely must such a soule exceed in that particular though we know not how the knowledge of the other soule which though it be perfect in its kind yet had but one act to forge it out When wee arriue to vnderstand the difference of knowledge betweene the superiour and inferiour rankes of intelligences among whome the lowest knoweth as much as the highest and yet the knowledge of the highest is infinitely more perfect and admirable then the knowledge of his inferiours then and not before we shall throughly comprehend this mystery In the meane time it is enough for vs that we are sure that thus it faireth with soules and that by how much the excellency and perfection of an all knowing and all comprehending soule deliuered out of the body of a wretched embryon is aboue the vilenesse of that heauy lumpe of flesh it lately quitted in his mothers wombe euen by so mâ—â—h and according to the same proportion must the excellency of a complete soule completed in its body be in a pitch aboue the adorable maiesty wisedome and augustnesse of the greatest and most admired oracle in the world liuing embodyed in flesh and bloud Which as it is in a height and eminency ouer such an excellent and admirable man infinitely beyond the excesse of such a man ouer that seely lumpe of flesh which composeth the most contemptible idiote or embryon so likewise is the excesse of it ouer the soule of an abortiue embryon though by the separation growne neuer so knowing and
surfaces 9 A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores 10 A coÌ„firmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1 The coÌ„nexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2 That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire 3 The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4 The second sort of coniunction is coÌ„pactednesse in simple Elements and it proceedeth from density 5 The third coniunction is of partes of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together 6 The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly 7 That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately 8 How mixed bodies arâ— framed in generall 9 The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10 The rule wherevnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11 Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12 What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two 13 Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element 14 What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15 Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16 Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other threâ— Elements 17 Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominâ—t Element ouer the other two 18 Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant 19 Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20 All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density 21 That in the planets and starres there is a like varietâ— of mixed bodies caused by light as here vpon Earth 22 In what maÌ„ner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the compositioÌ„ of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue 23 A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls 1 Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies 2 How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies 3 The seuerall effects of fire the second and chiefest instrumeÌ„t to dissolue all coÌ„pounded bodies 4 The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire 5 The reason why fire molteth gold but can not consume it 6 Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7 Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are 8 How water the third iâ—strumeÌ„t to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata 9 How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies 10 How putrefactioÌ„ is caused 1 What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents 2 The reason why no body can worke in distance 3 An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiomâ— 4 Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each AgeÌ„t must suffer in acting and actâ— in suffering 5 The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6 Why some notions do admitt of intension and Remission and others do not 7 That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure ElemeÌ„ts are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke 1 The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2 That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward and inward heat and how this is performed 3 Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4 The first manner of condensation by heate 5 The second manner of condensation by cold 6 That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed 7 How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed 8 How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation 9 Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstaÌ„ding receiue more of an other 10 The true reason of the former effect 11 The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others 1 What AttractioÌ„ is and from whence it proceedeth 2 The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity 3 The true reasâ— of attraction 4 Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer 5 The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons 6 That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe 7 Concerning attraction caused by fire 8 Concerning attractioÌ„ made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. 9 The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall 1 What is Filtration and how it is effected 2 What causeth the water in filtration to ascend 3 Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water 4 Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5 Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely 6 Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch 7 How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles 8 Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it 9 Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motâ—ons 1 The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiacke draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone Chap. 18. §. 7. 2 The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other 3 By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuatâ—d from one Pole to the other 4 Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5 This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone 6 A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect 7 The Loadestones generatioÌ„ by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe 8 Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2 Obiections against the former positioÌ„ answered 3 The loadestone is imbued
shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder it pag. 91. § 6. The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme pag. 92. § 7. The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames pag. 93. § 8. The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres pag. 95. § 9. The seuenth obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beate continually vpon vs. ibidem § 10. How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing pag. 96. § 11. The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason pag 97. § 12. The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences pag. 98. CHAP. XII Of Violent Motion pag. 100. § 1. The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion ibid. § 2. That the medium is the onely cause which continueth violent motion ibidem § 3. A further explication of the former doctrine pag. 101. § 4. That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable pag. 102. § 5. An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent motion cometh to cease pag 103. § 6. An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies pag. 104. § 7. An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then long wayes pag. 105. CHAP. XIII Of three sortes of violent motion Reflexion Vndulation and Refraction pag. 106. § 1. That reflexion is a kind of violent motion ibid. § 2. Reflection is made at equall angles ibid. § 3. The causes and properties of vndulation pag. 107. § 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towardes the perpendicular at the going out it is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first pag. 108. § 5. A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction pag. 109. § 6. An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion pag. 111. § 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body pag. 112. § 8. A generall rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sortes of surfaces pag. 113. § 9. A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores pag. 114. § 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light pag. 115. CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities and generation of Mixed bodies pag. 116. § 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it ibid. § 2. That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire pag. 117. § 3. The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity ibid. § 4. The second sort of coniunction is compactednesse in simple Elements and it procedeth from density pag. 118. § 5. The third coniunction is of parres of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together ibid. § 6. The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly pag. 119. § 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately ibid. § 8. How mixed bodies are framed in generall pag. 121. § 9. The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies ibid. § 10. The rule where vnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies pag. 122. § 11. Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies pag. 123. § 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element ibid. § 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element pag. 124. § 15. Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element pag. 125. § 16. Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other three Elements ibid. § 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant ibid. § 19. Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant pag. 126. § 20. All the secōd qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density ibid. § 21. That in the planets and starres there is a like variety of mixed bodies cause by light as here vpon Earth pag. 127. § 22. In what manner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue ibid. § 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls pag. 128. CHAP. XV. Of the dissolution of Mixed bodies pag. 130. § 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies ibid. § 2. How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies pag. 131. § 3. The seueral effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolue all compounded bodies ibid. § 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire pag. 132. § 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but can not consume it ibid. § 6. Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire pag. 133. § 7. Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are ibid. § 8. How water the third instrument to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata pag. 135. § 9. How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies pag. 136. § 10. How putrefaction is caused ibid. CHAP. XVI An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world pag. 137. § 1. What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents ibid. § 2. The reason why no body can worke in distance pag. 138. § 3. An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiome pag. 139 § 4. Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and acte in suffering ibid. § 5. The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine pag. 141. § 6. Why some notions do admitt
to performe vitall motion pag. 203. § 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones ibid. § 2. Concerning seuerall compositions of mixed bodies pag. 204. § 3. Two sortes of liuing creatures pag. 205. § 4. An engine to expresse the first sort of liuing creatures ibid. § 5. An other engine by which may be expressed the second sort of liuing creatures pag. 207. § 6. The two former engines and some other comparisons applyed to expresse the two seuerall sortes of liuing creatures ibid. § 7. How plantes are framed pag. 209. § 8. How sensitiue creatures are formed pag. 210. CHAP. XXIV A more particular suruay of the generation of Animals in which is discouered what part of the animal is first generated pag. 213 § 1. The opinion that the seede containeth formally euery part of the parent ibid. § 2. The former opinion reiected pag. 214. § 3. The Authors opinion of this question pag. 215. § 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that euery thing containeth formally all thinges pag. 216. § 5. The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirmed pag. 217. § 6. That one substance is changed into an other pag. 219. § 7. Concerning the hatching of chickens and the generation of other Animals pag. 220. § 8. From whence it happeneth that the deficiences or excrescences of the parents body are often seene in their children pag. 221 § 9. The difference betweene the Authors opinion and the former one p. 222 § 10. That the hart is imbued with the generall specifike vertues of the whole body whereby is confirmed the doctrine of the two former paragraphes pag. 223. § 11. That the hart is the first part generated in a liuing creature pag. 225. CHAP. XXV How a Plant or Animal cometh to that figure it hath pag. 226. § 1. That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinarie second causes as well as any other corporeall effect pag. 226. § 2. That the seuerall figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of â—he three dimensions caused by the concurrance of accidentall causes pag. 227 § 3. The former doctrine is confirmed by seuerall instances pag 228 § 4. The same doctrine applyed to Plantes pag. 229 § 5. The same doctrine declared in leafes of trees ibid. § 6. The same applyed to the bodies of Animals pag. 230 § 7. In what sense the Author doth admitt of Vis formatrix pag. 231 CHAP. XXVI How motion beginneth in liuing creatures And of the motion of the hart circulation of the bloud Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death pag. 232 § 1. Fromwhence doth proceed the primary motion and growth in Plantes ibid. § 2. Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the hart p. 233 § 3. The former opinion reiected ibid. § 4. The Authors opinion concerning the motion of the hart pag. 234 § 5. The motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud pag. 236 § 6. An obiection answered against the former doctrine pag. 237 § 7. The circulation of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the hart pag. 238 § 8. Of Nutrition pag. 239 § 9. Of Augmentation pag. 240 § 10. Of death and sicknesse pag. 241 CHAP. XXVII Of the motions of sense and of the sensible qualities in generall and in particular of those which belong to Touch Tast and Smelling pag. 242 § 1. The connexion of the subsequent chapters with the precedent ibid. § 2. Of the senses and sensible qualities in generall And of the end for which they serue ibid. § 3. Of the sense of touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 244 § 4. Of the tast and its qualities that they are bodies pag. 245 § 5. That the smell and its qualities are reall bodies ibid. § 6. Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting p. 246 § 7. The reason why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beastes with a wonderfull historie of a man who could wind a sent as well as any beast pag. 247 CHAP. XXVIII Of the sense of hearing and of the sensible quality sound p. 249 § 1. Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motion ibid. § 2. Of diuers artes belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirme that sound is nothing but motion pag. 250 § 3. The same is confirmed by the effects caused by great noises pag. 251 § 4. That solide bodies may conueye the motion of the ayre or sound to the organe of hearing pag. 252 § 5. Where the motion is interrupted there is no sound ibid. § 6. That not only the motion of the ayre but all other motions coming to our eares make sounds pag. 253 § 7. How one sense may supply the want of an other ibid. § 8. Of one who could discerne sounds of words with his eyes pag. 254 § 9. Diuers reasons to proue sound to be nothing els but a motion of some reall body pag. 256 CHAP. XXIX Of Sight and Colours pag. 257 § 1. That Colours are nothing but light mingled with darkenesse or the disposition off a bodies superficies apt to reflect light so mingled ibid. § 2. Concerning the disposition of those bodies which produce white or blacke coulours pag. 259 § 3. The former doctrine confirmed by Aristotles authority reason and experience ibid. § 4. How the diuersity of coulours doe follow out of various degrees of rarity and density pag. 260 § 5. Why some bodies are Diaphanous others opacous pag. 261 § 6. The former doctrine of coulours confirmed by the generation of white and Blacke in bodies pag. 262 CHAP. XXX Of luminous or apparente Colours pag. 262 § 1. Apparitions of coulours through a prisme or triangular glasse are of two sortes ibid. § 2. The seuerall parts of the obiect make seuerall angles at their entrance into the prisme pag. 263 § 3. The reason why some times the same obiect appeareth throwgh the prisme in two places and in one place more liuely in the other place more dimme ibid. § 4. The reason of the various colours that appeare in looking throwgh a prisme pag. 264 § 5. The reason why the prisme in one position may make the colours appeare quite contrary to what they did when it was in an other position pag. 265 § 6. The reason of the various colours in generall by pure light passing through a prisme pag 266 § 7. Vpon what side euery colour appeareth that is made by pure light passing through a prisme pag. 267 CHAP. XXXI The causes of certaine appearances in luminous Colours with a conclusion of the discourse touching the senses and the sensible qualities pag. 268 § 1. The reason of each seuerall colour in particular caused by light passing through a prisme pag. 268 § 2. A difficult probleme resolued touching the prisme pag. 270 § 3. Of the rainebow and how by the colour of any body wee may know the composition of
prooued from her manner of operation which is grounded in being ibid. § 10. Lastly it is prooued from the science of Morality the principles whereof would be destroied if the soule were mortall pag. 421 CHAP. X. Declaring what the soule of a man separated from his body is and of her knowledge and manner of working pag. 422 § 1. That the soule is one simple knowing act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance ibid. § 2. That a separated soule is in no place and yet is not absent from any place pag. 424 § 3. That a separated soule is not in time nor subiect to it ibid. § 4. That the soule is an actiue substance and all in it is actiuitie pag. 425 § 5. A description of the soule pag. 426 § 6. That a separated soule knoweth all that which she knew whilst she wâ—s in her bodie ibid. § 7. That the least knowledge which the soule acquireth in her bodie of anie one thing doth cause in her when she is separated from her bodie a compleat knowledge of all thinges whatsoeuer pag. 427 § 8. An answere to the obiections of some Peripatetikes who maintaine the soule to perish with the body pag. 429 § 9 The former Peripatetikes refuted out of Aristotle pag. 431 § 10. The operations of a separated soule compared to her operations in her bodie ibid. § 11. That a separated soule is in a state of pure being and consequently immortall pag. 432 CHAP. XI Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body p. 433 § 1. That a soule in this life is subiect to mutation and may be perfected in knowledge ibid. § 2. That the knowledges which a soule getteth in this life will make her knowledge in the next life more perfect and firme pag. 434 § 3. That the soules of men addicted to science whilst they liued here are more perfect in the next world then the soules of vnlearned men pag. 435 § 4. That those soules which embrace vertue in this world will be most perfect in the next and those which embrace vice most miserable ibid. § 5. The state of a vitious soule in the next life pag. 437 § 6. The fundamentall reason why as well happinesse as misery is so excessiue in the next life pag. 439 § 7. The reason why mans soule requireth to be in a body and to liue for some space of time ioyned with it pag. 441 § 8. That the misery of the soule in the next world proceedeth out of inequality and not out of falsity of her iudgements pag. 442 CHAP. XII Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth herselfe in at her first separation from her body pag. 443 § 1. The explication and proofe of that maxime that if the cause be in act the effect must also be ibid. § 2. The effects of all such agents as worke instantaneously are complete in the first instant that the agents are putt ibid. § 3. All pure spirits do worke instantaneously pag. 444 § 4. That a soule separated from her body can not suffer any change after the first instant of her separation ibid. § 5. That temporall sinnes are iustly punished with eternall paines pag. 445 The Conclusion pag. 446 THE PREFACE THIS writing was designed to haue seene the light vnder the name of one treatise But after it was drawne in paper as I cast a view ouer it I found the prooemiall part which is that which treateth of Bodies so ample in respect of the other which was the end of it and for whose sake I meddled with it that I readily apprehended my reader would thinke I had gone much astray from my text when proposing to speake of the immortality of Mans Soule three parts of foure of the whole discourse should not so much as in one word mention that soule whose nature and proprieties I aymed at the discouery of To auoyde this incongruity occasioned mee to change the name and vnity of the worke and to make the suruay of bodies a body by it selfe though subordinate to the treatise of the soule Which notwithstanding it be lesse in bulke then the other yet I dare promise my Reader that if he bestow the paines requisite to perfect him selfe in it he will find as much time well spent in the due reading of it as in the reading of the former treatise though farre more large But I discerne an obiection obuious to be made or rather a question why I should spend so much time in the consideration of bodies whereas none that hath formerly written of this subiect hath in any measure done the like I might answere that they had vpon other occasions first written of the nature of bodies as I may instance in Aristotle and sundry others who either haue themselues professedly treated the science of bodies or haue supposed that part sufficiently performed by other pennes But truly I was by an vnauoydable necessity hereunto obliged which is a current of doctrine that at this day much raigneth in the Christian Schooles where bodies and their operations are explicated after the manner of spirituall thinges For wee hauing very slender knowledge of spirituall substances can reach no further into their nature then to know that they haue certaine powers or qualities but can seldome penetrate so deepe as to descend to the particulars of such Qualities or Powers Now our moderne Philosophers haue introduced such a course of learning into the schooles that vnto all questions concerning the proper natures of bodies and their operations it is held sufficient to answere they haue a quality or a power to doe such a thing And afterwards they dispute whether this Quality or Power be an Entity distinct from its subiect or no and how it is seperable or vnseperable from it and the like Conformable to this who will looke into the bookes which are in vogue in these schooles shall find such answers and such controuersies euery where and few others As of the sensible qualities aske what it is to be white or red what to be sweete or sower what to be odoriferous or stincking what to be cold or hott And you are presently paid with that it is a sensible quality which hath the power to make a wall white or red to make a meate agreeable or disagreeable to the tast to make a gratefull or vngratefull smell to the nose etc Likewise they make the same questions and resolutions of Grauity and Leuity as whether they be qualities that is entities distinct from their subiect and whether they be actiue or passiue which when they haue disputed slightly and in common with logicall arguments they rest there without any further searching into the physicall causes or effects of them The like you shall find of all strange effects of them The loadestone and Electricall bodies are produced for miraculous and not vnderstandable thinges and in which it must be
acknowledged that they worke by hidden qualities that mans witt cannot reach vnto And ascending to liuing bodies they giue it for a Maxime that life is the action of the same Entity vpon it selfe that sense is likewise a worke of an intrinsecall power in the part we call sense vpon it selfe Which our predecessors held the greatest absurdities that could be spoken in Philosophy Euen some Physitians that take vpon them to teach the curing of our bodies do often pay vs with such termes among them you haue long discourses of a retentiue of an expulsiue of a purging of a consolidating faculty and so of euery thing that eyther passeth in our body or is applied for remedy And the meaner sort of Physitians know no more but that such faculties are though indeed they that are truly Physitians know also in what they consist without which knowledge it is much to be feared Physitians will do more harme then good But to returne to our subiect this course of doctrine in the schooles hath forced me to a greate deale of paines in seeking to discouer the nature of all such actions or of the maine part of them as were famed for incomprehensible for what hope could I haue out of the actions of the soule to conuince the nature of it to be incorporeall if I could giue no other account of bodies operations then that they were performed by qualities occult specificall or incomprehensible Would not my aduersary presently answere that any operation out of which I should presse the soules being spirituall was performed by a corporeall occult quality and that as he must acknowledge it to be incomprehensible so must I likewise acknowledge other qualities of bodies to be as incomprehensible and therefore could not with reason presse him to shew how a body was able to doe such an operation as I should inferre must of necessity proceede from a spiritt since that neyther could I giue account how the loadestone drew iron or looked to the north how a stone and other heauy thinges were carried downewardes how sight or fantasie was made how digestion or purging were effected and many other such questions which are so slightly resolued in the schooles Besides this reason the very desire of knowledge in my selfe and a willingnesse to be auaylable vnto others att the least so farre as to sett them on seeking for it without hauing a preiudice of impossibity in attaining it was vnto me a sufficient motiue to enlarge my discourse to the bulke it is risen vnto For what a misery is it that the flower and best wittes of Christendome which flocke to the Vniuersities vnder pretence and vpon hope of gaining knowledge should be there deluded and after many yeares of toyle and expence be sent home againe with nothing acquired more then a faculty and readynesse to talke like parrats of many thinges but not to vnderstand so much as anyone and withall with a persuasion that in truth nothing can be knowne For setting knowledge aside what can it auayle a man to be able to talke of any thing What are those wranglinges where the discouery of truth is neyther sought nor hoped for but meerely vanity and ostentation Doth not all tend to make him seeme and appeare that which indeed he is not Nor lett any body take it ill at my handes that I speake thus of the moderne schooles for indeed it is rather themselues then I that say it Excepting Mathematikes lett all the other schooles pronounce their owne mindes and say ingenuously whether they themselues beleeue they haue so much as any one demonstration from the beginning to the ending of the whole course of their learning And if all or the most part will agree that any one position is demonstrated perfectly and as it ought to be and as thousands of conclusions are demonstrated in Mathematikes I am ready to vndergoe the blame of hauing calumniated them and will as readily make them amendes But if they neither will nor can then their owne verdict cleareth me and it is not so much I as they that make this profession of the shallownesse of their doctrine And to this purpose I haue often hard the lamentations of diuers as greate wittes as any that conuerse in the schooles complaining of this defect But in so greate an euidence of the effect proofes are superfluous Wherefore I will leaue this subiect to declare what I haue here designed and gone about towardes the remedy of this inconuenience Which is that whereas in the schooles there is a loose methode or rather none but that it is lawfull by the liberty of a commentator to handle any question in any place which is the cause of the slightnesse of their doctrine and can neuer be the way to any science or certitude I haue taken my beginninges from the commonest thinges that are in nature namely from the notions of Quantity and its first differences which are the most simple and radicall notions that are and in which all the rest are to be grounded From them I endeauour by immediate composition of them and deriuation from them to bring downe my discourse to the Elements which are the primary and most simple bodies in nature From these I proceed to compounded bodies first to those that are called mixed and then to liuing bodies declaring in common the proprieties and operations that belong vnto them And by occasion as I passe along I light here and there on those operations which seeme most admirable in nature to shew how they are performed or att the least how they may be performed that though I misse in particular of the industry of nature yet I may neuerthelesse hitt my intent which is to trace out a way how these and such like operations may be effected by an exact disposition and ordering though intricate of quantitatiue and corporeall partes and to shew that they oblige vs not to recurre vnto hidden and vnexplicable qualities And if I haue declared so many of these as may begett a probable persuasion in my reader that the rest which I haue not touched may likewise be displayed and shewed to spring out of the same groundes if curious and constant searchers into nature will make their taske to penetrate into them I haue therein obtained my desire and intent which is onely to shew from what principles all kindes of corporeall operations do proceed and what kind of operations all these must be which may issue out of these principles to the end that I may from thence make a steppe to raise my discourse to the contemplation of the soule and shew that her operations are such as cannot proceed from those principles which being adequate and common to all bodies we may rest assured that what cannot issue from them cannot haue a body for its source I will therefore end this preface with entreating my reader to consider that in a discourse proceeding in such order as I haue declared he must not expect to vnderstand
would the appetite by a dish vpon which he should haue exercised all his art in dressing it but whose first substance were not meate of solide nutriment It is the course market that must deliuer him plaine materialls to employ his cunning vpon and in like manner it is the indisciplined multitude that must furnish learned men with naturall apprehensions and notions to exercise theire wittes about which when they haue they may vse and order ad reflect vpon them as they please but they must first receiue them in that plaine and naked forme as mankind in generall pictureth them out in theire imaginations And therefore the first worke of schollers is to learne of the people Quem penes arbitrium est ius norma loquendi what is the true meaning and signification of these primary names and what notions they begett in the generality of mankinde of the thinges they designe Of the common people then we must enquire what Quantity is and we shall soone be informed if we but consider what answere any sensible man will make vpon the soddaine to a question whereof that is the subiect for such vnstudyed replies expresse sincerely the plaine and naturall conceptions which they that make them haue of the thinges they speake of And this of Quantity is the plainest and the first that nature printeth in vs of all the thinges we see feele and conuerse with all and that must serue for a ground vnto all our other inquiries and reflections for which cause we must be sure not to receiue it wrested or diguised from its owne nature If then any one be asked what Quantity there is in such a thing or how greate it is he will presently in his vnderstanding compare it with some other thing equally knowne by both parties that may serue for a measure vnto it and then answere that it is as bigge as it or twice as bigge or not halfe so bigge or the like in fine that it is bigger or lesser then an other thing or equall to it It is of maine importance to haue this point throughly and clearely vnderstood therefore it will not be amisse to turne it and veiw it a little more particularly If you aske what Quantity there is of such a parcell of cloth how much wood in such a piece of timber how much gold in such an ingott how much wine in such a vessell how much time was taken vp in such an action he that is to giue you an account of them measureth them by elles by feete by inches by poundes by ounces by gallons by pintes by daies by houres and the like and then telleth you how many of those parts are in the whole that you enquire of Which answere euery man liuing will at the instant without study make to this question and with it euery man that shall aske will be fully appayed and satisfyed so that it is most euident it fully expresseth the notions of them both and of all mankind in this particular Wherefore when we consider that Quantity is nothing else but the extension of a thing and that this extension is expressed by a determinate number of lesser extensions of the same nature which lesser ones are sooner and more easily apprehended then greater because we are first acquainted and conuersant with such and our vnderstanding graspeth weigheth and discerneth such more steadily and maketh an exacter iudgement of them and that such lesser ones are in the greater which they measure as partes in a whole and that the whole by comprehending those partes is a meere capacity to be diuided into them we conclude that Quantity or Biggnesse is nothing else but diuisibility and that a thing is bigge by hauing a capacity to be diuided or which is the same to haue partes made of it This is yet more euident if more may be in Discrete Quantity that is in number then in continued Quantity or extension For if we consider any number whatsoeuer we shall find the essence of it consisteth in a capacity of being resolued and diuided into so many vnities as are contained in it which are the partes of it And this species of Quantity being simpler then the other serueth for a rule to determine it by as we may obserue in the familiar answeres to questions of continued Quantity which expresse by number the content of it as when one deliuereth the Quantity of a piece of ground by such a number of furlonges acars perches or the like But we must take heed of conceiuing that those partes which we consider to discerne the nature of Quantity are actually and really in the whole of any continued one that containeth them Elles feete inches are no more reall Entities in the whole that is measured by them and that maketh impressions of such notions in our vnderstanding then in our former example colour figure mellownesse tast and the like are seuerall substances in the apple that affecteth our seuerall senses with such various impressions It is but one whole that may indeed be cutt into so many seuerall partes but those partes are not really there till by diuision they are parcelled out and then the whole out of which they are made ceaseth to be any longer and the partes succeede in lieu of it and are euery one of them a new whole This truth is euident out of the very definition we haue gathered of Quantity For since it is Diuisibility that is a bare capacity to diuision it followeth that it is not yet diuided and consequently that those partes are not yet in it which may be made of it for diuision is the making two or more thinges of one But because this is a very greate controuersy in schooles and so important to be determined and settled as without doing so we shall be lyable to maine errors in searching the nature and operations of bodies and that the whole progresse of our discourse will be vncertaine and wauering if this principle and foundation be not firmely layed we must apply our selues to bring some more particular and immediate proofe of the verity of this assertion Which we will do by shewing the inconuenience impossibility and contradiction that the admittance of the other leadeth vnto For if we allow actuall partes to be distinguished in Quantity it will follow that it is composed of points or indiuisibles which we shall prooue to be impossible The first will appeare thus if Quantity were diuided into all the partes into which it is diuisible it would be diuided into indiuisibles for nothing diuisible and not diuided would remaine in it but it is distinguished into the same partes into which it would be diuided if it were diuided into all the partes into which it is diuisible therefore it is distinguished into indiuisibles The maior proposition is euident to any man that hath eyes of vnderstanding The minor is the confession or rather the position of the aduersary when he sayth that all its partes
of Physickes hath demonstrated that there can be no motion in vacuity It is true they endeauour to euade his demonstration as not reaching home to theire supposition by acknowledging it to be an euident one in such a vacuity as he there speaketh of which he supposed to be so great a one that a body may swimme in it as in an ocean and not touch or be neere any other body whereas this opinion excludeth all such vast inanity and admitteth no vacuities but so litle ones as no body whatsoeuer can come vnto but will be bigger then they and consequently must on some side or other touch the corporeall partes which those vacuities diuide for they are the seperations of the least partes that are or can be actually diuided from one an other which partes must of necessity touch one an other on some side or else they could not hang together to compose one substance and therefore the diuiding vacuities must be lesse then the diuided partes And thus no body will euer be in danger of floating vp and downe without touching any thing which is the difficulty that Aristotle chiefely impugneth I confesse I should be very glad that this supposition might serue our turne and saue the Phoenomena that appeare among bodies through theire variety of Rarity and Density which if it might be then would I straight go on to the inquiring after what followed out of this ground as Astronomers to vse our former similitude do calculate the future appearances of the celestiall bodies out of those motions and orbes they assigne vnto the heauens For as this apprehension of vacuity in bodies is very easy and intelligibile so the other which I conceiue to be the truth of the case is exceedingly abstracted and one of the most difficult pointes in all the Metaphysickes and therefore I would if it were possible auoyde touching vpon it in this discourse which I desire should be as plaine and easy and as much remooued from scholasticke termes as may be But indeed the inconueniences that follow out of this supposition of vacuities are so great as it is impossible by any meanes to slide them ouer As for example lett vs borrow of Galilaeus the proportion of weight betweene water and ayre He sheweth vs how the one is 400 times heauyer then the other And Marinus Ghetaldus teacheth vs that gold is 19 times heauyer then water so that gold must be 7600 times heauyer then ayre Now then considering that nothing in a body can weigh but the solide partes of it it followeth that the proportion of the partes of gold in a sphere of an inch diameter is to the partes of ayre of a like dimension as 7600 is to one Therefore in ayre it selfe the vacuities that are supposed in it will be to the solide partes of it in the same proportion as 7600 to one Indeed the proportion of difference will be greater for euen in gold many vacuities must be admitted as appeareth by the heating of it which sheweth that in euery the least part it is exceeding porous But according to this rate without pressing the inconuenience any further the ayre will by this reckoning appeare to be like a nett whose holes and distances are to the lines and thriddes in the proportion of 7600 to one and so would be lyable to haue litle partes of its body swimme in those greater vacuities contrary to what they striue to auoyde Which would be exceedingly more if we found on the one side any bodies heauyer and denser then gold and that were so solide as to exclude all vacuities and on the other side should ballance them with such bodies as are lighter and rarer then ayre as fire is and as some will haue the aether to be But already the disproportion is so great and the vacuity so strangely exceedeth the body in which it is as were too great an absurdity to be admitted And besides it would destroy all motion of small bodies in the ayre if it be true as Aristotle hath demonstrated in the 4th booke of his Physickes that motion can not be made but among bodies and not in vacuo Againe if rarity were made by vacuity rare bodies could not be gathered together without loosing theire rarity and becoming dense The contrary of which we learne by constant experience as when the smith and glassemender driue theire white and fury fires as they terme them when ayre pierceth most in the sharpe wind and generally we see that more of the same kind of rare bodies in lesse place worketh most efficaciously according to the nature that resulteth out of that degree of rarity Which argueth that euery litle part is as rare as it was before for else it would loose the vertue of working according to that nature but that by theire being crowded together they exclude all other bodies that before did mediate betweene the litle partes of theire maine body and so more partes being gotten together in the same place then formerly there were they worke more forcibly Thirdly if such vacuities were the cause of rarity it would follow that fluide bodies being rarer then solide ones they would be of themselues standing like nettes or cobbewebbes whereas contrariwise we see theire natures are to runne together and to fill vp euery litle creeke and corner which effect following out of the very nature of the thinges themselues must needes exclude vacuities out of that nature And lastly if it be true as we haue shewed in the last Chapter that there are no actuall partes in Quantity it followeth of necessity that all Quantity must of it selâ—e be one as Metaphysickes teach vs and then no distance can be admitted betweene one Quantity and an other And truly if I vnderstand Aristotle right he hath perfectly demonstrated that no vacuity is possible in nature neither great nor litle and consequently the whole machine raysed vpon that supposition must be ruinous His argument is to this purpose What is nothing can not haue partes but vacuum is nothing because as the aduersaries conceiue it vacuum is the want of a corporeall substance in an enclosing body within whose sides nothing is whereas a certaine body might be contained whithin them as if in a paile or bowle of a gallon there were neither milke nor water nor ayre nor any other body whatsoeuer therefore vacuum can not haue partes Yet those who admitt it do putt it expressely for a space which doth essentially include partes And thus they putt two contradictories nothing and partes that is partes and no partes or something and nothing in the same proposition And this I conceiue to be absolutely vnauoydable For these reasons therefore I must entreate my readers fauour that he will allow me to touch vpon metaphysickes a litle more then I desire or intended but it shall be no otherwise then as is said of the dogges by the riuer Nilus side who being thirsty lappe hastily of the water onely to serue
of states in regard of more and lesse in the same kind These thinges being premised and calling to mind that it is the nature of density to make the partes of a dense thing compact and sticke together and be hardly diuisible and on the contrary side that it is the nature of rarity to diffuse and extend a rare thing and to prepare and approach it to diuision according to the proportion of the degree of rarity which it hath and that weight doth abound where there is excesse of density and is very litle or none in excesse of rarity wee may now begin in our imagination to putt these qualities into the scales one against an other to see what effects they produce in bodies And first lett vs weigh grauity against density or sticking together of partes which sticking or compactednesse being naturall to density requireth some excesse of grauity in proportion to the density or some other outward violence to breake it If then in a dense body the grauity ouercome the density and do make the partes of it breake a sunder it will draw them downewardes towards the center that grauity tendeth vnto and will neuer lett them rest till they come thither vnlesse some impediment meete them by the way and stoppe theire iourney so that such a body will as neere as possibly it can lye in a perfect sphericall figure in respect of the center and the partes of it will be changed and altered and thrust on any side that is the ready way thither so that by the force of grauity working vpon it it will runne as farre as it meeteth with nothing to hinder it from attaining this sphericall superficies Wherefore such bodies for the most part haue noe settled outside of theire owne but do receiue theire figure and limits from such letts as hinder them from attaining to that sphericalnesse they ayme att Now Aristotle whose definitions are in these matters generally receiued as fully expressing the notions of mankind telleth vs and our owne experience confirmeth it that wee vse to call those thinges moist which runne in such sort as wee haue here sett downe and that wee terme those thinges dry which haue a consistence within themselues and which to enioy a determinate figure do not require the stoppe or hinderance of an other body to limit and circle them in which will be the nature of those that haue a greater proportion of density in respect of theire grauity And thus out of the comparison of density with weight wee haue found two more qualities then wee yett had mett withall namely wettenesse and drynesse For although a body be dense which of its owne nature singly considered would preserue the continuity of its partes as making the body hardly diuisible whereby it would be dry yet if the grauity that worketh vpon it be in proportion greater then the density it will seuer the partes of it and make them runne to the center and so become fluide and moist though not in the eminentest degree that may be of fluidity and moisture by reason that if the like ouerproportion of grauity happen in a rare body it will there more powerfully worke its effect then it can in a dense body because a rare body will more easily obey and yield to the grauity that mastereth it then a dense one will and consequently will be more fluide and moist then it Now on the other side in weighing rarity against grauity if it happen that the rarity ouercome the grauity then the grauity will not change the figure of a body so proportioned but what figure it hath from its proper naturall causes the same will still remaine with it and consequently such a body will haue termes of its owne and will not require an ambient body to limit and circle it in which nature wee call dry But if the proportion of the grauity be the greater and do ouercome the rarity then by how much the rarity is greater so much the more will the grauity force it to apply it selfe equally and on all sides to the center and such a body will the more easily receiue its figure from an other and will be lesse able to consist of it selfe which properties wee attribute to wettenesse or moisture So that it appeareth how the qualities of wett and dry which first wee found in thinges that were dense are also common to that nature of bodies which wee terme rare And thus by our first inquiry after what kind of bodies do result out of the compounding of rarity and density with grauity wee discouer foure different sortes some dense ones that are dry and others likewise dense that are moist then againe some rare ones that are likewise moist and other rare ones that are dry But wee must not rest here lett vs proceede a litle further to search what other properties these foure kindes of bodies will haue which wee shall best discouer if wee apply them seuerally to some other compounded body of which nature are all those wee conuerse with or see and then consider the effects which these do worke vpon it To beginne with that which wee said is so excessiuely rare that grauity hath no power ouer it If wee looke vpon the multitude of litle partes it may be diuided into whereof euery one will subsist by it selfe for wee haue already prooued it dry and then suppose them to be mooued with force and strength against the body wee apply them to it must necessarily follow that they will forcibly gett into the porousnesse of it and passe with violence betweene part and part and of necessity seperate the partes of that thing one from an other as a knife or wedge doth a solide substance by hauing theire thinnest partes pressed into it so that if in the compounded thing some partes be more weighty others more light as of necessity there must be the heauiest will all fall lowest the lightest will fly vppermost and those which are of a meane nature betweene the two extremes will remaine in the middle In summe by this action of an extreme rare body vpon a compounded one all the partes of one kind that were in the compounded one will be gathered into one place and those of diuers kindes into diuers places which is the notion whereby Aristotle hath expressed the nature of heate and is an effect which dayly experience in burning and boyling teacheth vs to proceede from heate And therefore wee can not doubt but that such extreme rare bodies are as well hoat as dry On the other side if a dense thing be applyed to a compound it will because it is weighty presse it together and if that application be continued on all sides so that noe part of the body that is pressed be free from the siege of the dense body that presseth it it will forme it into a narrower roome and keepe in the partes of it not permitting any of them to slippe out So that what thinges soeuer
vnresistable force to pierce and shatter not onely the ayre but euen the hardest bodies that are Peraduenture some may thinke it reasonable to grant the consequence in due circumstances since experience teacheth vs that the congregation of a litle light by a glasse will sett very solide bodies on fire and will melt mettals in a very short space which sheweth a great actiuity and the great actiuity sheweth a great percussion burning being effected by a kind of attrition of the thing burned And the great force which fire sheweth in gunnes and in mines being but a multiplication of the same doth euidently conuince that of its owne nature it maketh a strong percussion when all due circumstances concurre Whereas it hath but litle effect if the due circumstances be wanting as we may obserue in the insensible burning of so rarifyed a body as pure spiritt of wine conuerted into flame But we must examine the matter more particularly and must seeke the cause why a violent effect doth not alwayes appeare wheresoeuer light striketh for the which wee are to note that three thinges do concurre to make a percussion great The bignesse the density and the celerity of the body mooued Of which three there is only one in light to witt celerity for it hath the greatest rarity and the rayes of it are the smallest parcels of all naturall bodies And therefore since only celerity is considerable in the account of lights percussions we must examine what celerity is necessary to make the stroke of a ray sensible first then we see that all the motes of the ayre nay euen feathers and strawes do make no sensible percussion when they fall vpon vs therefore we must in light haue att the least a celerity that may be to the celerity of the straw falling vpon our hand for example as the density of the straw is to the density of light that the percussion of light may be in the least degree sensible But let vs take a corne of gunnepowder insteede of a straw betweene which there can not be much difference and then putting that the density of fire is to the density of gunnepowder as 1. to 125000 and that the density of the light we haue here in the earth is to the density of that part of fire which is in the sunnes body as the body of the sunne is to that body which is called Orbis magnus whose semidiameter is the distance betweene the sunne and the earth which must be in subtriple proportion of the diameter of the sunne to the diameter of the great orbe it followeth that 125000. being multiplyed by the proportion of the great orbe vnto the sunne which Galileo telleth vs is as 106000000. vnto one will giue a scantling of what degree of celerity light must haue more then a corne of gunnepouder to recompence the excesse of weight which is in a corne of gunnepouder aboue that which is in a ray of light as bigge as a corne of gunnepouder Which will amount to be much greater then the proportion of the semidiater of Orbis magnus to the semidiater of the corne of gunnepouder for if you reckon 5. graines of gunnepouder to a barley cornes breadth and 12. of them in an inch and 12. inches in a foote and 3. feete in a pace and 1000. paces in a mile and 3500. miles in the semidiameter of the earth and 1208. semidiameters of the earth in the semidiameter of the Orbis magnus there will be in it but 9132480000000. graines of gunnepouder whereas the other calculation maketh light to be 13250000000000. times raver then gunnepouder which is almost tenne times a greater proportion then the other And yet this celerity supplyeth but one of the two conditions wanting in light to make its percussions sensible namely density Now because the same velocity in a body of a lesser bulke doth not make so great a percussion as it doth in a bigger body and that the littlenesse of the least partes of bodies followeth the proportion of their rarity this vast proportion of celerity must againe be drawne into it selfe to supply for the excesse in bignesse that a corne of gunnepouder hath ouer an atome of light and the product of this multiplication will be the celerity required to supply for both defects Which euidently sheweth it is impossible that a ray of light should make any sensible percussion though it be a body Especially considering that sense neuer taketh notice of what is perpetually done in a moderate degree And therefore after this minute looking into all circumstances we neede not haue difficulty in allowing vnto light the greatest celerity imaginable and a percussion proportionate to such a celerity in so rare a body and yett not feare any violent effect from its blowes vnlesse it be condensed and many partes of it be brought together to worke as if they were but one As concerning the last obiection that if light were a body it would be fanned by the wind wee must first consider what is the cause of a thinges appearing to be mooued and then examine what force that cause hath in light As for the first part we see that when a body is discerned now in one place now in an other then it appeareth te be mooued And this we see happeneth also in light as when the sunne or a candle is carried or mooueth the light thereof in the body of the candle or sunne seemeth to be mooued along with it And the likes is in a shining cloud or comete But to apply this to our purpose wee must note that the intention of the obiection is that the light which goeth from the fire to an opacous body farre distant without interruption of its continuity should seeme to be iogged or putt out of its way by the wind that crosseth it Wherein the first fayling is that the obiectour conceiueth light to send species vnto our eye from the middest of its line whereas with a litle consideration he may perceiue that not light is seene by vs but that which is reflected from an opacous body to our eye so that the light he meaneth in his obiection is neuer seene att all Secondly it is manifest that the light which stricketh our eye doth strike it in a straight line and seemeth to be att the end of that straight line wheresoeur that is and so can neuer appeare to be in an other place but the light which wee see in an other place wee conceiue to be an other light Which maketh it againe euident that the light can neuer appeare to shake though wee should suppose that light may be seene from the middle of its line for no part of wind or ayre can come into any sensible place in that middle of the line with such speede that new light from the source doth not illuminate it sooner then it can be seene by vs wherefore it will appeare to vs illuminated as being in that place and therefore the light can neuer
change of situation of the starrs but especially of the sunne and moone is obserued more or lesse by all maÌ„kind and appeareth alike to euery man and being the most knowne constant and vniforme succession that men are vsed vnto is as it were by nature it selfe sett in their way and offered vnto them as fittest to estimate and iudge all other particular successions by comparing them both to it and among themselues by it And accordingly we see all men naturally measure all other successions and expresse their quantities by comparing them to the reuolutions of the heauens for dayes houres and yeares are nothing else but they or some determinate partes of them vnto some of which all other motions and successions must of necessity be referred if we will measure them And thus we see how all the mystery of applying time vnto particular motions is nothing else but the considering how farre the Agent that mooueth the sunne causeth it to go on in its iorney whiles the Agent that mooueth a particular body causeth it to performe its motion So that it is euident that velocity is the effect of the superproportion of the one Agent ouer a certaine medium in respect of the proportion which an other Agent hath to the same medium And therefore velocity is a quality by which one succession is intrinsecally distinguished from an other though our explication vseth to include time in the notions of velocity and tardity Velocity then is the effect as we said of more strength in the Agent And hauing before expressed that velocity is a kind of density wee find that this kind of density is an excellency in succession as permanent density is an excellency in the nature of substance though an imperfection in the nature of quantity by which we see that quantity is a kind of base alloy added to substance And out of this it is euident that by how much the quicker the motion is in equall mediums by so much the agent is the perfecter which causeth it to be so quicke Wherefore if the velocity should ascend so much as to admitt no proportion betweene the quicknesse of the one and the tardity of the other all other circumstances being euen excepting the difference of the agents then there must be no proportion betweene the agents Nor indeed can there be any proportion betweene them though there were neuer so great differences in other circumstances as long as those differences be within any proportion And consequently you see that if one agent be supposed to mooue in an instant and an other in time whatsoeuer other differences be in the bodies mooued and in the mediums neuerthelesse the agent which causeth motion in an instant will be infinite in respect of the agent which mooueth in time Which is impossible it being the nature of a body that greater quantâ—ty of the same thing hâ—th greater vertue then a lesse quantity hath and therefore for a body to haue infinite vertue it must haue infinite magnitude If any should say the contrary affirming that infinite vertue may be in a finite body I aske whether in halfe that body were it diuided the vertue would be infinite or no If he acknowledge that it would not I inferre thence that neither in the two partes together thâ—re can be infinite vertue for two finites can not compose and make vp one infinite But if he will haue the vertue be infinite in each halfe he therein alloweth that there is no more vertue in the whole body then in one halfe of it which is against the nature of bodies Now that a body can not be infinite in greatnesse is prooued in the second knott of Mr. whites first Dialogue of the world And thus it is euident that by the vertue of pure bodies there can be no motion in an instant On the other side it followeth that there can not be so litle a force in nature but that giuing it time enough it will mooue the greatest weight that can be imagined for the thinges we treate of being all of them quantities they may by diuision and multiplication be brought vnto equality As for example supposing the weight of a mooueable to be a millioÌ„ of poundes and that the moouer is able to mooue the millioneth part of one of those poundes in a million of yeares the millioneth part of a pace through a mediuÌ„ of a certaine rarity Now seeing that yeares may be multiplyed so as to equalise the force of this moouer vnto the weight of the mooueable It followeth cleerely that in so many millions of yeares this force may mooue the whole weight of a million of poundes through the determined medium in a determinate number of millions of yeares a million of paces for such a force is equall to the required effect and by consequence if the effect should not follow there would be a complete cause putt and no effect result from it But peraduenture it is needfull to illustrate this point yet further suppose then a weight neuer so great to be A and a force neuer so litle to be B. Now if you conceiue that some other force mooueth A you must withall conceiue that it mooueth A some space since all motion implyeth necessarily that it be through some space lett that space be CD And because a body can not be mooued in a space in an instant but requireth some time to haue its motion performed in it followeth that there must be a determined time in which the conceiued force must mooue the weight A through the space CD lett that time be EF. Now then this is euident that it is all one to say that B mooueth A and to say that B mooueth A through a space in a time so that if any part of this be left out it can not be vnderstood that B mooueth A. Therefore to expresse particularly the effect which B is to do vpon A we must say that B must mooue A a certaine space in a certaine time Which being so we may in the next place consider that this effect of moouing A may be diminished two wayes eyther because the space it is to be mooued in is lessened or the time taken vp in its motion is encreased for as it is a greater effect to mooue A through the space CD in a lesse time then EF so it is a lesse effect to moue the same A through the space CD in a greater time then EF or through a lesse space then CD in the time EF. Now then this being supposed that it is a lesse effect to mooue A through CD in a greater time then EF it followeth also that a lesser vertue is able to mooue it through CD in a greater time then EF then the vertue which is required to mooue it through the same space in the time EF. Which if it be once granted as it can not be denyed then multiplying the time as much as the vertue or force required to mooue A through CD
in the time EF is greater then the force B in so much time the force B will be able to mooue A through CD Which discourse is euident if we take it in the common termes but if it be applyed to action wherein physicall accidents intervene the artificer must haue the iudgement to prouide for them according to the nature of his matter Vpon this last discourse doth hang the principle which gouerneth Mechanikes to witt that the force and the distance of weights counterpoising one an other ought to be reciprocall That is that by how much the one weight is heauyer then the other by so much must the distance of the lighter from the fixed point vpon which they are mooued be greater then the distance of the greater weight from the same point for it is plaine that the weight which is more distant must be mooued a greater space then the neerer weight in the proportion of the two distāces Wherefore the force moouing it must carry it in a velocity of the said proportion to the velocity of the other And consequently the Agent or moouer must be in that proportion more powerfull then the contrary moouer And out of this practise of Geometricians in Mechanikes which is confirmed by experience it is made euident that if other conditions be equall the excesse of so much grauity will make so much velocity And so much velocity in proportion will recompence so much grauity Out of the precedent conclusions an other followeth which is that nothing recedeth frō quiet or rest and attaineth a great degree of celerity but it must passe through all the degrees of celerity that are below the obtained degree And the like is in passing from any lesser degree of velocity vnto a greater because it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity For by the declaration of velocity which we haue euen now made we see that there is as much resistance in the medium to be ouercome with speede as there is for it to be ouercome in regard of the quantity or line of extent of it because as we haue said the force of the Agent in counterpoises ought to be encreased as much as the line of extent of the medium which is to be ouercome by the Agent in equall time doth exceede the line of extent of the medium along which the resistent body is to be mooued Wherefore it being prooued that no line of extent can be ouercome in an instant it followeth that no defect of velocity which requireth as great a superproportion in the cause can be ouercome likewise in an instant And by the same reason by which we prooue that a mooueable can not be drawne in an instant from a lower degree of velocity to a higher it is with no lesse euidence concluded that no degree of velocity can be attained in an instant for diuide that degree of velocity into two halfes and if the Agent had ouercome the one halfe he could not ouercome the other halfe in an instant much lesse therefore is he able to ouercome the whole that is to reduce the mooueable from quiet to the said degree of velocity in an instant An other reason may be because the moouers themselues such moouers as we treate of here are bodies likewise mooued and do consist of partes whereof not euery one part but a competent number of them doth make the moouing body to be a fitt Agent able to mooue the proposed body in a proposed degree of celerity Now this Agent meeting with resistance in the mooueable and not being in the vtmost extremity of density but condensable yet further because it is a body and that euery resistance be it neuer so small doth worke something vpon the moouer though neuer so hard to condense it the partes of the moouer that are to ouercome this resistance in the mooueable must to worke that effect be condensed and brought together as close as is needefull by this resistance of the mooueable to the moouer and so the remote partes of the moouer become neerer to the mooueable which can not be done but successiuely because it includeth locall motion And this application being likewise diuisible and not all the partes flocking together in an instant to the place where they are to exercise their power it followeth that whiles there are fewer moouing partes knitt together they must needes mooue lesse and more weakely then when more or all of them are assembled and applyed to that worke So that the motiue vertue encreasing thus in proportion to the multiplying of the partes applyed to cause the motion of necessity the effect which is obedience to be mooued and quicknesse of motion in the mooueable must do so too that is it must from nothing or from rest passe through all the degrees of celerity vntill it arriue to that which all the partes together are able to cause As for example when with my hand I strike a ball till my hand toucheth it it is in quiet but then it beginneth to mooue yet with such resistance that although it obey in some measure the stroke of my hand neuerthelesse it presseth the yielding flesh of my palme backwardes towardes the vpper and bony part of it That part then ouertaking the other by the continued motion of my hand and both of them ioyning together to force the ball away the impulse becometh stronger then att the first touching of it And the longer it presseth vpon it the more the partes of my hand do condense and vnite themselues to exercise their force and the ball therefore must yield the more and consequently the motion of it groweth quicker and quicker till my hand parteth from it Which condensation of the partes of my hand encreasing successiuely by the partes ioyning closer to one an other the velocity of the balles motion which is an effect of it must also encrease proportionably thereunto And in like manner the motion of my hand and arme must grow quicker and quicker and passe all the degrees of velocity betweene rest and the vtmost degree it attaineth vnto for seeing they are the spirits swelling the nerues that cause the armes motion as we shall hereafter shew vpon its resistance they flocke from other partes of the body to ouercome that resistance And since their iourney thither requireth time to performe it in and that the neerest come first it must needes follow that as they grow more and more in number they must more powerfully ouercome the resistance and consequently encrease the velocity of the motion in the same proportion as they flocke thither vntill it attaine that degree of velocity which is the vtmost periode that the power which the Agent hath to ouercome the resistance of the medium can bring it selfe vnto Betweene which and rest or any inferiour degree of velocity there may be designed infinite intermediate degrees proportionable to the infinite diuisibility of time and space in which the moouer doth moue Which degrees
do arise out of the reciprocall yielding of the medium And that is likewise diuisible in the same infinite proportion Since then the power of all naturall Agents is limited the moouer be it neuer so powerfull must be confined to obserue these proportions and can not passe ouer all these infinite designable degrees in an instant but must allott some time which hath a like infinity of designable partes to ballance this infinity of degrees of velocity and so consequently it requireth time to attaine vnto any determinate degree And therefore can not recede immediately from rest vnto any degree of celerity but must necessarily passe through all the intermediate ones Thus it is euident that all motion which hath a beginning must of necessity encrease for some time And since the workes of nature are in proportion to their causes it followeth that this encrease is in a determinate proportion Which Galileus vnto whom we owe the greatest part of what is knowne concerning motion teacheth vs how to find out and to discouer what degree of celerity any mooueable that is moued by nature hath in any determinate part of the space it moueth in Hauing settled these conditions of motion we shall do well in the next place to enquire after the causes of it as well in the body moued as also in the mouer that occasioneth the motion And because we haue already shewed that locall motion is nothing in substance but diuision we may determine that those causes which contribute to diuision or resist it are the causes which make or resist locall motion It hath also beene said that Density hath in it a power of diuiding and that Rarity is the cause of being diuided likewise we haue said that fire by reason of its small partes into which it may be cutt which maketh them sharpe hath also an eminence in diuiding so that we haue two qualites density and tenuity or sharpnesse which concurre actiuely to diuision We haue told you also how Galileus hath demonstrated that a greater quantity of the same figure and density hath a priuiledge of descending faster then a lesser And that priuiledge consisteth in this that the proportion of the superficies to the body it limiteth which proportion the greater it is the more it retardeth is lesse in a greater bulke then in a smaller We haue therefore three conditions concurring to make the motion more efficacious namely the density the sharpenesse and the bulke of the mooueable And more then these three we can not expect to find in a moued body for quantity hath but three determinations one by density and rarity of which density is one of the three conditions an other by its partes as by a foote a spanne and in this way wee haue found that the greater excelleth the lesser the third and last is by its figure and in this we find that subtile or edged quantities do preuayle ouer blunt ones Seeing therefore that these three determinations be all that are in quantity there can be no more conditions in the body moued which of necessity is a finite quantity but the three named And as for the medium which is to be diuided there is onely rarity and density the one to helpe the other to hinder that require consideration on its side For neither figure nor littlenesse and greatnesse do make any variation in it And as for the Agent it is not as yet time before we haue looked further intâ— the nature of motion to determine his qualities Now then lett vs reflect how these three conditions do all agree in this circumstance that they helpe nothing to diuision vnlesse the body in which they are be moued and pressed against the body that is to be diuided so that we see no principle to persuade vs that any body can mooue it selfe towards any determinate part or place of the vniuerse of its owne intrinsecall inclination For besides that the learned Author of the Dialogues de Mundo in his third Dialogue and the second knott hath demonstrated that a body can not mooue vnlesse it be mooued by some extrinsecall Agent we may easily frame vnto our selues a conceite of how absurd it is to thinke that a body by a quality in it can worke vpon it selfe as if wee should say that rarity which is but more quantity could worke vpon quantity or that figure which is but that the body reacheth no further could worke vpon the body and in generall that the manner of any thing can worke vpon that thing whose manner it is For Aristotle and St. Thomas and their intelligent commentatours declaring the notion of Quality tell vs that to be a Quality is nothing else but to be the determination or modification of the thing whose quality it is Besides that the naturall manner of operation is to worke according to the capacity of the subiect but when a body is in the middest of an vniforme medium or space the subiect is equally prepared on all sides to receiue the action of that body Wherefore though we should allow it a force to mooue if it be a naturall Agent and haue no vnderstanding it must worke indifferently on all sides and by consequence can not mooue on any side For if you say that the Agent in this case where the medium is vniforme worketh rather vpon one side then vpon an other it must be because this determination is within the Agent it selfe and not out of the circumstant dispositions which is the manner of working of those substances that worke for an end of their owne that is of vnderstanding creatures and not of naturall bodies Now he that would exactly determine what motion a body hath or is apt to haue determining by supposition the force of the Agent must calculate the proportions of all these three conditions of the mooueable and the quality of the medium which is a proceeding too particular for the intention of our discourse But to speake in common it will not be amisse to examine in what proportion motion doth encrease since we haue concluded that all motion proceedeth from quiet by a continuall encrease Galileus that miracle of our age and whose witt was able to discouer whatsoeuer he had a mind to employ it about hath told vs that naturall motion encreaseth in the proportion of the odde numbers Which to expresse by example is thus suppose that in the going of the first yard it hath one degree of velocity then in the going of the second yard it will haue three degrees and in going the third it will haue fiue and so onwardes still adding two to the degrees of the velocity for euery one of the space Or to expresse it more plainely if in the first minute of time it goeth one yard of space then in the next minute it will goe three yardes in the third it will goe fiue in the fourth seauen and so forth But we must enlarge this proposition vnto all motions as we haue
done the former of the encrease it selfe in velocity because the reason of it is common to all motions Which is that all motion as may appeare out of what we haue formerly said proceedeth from two causes namely the Agent or the force that mooueth and the disposition of the body mooued as it is composed of the three qualities we lately explicated In which is to be noted that the Agent doth not mooue simply by its owne vertue but it applyeth also the vertue of the body mooued which it hath to diuide the medium when it is putt on As when we cutt with a knife the effect proceedeth from the knife pressed on by the hand or from the hand as applying and putting in action the edge and cutting power of the knife Now this in Physickes and nature is cleerely parallel to what in Geometry and Arithmetike the Mathematicians call drawing one number or one side into an other for as in Mathematikes to draw one number into an other is to apply the number drawne vnto euery part of the number into which it is drawne as if we draw three into seuen we make twenty one by making euery vnity or part of the number seuen to be three and the like is of lines in Geometry So in the present case to euery part of the handes motion we adde the whole vertue of the cutting faculty which is in the knife and to euery part of the motion of the knife we adde the whole pressing vertue of the hand Therefore the encrease of the effect proceeding from two causes so working must also be parallel to the encrease of the quantities arising out of the like drawing in Mathematikes But in those it is euident that the encrease is according to the order of the odde numbers and therefore it must in our case be the like that is the encrease must be in the said proportion of odde numbers Now that in those the encrease proceedeth so will be euident if you consider the encrease of an Equicrure triangle which because it goeth vpon a certaine proportion of length and breadth if you compare the encreases of the whole triangle that gaineth on each side with the encreases of the perpendicular which gaineth onely in length you will see that they still proceede in the foresaid proportion of odde numbers But we must not imagine that the velocity of motion will alwayse encrease thus for as long as we can fancy any motion but when it is arriued vnto the vtmost periode that such a mooueable with such causes is capable of then it keepeth constantly the same pace and goeth equally and vniformely att the same rate For since the density of the mooueable and the force of the Agent mouing it which two do cause the motion haue a limited proportion to the resistance of the medium how yielding soeuer it be it must needes follow that when the motion is arriued vnto that height which ariseth out of this proportion it can not exceede it but must continue at that rate vnlesse some other cause giue yet a greater impulse to the moueable For velocity consisting in this that the moueable cutteth through more of the medium in an equall time it is euident that in the encrease of velocity the resistance of the medium which is ouercome by it groweth greater and greater and by litle and litle gaineth vpon the foree of the Agent so that the superproportion of the Agent groweth still lesser and lesser as the velocity encreaseth and therefore att the length they must come to be ballanced And then the velocity can encrease no more And the reason of the encrease of it for a while att the beginning is because that coming from rest it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity before it can attaine to the height of it which requireth time to performe and therefore falleth vnder the power of our sense to obserue But because we see it do so for some time we must not therefore conclude that the nature of such motion is still to encrease without any periode or limit like those lines that perpetually grow neerer and yet can neuer meete for we see that our reason examining the causes of this velocity assureth vs that in continuance of time and space it may come to its height which it can not exceede And there would be the pitch att which distance weights being lett fall would giue the greatest stroakes and make greatest impressions It is true that Galileus and Mersenius two exact experimenters do thinke they find this verity by their experiences But surely that is impossible to be done for the encrease of velocity being in a proportion euer diminishing it must of necessity come to an insensible encrease in proportion before it endeth for the space which the moueable goeth through is still encreased and the time wherein it passeth through that space remaineth still the same litle one as was taken vp in passing a lesse space immediately before and such litle differences of great spaces passed ouer in a litle time come soone to be vndiscernable by sense But reason which sheweth vs that if velocity neuer ceased from encreasing it would in time arriue to exceede any particular velocity and by consequence the proportion which the moouer hath to the medium because of the adding still a determinate part to its velocity concludeth plainely that it is impossible motion should encrease for euer without coming to a periode Now the impression which falling weights do make is of two kindes for the body into which impression is made either can yield backward or it can not If it can yield backward then the impression made is a motion as we see a stroak with a rackett vpon a ball or with a pailemaile beetle vpon a boule maketh it fly from it But if the strucken body can not yield backwardes then it maketh it yield on the sides And this in diuerse manners for if the smitten body be dry and brittle it is subiect to breake it and make the pieces fly round about but if it be a tough body it squeeseth it into a larger forme But because the effect in any of these wayse is eminently greater then the force of the Agēt seemeth to be it is worth our labour to looke into the causes of it To which end we may remember how we haue already declared that the force of the velocity is equall to a reciprocall force of weight in the vertue mouent wherefore the effect of a blow that a man giueth with a hammer dependeth vpon the weight of the hammer vpon the velocity of the motion and vpon the hand in case the hand accompanieth the blow But if the motion of the hand ceaseth before as when we throw a thing then onely the velocity and the weight of the hammer remaine to be considered Howsoeuer lett vs putt the hand and weight in one summe which we may equalise by some other vertue or weight Then lett vs
consider the way or space which a weight lying vpon the thing is to goe forwardes to do the same effect in the same time as the percussion doeth And what excesse the line of the blow hath ouer the line of that way or space such an excesse we must adde of equall weight or force to the weight we had already taken And the weight composed of both will be a fitt Agent to make the like impression This Probleme was proposed vnto me by that worthy religious man Father Mersenius who is not content with aduancing learning by his owne industry and labours but besides is alwayse out of his generous affection to verity inciting others to contribute to the publike stocke of it He proposed to me likewise this following question to witt why there is required a weight of water in double Geometricall proportion to make a pipe runne twice as fast as it did or to haue twice as much water runne out in the same time Vnto which I answere out of the same ground as before That because in running twice as fast there goeth out double water in euery part of time and againe euery part of water goeth a double space in the same part of time that is to say because double the celerity is drawne into double the water and double the water into double the celerity therefore the present effect is to the former effect as the effect or quadrate of a double line drawne into it selfe is to the effect or quadrate of halfe the said line drawne into it selfe And consequently the cause of the latter effect which is the weight then must be to the cause of the former effect that is to the former weight in the same proportion namely as the quadrate of a double line is to the quadrate of halfe that line And so you see the reason of what he by experience findeth to be true Though I doubt not but when he shall sett out the treatise which he hath made of this subiect the reader will haue better satisfaction In the meane while an experience which Galileo deliuereth will confirme this doctrine He sayth that to make the same pendant goe twice as fast as it did or to make euery vndulation of it in halfe the time it did you must make the line att which it hangeth double in Geometricall proportion to the line att which it hanged before Whence it followeth that the circle by which it goeth is likewise in double Geometricall proportion And this being certaine that celerity to celerity hath the proportion of force which weight hath to weight it is euident that as in one case there must be weight in Geometricall proportion so in the other case where onely celerity maketh the variance the celerity must be in double Geometricall proportion according as Galileo findeth it by experience But to returne to our maine intent there is to be further noted that if the subiect strucken be of a proportionate cessibility it seemeth to dull and deaden the stroake whereas if the thing strucken be hard the stroake seemeth to loose no force but to worke a greater effect Though indeed the truth be that in both cases the effects are equall but diuerse according to the natures of the thinges that are strucken for no force that once is in nature can be lost but must haue its adequate effect one way or other Lett vs then first suppose the body strucken to be a hard body of no exceeding biggnesse in which case if the stroake light perpendiculary vpon it it will carry such a body before it But if the body be too great and haue its partes so conioyned as that they are weaker thē the stroake in this case the stroake driueth one part before it and so breaketh it from the rest But lastly if the partes of the strucken body be so easily cessible as without difficulty the stroake can diuide them then it entereth into such a body vntill it hath spent its force So that now making vp our account we see that an equall effect proceedeth from an equall force in all the three cases though in themselues they be farre different But we are apt to account that effect greater which is more considerable vnto vs by the profitt or damage it bringeth vs. And therefore we vsually say that the blow which shaketh a wall or beateth it downe and killeth men with the stones it scattereth abroad hath a greater effect then that which penetrateth farre into a mudde wall and doth litle harme for that innocuousnesse of the effect maketh that although in it selfe it be as great as the other yet it is litle obserued or considered This discourse draweth on an other which is to declare how motion ceaseth And to summe that vp in short we say that when motion cometh vnto rest it decreaseth and passeth through all the degrees of celerity and tardity that are betweene rest and the height of that motion which so declineth And that in the proportion of the odde numbers as we declared aboue that it did encrease The reason is cleare because that which maketh a motion cease is the resistance it findeth which resistance is an action of a moouer that mooueth some thing against the body which is mooued or some thing equiualent to such an action wherefore it must follow the lawes that are common to all motions of which kind those two are that we haue expressed in this conclusion Now that resistance is a countermotion or equiualent to one is plaine by this that any body which is pressed must needes presse againe vpon the body that presseth it wherefore the cause that hindereth such a body from yielding is a force mouing that body against the body which presseth it The particulars of all which we shall more att large declare where we speake of the action and reaction of particular bodies THE TENTH CHAPTER Of Grauity and Leuity and of Locall Motion commonly termed Naturall IT is now time to consider that distinction of motions which is so famous in Aristotle to witt that some motions are naturall others violent and to determine what may be signifyed by these termes For seeing we haue said that no body hath a naturall intrinsecall inclination vnto any place to which it is able to moue it selfe we must needes conclude that the motion of euery body followeth the percussion of extrinsecall Agents It seemeth therefore impossible that any body should haue any motion naturall to it selfe And if there be none naturall there can be none violent And so this distinction will vainsh to nothing But on the other side liuing creatures do manifesty shew naturall motions hauing naturall instruments to performe certaine motions wherefore such motions must of necessity be naturall to them But these are not the motions which we are to speake of for Aristotles diuision is common to all bodies or att the least to all those we conuerse withall and particulary to those which are called heauy and
light which two termes passe through all the bodies we haue notice of Therefore proceeding vpon our groundes before layed to witt that no body can be mooued of it selfe wee may determine those motions to be naturall vnto bodies which haue constant causes or percutients to make them alwayse in such bodies and those violent which are contrary to such naturall motions Which being supposed we must search out the causes that so constantly make some bodies descend towardes the center or middle of the earth and others to rise and goe from the center by which the world is subiect to those restlesse motions that keepe all thinges in perpetuall fluxe in this changeing sphere of action and passion Lett vs then begin with considering what effects the sunne which is a constant and perpetuall cause worketh vpon inferior bodies by his being regularly sometimes present and sometimes absent Obserue in a pott of water hanging ouer a fire how the heate maketh some partes of the water to ascend and others to supply the roome by descending so that as long as it boyleth it is in a perpetuall confused motion vp and downe Now hauing formely cōcluded that fire is light and light is fire it can not be doubted but that the sunne doth serue instead of fire to our globe of earth and water which may be fittly compared to the boyling pott and all the day long draweth vapors from those bodies that his beames strike vpon For he shooting his little darts of fire in multitudes and in continued streames from his owne center against the Python the earth we liue on they do there ouertake one an other and cause some degree of heate as farre as they sinke in But not being able by reason of their great expansion in their long iorney to conuert it into their owne nature and sett it on fire which requireth a high degree of condensation of the beames they do but pierce and diuide it very subtilely and cutt some of the outward partes of it into extreme litle atomes Vnto which they sticking very close and being in a manner incorporated with them by reason of the moisture that is in thē they do in their rebound backe from the earth carry them along with them like a ball that struck against a moist wall doth in its returne from it bring backe some of the mortar sticking vpon it For the distance of the earth from the sunne is not the vtmost periode of these nimble bodies flight so that when by this solide body they are stopped in their course forwardes on they leape backe from it and carry some litle partes of it with them some of them a farther some of them a shorter iorney according as their litlenesse and rarity make them fitt to ascend As is manifest by the consent of all authors that write of the regions of the ayre who determine the lower region to reach as farre as the reflexion of the sunne and conclude this region to be very hoat For if we marke how the heate of fire is greatest when it is incorporated in some dense body as in iron or in seacoale we shall easily conceiue that the heate of this region proceedeth mainely out of the incorporation of light with those litle bodies which sticke to it in its reflexion And experience testifyeth the same both in our sultry dayes which we see are of a grosse temper and ordinarily goe before raine as also in the hoat springes of extreme cold countries where the first heates are vnsufferable which proceede out of the resolution of humidity congealed and in hoat windes which the Spaniards call Bochornos from Boca de horno by allusion to the breathing steame of an ouen when it is opened which do manifestly shew that the heate of the sunne is incorporated in the litle bodies which compose the steame of that wind And by the principles we haue already layed the same would be euident though we had no experience to instruct vs for seeing that the body of fire is dry the wett partes which are easilyest resolued by fire must needes sticke vnto them and accompany them in their returne from the earth Now whiles these ascend the ayre must needes cause others that are of a grosser complexion to descend as fast to make roome for the former and to fill the places they left that there may be no vacuity in nature And to find what partes they are and from whence they come that succeede in the roome of light and atomes glewed together that thus ascend we may take a hinte from the maxime of the Optikes that light reflecting maketh equall angles whence supposing the superficies of the earth to be circular it will follow that a perpendicular to the center passeth iust in the middle betweene the two rayes the incident and the reflected Wherefore the ayre betweene these two rayes and such dodies as are in it being equally pressed on both sides those bodies which are iust in the middle are neerest and likelyest to succeede immediately in the roome of the light and atomes which ascend from the superficies of the earth and their motion to that point is vpon the perpendicular Hence it is euident that the ayre and all such bodies as descend to supply the place of light and atomes which ascend from the earth do descend perpendicularly towardes the center of the earth And againe such bodies as by the force of light being cutt from the earth or water do not ascend in forme of light but do incorporate a hidden light and heate within them and thereby are rarer then these descending bodies must of necessity be lifted vp by the descent of those denser bodies that goe downewardes because they by reason of their density are mooued with a greater force And this lifting vp must be in a perpendicular line because the others descending on all sides perpendicularly must needes raise those that are betweene them equally from all sides that is perpendicularly from the center of the earth And thus we see a motion sett on foote of some bodies continually descending and others continually ascending all in perpendicular lines excepting those which follow the course of lights reflexion Againe as soone as the declining sunne groweth weaker or leaueth our horizon and that his beames vanishing do leaue the litle horsemen which rode vpon them to their owne temper and nature from whence they forced them they finding themselues surrounded by a smart descending streame do tumble downe againe in the night as fast as in the day they were carryed vp and crowding into their former habitations they exclude those that they find had vsurped them in their absence And thus all bodies within reach of the sunnes power but especially our ayre are in perpetuall motion the more rarifyed ones ascending and the dense ones descending Now thē because no bodies wheresoeuer they be as we haue already shewed haue any inclination to moue towardes a particular place otherwise thē as they are
and giue the like motion to any body they find in their way if it be susceptible of such a motion which it is euident that all bodies are vnlesse they be strucken by some contrary impulse For since that a bodies being in a place is nothing else but the continuity of its outside to the inside of the body that containeth it and is its place it can haue no other repugnance to locall motion which is nothing else but a successiue changing of place besides this continuity Now the nature of density being the power of diuiding and euery least power hauing some force and efficacy as we haue shewed aboue it followeth that the stroake of euery atome eyther descending or ascending will worke some thing vpon any body though neuer so bigge it chanceth to encounter with and strike vpon in its way vnlesse there be as strong an impulse the contrary way to oppose it But it being determined that the descending atomes are denser then those that ascend it followeth that the descending ones will preuayle And consequently all dense bodies must necessarily tend downewardes to the center which is to be Heauy if some other more dense body do not hinder them Out of this discourse we may conclude that there is no such thing among bodies as positiue grauity or leuity but that their course vpwardes or downewardes happeneth vnto them by the order of nature which by outward causes giueth them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wheresoeuer they are as being of themselues indifferent to any motion But because our wordes expresse our notions and they are framed according to what appeareth vnto vs when we obserue any body to descend constantly towardes our earth we call it heauy and if it mooue contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such grauity and leuity as if they were Entities that worke such effects since vpon examination it appeareth that these wordes are but short expressions of the effects themselues the causes whereof the vulgar of mankinde who impose names to thinges do not consider but leaue that worke vnto Philosophers to examine whiles they onely obserue what they see done and agree vpon wordes to expresse that Which wordes neither will in all circumstances alwayes agree to the same thing for as corke doth descend in ayre and ascend in water so also will any other body descend if it lighteth among others more rare then it selfe and will ascend if it lighteth among bodies that are more dense then it And we terme bodies light and heauy onely according to the course which we vsually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or grauity it were irrationall to conceiue that all bodies should descend att the same rate and keepe equall pace with one an other in their iourney downewardes For as two knifes whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being pressed with equall strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cutt deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the other that which is so will cutt the ayre more powerfully and will descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the knifes edge since in it consisteth the power of diuiding as we haue heretofore determined And therefore the pressing them downewardes by the descending atomes being equall in both or peraduenture greater in the more dense body as anone we shall haue occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of diuision must be the greater where the diuider is the more powerfull Which the more dense body is and therefore cutteth more strongly through the resistance of the ayre and consequently passeth more swiftly that way it is determined to mooue I do not meane that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one an other as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we haue discoursed of aboue when we examined the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparison of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone resulteth the differences of their velocities and that neither but in as much as concerneth the consideration of the mooueables for to make the calculation exact the medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare for since the motion dependeth of all them together although there should be difference betweene the mooueables in regard of one onely and that the rest were equall yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference considered single in that regard will haue one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will haue an other As for example reckon the density of one mooueable to be double the density of an other mooueable so that in that regard it hath two degrees of power to descend whereas the other hath but one suppose then the other causes of their descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then ioyne these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the mooueables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other mooueable and you will find that thus altogether their difference of power to descend is no longer in a double proportion as it would be if nothing but their density were considered but is in the proportion of fiue to foure But after we haue considered all that concerneth the mooueables we are then to cast an eye vpon the medium they are to mooue in and we shall find the addition of that to decrease the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the medium Which if it be ayre the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men vse to take in making experiences of their descent in that yielding medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Euen as the difference of a sharpe or dull knife which is easily perceiued in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguished in diuiding of water or oyle And likewise in weights a pound and a scruple will beare downe a dramme in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet putt a pound in that scale instead of the dramme and then the difference of the scruple will be very notable So then those bodies whose difference of descending in water is very sensible because of the greater proportion of weight in water to the bodies that descend in it will yield no sensible difference of velocity when they descend in ayre by reason of the great disproportion of weight betweene
is manifest that in a violent motion the force which mooueth a body in the end of its course is weaker then that which mooueth it in the beginning and the like is of the two stringes But here it is not amisse to solue a Probleme he putteth which belongeth to our present subiect He findeth by experience that if two bodies descend att the same time from the same point and do goe to the same point the one by the inferiour quarter of the cercle the other by the chord to that arch or by any other lines which are chordes to partes of that arch he findeth I say that the mooueable goeth faster by the arch then by any of the chordes And the reason is euident if we consider that the neerer any motion doth come vnto a perpendicular one downewardes the greater velocity it must haue and that in the arch of such a quadrant euery particular part of it inclineth to the perpendicular of the place where it is more then the part of the chord answerable vnto it doth THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER An answere to obiections against the causes of naturall motion auowed in the former chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion BVt to returne to the thridde of our doctrine there may peraduenture be obiected against it that if the violence of a bodies descent towardes the center did proceede onely from the density of it which giueth it an aptitude the better to cutt the medium and from the multitude of litle atomes descending that strike vpon it and presse it the way they goe which is downewardes then it would not import whether the inner part of that body were as solide as the outward partes for it cutteth with onely the outward and is smitten onely vpon the outward And yet experience sheweth vs the contrary for a great bullet of lead that is solide and lead throughout descendeth faster then if three quarters of the diameter were hollow within and such a one falling vpon any resisting substance worketh a greater effect then a hollow one And a ball of brasse that hath but a thinne outside of mettall will swimme vpon the water when a massie one sinketh presently Whereby it appeareth that it is rather some other quality belonging to the very bulke of the metall in it selfe and not these outward causes that occasion grauity But this difficulty is easily ouercome if you consider how subtile those atomes are which descending downewardes and striking vpon a body in their way do cause its motion likewise downewardes for you may remember how we haue shewed them to be the subtilest and the minutest diuisions that light the subtilest and sharpest diuider in nature can make It is then easye to conceiue that these extreme subtile bodies do penetrate all others as light doth glasse and do runne through them as sand doth through a small sieue or as water through a spunge so that they strike not onely vpon the superficies but aswell in euery most interiour part of the whole body running quite through it all by the pores of it And then it must needes follow that the solider it is and the more partes it hath within as well as without to be strucken vpon the faster it must goe and the greater effect it must worke in what it falleth vpon whereas if three quarters of the diameter of it within should be filled with nothing but with ayre the atomes would fly without any considerable effect through all that space by reason of the rarity and cessibility of it And that these atomes are thus subtile is manifest by seuerall effects which we see in nature Diuers Authors that write of Egypt do assure vs that though their houses be built of strong stone neuerthelesse a clodde of earth layed in the inmost roomes and shutt vp from all appearing communication with ayre will encrease its weight so notably as thereby they can iudge the change of weather which will shortly ensue Which can proceede from no other cause but from a multitude of litle atomes of saltpeter which floating in the ayre do penetrate through the strongest walls and all the massie defences in their way and do settle in the clodde of earth as soone as they meete with it because it is of a temper fitt to entertaine and to conserue and to embody them Delights haue shewed vs the way how to make the spirits or atomes of snow and saltpeter passe through a glasse vessell which Alchimists hold to be the most impenetrable of all they can find to worke with In our owne bodies the aches which feeble partes do feele before change of weather and the heauynesse of our heades and shoulders if we remaine in the open ayre presently after sunnesett do aboundantly testify that euen the grosser of these atomes which are the first that fall do vehemently penetrate our bodies so as sense will make vs beleeue what reason peraduenture could not But besides all this there is yet a more conuincing reason why the descending atomes should mooue the whole density of a body euen though it were so dense that they could not penetrate it and gett into the bowels of it but must be content to strike barely vpon the outside of it For nature hath so ordered the matter that when dense partes sticke close together and make the length composed of them to be very stiffe one can not be mooued but that all the rest which are in that line must likewise be thereby mooued so that if all the world wery composed of atomes close sticking together the least motion imaginable must driue on all that were in a straight line to the very end of the world This you see is euident in reason And experience confirmeth it when by a litle knocke giuen att the end of a long beame the shaking which maketh sound reacheth sensibly to the other end The blind man that gouerneth his steppes by feeling in defect of eyes receiueth aduertisements of remote thinges through a staffe which he holdeth in his handes peraduenture more particularly then his eyes could haue directed him And the like is of a deafe man that heareth the sound of an instrument by holding one end of a sticke in his mouth whiles the other end resteth vpō the instrumēt And some are of opiniō and they not of the ranke of vulgar Philosophers that if a staffe were as long as to reach from the sunne to vs it would haue the same effect in a moment of time Although for my part I am hard to beleeue that we could receiue an aduertisement so farre vnlesse the staffe were of such a thicknesse as being proportionable to the length might keepe it from facile bending for if it should be very plyant it would do vs no seruice as we experience in a thridde which reaching from our hand to the ground if it knocke against any thing maketh no sensible impression in our hand So that in fine reason sense and authority do all of them
of the ascending atomes and thereby determineth it to weigh to the centerwardes and not rise floating vpwardes which is all the sensible effect we can perceiue Next we may obserue that the first particulars of the obiection do not reach home to enfeeble our doctrine in this particular although we admitt them to be in such sort as they are proposed for they do withall implye such a perpetuall variation of causes euer fauourable to our position that nothing can be inferred out of them to repugne against it As thus when there are many atomes descending in the ayre the same generall cause which maketh them be many maketh them also be light in proportion to their multitude And so when they are few they are heauy likewise when the atomes are light the ayre is rarifyed and thinne and when they are heauy the ayre is thicke and so vpon the whole matter it is euident that we can not make such a precise and exact iudgement of the variety of circumstances as to be able to determine when there is absolutely more cause of weight and when lesse And as we find not weight enough in either side of these opposite circumstances to turne the scales in our discourse so likewise we find the same indifference in experience it selfe for the weights we vse do weigh equally in mysty weather and in cleare and yet in rigour of discourse we can not doubt but that in truth they do not grauitate or weigh so much though the difference be imperceptible to sense when the ayre is thicke and foggy as when it is pure and rarifyed which thickenesse of the medium when it arriueth to a very notable degree as for example to water maketh then a great difference of a heauy bobies grauitation in it and accordingly we see a great difference betweene heauy bodies descending in water and in ayre though betweene two kindes of ayre none is to be obserued their difference is so small in respect of the density of the body that descendeth in thē And therefore seeing that an assured and certaine difference in circumstances maketh no sensible inequality in the effect we can not expect any from such circumstances as we may reasonably doubt whether there be any inequality among thē or no. Besides that if in any of the proposed cases a heauy body should grauitate more and be heauyer one time then an other yet by weighing it we could not discerne it since that the counterpoise which is to determine its weight must likewise be in the same proportion heauyer then it was And besides weighing no other meanes remaineth to discouer its greater grauitation but to compare it to time in its descent and I beleeue that in all such distances as we can try it in its inequalities will be no whitt lesse difficult to be obserued that way then any other Lastly to bend our discourse particularly to that instance of the obiection where it is conceiued that if grauity or descending downewardes of bodies proceeded from atomes striking vpon them as they mooue downewardes it would follow that a stone or other dense body lying vnder shelter of a thicke hard and impenetrable adamantine rocke would haue no impulse downewardes and consequently would not weigh there We may note that no body whatsoeuer compacted by physicall causes and agents can be so dense and imporous but that such atomes as these we speake of must be in them and in euery part of them and euery where passe through and through them as water doth through a seeue or through a spunge and this vniuersall maxime must extend as farre as the sunne or as any other heate communicating with the sunne doth reach and is found The reason whereof is because these atomes are no other thing but such extreme litle bodies as are resolued by heate out of the maine stocke of those massy bodies vpon which the sunne and heate do worke Now then it being certaine out of what we haue heretofore said that all mixt bodies haue their temper and consistence and generation from the mingling of fire with the rest of the Elements that compose them and from the concoction or digestion which fire maketh in those bodies it is euident that no mixt body whatsoeuer nor any sensible part of a mixt body can be voyde of pores capable of such atomes nor can be without such atomes passing through those pores which atomes by mediation of the ayre that likewise hath its share in such pores must haue communication with the rest of the great sea of ayre and with the motions that passe in it And consequently in all and in euery sensible part of any such extreme dense and pretended impenetrable body to the notice whereof we can arriue this percussion of atomes must be found and they will haue no difficulty in running through nor by meanes of it in striking any other body lying vnder the shelter of it and thus both in and from that hard body there must be still an vninterrupted continuation of grauity or of descending towardes the center Vnto which we may adde that the stone or dense body can not lye so close to the rocke that couereth it but that some ayre must be betweene for if nothing were betweene they would be vnited and become one continued body and in that ayre which is a creeke of the great ocean of ayre spread ouer the world that is euery where bestrewed with moouing atomes and which is continually fed like a running streame with new ayre that driueth on the ayre it ouertaketh there is no doubt but there are descending atomes as well as in all the rest of its maine body and these descending atomes meeting with the stone must needes giue some stroake vpon it and that stroake be it neuer so litle can not choose but worke some effect in making the stone remooue a litle that way they goe and that motion whereby the space is enlarged betweene the stone and the sheltering rocke must draw in a greater quantity of ayre and atomes to strike vpon it And thus by litle and litle the stone passeth through all the degrees of tardity by which a descending body parteth from rest which is by so much the more speedily done by how much the body is more eminent in density But this difference of time in regard of the atomes stroakes onely and abstracting from the bodies density will be insensible to vs seeing as we haue said no more is required of them but to giue a determination downewardes And out of this we clearely see the reason why the same atomes striking vpon one body lying vpon the water do make it sinke and vpon an other they do not As for example if you lay vpon the superficies of some water a piece of iron and a piece of corke of equall biggenesse and of the same figure the iron will be beaten downe to the bottome and the corke will floate att the toppe The reason whereof is the different
it be in the streame of a riuer and notwithstanding it will still mooue downewardes we may answere that considering the litle decliuity of the bed of such a streame the strongest motion of the partes of the streame must necessarily be downewardes and consequently they will beate the stone downewardes And if they do not the like to a feather or other light body it is because other partes of the streame do gett vnder the light body and beate it vpwardes which they haue not power enough to do to the stone Sixthly it may be obiected that if Elements do not weigh in their owne spheres then their grauity and descending must proceede from some other cause and not from this percussion of the atomes we attribute it to which percussion we haue determined goeth through all bodies whatsoeuer and beateth vpon euery sensible part of them But that Elements weigh not in their owne spheres appeareth out of the experience of a syphon for though one legge of the syphon be suncke neuer so much deeper into the body of the water then the other legge reacheth below the superficies of the water neuerthelesse if once the outward legge become full of water it will draw it out of the other longer legge which it should not do if the partes of water that are comprised within their whole bulke did weigh seeing that the bulke of water is much greater in the sunke legge then in the other and therefore these should rather draw backe the other water into the cisterne then be themselues drawne out of it into the ayre To this we answere that it is euident the Elements do weigh in their owne spheres att least as farre as we can reach to their spheres for we see that a ballone stuffed hard with ayre is heauyer then an empty one Againe more water would not be heauyer then lesse if the inward partes of it did not weigh and if a hole were digged in the bottome of the sea the water would not runne into it and fill it if it did not grauitate ouer it Lastly there are those who vndertake to distinguish in a deepe water the diuers weights which seuerall partes of it haue as they grow still heauyer and heauyer towardes the bottome and they are so cunning in this art that they professe to make instruments which by their equality of their weight to a determinate part of the water shall stand iust in that part and neyther rise nor fall higher or lower but if it be putt lower it shall ascend to its exact equally weighing orbe of the water and if it be putt higher it shall descend vntill it cometh to rest precisely in that place Whence it is euident that partes of water do weigh within the bulke of their maine body and of the like we haue no reason to doubt in the other two weighty Elements As for the opposition of the syphon we referre that point to where we shall haue occasion to declare the nature of that engine of sett purpose And there we shall shew that it could not succeede in its operation vnlesse the partes of water did grauitate in their maine bulke into which one legge of the syphon is sunke Lastly it may be obiected that if there were such a course of atomes as we say and that their stroakes were the cause of so notable an effect as the grauity of heauy bodies we should feele it palpably in our owne bodies which experience sheweth vs we do not To this we answere first that their is no necessity we should feele this course of atomes since by their subtility they penetrate all bodies and consequently do not giue such stroakes as are sensible Secondly if we consider that dustes and strawes and feathers do light vpon vs without causing any sense in vs much more we may cōceiue that atomes which are infinitely more subtile and light can not cause in vs any feeling of them Thirdly we see that what is continuall with vs and mingled in all thinges doth not make vs take any especiall notice of it and this is the case of the smiting of atomes Neuerthelesse peraduenture we feele them in truth as often as we feele hoat and cold weather and in all catarres or other such changes which do as it were sinke into our body without our perceiuing any sensible cause of them for no question but these atomes are the immediate causes of all good and bad qualities in the ayre Lastly when we consider that we can not long together hold out our arme att length or our foote from the ground and reflect vpon such like impotencies of our resisting the grauity of our owne body we can not doubt but that in these cases we feele the effect of these atomes working vpon those partes although we can not by our sense discerne immediately that these are the causes of it But now it is time to draw our Reader out of a difficulty which may peraduenture haue perplexed him in the greatest part of what he hath hitherto gone ouer In our inuestigation of the Elements we tooke for a principle therevnto that grauity is sometimes more sometimes lesse then the density of the body in which it is But in our explication of rarity and density and againe in our explication of grauity we seeme to putt that grauity and density is all one This thorne I apprehend may in all this distance haue putt some to paine but it was impossible for mee to remedy it because I had not yet deliuered the manner of grauitation Here then I will do my best to asswage their greefe by reconciling these appearing repugnancies We are therefore to consider that density in it selfe doth signify a difficultie to haue the partes of its subiect in which it is seperated one from an other and that grauity likewise in it selfe doth signify a quality by which a heauy body doth descend towardes the center or which is consequent therevnto a force to make an other body descend Now this power we haue shewed doth belong vnto density so farre forth as a dense body being strucken by an other doth not yield by suffering its partes to be diuided but with its whole bulke striketh the next before it and diuideth it if it be more diuisible then it selfe is So that you see density hath the name of density in consideration of a passiue quality or rather of an impassibility which it hath and the same density is called grauity in respect of an actiue quality it hath which followeth this impassibility And both of them are estimated by the different respects which the same body or subiect in which they are haue vnto different bodies that are the termes whereunto it is compared for the actiue quality or grauity of a dense body is esteemed by its respect to the body it striketh vpon whereas its density includeth a respect singly to the body that striketh it Now it is no wonder that this change of comparison worketh a disparity
as the rackett or bowstring shrinketh backe from the missiue and leaueth a space betweene the missiue and it as it is cleare it doth as soone as it hath strucken the resisting body the ayre must ' needes clappe in with as much velocity as they retire and with some what more because the missiue goeth forward att the same time and therefore the ayre must hasten to ouertake it least any vacuity should be left betweene the string and the arrow It is certaine likewise that the ayre on the sides doth also vpon the diuision of it slide backe and helpe to fill that space which the departed arrow leaueth voyde Now this forcible cloosing of the ayre att the nocke of the arrow must ' needes giue an impulse or blow vpon it if it seeme to be but a litle one you may consider how it is yet much greater then what the ayre and the bodies swimming in it do att the first giue vnto a stone falling frō high and how att the last those litle atomes that driue a stone in its naturall motion do with their litle blowes force it peraduenture more violenty and swiftly then any impelling Agent we are acquainted with can do So that the impulse which they make vpon the arrow pressing violently vpon it after such a vehement concussion and with a great velocity must needes cause a powerfull effect in that which of it selfe is indifferent to any motion any way But vnlesse this motion of the ayre do continue to beate still vpon the arrow it will soone fall to the ground for want of a cause to driue it forward and because the naturall motion of the ayre being then the onely one will determine it downewardes Lett vs consider then how this violent rending of the ayre by the blow that the bowstring giueth vnto the arrow must needes disorder the litle atomes that swimme too and fro in it and that being heauyer then the ayre are continually descending downewardes This disorder maketh some of the heauyer partes of them gett aboue others that are lighter then they which they not abiding do presse vpon those that are next them and they vpon their fellowes so that there is a great commorion and vndulation caused in the whole masse of ayre round about the arrow which must continue some time before it can be settled and it being determined by the motion of the arrow that way that it slideth it followeth that all this commotion and vndulation of the ayre serueth to continue the arrow in its flight And thus faster then any part behind can be settled new ones before are stirred till the resistance of the medium do grow stronger then the impulse of the moouers Besides this the arrow pressing vpon the ayre before it with a greater velocity then the ayre which is a liquide rare body can admitt to moue all of a piece without breaking it must of necessity happen that the partes of the ayre immediately before the arrow be driuen vpon others further of before these can be moued to giue place vnto them so that in some places the ayre becometh condensed and consequently in others rarifyed Which also the wind that we make in walking which will shake a paper pinned loosely att the wall of a chamber towardes which we walke and the cooling ayre caused by fanning when we are hoat do euidently confirme So that it can not be doubted but that condensation and rarefaction of the ayre must necessarily follow the motion of any solide body which being admitted it is euident that a great disorder and for some remarkable time must necessarily be in the ayre since it can not brooke to continue in more rarity or density then is naturall vnto it Nor can weighty and light partes agree to rest in an equal height or lownesse which the violence of the arrowes motion forceth them vnto for the present Therefore it can not be denyed but that though the arrow slide away neuerthelesse there still remaineth behind it by this condensation and confusion of partes in the ayre motion enough to giue impulse vnto the arrow so as to make it continue its motion after the bowstring hath left it But here will arise a difficulty which is how this clapping in and vndulation of the ayre should haue strength and efficacy enough to cause the continuance of so smart a motion as is an arrowes shott from a bow To this I neede no other argument for an answere then to produce Galileos testimony how great a body one single mans breath alone can in due circumstances giue a rapide motion vnto and withall lett vs consider how the arrow and the ayre about it are already in a certaine degree of velocity that is to say the obstacle that would hinder it from moouing that way namely the resistance of the ayre is taken away and the causes that are to produce it namely the determining of the ayres and of the atomes motion that way are hightened And then we may safely conclude that the arrow which of it selfe is indifferent to be mooued vpwardes or downewardes or forwardes must needes obey that motion which is caused in it by the atomes and the ayres pressing vpon it either according to the impulse of the string or when the string beginneth to flagge according to the beatinges that follow the generall constitution of nature or in a mixt manner according to the proportions that these two hold to one an other Which proportions Galileus in his 4th Dialogue of motion hath attempted to explicate very ingeniously but hauing missed in one of his suppositions to witt that forced motion vpon an horizontall line is throughout vniforme his great labours therein haue taken litle effect towardes the aduancing the knowledge of nature as he pretended for his conclusions succeede not in experience as Mersenius assureth vs after very exact trials nor can they in their reasons be fitted to nature So that to conclude this point I find no difficulty in allowing this motion of the ayre strength enough to force the mooueable onwardes for some time after the first moouer is seuered from it and long after we see no motions of this nature do endure so that we neede seeke no further cause for the continuance of it but may rest satisfyed vpon the whole matter that since the causes and circumstances our reason suggesteth vnto vs are after mature and particular examination proportionable to the effects we see the doctrine we deliuer must be sound and true For the establishing whereof we neede not considering what we haue already said spend much time in soluing Galileos arguments against it seeing that out of what we haue sett downe the answeres to them appeare plaine enough for first we haue assigned causes how the ayre may continue its motion long enough to giue as much impression as is needefull vnto the arrow to make it goe on as it doth Which motion is not requisite to be neere so great in the ayre
that before they come thither they will be so rarifyed by that litle motion as they shall grow inuisible like the ayre and dispersing themselues all about in it they will fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seene The last excesse in watry bodies must be of water it selfe which is when so litle a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible out of this composition do arise all those seuerall sortes of iuices or liquors which we commonly call waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements haue peculiar properties beyond simple Elementall water The generall qualities whereof we shall not neede any further to expresse because by what we haue already said of water in common they are sufficiently knowne In our next suruay we will take earth for our ground to worke vpon as hitherto we haue done water which if in any body it be in the vtmost excesse of it beyond all the other three then rockes and stones will grow out of it whose dryenesse ad hardnesse may assure vs that Earth swayeth in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightnesse in respect of some other Earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceedeth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of pores wherewith their dryenesse causeth them to abound and hindereth not but that their reall solide partes may be very heauy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceede the fire and ayre but still inferior to the earth we shall produce mettalls whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainely telleth vs that the smallest of waters grosse partes are the glew that holdeth the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easye changing of partes being most proper to water Quickesiluer that is the generall matter whereof all the mettalls are immediately coÌ„posed giueth vs euidence hereof for fire worketh vpon it with the same effect as vpon water And the calcination of most of the mettalls proueth that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therefore must be rather of a watry then of an ayry substance Likewise the glibbenesse of Mercury and of melted mettalls without catching or sticking to other substances giueth vs to vnderstand that this great temper of a moyst Element with Earth is water and not ayre and that the watry partes are comprised and as it were shutt vp within the earthy ones for ayre catcheth and sticketh notably to all thinges it toucheth and will not be imprisoned the diuisibity of it being exceeding great though in neuer so short partes Now if ayre mingleth it selfe with earth and be predominant ouer water and fire it maketh such an oyly and fatt soile as husbandmen account their best mould which receiuing a betterment from the sunne and temperate heat assureth vs of the concurse of the ayre for wheresoeuer suâ—h heate is ayre can not faile of accompanying it or of being effected by it and the richest of such earth as port earth and marle will with much fire grow more compacted and sticke closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pottes or fine brickes Whereas if water were the glew betweene the dense partes fire would consume it and crumble them a sunder as it doth in those bodies it calcineth And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirmeth that ayre aboundeth in them for it is the nature of ayre to sticke so close where once it is kneaded in as it can not be seperated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscous holding together of the partes of glasse when it is melted sheweth euidently that ayre aboundeth in vitrifyed bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an ouerruling proportion ouer ayre and water And this I conceiue produceth those substances which we may terme coagulated iuices and which the latines do call Succi concreti whos 's first origine seemeth to haue beene liquors that haue beene afterwardes dryed by the force eyther of heate or of cold Of this nature are all kind of saltes niters sulfurs and diuers sortes of bitumens All which easily bewray the relikes an deffects of fire left in them some more some lesse according to their degrees And thus we haue in generall deduced from their causes the complexions of those bodies whereof the bulke of the world subiected to our vse consisteth and which serue for the production and nourishment of liuing creatures both animall and vegetable Not so exactly I confesse nor so particularly as the matter in it selfe or as a treatise confined to that subiect would require yet sufficiently for our intent In the performance whereof if more accurate searchers of nature shall find that we haue peraduenture beene mistaken in the minute deliuering of some particular bodies complexion their very correction I dare boldly say will iustify our principall scope which is to shew that all the great variety we see among bodies ariseth out of the coÌ„mixtion of the first qualities and of the Elements for they will not be able to correct vs vpon any other groundes then those we haue layed As may easily be perceiued if we cast a summary view vpon the qualities of composed bodies All which we shall find to spring out of rarity and density and to sauour of their origine for the most manifest qualities of bodies may be reduced to certaine paires opposite to one an other As namely some are liquide and flowing others are consistent some are soft others hard some are fatty viscous and smooth others leane gritty and rough some grosse othert subtile some tough others brittle and the like Of which the liquide the soft the fatt and the viscous are so manifestly deriued from rarity that we neede not take any further paines to trace out their origine and the like is of their contraries from the contrary cause to witt of those bodies that are consistent hard leane and gritty all which do euidently spring from density As for smoothnesse we haue already shewed how that proceedeth from an ayry or oyly nature and by consequence from a certaine degree of rarity And therefore roughnesse the contrary of it must proceede from a proportionable degree of density Toughnesse is also a kind of ductility which we haue reduced to watrynesse that is to an other degree of rarity and consequently brittlenesse must arise from the contrary degree of density Lastly grossenesse and subtilenesse do consist in a difficulty or facility to be diuided into small partes which appeareth to be nothing else but a certaine determination of rarity and density And thus we see how the seuerall complexions of bodies are reduced to the foure Elements that compound them and the qualities of those bodies to the two primary differencies of
or without by pressing vpon what containeth it and so making it selfe a way vnto it And that this latter way is able to worke this effect may be conuinced by the contrary effect from a contrary cause for take a bladder stretched out vnto its greatest extent by ayre shutt vp within it and hang it in a cold place and you will see it presently contract it selfe into a lesse roome and the bladder will grow wrinckeled and become too bigge for the ayre within it But for immediate proofe of this position we see that the addition of a very small degree of heate rarifyeth the ayre in a weather glasse the ayre receiuing the impression of heate sooner then water and so maketh it extend it selfe into a greater place and consequently it presseth vpon the water and forceth it downe into a lesse roome then formerly it possessed And likewise we see quickesyluer and other liquors if they be shutt vp in glasses close stopped and sett in sufficient heate and a little is sufficient for this effect they will swell and fill their glasses and att the last breake them rather then not find a way to giue themselues more roome which is then growne too straight in the glasse by reason of the rarefaction of the liquors by the fire working vpon them Now againe that this effect may be wrought by the inward heate that is enclosed in the bowels of the substance thus shutt vp both reason and experience do assure vs for they teach vs that if a body which is not extremely compacted but that by its loosenesse is easily diuisible into little partes such a one as wine or other spirittfull liquors be enclosed in a vessell the little atomes that perpetually moue vp and downe in euery space of the whole world making their way through euery body will sett on worke the little partes in the wine for example to play their game so that the hoat and light partes if they be many not enduring to be compressed and kept in by the heauy and cold ones do seeke to breake out with force and till they can free themselues from the dense ones that would imprison them they carry them along with them and make them to swell out as well as themselues Now if they be kept in by the vessell so that they haue not play enough they driue the dense ones like so many little hammers or wedges against the sides of it and att the length do breake it and so do make themselues way to a larger roome But if they haue vent the more fiery hoat spirits fly away and leaue the other grosser partes quiett and att rest On the other side if the hoat and light partes in a liquor be not many nor very actiue and the vessell be so full that the partes haue not free scope to remoue and make way for one an other there will not follow any great effect in this kind as we see in bottled beere or ale that worketh little vnlesse there be some space left empty in the bottle And againe if the vessell be very much too bigge for the liquor in it the fiery partes find roome first to swell vp the heauy ones and att the length to gett out from them though the vessell be close stopped for they haue scope enough to floate vp and downe between the surface of the liquor and the roofe of the vessell And this is the reason that if a little beere or small wine be left long in a great caske be it neuer so close stopped it will in time grow dead And then if att the opening of the bunge after the caske hath beene long vnstirred you hold a candle close to it you shall att the instant see a flash of flame enuironing the veâ—t Which is no other thing but the subtile spirits that parting from the beere or wine haue left it dead and flying abroad as soone as they are permitted are sett on fire by the flame that they meete with in their iourney as being more combustible because more subtile then that spiritt of wine which is kept in forme of liquor and yet that likewise though much grosser is sett on fire by the touch of flame And this happeneth not onely to wine and beere or ale but euen to water As dayly experience sheweth in the east Indian shippes that hauing beene 5. or 6. yeares att sea when they open some of their caskes of Thames water in their returne homewardes for they keepe that water till the last as being their best and most durable and that groweth lighter and purer by the often putrifyinges through violent motions in stormes euery one of which maketh new grosse and earthy partes fall downe to the bottome and other volatile ones ascend to the toppe a flame is seene about their bunges if a candle be neere as we said before of wine And to proceed with confirming this doctrine by further experience we dayly see that the little partes of heate being agitated and brought into motioÌ„ in any body they enter and pierce into other partes and incorporate themselues with them and sett them on fire if they be capable thereof as we see in wett hay or flaxe layed together in great quantity And if they be not capable of taking fire then they carry them with them to the outside and when they can transport them no further part flyeth away and other part stayeth with them as we see in new beere or ale and in must of wine in which a substance vsually called the mother is wrought vp to the toppe Which in wine will att the last be conuerted into Tartar when the spirits that are very volatile are flowne away and do leaue those partes from whence they haue euaporated more grosse and earthy then the others where the grosser and subtiler partes continue still mixed But in beere or rather in ale this mother which in them we call barme will continue longer in the same consistence and with the same qualities for the spirits of it are not so firy that they must presently leaue the body they haue incorporated themselues withall nor are hoat enough to bake it into a hard consistence And therefore bakers make vse of it to raise their bread which neyther it will do vnlesse it be kept from cold both which are euident signes that it worketh in force of heate and consequently that it continueth still a hoat and light substance And againe we see that after wine or beere hath wrought once a violent motion will make it worke anew As is dayly seene in great lightninges and in thunder and by much rocking of them for such motion rarifyeth and consequently heateth them partly by separating the little partes of the liquor which were before as glewed together and therefore lay quietly but now by their pulling asunder and by the liquors growing thereby more loose then it was they haue freedome to play vp and downe and partly by beating one part against an other which
meanes she vseth to auoyde it For to putt it as an enemy that nature fighteth against or to discourse of effects that would follow from it in case it were admitted is a great mistake and a lost labour seeing it is nothing and therefore can do nothing but is meerely a forme of expression to declare in short nothing else but that it is a contradiction or implication in termes and an impossibility in nature for vacuity to haue or to be supposed to haue a Being Thus then since in our case after we haue cast all about we can pitch vpon nothing to be considered but that the two stones do touch one an other and that they are weighty we must apply our selues onely to reflect vpon the effects proceeding from these two causes their contiguity and their heauynesse and we shall find that as the one of them namely the weight hindereth the vndermost from following the vppermost so contiguity obligeth it vnto that course and according as the one ouercometh the other so will this action be continued or interrupted Now that contiguity of substances do make one follow an other is euident by what our Masters in Metaphysickes teach vs when they shew that without this effect no motion att all could be made in the world nor no reason could be giuen for those motions we dayly see For since the nature of quantity is such that whensoeuer there is nothing between two partes of it they must needes touch and adhere and ioyne to one an other for how should they be kept asunder when there is nothing betweene them to part them if you pull one part away eyther some new substance must come to de close vnto that which remoueth or else the other which was formerly close to it must still be close to it and so follow it for if nothing do come between it is still close to it Thus then it being necessary that something must be ioyned close to euery thing vacuity which is nothing is excluded from hauing any being in nature And when we say that one body must follow an other to auoyde vacuity the meaning is that vnder the necessity of a contradiction they must follow one an other and that they can not do otherwise For it would be a contradiction to say that nothing were between two thinges and yet that they are not ioyned close to one an other And therefore if you should say it you would in other wordes say they are close together and they are not close together In like manner to say that vacuity is any where is a pure contradiction for vacuity being nothing hath no Being att all and yet by those wordes it is said to be in such a place so that they affirme it to be and not to be att the same time But now lett vs examine if there be no meanes to auoyde this contradiction and vacuity other then by the adhesion and following of one body vpon the motion of an other that is closely ioyned to it and euery where contiguous For sense is not easily quieted with such Metaphysicall contemplations that seeme to repugne against her dictamens and therefore for her satisfaction we can do no lesse then giue her leaue to range about and cast all wayes in hope of finding some one that may better content her which when she findeth that she can not she will the lesse repine to yield her assent to the rigourous sequeles and proofes of reason In this difficulty then after turning on euery side I for my part can discerne no pretence of probability in any other meanes then in pulling downe the lower stone by one corner that so there may be a gaping between the two stones to lett in ayre by little and little And in this case you may say that by the interuention of ayre vacuity is hindered aud yett the lower stone is left att liberty to follow its owne naturall inclination and be gouerned by its weight But indeed if you consider the matter well you will find that the doing this requireth a much greater force then to haue the lower stone follow the vpper for it can not gape in a straight line to lett in ayre since in that position it must open at the bottome where the angle is made at the same time that it openeth at the mouth and then ayre requiring time to passe from the edges to the bottome it must in the meane while fall into the contradiction of vacuity So that if it should open to lett in ayre the stone to compasse that effect must bend in such sort as wood doth when a wedge is putt into it to cleaue it Iudge then what force it must be that should make hard marble of a great thicknesse bend like a wand and whether it would not rather breake and slide off then do so you will allow that a much lesse will raise vp the lower stone together with the vppermost It must then of necessity fall out that it will follow it if it be moued perpendicularly vpwardes And the like effect will be though it should be raysed at oblique angles so that the lowermost edge do rest all the way vpon some thing that may hinder the inferior stone from sliding aside from the vppermost And this is the very case of all those other experiments of art and nature which we haue mentioned aboue for the reason holdeth as well in water and in liquide thinges as in solide bodies vntill the weight of the liquide body ouercometh the continuity of it for then the thridde breaketh and it will ascend no higher Which height Galileo telleth vs from the workmen in the Arsenall of Venice is neere 40. foote if the water be drawne vp in a close pipe in which the aduantage of the sides helpeth the ascent But others say that the inuention is enlarged and that water may be drawne to what height one pleaseth Howsoeuer the force which nature applyeth to maintaine the continuity of quantity can haue no limitt seeing it is grounded vpon contradiction And therefore Galileo was much mistaken when he throught to make an instrument whereby to discouer the limits of this force We may then conclude that the breaking of the water must depend from the strength of other causes As for example when the grauity is so great by encreasing the bulke of the water that it will eyther ouercome the strength of the pipe or else make the sucker of the pumpe rather yield way to ayre then draw vp so great a weight for which defects if remedies be found the art may surely be enlarged without end This is particular in a syphon that when that arme of it which hangeth out of the water is lower then the superficies of the water then it will runne of it selfe after it is once sett on running by sucking The reason whereof is because the weight which is in water pendant is greater then the weight of the ascending water and thereby supplyeth
vnto whom I intend this worke But to make these operations of nature not incredible lett vs remember how we haue determined that euery body whatsoeuer doth yield some steame or vent a kind of vapour from it selfe and consider how they must needes do so most of all that are hoat and moyst as blood and milke are and as all woundes and sores generally are We see that the foote of a hare or deere leaueth such an impression where the beast hath passed as a dog can discerne it a long time after and a foxe breatheth out so strong a vapour that the hunters themselues can wind it a great way of and a good while after he is parted from the place Now ioyning this to the experiences we haue already allowed of concerning the attraction of heate wee may conclude that if any of these vapours do light vpon a solide warme body which hath the nature of a source vnto them they will naturally congregate and incorporate there and if those vapors be ioyned with any medicatiue quality or body they will apply that medicament better then any surgeon can apply it Then if the steame of blood and spirits do carry with it from the weapon or cloth the balsamike qualities of the salue or pouder and with them do settle vpon the wound what can follow but a bettering in it Likewise if the steame of the corruption that is vpon the clodde do carry the drying quality of the wind which sweepeth ouer it when it hangeth high in the ayre vnto the sore part of the cowes foote why is it not possible that it should dry the corruption there as well as it dryeth it vpon the hedge And if the steame of burned milke caÌ„ hurt by carrying fire to the dugge why should not salt cast vpon it be a preseruatiue against it Or rather why should not salt hinder the fire from being carryed thither Since the nature of salt alwayes hindereth and suppresseth the actiuity of fire as we see by experience when we throw salt into the fire below to hinder the flaming of soute in the toppe of a chimney which presently ceaseth when new fire from beneath doth not continue it And thus we might proceed in sundry other effects to declare the reason and the possibility of them were we certaine of the truth of them therefore we remitt this whole question to the autority of the testimonies THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction AFter these lett vs cast our eye vpon an other motion very familiar among Alchymistes which they call Filtration It is effected by putting one end of a tongue or labell of flannen or of cotton or of flaxe into a vessell of water and letting the other end hang ouer the brimme of it And it will by little and little draw all the water out of that vessell so that the end which hangeth out be lower then the superficies of the water and will make it all come ouer into any lower vessell you will reserue it in The end of this operation is when any water is mingled with grosse and muddy partes not dissolued in the water to separate the pure and light ones from the impure By which we are taught that the lighter partes of the water are those which most easily do catch And if we will examine in particular how it is likely this businesse passeth wee may conceiue that the body or linguet by which â—hâ— water ascendeth being a dry one some lighter partes of the water whose chance it is to be neere the clymbing body of flaxe do beginne to sticke fast vnto it and then they require nothing neere so great force nor so much pressing to make them clymbe vp along the flaxe as they would do to make them mount in the pure ayre As you may see if you hold a sticke in running water sheluing against the streame the water will runne vp along the sticke much higher then it could be forced vp in the open ayre without any support though the Agent were much stronger then the current of the streame And a ball will vpon a rebound runne much higher vp a sheluing board then it would if nothing touched it And I haue beene told that if an eggeshell filled with dew bee sett att â—he foote of a hollow sticke the sunne will draw it to the toppe of the sheluing sticke whereas without a proppe it will not stirre it With much more reason then we may conceiue that water finding as it were little steppes in the cotton to facilitate its iourney vpwardes must ascend more easily then those other thinges do so as it once receiue any impulse to driue it vpwardes for the grauity both of that water which is vpon the cotton as also of so many of the confining partes of water as can reach the cotton is exceedingly allayed eyther by sticking vnto the cotton and so weighing in one bulke with â—hat dry body or else by not tending downe straight to the center but resting as it were vpon a steepe plaine according to what we said of the arme of a syphon that hangeth very sloaping out of the water and therefore draweth not after it a lesse proportion of water in the other arme that is more in a direct line to the center by which meanes the water as soone as it beginneth to clymbe cometh to stand in a kind of cone nether breaking from the water below its bulke being bigge enough to reach vnto it nor yet falling downe vnto it But our chiefe labour must be to find a cause that may make the water beginne to ascend To which purpose consider how water of its owne nature compresseth it selfe together to exclude any other body lighter then it is Now in respect of the whole masse of the water those partes which sticke to the cotton are to be accounted much lighter then water not because in their owne nature they are so but for the circumstances which accompany them and do giue them a greater disposition to receiue a motion vpwardes then much lighter bodies whiles they are destitute of such helpes Wherefore as the bulke of water weighing and striuing downewardes it followeth that if there were any ayre mingled with it it would to possesse a lesser place driue out the ayre so here in this case the water that is att the foote of the ladder of cotton ready to clymbe with a very small impulse may be after some sort compared in respect of the water to ayre by reason of the lightnesse of it and consequently is forced vp by the compressing of the rest of the water round about it Which no faster getteth vp but other partes att the foote of the ladder do follow the first and driue them still vpwardes along the towe and new ones driue the second and others the third and so forth So that with ease they clymbe vp to the toppe of the filter still driuing one
an other forwardes as you may do a fine towel through a muskett barrell which though it be too limber to be thrust straight through yet cramming still new partes into it att the length you will driue the first quite through And thus when these partes of water are gott vp to the toppe of the vessell on which the filter hangeth and ouer it on the other side by sticking still to the towe and by their naturall grauity against which nothing presseth on this side the labell they fall downe againe by little and little and by droppes breake againe into water in the vessell sett to receiue them But now if you aske why it will not droppe vnlesse the end of the labell that hangeth be lower then the water I conceiue it is because the water which is all along vpon the flannen is one continued body hanging together as it were a thridde of wyre and is subiect to like accidents as such a continued body is Now suppose you lay a wyre vpon the edge of the basin which the filter resteth vpon and so make that edge the center to ballance it vpon if the end that is outermost be heauyest it will weigh downe the other otherwise not So fareth it with this thridde of water if the end of it that hangeth out of the pott that is to be filtred be longer and consequently heauyer then that which riseth it must needes raise the other vpwardes and fall it selfe downewardes Now the raising of the other implyeth lifting more water from the cisterne and the sliding of it selfe further downewardes is the cause of its conuerting into droppes So that the water in the cisterne serueth like the flaxe vpon a distaffe and is spunne into a thridde of water still as it commeth to the flannen by the drawing it vp occasioned by the ouerweight of the thridde on the other side of the center Which to expresse better by a similitude in a solide body I remēber I haue oftētimes seene in a Mercers shoppe a great heap of massy goldlace lye vpon their stall and a little way aboue it a round smooth pinne of wood ouer which they vse to hale their lace when they wind it into bottomes Now ouer this pinne I haue putt one end of the lace and as long as it hung no lower thē the board vpō which the rest of the lace did lye it stirred not for as the weight of the loose end carried it one way so the weight of the other side where the whole was drew it the other way and in this manner kept it in equilibrity But as soone as I drew on the hāging end to be heauyer thē the clymbing side for no more weigheth thē is in the ayre that which lyeth vpon the board hauing an other cēter then it began to roule to the ground and still drew vp new partes of that which lay vpon the board vntill all was tumbled downe vpon the floore In the same manner it happeneth to the water in which the thridde of it vpon the filter is to be compared fittly vnto that part of the lace which hung vpon the pinne and the whole quantity in the cisterne is like the bulke of lace vpon the shoppeboard for as fast as the filter draweth it vp it is conuerted into a thridde like that which is already vpon the filter in like manner as the wheele conuerteth the flaxe into yarne as fast as it draweth it out from the distaffe Our next consideration will very aptly fall vpon the motion of those thinges which being bent do leape with violence to their former figure whereas others returne but a little and others do stand in that ply wherein the bending of them hath sett them For finding the reason of which effects our first reflection may be to note that a superficies which is more long then broad containeth a lesse floore then that whose sides are equall or neerer being equall and that of those surfaces whose lines and angles are all equall that which hath most sides and angles containeth still the greater floore Whence it is that Mathematicians conclude a circle to be the most capacious of all figures and what they say of lines in respect of a superficies the same with proportion they say of surfaces in respect of the body contained And accordingly we see by consequence that in the making a bagge of a long napkin if the napkin be sowed together longwise it holdeth a great deale lesse then if it be sowed together broadwise By this we see plainely that if any body which is in a thicke and short figure be forced into a thinner which by becoming thinner must likewise become eyther longer or broader for what it looseth one way it must gett an other then that superfieies must needes be stretched which in our case is a Physicall outside or materiall part of a solide body not a Mathematicall consideration of an indiuisible Entity We see also that this change of figures happeneth in the bending of all those bodies whereof we are now enquiring the reason why some of them restore themselues to their originall figures and others stand as they are bent Then to begin with the latter sort we find that they are of a moist nature as among mettalls lead and tinne and among other bodies those which we account soft And we may determine that this effect proceedeth partly from the humidity of the body that standeth bent and partly from a drynesse peculiar to it that comprehendeth and fixeth the humidity of it For by the first they are rendred capable of being driuen into any figure which nature or art desireth and by the second they are preserued from hauing their grauity putt them out of what figure they haue once receiued But because these two conditions are common to all solide bodies we may conclude that if no other circumstance concurred the effect arising out of them would likewise be common to all such and therefore where we find it otherwise we must seeke further for a cause of that transgression As for example if you bend the bodies of young trees or the branches of others they will returne to their due figure It is true they will sometime leane towardes that way they haue beene bent as may be seene euen in great trees after violent tempestes and generally the heades of trees and the eares of corne and the growne hedgerowes will all bend one way in some countries where some one wind hath a maine predominance and raigneth most continually as neere the sea-shore vpon the westerne coast of England where the southwest wind bloweth constantly the greatest part of the yeare may be obserued but this effect proceeding from a particular and extraordinary cause concerneth not our matter in hand We are to examine the reason of the motion of Restitution which we generally see in yong trees and branches of others as we said before In such we see that the earthy part which maketh them stiffe or
rather starke aboundeth more in them then in the others that stand as they are bent att the least in proportion to their natures but I conceiue this is not the cause of the effect we enquire about but that it is a subtile spirit which hath a great proportion of fire in it For as in rarefaction we found that fire which was eyther within or without the body to be rarifyed did cause the rarefaction eyther by entering into it or by working within it so seeing here the question is for a body to goe out of a lesser superficies into a greater which is the progresse of rarefaction and happeneth in the motion of restitution the worke must needes be done by the force of heate And because this effect proceedeth euidently out of the nature of the thing in which it is wrought and not from any outward cause we may conclude it hath its origine from a heate that is within the thing it selfe or else that was in it and may be pressed to the outward partes of it and would sinke into it againe As for example when a yong tree is bended both euery mans conceite is and the nature of the thing maketh vs beleeue that the force which bringeth the tree backe againe to its figure cometh from the inner side that is bent which is compressed together as being shrunke into a circular figure from a straight one for when solide bodies that were plaine on both sides are bent so as on each side to make a portion of a circle the conuexe superficies will be longer then it was before when it was plaine but the concaue will be shorter And therefore we may conceiue that the spirits which are in the contracted part being there squeezed into lesse roome then their nature well brooketh do worke themselues into a greater space or else that the spirits which are crushed out of the conuexe side by the extension of it but do remaine besieging it and do striue to gett in againe in such manner as we haue declared when we spoke of attraction wherein we shewed how the emitted spirits of any body will moue to their owne source and settle againe in it if they be within a conuenient compasse and accordingly do bring backe the extended partes to their former situation or rather that both these causes do in their kindes concurre to driue the tree into its naturall figure But as we see when a sticke is broken it is very hard to replace all the splinters euery one in its proper situation so it must of necessity fall out in this bending that certaine insensible partes both inward and outward are thereby displaced and can hardly be perfectly reioynted Whence it followeth that as you see the splinters of a halfe broken sticke meeting with one an other do hold the sticke somewhat crooked so these inuisible partes do the like in such bodies as after bending stand a little that way But because they are very little ones the tree or the branch that hath beene neuer so much bended may so nothing be broken in it be sett straight againe by paines without any notable detriment of its strength And thus you see the reason of some bodies returning in part to their naturall figure after the force leaueth them that did bend them Out of which you may proceed to those bodies that restore themselues entirely whereof steele is the most eminent And of it we know that there is a fiery spirit in it which may be extracted out of it not only by the long operations of calcining digesting and distilling it but euen by grosse heating it and then extinguishing it in wine and other conuenient liquors as Physitians vse to do Which is also confirmed by the burning of steele dust in the flame of a candle before it hath beene thus wrought vpon which afterwardes it will not do whereby we are taught that originally there are store of spirits in steele till they are sucked out Being then assured that in steele there is such aboundance of spirits and knowing that it is the nature of spirits to giue a quicke motion and seeing that duller spirits in trees do make this motion of Restitution we neede seeke no further what it is that doeth it in steele or in any other thinges that haue the like nature which through the multitude of spirits that abound in them especially steele do returne backe with so strong a ierke that their whole body will tremble a great while after by the force of its owne motion By what is said the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch may easily be vnderstood for they are generally composed of stringy partes vnto which if humidity happen to arriue they grow thereby thicker and shorter As we see that droppes of water getting into a new roape of a welle or into a new cable will swell it much thicker and by consequence make it shorter Galileus noteth such wetting to be of so great efficacy that it will shrinke a new cable and shorten it notably notwithstanding the violence of a tempest and the weight and ierkes of a loaden shippe do straine it what is possible for them to stretch it Of this nature leather seemeth to be and parchment and diuers other thinges which if they be proportionably moystned and no exterior force be applyed to extend them will shrinke vp but if they be ouerwetted they will become flaccide Againe if they be soddainely dryed they will shriuell vp but if they be fairely dryed after moderate wetting they will extend themselues againe to their first length The way hauing been opened by what we haue discoursed before we came to the motion of Restitution towardes the discouery of the manner how heauy bodies may be forced vpwardes contrary to their naturall motion by very small meanes in outward appearance lett vs now examine vpon the same groundes if like motions to this of water may not be done in some other bodies in a subtiler manner In which more or lesse needeth not trouble vs since we know that neyther quantity nor the operations of it do consist in an indiuisible or are limited to determined periodes they may not passe It is enough for vs to find a ground for the possibility of the operation and then the perfecting of it and the reducing it to such a height as att the first might seeme impossible and incredibile we may leaue to the oeconomy of wise nature He that learneth to read write or to play on the lute is in the beginning ready to loose hart att euery steppe when he considereth with what labour difficulty and slownesse he ioyneth the letters spelleth syllabes formeth characters fitteth and breaketh his fingers as though they were vpon the racke to stoppe the right frettes and to touch the right stringes And yet you see how strange a dexterity is gained in all these by industry and practise and a readinesse beyond what we could imagine possible if we saw
all the ayre in this our hemisphere is as it were strewed ouer and sowed with aboundance of northerne atomes and that some brookes of them are in station others in a motion of retrogradation backe to their owne north pole the southerne atomes which coming vpon them att the equator do not onely presse in among them wheresoeuer they can find admittance but do also go on fowardes to the north pole in seuerall files by themselues being driuen that way by the same accidentall causes which make the others retire backe seising in their way vpon the northerne ones in such manner as we described in filtration and thereby creeping along by them wheresoeuer they find them standing still and going along with them wheresoeuer they find them going backe must of necessity find passage in great quantities towardes and euen to the north pole though some partes of them will euer and anone be checked in this their iourney by the maine current preuayling ouer some accidentall one and so be carried backe againe to the aequator whose line they had crossed And this effect can not choose but be more or lesse according to the seasons of the yeare for when the sunne is in the Tropike of Capricorne the southerne atomes will flow in much more aboundance and with farre greater speede into the torride zone then the northerne atomes can by reason of the sunnes approximation to the south and his distance from the north pole since he worketh faintest where he is furthest off and therefore from the north no more emanations or atomes will be drawne but such as are most subtilised and duly prepared for that course And since onely these selected bandes do now march towardes the aequator their files must needes be thinner then when the sunnes being in the aequator or Tropike of Cancer wakeneth and mustereth vp all their forces And consequently the quiett partes of ayre betweene their files in which like atomes are also scattered are the greater whereby the aduenient southerne atomes haue the larger filter to clymbe vp by And the like happeneth in the other hemisphere when the sunne is in the Tropike of Cancer as who will bestow the paines to compare them will presently see Now then lett vs consider what these two streames thus incorporated must of necessity do in the surface or vpper partes of the earth First it is euident they must needes penetrate a pretty depth into the earth for so freesing persuadeth vs and much more the subtile penetration of diuers more spirituall bodies of which we haue sufficiently discoursed aboue Now lett vs conceiue that these steames do find a body of a conuenient density to incorporate themselues in in the way of density as we see that fire doth in iron and in other dense bodies and this not for an houre or two as happeneth in fire but for yeares as I haue beene told that in the extreme cold hilles in the Peake in Darbyshire happeneth to the dry atomes of cold which are permanently incorporated in water by long continuall freesing and so make a kind of chrystall In this case certainely it must come to passe that this body will become in a māner wholy of the nature of these steames which because they are drawne from the Poles that abound in cold and drynesse for others that haue not these qualities do not contribute to the intended effect the body is aptest to become a stone for so we see that cold and drought turneth the superficiall partes of the earth into stones and rockes and accordingly wheresoeuer cold and dry windes raigne powerfully all such countries are mainely rocky Now then lett vs suppose this stone to be taken out of the earth and hanged in the ayre or sett conueniently vpon some little pinne or otherwise putt in liberty so as a small impulse may easily turne it any way it will in this case certainely follow that the end of the stone which in the earth lay towardes the north pole will now in the ayre conuert it selfe in the same manner towardes the same point and the other end which lay towardes the south turne by consequence to the south I speake of these countries which lye betweene the aequator and the North in which it can not choose but that the streame going from the north to the aequator must be stronger then the opposite one Now to explicate how this is done suppose the stone hanged east and west freely in the ayre the streame which is drawne from the north pole of the earth rangeth along by it in its course to the aequator and finding in the stone the south steame which is growne innate to it very strong it must needes incorporate it selfe with it and most by those partes of the steame in the stone which are strongest which are they that come directly from the North of the stone by which I meane that part of the stone that lay northward in the earth and that still looketh to the north pole of the earth now it is in the ayre And therefore the great flood of atomes coming from the north pole of the earth will incorporate it selfe most strongly by the north end of the stone with the little flood of southerne atomes it findeth in the stone for that end serueth for the coming out of the southerne atomes and sendeth them abroad as the south end doth the northerne steame since the steames do come in att one end and do go out att the opposite end From hence we may gather that this stone will ioyne and cleaue to its attractiue whensoeuer it happeneth to be within the sphere of its actiuity Besides if by some accident it should happen that the atomes or steames which are drawne by the sunne from the Polewardes to the aequator should come stronger from some part of the earth which is on the side hand of the Pole then from the very Pole it selfe in this case the stone will turne from the Pole towardes that side Lastly whatsoeuer this stone will do towardes the Pole of the earth the very same a lesser stone of the same kind will do towardes a greater And if there be any kind of other substance that hath participation of the nature of this stone such a substance will behaue it selfe towardes this stone in the same manner as such a stone behaueth it selfe towardes the earth all the Phenomens whereof may be the more plainely obserued if the stone be cutt into the forme of the earth And thus we haue found a perfect delineation of the loadestone from its causes for there is no man so ignorant of the nature of a loadestone but he knoweth that the properties of it are to tend towardes the North to vary sometimes to ioyne with an other loadestone to draw iron vnto it and such like whose causes you see deliuered But to come to experimentall proofes and obseruations vpon the loadestone by which it will appeare that these causes are well esteemed and
of any emanations from it that being as we haue said before their readyest way to passe along and within the stone the streame doth the like to meete the aduenient streame where it is strongest and thickest which is att that narrow part of the stones end which is most prominent out And by this discourse we discouer likewise an other errour of them that imagine the loadestone hath a sphere of actiuity round about it equall on all sides that is perfectly sphericall if the stone be sphericall Which cleerely is a mistaken speculation for nature hauing so ordered all her agents that where the strength is greatest there the action must generally speaking extend it selfe furthest off and it being acknowledged that the loadestone hath greatest strength in its poles and least in the aequator it must of necessity follow that it worketh further by its poles then by its aequator And consequently it is impossible that its sphere of actiuity should be perfectly sphericall Nor doth Cabeus his experience moue vs to conceiue the loadestone hath a greater strength to retayne an iron layed vpon it by its aequator then by its poles for to iustify his assertion he should haue tried it in an iron wyre that were so short as the poles could not haue any notable operation vpon the endes of it since otherwise the force of retayning it will be attributed to the poles according to what we haue aboue deliuered and not to the aequator The eighth position is that the intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and the attracted bodies Which is euident out of the sticking of them together as also out of the violence wherewith iron cometh to a loadestone which when it is drawne by a powerfull one is so great that through the force of the blow hitting the stone it will rebound backe againe and then fall againe to the stone and in like manner a needle vpon a pinne if a loadestone be sett neere it turneth with so great a force towardes the pole of the stone that it goeth beyond it and coming backe againe the celerity wherewith it moueth maketh it retire it selfe too farre on the other side and so by many vndulations att the last it cometh to rest directly opposite to the pole Likewise by the declination by meanes of which the iron to the stone or the stone to the earth approacheth in such a disposition as is most conuenient to ioyne the due endes together And lastly out of the flying away of the contrary endes from one an other which clearely is to no other purpose but that the due endes may come together And in generall there is no doubt but ones going to an other is instituted by the order of nature for their coming together and for their being together which is but a perseuerance of their coming together The nineth position is that the nature of a loadestone doth not sinke deeply into the maine body of the earth as to haue the substance of its whole body be magneticall but only remayneth neere the surface of it And this is euident by the inequality in vertue of the two endes for if this magnetike vertue were the nature of the whole body both endes would be equally strong Nor would the disposition of one of the endes be different from the disposition of the other Againe there could be no variation of the tending towardes the north for the bulke of the whole body would haue a strength so eminently greater then the prominences and disparities of hils or seas as the varieties of these would be absolutely insensible Againe if the motion of the loadestone came from the body of the earth it would be perpetually from the center and not from the poles and so there could be no declination more in one part of the earth then in an other Nor would the loadestone tend from north to south but from the center to the circumference or rather from the circumference to the center And so we may learne the difference between the loadestone and the earth in their attractiue operations to witt that the earth doth not receiue its influence from an other body nor doth its magnetike vertue depend of an other magnetike agent that impresseth it into it which neuerthelesse is the most remarkable condition of a loadestone Againe the strongest vertue of the loadestone is from pole to pole but the strongest vertue of the earth is from the center vpwardes as appeareth by fireforkes gaining a much greater magnetike strength in a short time then a loadestone in a longer Neyther can it be thence obiected that the loadestone should therefore receiue the earthes influences more strongly from the centerwardes then from the poles of the earth which by its operation and what we haue discoursed of it is certaine it doth not since the beds where loadestones lye and are formed be towardes the bottome of that part or barke of the earth which is imbued with magnetike vertue Againe this vertue which we see in a loadestone is substantiall to it whereas the like vertue is but accidentall to the earth by meanes of the sunnes drawing the northerne and souththerne exhalations to the aequator The last positioÌ„ is that the loadestone must be found ouer all the earth and in euery country And so we see it is both because iron mines are found in some measure almost in all countries and because att the least other sortes of earth as we haue declared of pottearths can not be wanting in any large extent of country which when they are baked and cooled in due positions haue this effect of the loadestone and are of the nature of it And Docteur Gilbert sheweth that the loadestone is nothing else but the oore of steele or of perfectest iron and that it is to be found of all colours and fashions and almost of all consistences So that we may easily conceiue that the emanations of the loadestone being euery where as well as the causes of grauity the two motions of magnetike thinges and of weighty thinges do both of them deriue their origine from the same source I meane from the very same emanations coming from the earth which by a diuers ordination of nature do make this effect in the loadestone and that other in weighty thinges And who knoweth but that a like sucking to this which we haue shewed in magnetike thinges passeth also in the motion of grauity In a wold grauity beareth a faire testimony in the behalfe of the magnetike foâ—ce and the loadestones working returneth no meane verdict for the causes of grauity according to what we haue deliuered of them THE TWO AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER A solution of certaine Problemes concerning the loadestone and as hort summe of the whole doctrine touching it OVt of what is said vpon this subiect we may proceed to the solution of certaine questions or problemes which
themselues to other iron so strongly or with so many partes as Galileos did would not by much take vp so great weightes as his Neuerthelesse it seemeth not to me that his answere is sufficient or that his reasons conuince for we are to consider that the vertue which he putteth in the iron must according to his owne supposition proceed from the loadestone and then what importeth it whether the superficies of the iron which toucheth an other iron be so exactly plaine or no Or that the partes of it be more solide then the partes of the stone For all this conduceth nothing to make the vertue greater then it was since no more vertue can go from one iron to the other then goeth from the loadestone to the first iron and if this vertue can not tye the first iron to the loadestone it can not proceed out of this vertue that the second iron be tyed to the first Againe if a paper be putt betwixt the cappe and an other iron it doth not hinder the magneticall vertue from passing through it to the iron but the vertue of taking vp more weight then the naked stone was able to do is thereby rendered quite vselesse Therefore it is euident that this vertue must be putt in something else and not in the application of the magneticall vertue And to examine his reasons particularly it may very well fall out that whatsoeuer the cause be the point of a needle may be too little to make an exact experience in and therefore a new doctrine ought not lightly be grounded vpon what appeareth in the application of that And likewise the greatnesse of the surfaces of the two irons may be a condition helpefull to the cause whatsoeuer it be for greater and lesser are the common conditions of all bodies and therefore do auayle all kindes of corporeall causes so that no one cause can be affirmed more then an other meerely out of this that great doth more and little doth lesse To come then to our owne solution I haue considered how fiâ—â— hath in a manner the same effect in iron as the vertue of the loadestone hath by meanes of the cappe for I find that fire coming through iron red glowing hoat will burne more strongly then if it should come immediately through the ayre as also we see that in pittecoale the fire is stronger then in charcoale And neuerthelesse the fire will heat further if it come immediately from the source of it then if it come through a red iron that burneth more violently where it toucheth and likewise charcoale will heat further then pittcoale that neere hand burneth more fiercely In the same manner the loadestone will draw further without a cappe then with one but with a cappe it sticketh faster then without one Whence I see that it is not purely the vertue of the loadestone but the vertue of it being in iron which causeth this effect Now this modification may proceed eyther from the multitude of partes which come out of the loadestone and are as it were stopped in the iron and so the sphere of their actiuity becometh shorter but stronger or else from some quality of the iron ioyned to the influence of the loadestone The first seemeth not to giue a good account of the effect for why should a little paper take it away seeing we are sure that it stoppeth not the passage of the loadestones influence Againe the influence of the loadestone seemeth in its motion to be of the nature of light which goeth in an insensible time as farre as it can reach and therefore were it multiplyed in the iron it would reach further then without it and from it the vertue of the loadestone would beginne a new sphere of actiuity Therefore we more willingly cleaue to the latter part of our determination And there vpon enquiring what quality there is in iron whence this effect may follow we find that it is distinguished from a loadestone as a mettall is from a stone Now we know that mettalls haue generally more humidity then stones and we haue discoursed aboue that humidity is the cause of sticking especially when it is little and dense These qualities must needes be in the humidity of iron which of all mettalls is the most terrestriall and such humidity as is able to sticke to the influence of the loadestone as it passeth through the body of the iron must be exceeding subtile and small and it seemeth necessary that such humidity should sticke to the influence of the loadestone when it meeteth with it considering that the influence is of it selfe dry and that the nature of iron is akinne to the loadestone wherefore the humidity of the one and the drought of the other will not faile of incorporating together Now then if two irons well polished and plaine be vnited by such a glew as resulteth out of this composition there is a manifest appearance of much reason for them to sticke strongly together This is confirmed by the nature of iron in very cold countries and very cold weather for the very humidity of the ayre in times of frost will make vpon iron sooner then vpon other thinges such a sticking glew as will pull off the skinne of a mans hand that toucheth it hard And by this discourse you will perceiue that Galileos arguments do confirme our opinion as well as his owne and that according to our doctrine all circumstances must fall out iust as they do in his experiences And the reason is cleare why the interposition of an other body hindereth the strong sticking of iron to the cappe of the loadestone for it maketh the mediation between them greater which we haue shewed to be the generall reason why thinges are easily parted Lett vs then proceed to the resolution of the other cases proposed The second is already resolued for if this glew be made of the influence of the loadestone it can not haue force further then the loadestone it selfe hath and so farre it must haue more force then the bare influence of the loadestone Or rather the humidity of two irons maketh the glew of a fitter temper to hold then that which is betweene a dry loadestone and iron and the glew entereth better when both sides are moist then when only one is so But this resolution though it be in part good yet it doth not euacuate the whole difficulty since the same case happeneth betweene a stronger and a weaker loadestone as betweene a loadestone and iron for the weaker loadestone whilst it is within the sphere of actiuity of the greater loadestone draweth away an iron sett betwixt them as well as a second iron doth For the reason therefore of the little loadestones drawing away the iron we may consider that the greater loadestone hath two effects vpon the iron which is betwixt it and a lesser loadestone and a third effect vpon the little loadestone it selfe The first is that it impregnateth the iron and giueth
the causes of euery one of them exactly which would require both large discourses and aboundance of experiences to acquitt our selues as we ought of such a taske Nor is there a like neede of doing it as formerly for as much as concerneth our designe since the causes of them are palpably materiall and the admirable artifice of them consisteth only in the Daedalean and wunderfull ingenious ordering and ranging them one with an other We shall therefore entreat our Reader from this time forwardes to expect only the common sequele of those particular effects out of the principles already layed And when some shall occurre that may peraduenture seeme att the first sight to be enacted immediately by a vertue spirituall and that proceedeth indiuisibly in a different straine from the ordinary processes which we see in bodies and in bodily thinges that is by the vertues of rarity and density working by locall motion we hope he will be satisfyed att our handes if we lay downe a methode and trace out a course whereby such euents and operations may follow out of the principles we haue layed Though peraduenture we shall not absolutely conuince that euery effect is done iust as we sett it downe in euery particular and that it may not as well be done by some other disposing of partes vnder the same generall scope for it is enough for our turne if we shew that such effects may be performed by corporeall agents working as other bodies do without confining ourselues to an exactnesse in euery linke of the long chaine that must be wound vp in the performance of them To come then to the matter the next thing we are to employ ourselues about now that we haue explicated the natures of those motions by meanes whereof bodies are made and destroyed and in which they are to be considered chiefely as passiue whiles some exteriour agent working vpon them causeth such alterations in them and bringeth them to such passe as wee see in the changes that are dayly wrought among substances is to take a suruay of those motions which some bodies haue wherein they seeme to be not so much patients as agents and do containe with in themselues the principle of their owne motion and haue no relation to any outward obiect more then to stirre vp that principle of motion and sett it on worke which when it is once in act hath as it were within the limits of its owne kingdome and seuered from commerce with all other bodies whatsoeuer many other subalterne motions ouer which it presideth To which purpose we may consider that among the compounded bodies whose natures we haue explicated there are some in whom the partes of different complexions are so small and so well mingled together that they make a compound which to our sense seemeth to be all of it quite through of one homogeneous nature and howsoeuer it be diuided each part retaineth the entire and coÌ„plete nature of the whole Others againe there are in which it is easy to discerne that the whole is made vp of seuerall great partes of very differing natures and teÌ„pers And of these there are two kindes the one of such as their differing partes seeme to haue no relation to one an other or correspondence together to performe any particular worke in which all of them are necessary but rather they seeme to be made what they are by chance and by accident and if one part be seuered from an other each is an entire thing by it selfe of the same nature as it was in the whole and no harmony is destroyed by such diuision As may be obserued in some bodies digged out of mines in which one may see luÌ„pes of mettall oore stone and glasse and such different substances in their seuerall distinct situations perfectly compacted into one continuate body which if you diuide the glasse remaineth what it was before the Emerald is still an Emerald the syluer is good syluer and the like of the other subsâ—aÌ„ces the causes of which may be easily deduced out of what we haue formerly said But there are other bodies in which this manifest and notable difference of partes carrieth with it such a subordinatioÌ„ of one of them vnto an other as we can not doubt but that nature made such engines if so I may call them by designe and intended that this variety should be in one thing whose vnity and being what it is should depend of the harmony of the seuerall differing partes and should be destroyed by their seperation As we see in liuing creatures whose particular partes and members being once seuered there is no longer a liuing creature to be found among them Now of this kind of bodies there are two sortes The first is of those that seeme to be one continuate substance wherein we may obserue one and the same constant progresse throughout from the lowest vnto the highest part of it so that the operation of one part is not att all different from that of an other but the whole body seemeth to be the course and through fare of one constant action varying it selfe in diuers occasions and occurrences according to the disposition of the subiect The bodies of the secoÌ„d sort haue their partes so notably seperated one froÌ„ the other and each of them haue such a peculiar motion proper vnto them that one might conceiue they were eueâ—y one of them a complete distinct totall thing by it selfe and that all of them were artificially tyed together were it not that the subordination of these partes to one an other is so great and the correspondence betweene them so strict the one not being able to subsist without the other from whom he deriueth what is needefull for him and againe being so vsefull vnto that other and hauing its action and motion so fitting and necessary for it as without it that other can not be as plainely conuinceth that the compound of all these senerall partes must needes be one indiuiduall thing I remember that when I trauailed in spaine I saw there two engines that in some sort do expresse the natures of these two kindes of bodies The one att Toledo the other att Segouia both of them sett on worke by the current of the riuer in which the foundation of their machine was layed That att Toledo was to force vp water a great hieght from the riuer Tagus to the Alcazar the King his pallace that standeth vpon a high steepe hill or rocke almost perpendicular ouer the riuer In the bottome there was an indented wheele which turning round with the streame gaue motion att the same time to the whole engine which consisted of a multitude of little troughes or square ladles sett one ouer an other in two parallele rowes ouer against one an other from the bottome to the toppe and vpon two seuerall diuided frames of tymber These troughes were closed att one end with a trauerse bord to retaine the water from running out there which
harden the outside and then of necessity there must be a hollow cylinder remayning in lieu of the iuice which before did fill it As we see euery day in corne and in reedes and in canes and in the stalkes of many herbes which whilst they are tender and in their first groweth are full of iuice and become afterwardes hollow and drye But because this discourse may peraduenture seeme too much in common it will not be amisse to apply it to some particulars that seem◠very strange And first lett vs examine how the rocking of concrete iuices which seemeth to be such an admirable mystery of nature is performed Alume falleth downe in lumpes saltpeter in long ycickles and common salt in squares and this not once or sometimes now and then but alwayes constantly in the same order The reason of these effects will easily be reduced out of what we haue said for if all three be dissolued in the same water alume being the grossest falleth first and fastest and being of an vnctuous nature the first part which falleth doth not harden till the second cometh to it whereby this second sticketh to the first and crusheth it downe and this is serued in the same manner by the third and so goeth on one part squeezing an other till what is vndermost grow hard enough to resist the weight of new falling partes or rather till no more do fall but the liquor they were dissolued in is deliuered of them all and then they harden in that figure they were compressed into As for salt which descendeth in the second place that swimmeth first vpon the water and there getteth its figure which must be equally long and broad because the water is indifferent to those two positions but its thickenesse is not equall to its other two dimensions by reason that before it can attaine to that thicknesse it groweth too heauy to swimme any longer and after it is encreased to a certaine bulke the weight of it carrieth it downe to the bottome of the water and consequently it can encrease no more for it encreaseth by the ioyning of litle partes vnto it as it swimmeth on the toppe of the water The saltpeter falleth last which being more difficult to be figured then the other two because it is more dry then eyther of them as consisting chiefely of earthy and of fyry partes is not equally encreased neyther in all three nor in two dimensions but hath its length exceeding both its breadth and thicknesse and its lightnesse maketh it fall last because it requireth least water to sustaine it To giue the causes of the figures of diuers mixtes and particularly of some pretious stones which seeme to be cast by nature in exactest mouldes would oblige vs to enter into the particular manner of their generation which were exceeding hard if not impossible for vs to do by reason that Authors haue not left vs the circumstances vpon which we might ground our iudgement concerning them so particularly described as were necessary nor our selues haue mett with the commodity of making such experiences and of searching so into their beds as were requisite to determine solidely the reasons of them And indeede I conceiue that oftentimes the relations which others haue recorded of their generation would rather misseleade then assist vs since it is very familiar in many men to magnify the exactenesse of nature in framing effects they fansye to themselues when to make their wonder appeare more iust they will not fayle to sett of their story with all aduantageous circumstances and helpe out what wanteth a litle or cometh but neere the marke But to come closer to our purpose that is to the figures of liuing thinges we see that rootes in the earth are all of them figured almost in the same fashion for the heate residing in the middest of them pusheth euery way and therevpon some of them do become round but others more long then round according to the temper of the ground or to the season of the yeare or to the weather that happeneth and this not only in diuers kindes of rootes but euē in seuerall of the same kinde That part of the plant which mounteth vpwardes is for the most part round and long the cause whereof is euident for the iuice which is in the middle of it working vpwardes because the hardnesse of the barke will not lett it out att the sides and coming in more and more aboundance for the reasons we haue aboue deliuered encreaseth that part equally euery way but vpwardes and therefore it must be equally thicke and broad and consequently round but the length will exceed eyther of the other dimensions because the iuice is driuen vp with a greater force and in more quantity then it is to the sides Yet the broadnesse and thickenesse are not so exactly vniforme but that they exceede a little more att the bottome then att the toppe which is occasioned partly by the contracting of the iuice into a narrower circuite the further it is from the source and partly by reason of the branches which shooting forth do conuey away a great part of the iuice from the maine stocke Now if we consider the matter well we shall find that what is done in the whole tree the very same is likewise done in euery litle leafe of it for a leafe consisteth of litle branches shooting out from one greater branch which is in the middle and againe other lesser branches are deriued from those second branches and so still lesser and lesser till they weaue themselues into a close worke as thicke as that which we see women vse to fill vp with silke or crewell when in tenteworke they embroader leafes or flowers vpon canneuas and this againe is couered and as it were glewed ouer by the humour which sticking to these litle thriddes stoppeth vp euery litle vacuity and by the ayre is hardened into such a skinne as we see a leafe consisteth of And thus it appeareth how an account may be giuen of the figure of the leafes as well as of the figure of the maine body of the whole tree the litle branches of the leafe being proportionate in figure to the branches of the tree it selfe so that each leafe seemeth to be the tree in litle and the figure of the leafe depending of the course of these litle branches so that if the greatest branch of the tree be much longer then the others the leafe will be a long one but if the lesser branches spread broadwayes the leafe will likewise be a broad one so farre as euen to be notched att the outsides round about it in great or litle notches according to the proportion of the trees branches These leafes when they first breake out are foulded inwardes in such sort as the smallnesse and roundnesse of the passage in the wood through which they issue constrayneth them to be where neuerthelesse the drynesse of their partes keepe them asunder so that one
in for a pretty while without any extreme preiudice But these difficulties are easily answered for whether beasts harts do lye directly horizontally or whether the basis be fastened some what higher then the tippe reacheth and so maketh their hart hang inclining downewardes still the motion of grauity hath its effect in them As wee may perceiue in the hart of a viper lying vpon a plate and in any other thing that of it selfe swelleth vp and straight againe sinketh downe in which we can not doubt but that the grauity fighting against the heate maketh the eleuated partes to fall as the heate maketh them rise And as for the latter it is euident that men can not stay long in that posture without violent accidents and in any litle while we see that the bloud cometh into their face and other partes which naturally are situated higher but by this position become lower then the hart and much time is not required to haue them quite disordered and suffocated the bloud passing through the hart with too much quickenesse and not receiuing due concoction there and falling thence in too great aboundance into places that can not with conueniency entertayne it But you will insist and aske whether in that posture the hart doth moue or no and how And to speake by guesse in a thing I haue not yet made experiences enough to be throughly informed in I conceiue without any great scrupule that it doth moue And that it happeneth thus that the hart hanging somwhat loose must needes tūble ouer and the tippe of it leane downewardes some way or other and so lye in part like the hart of a beast though not so conueniently accommodated and then the heate which maketh the viscous bloud that is in the substance of the hart to ferment will not faile of raising it vp wherevpon the weight of that side of the hart that is lifted vp will presently presse it downe againe And thus by the alternatiue operations of these causes the hart will be made to open and shutt it selfe as much as is necessary for admitting and thrusting out that litle and disorderly coming bloud which maketh its course through it for that litle space wherein the man continueth in that position Now from these effects wrought in the hart by the moystening of the fibers two other effects do proceed the one is that the bloud is pushed out of euery corner of the hart with an impetuousnesse or velocity The other is that by this motion the spirits which are in the ventricles of the hart and in the bloud that is euen then heated there are more and deeper pressed into the substance of the hart so that you see the hart imbibeth fresh vigour and is strengthned with new spirits whiles it seemeth to reiect that which should strengthen it Againe two other effects follow this violent eiection of the bloud out of the hart The one is that for the present the hart is entirely cleansed of all remainders of bloud none being permitted to fall backe to annoy it The other is that the hart finding it selfe dry the fibers do relent presently into their naturall positiō and extensiō and the valuulae that open inwardes fall flatt to the sides of the ventricles and consequently new bloud droppeth in So that in conclusiō we see the motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by the bloud and not from the force of the vapour as Monsieur des Cartes supposeth This motion of the hart driueth the bloud which is warmed and spiritualised by being boyled in this furnace through due passages into the arteries which frō thē runneth into the veines and is a maine cause of making and nourishing other partes as the liuer the lūgs the braines and whatsoeuer else dependeth of those veines and arteries through which the bloud goeth Which being euer freshly heated and receiuing the tincture of the harts nature by passing through the hart wheresoeuer it stayeth and curdleth it groweth into a substance of a nature conformable to the hart though euery one of such substances be of exceeding different conditions in themselues the very grossest excrements not being excluded from some participation of that nature But if you desire to follow the bloud all along euery steppe in its progresse from the hart round about the body till it returne backe againe to its center Doctor Haruey who most acutely teacheth this doctrine must be your guide He will shew you how it issueth from the hart by the arteries from whence it goeth on warming the flesh vntill it arriue some of the extremities of the body and by then it is growne so coole by long absence from the fountaine of its heate and by euaporating its owne stocke of spirits without any new supply that it hath neede of being warmed a new it findeth it selfe returned backe againe to the heart and is there heated againe which returne is made by the veines as its going forwardes is performed only by the arteries And were it not for this continuall circulation of the bloud and this new heating it in its proper cauldron the hart it could not be auoyded but that the extreme partes of the body would soone grow cold and dye For flesh being of it selfe of a cold nature as is apparent in dead flesh and being kept warme meerely by the bloud that bedeweth it and the bloud likewise being of a nature that soone groweth cold and congealeath vnlesse it be preserued in due temper by actuall heate working vpon it how can we imagine that they two singly without any other assistance should keepe one an other warme especially in those partes that are farre distant from the hart by only being together Surely we must allow the bloud which is a substance fitt for motion to haue recourse backe to the hart where only it can be supplyed with new heate and spirits and from thence be driuen out againe by its pulses or stroakes which are his shuttinges And as fast as it flyeth out like a reeking thicke steame which riseth from perfumed water falling vpon a heated panne that which is next before it must fly yet further on to make way for it and new arteriall blould still issuing forth att euery pulse it must still driue on what issued thence the last precedent pulse and that part must presse on what is next before it And thus it fareth with the whole masse of blould which hauing no other course but in the body it must att length runne round and by new vessels which are the veines returne backe vnto the place from whence it issued first and by that time it cometh thither it is growne coole and thicke and needeth a vigorous restauration of spirits and a new rarifying that then it may warme the flesh it passeth againe through without which it would soddainely grow stone cold as is manifest if by tying or cutting the arteries you intercept the blould which is to nourish any part for then
Optikes will by refractions and by reflexions make all sortes of colours out of pure light as we see in Rainebowes in those triangular glasses or prismes which some do call fooles Paradises and in other inuentions for this purpose Wherefore in briefe to shew what colour is lett vs lay for a ground that light is of all other thinges in the worlâ— the greatest and the most powerfull agent vpon our eye eyther by it selfe or by what cometh in with it and that where light is not darkenesse is then consider that light being diuersly to be cast but especially through or from a transparent body into which it sinketh in part and in part it doth not and you will conclude that it can not choose but come out from such a body in diuers sortes mingled with darkenesse which if it be in a sensible quantity doth accordingly make diuers appearances and those appearances must of necessity haue diuers hues representing the colours which are middle colours betweene white and blacke since white is the colour of light and darkenesse seemeth blacke Thus those colours are ingendred which are called apparent ones And they appeare sometimes but in some one position as in the raynebow which changeth place as the looker on doth but att other times they may be seene from any part as those which light maketh by a double refraction through a triangular glasse And that this is rightly deliuered may be gathered out of the conditions requisite to their production for that crystall or water or any refracting body doth not admitt light in all its partes is euident by reason of the reflexion that it maketh which is exceeding great and not only from the superficies but euen from the middle of the body within as you may see plainely if you putt it in a darke place and enlighten but one part of it for then you may perceiue as it were a current of light passe quite through the body although your eye be not opposite to the passage so that manifestly it reflecteth to your eye from all the inward partes which it lighteth vpon Now a more oblique reflexion or refraction doth more disperse the light and admitteth more priuations of light in its partes then a lesse oblique one as Galileo hath demonstrated in the first Dialogue of his systeme Wherefore a lesse oblique reflexion or refraction may receiue that in quality of light which a more oblique one maketh appeare mingled with darkenesse and consequently the same thing will appeare colour in one which sheweth it selfe plaine light in the other for the greater the inclination of an angle is the greater also is the dispersion of the light And as colours are made in this sort by the medium through which light passeth so if we conceiue the superficies from which the light reflecteth to be diuersly ordered in respect of reflexion it must of necessity follow that it will haue a diuers luster and sight as we see by experience in the neckes of pigeons and in certaine positions of our eye in which the light passing through our eye browes maketh an appearance as though we saw diuers colours streaming from a candle we looke vpon And accordingly we may obserue how some thinges or rather most do appeare of a colour more inclining to white when they are irradiated with a great light then when they stand in a lesser And we see painters heighten their colours and make them appeare lighter by placing deepe shadowes by them euen so much that they will make obiects appeare neerer and further of meerly by their mixtion of their colours Because obiects the neerer they are the more strongly and liuely they reflect light and therefore appeare the clearer as the others do more dusky Therefore if we putt the superficies of one body to haue a better disposition for the reflexion of light then an other hath we can not but conceiue that such difference in the superficies must needes begett variety of permanent colours in the bodies And according as the superficies of the same body is better or worse disposed to reflexion of light by polishing or by compressure together or the like so the same body remaining the same in substance will shew it selfe of a different colour And it being euident that white which is the chiefest colour doth reflect most light and as euident that blacke reflecteth least light so that it reflecteth shadowes in lieu of colours as the Oâ—sidian stone among the Romanes doth witnesse And it being likewise euident that to be dense and hard and of small partes is the disposition of the obiect which is most apt to reflect light we can not doubt but that white is that disposition of the superficies That is to say it is the superficies of a body consisting of dense of hard and of small partes and on the contrary side that blacke is the disposition of the superficies which is most soft and full of greatest pores for when light meeteth with such a superficies it getteth easily into it and is there as it were absorpt and hidden in caues and cometh not out againe to reflect towardes our eye This doctrine of ours of the geneâ—ation of colours agreeth exactly with Aristotles principles and followeth euidently out of his definitions of light and of colours And for summing vp the generall sentiments of mankind in making his Logicall definitions I thinke no body will deny his being the greatest Master that euer was He defineth light to be actus Diaphani which we may thus explicate It is that thing which maketh a body that hath an aptitude or capacity of being seene quite through it in euery interior part of it to be actually seene quite through according to that capacity of it And he defineth colour to be The terme or ending of a diaphanous body the meaning whereof is that colour is a thing which makâ—th a diaphanous body to reach no further or that colour is the cause why a body is no further diaphanous then vntill where it beginneth or that colour is the reason why we can see no further then to such a degree through or into such a body Which definition fitteth most exactly with the thing it giueth vs the nature of For it is euident that when we see a body the body we see hindereth vs from seeing any other that is in a straight line beyond it And therefore it can not be denyed but that colour terminateth and endeth the diaphaneity of a body by making it selfe be seene And all men do agree in conceiuing this to be the nature of colour and that it is a certaine disposition of a body whereby that body cometh to be seene On the other side nothing is more euident then that to haue vs see a body light must reach from that body to our eye Then adding vnto this what Aristotle teacheth concerning the production of seeing which he sayth is made by the action of the seene body vpon our sense it
the glasse and each side of the opacous bodies shadow Wherefore in each of these lights or rather in each of their commixtions with darkenesse there must be red on the one side and blew on the other according to the course of light which we haue explicated And thus it falleth out agreable to the rule we haue giuen that blew cometh to be on that side of the opacous bodies shadow on which the glasse casteth red and red on that side of it on which the glasse casteth blew likewise when light going through a conuexe glasse maketh two cones the edges of the cone betwixt the glasse and the point of concurse will appeare red if the roome be darke enough and the edges of the further cone will appeare blew both for the reason giuen for in this case the point of concurse is the strong light betwixt the two cones of which that betwixt the glasse and the point is the stronger that beyond the point the weaker and for this very reason if an opacous body be put in the axis of thâ—se two cones both the sides of its picture will be red if it be held in the first cone which is next to the glasse and both will be blew if the body be situated in the further cone for both sides being equally situated to the course of the light within its owne cone there is nothing to vary the colours but only the strength and the weakenesse of the two lights of the cones on this side and on that side the point of concurse which point being in this case the strong and cleare light whereof we made generall mention in our precedent note the cone towardes the glasse and the illuminant is the stronger side and the cone from the glasse is the weaker In those cases where this reason is not concerned we shall see the victory carried in the question of colours by the shady side of the opacous body that is the blew colour will still appeare on that side of thâ— opacous bodies shadow that is furthest from the illuminant But where both causes do concurre and contrast for precedence there the course of the light carryeth it that is to say the red will be on that side of the opacous bodies shadow where it is thicker and darker and blew on the other side where the shadow is not so strong although the shadow be cast that way that the red appeareth as is to be seene when a slender body is placed betwixt the prisme and the reflectent body vpon which the light and colours are cast through the prisme and it is euident that this cause of the course of the shadow is in it selfe a weaker cause then the other of the course of light and must giue way vnto it whensoeuer they encounter as it can not be expected but that in all circumstances shadowes should to light because the colours which the glasse casteth in this case are much more faint and dusky then in the other For effects of this later cause we see that when an opacous body lyeth crosse the prisme whiles it standeth endwayes the red or blew colour will appeare on the vpper or lower side of its picture according as the illuminant is higher or lower theÌ„ the transuerse opacous body the blew euer keeping to that side of the picture that is furthest from the body and the illuminant that make it and the red the contrary likewise if an opacous body be placed out of the axis in eyther of the cones we haue explicated before the blew will appeare on that side of the picture which is furthest aduanced in the way that the shadow is cast and the red on the contrary and so if the opacous body be placed in the first cone beside the axis the red will appeare on that side of the picture in the basis of the second cone which is next to the circumference and the blew on that side which is next the axis but if it be placed on one side of the axis in the second cone then the blew will appeare on that side the picture which is next the circumference and the red on that side which is next the center of the basis of the cone There remayneth yet one difficulty of moment to be determined which is why when through a glasse two colours namely blew and red are cast from a candle vpon a paper or wall if you put your eye in the place of one of the colours that shineth vpon the wall and so that colour cometh to shine vpon your eye in such sort that an other man who looketh vpon it will see that colour plainely vpon your eye neuerthelesse you shall see the other colour in the glasse As for example if on your eye there shineth a red you shall see a blew in the glasse and if a blew shineth vpon your eye you shall see a red The reason hereof is that the colours which appeare in the glasse are of the nature of those luminous colours which we first explicated that arise from looking vpon white and blacke bordering together for a candle standing in the ayre is as it were a white situated betweene two blackes the circumstant dusky ayre hauing the nature of a blacke so then that side of the candle which is seene through the thicker part of the glasse appeareth red and that which is seene through the thinner appeareth blew in the same manner as when we looke through the glasse whereas the colours shine coÌ„trarywise vpon a paper or reflecting obiect as we haue already declared together with the reasons of both these appearances each fitted to its proper case of looking through the glasse vpon the luminous obiect serrownded with darkenesse in the one and of obseruing the effect wrought by the same luminous obiect in some medium or vpon some reflectent superficies in the other And to confirme this if a white paper be sett standing hollow before the glasse like halfe a hollow pillar whose flatt standeth edgewayes towardes the glasse so as both the edges may be seene through it the further edge will seeme blew and the neerer will be red and the like will happen if the paper be held in the free ayre parallele to the lower superficies of the glasse without any blacke carpet to limit both endes of it which serueth to make the colours the smarter so that in both cases the ayre serueth manifestly for a blacke in the first betweene the two white edges and in the second limiting the two white endes and by consequence the ayre about the candle must likewise serue for two blackes including the light candle betweene them Seuerall other delightfull experiments of luminous colours I might produce to confirme the groundes I haue layed for the nature and making of them But I conceiue that these I haue mentioned are aboundantly enough for the end I propose vnto my selfe therefore I will take my leaue of this supple and nice subiect referring
my Reader if he be curious to entertaine himselfe with a full variety of such shining wonders to our ingenious countryman and my worthy frend Mr. Hall who at my last being at Liege shewed me there most of the experiences I haue mentioned together with seuerall other very fine and remarkable curiosities concerning light which he promised me he would shortly publish in a worke that he had already cast and almost finished vpon that subiect and in it I doubt not but he will giue entire satisfaction to all the doubts and Problemes that may occurre in this subiect whereas my litle exercise formerly in making experiments of this kind and my lesse conueniency of attempting any now maketh me content my selfe with thus spinning of a course thridde froÌ„ wooll carded me by others that may runne through the whole doctrine of colours whose causes haue hitherto beene so much admired and that it will do so I am stroÌ„gly persuaded both because if I looke vpoÌ„ the causes which I haue assigned a priori me thinkes they appeare very agreeable to nature and to reason and if I apply them to the seuerall PhoenomeÌ„s which Mr. Hall shewed me and to as many others as I haue otherwise mett with I find they agree exactly with them and render a full account of them And thus you haue the whole nature of luminous colours resolued into the mixtion of light and darkenesse by the due ordering of which who hath skill therein may produce any middle colour he pleaseth as I my selfe haue seene the experience of infinite changes in such sort made so that it seemeth vnto me nothing can be more manifest then that luminous colours are generated in the way that is here deliuered Of which how that gentle and obedient Philosophy of Qualities readily obedient to what hard taske soeuer you assigne it will render a rationall account and what discreet vertue it will giue the same thinges to produce different colours and to make different appearances meerely by such nice changes of situation I do not well vnderstand but peraduenture the Patrones of it may say that euery such circumstance is a Conditio sine qua non and therewith no doubt their Auditors will be much the wiser in comprehending the particular nature of light and of the colours that haue their origine from it The Rainebow for whose sake most men handle this matter of luminous colours is generated in the first of the two wayes we haue deliuered for the production of such colours and hath its origine from refraction when the eye being at a conuenient distance from the refracting body looketh vpon it to discerne what appeareth in it The speculation of which may be found in that excellent discourse of Monsieur des Cartes which is the sixt of his Meteors where he hath with great acuratenesse deliuered a most ingenious doctrine of this mystery had not his bad chance of missing in a former principle as I conceiue somewhat obscured it For he there giueth the cause so neate and so iustly calculated to the appearances as no man can doubt but that he hath found out the true reason of this wonder of nature which hath perplexed so many great witts as may almost be seene with our very eyes when looking vpon the fresh deaw in a sunneshiny morning we may in due positions perceiue the raynebow colours not three yardes distant from vs in which we may distinguish euen single droppes with their effects But he hauing determined the nature of light to consist in motion and proceeding consequently he concludeth colours to be but certaine kindes of motion by which I feare it is impossible that any good account should be giuen of the experiences we see But what we haue already said in that point I conceiue is sufficient to giue the reader satisfaction therein and to secure him that the generation of the colours in the rainebow as well as all other coulours is likewise reduced to the mingling of light and darkenesse which is our principall intent to proue adding therevnto by way of aduertissement for others whose leisure may permitt them to make vse thereof that who shall ballance the proportions of luminous colours may peraduenture make himselfe a steppe to iudge of the natures of those bodies which really and constantly do weare like dyes for the figures of the least partes of such bodies ioyntly with the connexion or mingling of them with pores must of necessity be that which maketh them reflect light vnto our eyes in such proportions as the luminous colours of their tincture and semblance do For two thinges are to be considered in bodies in order to reflecting of light eyther the extancies and cauities of them or their hardenesse and softenesse As for the first the proportions of light mingled with darkenesse will be varied according as the extancies or the cauities do exceed and as each of them is great or small since cauities haue the nature of darknesse in respect of extancies as our moderne Astronomers do shew when they giue account of the face as some call it in the orbe of the moone Likewise in regard of soft or of resistent partes light will be reflected by them more or lesse strongly that is more or lesse mingled with darkenesse for whereas it reboundeth smartly backe if it striketh vpon a hard and a resistent body and accordingly 〈◊〉 â—hew it selfe in a bright colour it must of necessity not reflect at all 〈…〉 very fâ—ebly if it penetrateth into a body of much humidity or if â—â—â—oseth it selfe in the pores of it and that litle which cometh so weakely from it must consequently appeare of a dusky dye and these two being all the causes of the great variety of colours we see in bodies according to the quality of the body in which the reall colour appeareth it may easily be determined from which of them it proceedeth and then by the colour you may iudge of the composition and mixture of the rare and dense partes which by reflecting light begetteth it In fine out of all we haue hitherto said in this Chapter we may conclude the primary intent of our so long discourse which is that as well the senses of liuing creatures as the sensible qualities in bodies are made by the mixtion of rarity and density as well as the naturall qualities we spoke of in their place for it can not be denyed but that heate and cold and the other couples or payres which beate vpon our touch are the very same as we see in other bodies the qualities which moue our tast and smell are manifestly a kinne and ioyned with them lighâ— we haue concluded to be fire and of motion which affecteth our eare it is not disputable so that it is euident how all sensible qualities are as truly bodies as those other qualities which we call naturall To this we may adde that the proprieties of these sensible qualities are such as proceed euidently from rarity and
of what extent soeuer but only such as by their naturall motion would cause like curlinges and fouldes in the ayre as the other doth according to what Galileus hath at large declared euen so when some atome in the braine is moued all the rest there about which are apt to be wasted with a like vndulation must needes be moued in chiefe and so they mouing whiles the others of different motions that hauing nothing to rayse them do eyther lye quiett or moue very litle in respect of the former it is no wonder if they assemble together and by the proper course of the braine do meete at the common rendez-vous of the fantasie And therefore the more impressions that are made from the same obiect vpon the sense the more participations of it will be gathered together in the memory and the stronger impressions it will vpon occasion make in the fantasie and themselues will be the stroÌ„ger to resist any cause that shall striue to deface them For we see that multitude of obiects ouerwhelmeth the memory and putteth out or at the least maketh vnprofitable those that are seldomst thought on The reason of which is that they being litle in quantity because there are but few species of them they can neuer strike the seate of knowledge but in company of others which being more and greater do make the impression follow their nature against the lesser and in tract of time thinges seldome thought of do grow to haue but a maimed and coÌ„fused shape in the memory and at length are quite forgotten Which happeneth because in the liquid medium they are apt to moulder away if they be not often repaired which mouldring and defacing is helped on by the shockes they receiue from other bodies like as in a magasin a thing that were not regarded but were carelessely rumbled vp and downe to make roome for others and all thinges were promiscuously throwne vpon it it would soone be brused and crushed into a misseshapen forme and in the end be broken all in pieces Now the repairing of any thing in the memory is done by receiuing new impressions from the obiect or in its absence by thinking strongly of it which is an assembling and due peecing together of the seuerall particles of bodies appertayning to the same matter But sometimes it happeneth that when the right one can not be found intire nor all the orderly pieces of it be retriued with their iust correspondance to one an other the fansie maketh vp a new one in the place of it which afterwardes vpon presence of the obiect appeareth to haue been mistaken and yet the memory till then keepeth quietly and vnquessionedly for the true obiect what either the thought or chance mingling seuerall partes had patched vp together And from hence we may discerne how the loosing or confounding of ones memory may happen eyther by sicknesse that distemper the spirits in the braine and disorder their motions or by some blowes on the head whereby a man is astonied and all thinges seeme to turne round with him Of all which effects the causes are easy to be found in these suppositions we haue layed THE FOVRE AND THERTIETH CHAPTER Of voluntary motion Naturall faculties and passions HItherto we haue laboured to conuey the obiect into the braine but when it is there lett vs see what further effects it causeth and how that action which we call Voluntary motion doth proceed from the braine For the discouery whereof we are to note that the braine is a substance composed of watry partes mingled with earthy ones which kind of substances we see are vsually full of stringes and so in strong hard beere and in vinegar and in other liquors of the lâ—ke nature we see if they be exposed to the sunne little long flâ—kes which make an appearance of wormes or magates floating about The reason whereof is that some drye partes of such liquors are of themselues as it wâ—re hairy oâ— sleasy that is haue litle downy partes such as you see vpon the legges of flies or vpon caterpillars or in little lookes of wooll by which they easily catch and sticke to other little partes of the like nature that come neere vnto them and if the liquor be moued as it is in the boyling of beere or making of vinegar by the heate of the sunne they become long stringes because the liquor breaketh the ties which are crosse to its motion but such as lye along the streame or rather the bubling vp do maintaine themselues in vnity and peraduenture grow stronger by the winding or foulding of the end of one part with an other and in their tumbling and rouling still in the same course the downy haires are crushed in and the body groweth long and round as happeneth to a lumpe of dough or waxe or wooll rouled a while in one vniforme course And so coming to our purpose we see that the braine and all that is made of it is stringy wittenesse the membranes the flesh the bones c. But of all the rest those which be called fibers are most stringy and the nerues seeme to be but an assembly of them for although the nerues be but a great multitude of stringes lying in a cluster neuerthelesse by the consent of Physitians and Anatomistes they are held to be of the very substance of the braine dryed to a firmer consistence then it is in the head This heape of stringes as we may call it is enclosed in an outside made of membranes whose frame we neede not here display only we may note that it is very apt and fitt to stretch and after stretching to returne againe to its owne iust length Next we are to consider how the braine is of a nature apt to swell and to sinke againe euen so much that Fallopius reporteth it doth swell according to the encrease of the moone which whether it be true or no there can be no doubt but that it being of a substance which is full of skinnes and stringes is capable of being stretched and of swelling vpon light occasions and of falling or sinking againe vpon as light as being easily penetrable by vapours and by liquors whose nature it is to swell and to extend that which they enter into Out of which it followeth that it must be the nature of the nerues to do the like and indeed so much the more by how much more drie they are then the braine for we see that to a certaine measure drier thinges are more capable of extension by the ingression of wett then moist thinges are because these are not capable of receiuing much more wett into them These thinges being premised lett vs imagine that the braine being first swelled it doth afterwardes contract it selfe and it must of necessity follow that seeing the nerues are all open towardes the braine though their concauities can not be discerned the spirits and moysture which are in the braine must needes be pressed into the nerues
as soone as the mastering violence leaueth them at liberty Pleasure therefore must be contrary to this and consist in a moderate dilatation for an immoderate one would cause a compression in some adherent partes and there would become paine And conformable to this we experience that generally they are hard thinges which breed paine vnto vs and that these which breed pleasure are oyly and soft as meates and odours which are sweete to the taste and smell and soft substances which are gratefull to the touch the excesse of all which proueth offensiue and painefull so that from the extremity of pleasure one entereth presently vpon the confines of paine Now then lett vs consider how the little similitudes of bodies which from without do come into the fantasy must of necessity worke there according to their little power effects proportionable to what they wrought first in the outward senses from whence they were conueyed to the braine for the senses that is the nerues and the Septum Lucidum hauing both of them their origine from the very substance of the braine and differing only in degrees of purity and refinement the same obiect must needes workelike effects in both compressing or dilating them proportionably to one an other which compression or dilatation is not paine or pleasure as it is in the outward sense but as it is reported to the hart and that being the seate of all paines or pleasures wrought in other partes and that as it were dyeth them into those qualities is not capable of feeling eyther it selfe so that the stroakes of any little similitudes vpon the fantasy do make only compressions or dilatations there not paines or pleasures Now their bodies or similitudes if they be reuerberated from the fantasy or septum Lucidum vpon the little rootes of the nerues of the sixt couple which goe to the hart they must needes worke there a proportionable impression to what they wrought vpon the fansy eyther compressing or dilating it and the hart being extremely passiue by reason of its exceeding tendernesse and heate can not choose but change its motion at the least in part if not in whole and this with relation to two causes the one the disposition of the hart it selfe the other the vehemency of the stroake This change of motion and different beating of the hart is that which properly is called passion and is euer accompanyed with pleasure or with griefe according to the nature of the impression that eyther contracteth or dilateth the hart and the spirirs about it and is discouered by the beating of the arteries and of the pulse Conformable wherevnto Physitians do tell vs that euery passion hath a distinct pulse These pulses are diuided in common by aboundance or by want of spirits yet in both kinds they may haue common differencies for in aboundance the pulse may be quicke or slow regular or irregular equall or vnequall and the like may happen in defect of spirits according to the motions of the hart which are their causes Againe the obiect by being present or absent neerer or further off maketh the stroake greater or lesser and accordingly varyeth the motion of the hart Lett vs then call to mind how we haue formerly declared that life consisteth in heate and humidity and that these two ioyned together do make a thing great and we may conclude that of necessity the motion which is most liuely must haue a great full and large stroake like the euē rolling waues of a wyde and smooth sea and not too quicke or smart like the breaches of a narrow Fretum agitated by tempestuous windes From this other motions may vary eyther by excesse or by deficiency the first maketh the stroake become smart violent and thicke the other slackeneth it and maketh it grow little slow weake and thinne or seldome And if we looke into the motions of our hart we shall see these three differencies of them follow three seuerall chiefe passions The first followeth the passion of ioy the second the passion of anger and the third the passion of griefe Nor neede we looke any further into the causes of these seuerall motions for we see that ioy and griefe following the stroake of sense the one of them must consist in an oyly dilatation that is the spirits about the hart must be dilated by a gentle large great and sweete motion in a moderation between velocity and slownesse the other contrarywise following the stroake of sense in paine as the first did in pleasure must contract the spirits and consequently make their motion or stroake become little and deficient from all the properties we haue aboue sett downe As for anger the motion following that passion is when the aboundance of spirits in the hart is a little checked by the contrary stroake of sense but presently ouercometh that opposition and then as we see a hindered water or a man that suddainely or forcibly breake through what withstood their motion go on with a greater violence then they did and as it were precipitately so the hart hauing ouercome the contraction which the sense made in it dilateth it selfe with a fury and maketh its motion smart and vehement Whence also it followeth that the spirits grow hoater then they were and accordingly it is often seene that in the scoulding of a woman and in the irritation of a dogg if euer now and then one thwart them and interpose a little opposition their fury will be so sharpened and heightened that the woman will be transported beyond all limits of reason and the dogg will be made madde with nothing else done to him but angring him at conuenient times and some men likewise haue by sleight oppositions iterated speedily vpon them before their spirits could relent their vehement motion and therefore must still encrease it beene angred into feauers This passion of anger seemeth almost to be solitary on the side of excesse beyond ioy which is as it were the standard and perfection of all passions as light or whitenesse is of all colours but on the otherside of deficiency there are seuerall middle passions which participate more or lesse of ioy and griefe as particularly those two famous ones which gouerne mans life Hope and Feare Concerning which Physitians tell vs that the pulse or beating of feare is quicke hard and vnequall vnto which I conceiue we may safely adde that it must also be small and feeble the perfection of ioy decreasing in it on one side to witt from greatnesse and largenesse but not intirely so that a kind of quicknesse supplyeth in part the other defect Hope on the other side is in such sort defectiue from ioy that neuerthelesse it hath a kind of constancy and moderate quantity and regularity in its motion and therefore is accounted to be the least hurtfull of all the passions and that which most prolongeth mans life And thus you see how those motions which we call passions are engendred in the hart and what
do cause a swelling or a contraction of it against this or that part doth stoppe and hinder the the entrance of the spirits into some sinewes and doth open others and driueth the spirits into them so as in the end by a result of a chaine of swellinges and contractions of seuerall partes successiuely one against an other the due motions of prosecution or auersion are brought about As for example an obiect that affecteth the hart with liking by dilating the spirits about the hart sendeth some into the optâ—ke nerues and maketh the liuing creature turne his eye towardes it and keepe it steady vpon what he desireth as contrariwise if he dislike and feare it he naturally turneth his eye and head from it Now of this motion of the eye and head may depend the running to the thing in one case and the running from it in the other for the turning of the necke one way may open a passage for the spirits into those sinewes which carry the rest of the body towardes the obiect and the turning of it to the other side may open other sinewes which shall worke a contrary effect and carry the animal from the obiect and the mouing of those sinewes which at the first do turne the necke doth proceed from the quality and number of the spirits that ascend from the hart and from the region of the hart from whence they are sent according to the variety whereof there are diuers sinewes fitted to receiue them To make vp which discourse we may call to mind what we haue said a litle aboue concerning the motions caused in the externall partes of the body by passion mouing within as when feare mingled with hope giueth a motion to the legges anger to the armes and handes and all the rest of the body as well as to the legges and all of them an attention in the outward senses which neuerthelesse peruerteth euery one of their functions if the passion be in extremity And then surely we may satisfy our selues that eyther this or some way like it which I leaue vnto the curious in Anatomy to settle with exactenesse for it is enough for my intent to shew in grosse how these operations may be done without calling in some incomprehensible qualities to our ayde is the course of nature in motions where no other cause interueneth besides the obiect working vpon the sense which all the while it doth it is the office of the eye of fantasy or of common sense to lye euer open still watching to obserue what warninges the outward senses do send vnto him that accordingly he may direct and change the motions of the hart and of the whole body But if the obiect do make violent impressions vpon the sense and the hart being then vehemently moued do there vpon send abouÌ„dance of spirits vp to the braine this multitude of spirits thronging vpon the common sense oppresseth it as we haue already said in such sort that the notice which the sense giueth of particular circumstances can not preuayle to any effect in the braine and thus by the misguidance of the hart the worke of nature is disordered which when it happeneth we expresse in short by saying that passion blindeth the creature in whom such violent and disorderly motions haue course for passion is nothing else but a motion of the bloud and spirits about the hart and is the preparation or beginning of the animals working as we haue aboue particularly displayed And thus you see in common how the circuite is made from the obiect to the sense and from it by the common sense and fantasy to the hart and from the hart backe againe to the braine which then setteth on worke those organes or partes the animal is to make vse of in that occasion and they eyther bring him to or carry him from the obiect that at the first caused all this motion and in the end becometh the periode of it THE SIX AND THERTIETH CHAPTER Of some actions of beastes that seeme to be formall actes of reason as doubting resoluing inuenting IN the last Chapter the foundations are layed and the way is opened for the discouering how all operations which proceed from nature and passion are performed among liuing creatures and therefore I conceiue I haue thereby sufficiently complyed with the obligation of my intention which is but to expresse and shew in common how all the actions of sensible bodies may be reduced to locall motion and to materiall application of one boy vnto an other in a like manner though in a different degree as those motions which we see in liueliest bodies Yet because among such animals as passe for irrationall there happen some operations of so admirable a straine as resemble very much the highest effects which proceed from a man I thinke it not amisse to giue some further light by extending my discourse to some more particulars then hitherto I haue done whereby the course and way how they are performed may be more clearely and easily looked into and the rather because I haue mette with some men who eyther wanting patience to bestow on thoughts of this kind so much time as is necessary for the due scanning of them or else through a promptitude of nature passing swiftly from the effect they looke vpon in grosse to the most obuious seeming cause do suddainely and strongly resolue that beastes vse discourse vpon occasions and are endewed with reason This I intend not to doe quite in particular for that were to write the history of euery particular animal but will content my selfe with touching the causes in common yet in such sort that the indifferent Reader may be satisfyed of a possibility that these effects may proceed from materiall causes and that I haue poynted out the way to those who are more curious and haue the patience and leisure to obserue diligently what passeth among beastes how they may trace these effects from steppe to steppe vntill at length they discouer their true causes To beginne then I conceiue we may reduce all those actions of beastes which seeme admirable and aboue the reach of an irrationall animal vnto three or foure seuerall heades The first may be of such as seeme to be the very practise of reason as doubting resoluing inuenting and the like The next shall be of such as by docility or practise beastes do oftentimes arriue vnto In the third place we will consider certaine continuate actions of a long tract of time so orderly performed by them as that discourse and rationall knowledge seeme clearely to shine through them And lastly we will cast our eye vpon some others which seeme to be euen aboue the reason that is in man himselfe as the knowing of thinges which the sense neuer had impression of before a prescience of future euents prouidences and the like As for the first the doubting of beasts and their long wauering sometimes betweene obiects that draw them seuerall wayes and at the
and by materiall impressions vpon them without being constrained to resort vnto an immateriall principle which must furnish birdes with reason and discourse in which it is not necessary for my purpose to determine precisely euery steppe by which these actions are performed and to settle the rigorous of them but leauing that vnto those who shall take paines to deliuer the history of their nature I will content my selfe with the possibility and probability of my coÌ„iectures The first of which qualities I am obliged to make plaine but the later concerneth this treatise no more then it would do a man to enquire anxiously into the particulars of what it is that a beast is doing whiles looking vpon it at a great distance he perceiueth plainely that it moueth it seâ—fe and his arrant is but to be assured whether it be aliue or dead which the mouing of it selfe in common doth sufficiently demonstrate without descending into a particular search of what his motions are But lett vs come to the matter first I conceiue no man will make any difficulty in allowing that it is the temper of the bloud and spirits in birdes brought therevnto by the quality of their foode and by the season of the yeare which maketh them accouple with one an other and not any ayme or desire of hauing yong ones that occasioneth this action in theÌ„ Then it followeth that the hennes egges will encrease in her belly and wheÌ„ they grow bigge they can not choose but be troublesome vnto her and therefore must of necessity breede in her an inclination to rest in some soft place and to be ridde of them And as we see a dogg or a catt pressed by nature searcheth about to find a conuenient place to disburthen themselues in not only of their yong ones but euen of their excrements so do birdes whose egges within them making them heauy and vnfitt to flye they beginne to sitt much and are pleased in a soft and warme place and therevpon they are delighted with strawes and mosse and other gentle substances and so carry them to their sitting place which that they do not by designe is euident by the manner of it for when they haue mette with a straw or other fitt materiall they fly not with it directly to their nest but first to a bough of some tree or to the toppe of a house and there they hoppe and dance a while with it in their beakes and from thence skippe to an other place where they entertaine themselues in like manner and at the last they gett to their nest where if the strawes should lye confusedly their endes would pricke and hurt them and therefore they turne and alter their positions till they lye smooth which we that looke vpon the effect and compare them with our performing of like actions if we had occasion may call a iuditious ordering of them whereas in them it is nothing but remouing such thinges as presse vpon their sense vntill they cause them no more paine or vnquietnesse Their plastering of their nestes may be attributed to the great heat raigning in them at that time which maketh them still be dabbling in moist clay and in water and in grauell without which all birdes will soone grow sicke blind and at length dye which for the coolenesse of it they bring home to their nestes in their beakes and vpon their feete and when it groweth dry and consequently troublesome to them they wipe it off and rubbe their durty partes vpon the place where they vse to sitt and then flye for more refresh themselues withall Out of all which actions sett on foote by the wise orderer of nature to compasse a remote end quite different from the immediate end that euery one of them is done for there resulteth a fitt and conuenient place for these litle builders that know not whay they do whiles they build themselues houses to lye in and to lay their egges in Which the next yeare when the like occasion occurreth they build againe peraduenture then as much through memory of the former as vpon their temper and other circumstances mouing their fantasy in such sort as we haue sett downe In like manner that whiles the Halcyon layeth and hatcheth her egges the sea is calme needeth no more be attributed to the wisedome and prouidence of that bird in choosing a fitt season then to any good nature or discourse in that rouling and mercilesse Element as though it had a pious care of preseruing the egges committed to his trust no such supplements are requisite to be added vnto the distributions of nature who hath sett materiall causes on foote to produce a coniuncture of both those effects at the same periode of time for the propagation of this animals species In fine both the time and the place of the Halcyons breeding and the manner and order and season of all birdes making their nestes proceedeth from secret motions which do require great obseruing and attention to vnderstand them and do serue for directions vnto euery bird according to her kind to make her neste fittest for her vse Which secret motions we can not doubt but are materiall ones and do arise out of the constitution and temper of their bodies and spirits which in like circumstances are alike in them all for all the birdes of one kind do make their nestes exactly alike which they would not do if this worke proceeded from reason in them and were gouerned by their owne election and designe as we see it happen amoÌ„g men vpon all occasions eyther of building houses or of making clothes or of what action soeuer is guided by their reason gouerning their fantasy in all which we see so great variety and inconstancy And therefore this in variability in the birdes operations must proceed from a higher intellect that hath determinately and precisely ordered a complexe or assembly of sundry causes to meete infaillibly and by necessity for the production of an effect that he hath designed and so the birdes are but materiall instruments to performe without their knowledge or reflection a superiour reasons counselles euen as in a clocke that is composed of seuerall pieces and wheeles all the partes of it do conspire to giue notice of the seuerall effluxes and periodes of time which the maker hath ordered it for And although this be a worke of reason and discourse in him that dâ—d sett it together yet the instrumentall performance of it dependeth meerely of locall motion and of the reuolutions of bodies so orderly proportioned to one an other that their effects can not faile when once the engine is wound vp in like manner then the bird is the engine of the Artificer infinitely more perfect and knowing and dexterous then a poore clockemaker and the plummets which do make it goe are the rowe and order of causes chained together which by the designe of the supreme workeman do bring to passe such effects as we see in the building of their
nestes and in doing such other actions as may be compared to the strickings of the clocke and the ringing of the allarum at due times And as that king of China vpon his first seeing a watch thought it a liuing a iuditious creature because it moued so regularly of it selfe and beleeued it to be dead when it was runne out till the opening of it and the winding it vp discouered vnto him the artifice of it so any man may be excused that looking vpon these strange actions and this admirable oeconomy of some liuing creatures should beleeue them endewed with reason vntill he haue well reflected vpon euery particular circumstance of their nature and operations for then he will discerne how these are but materiall instruments of a rationall Agent working by them from whose orderly prescriptions they haue not power to swarue in the least circumstance that is Euery one of which considered singly by it selfe hath a face of no more difficulty then that for example an ingenier should so order his matters that a mine should be ready to play exactly at such an houre by leauing such a proportion of kindled match hanging out of one of the barrels of pouder whiles in the meane time he eyther sleepeth or attendeth to something else And when you haue once gayned thus much of your selfe to grâ—ee vnto an orderly course and generation of any single effect by the power of a materiall cause working it raise but your discourse a straine higher and looke with reuerence and duty vpon the immensity of that prouident Architect out of whose handes these masterpieces issue and vnto whom it is as easy to make a chaine of causes of a thousand or of a million of linkes as to make one linke alone and then you will no longer sticke at allowing the whole oeconomy of those actions to be nothing else but a production of materiall effects by a due ranging and ordering of materiall causes But lett vs returne to our theame as we see that milke coming into the brestes of liuebearing female creatures when thâ—y grow wery bigge heateth and maketh them seeke the mouthes of their yong ones to disburthen and coole them so the carriage and biggenesse of the egges heateth exceedingly the brestes and bodies of the birdes and this causeth them to be still rubbing of their brestes against the sides of their nestes where vnto their vnwieldinesse then confineth them very much and with their beakes to be still picking their feathers which being then apt to fall off and me we as we see the haire of women with childe is apt to shedde it happeneth that by then they are ready to lay their egges they haue a soft bed of their owne feathers made in their nestes ouer their courser mattrasse of strawes they first brought thither and then the egges powerfull attracting of the annoying heate from the hennes brest whose imbibing of the warmeth and stonelike shell can not choose but coole her much inuiteth her to sitt constantly vpon them vntill sitting hatcheth them and it is euideÌ„t that this sitting must proceed from their temper at that time or from some other immediate cause which worketh that effect and not from a iudgement that doth it for a remote end for housewifes tell vs that at such a season their hennes will be sitting in euery conuenient place they come vnto as though they had egges to hatch when neuer a one is vnder them so as it seemeth that at such time there is some inconuenience in their bodies which by sitting is eased When the chickens are hatched what woÌ„der is it if the litle crying of tender creatures of a like nature and laÌ„guage with their daÌ„mes do moue those affectioÌ„s or passions in her bosome which causeth her to feede theÌ„ and to defend and breede them till they be able to shift for themselues For all this there needeth no discourse or reason but only the motion of the bloud about the hart which we haue determined to be passioÌ„ stirred by the yong ones chirpinges in such sort as may carry them vnto those actions which by nature the supreme intellect are ordered for their preseruation Wherein the birdes as we haue already said are but passiue instruments and know not why they do those actions but do them they must whensoeuer such and such obiects which infaillibly woâ—ke in their due times do make such and such impressions vpon their fantasies like the allarum that necessarilly striketh when the hand of the dyall cometh to such a point or the gunnepouder that necessarily maketh a ruine and breach in the wall when the burning of the match reacheth to it Now this loue in the damme growing by litle and litle wearisome and troublesome to her and at last fading quite away and she not being able to supply their encreased needes which they grow euery day stronger to prouide for of themselues the straight commerce beginneth to dye on both sides and by these degrees the damme leaueth her yong ones to their owne conduct And thus you see how this long series of actions may haue orderly causes made and chained together by him that knew what was fitting for the worke he went about Of which though it is likely I haue missed of the right ones as it can not choose but happen in all disquisitions where one is the first to breake the yce and is so slenderly informed of the particular circumstances of the matter in question as I professe to be in this yet I conceiue this discourse doth plainely shew that he who hath done more then we are able to comprehend and vnderstand may haue sett causes sufficient for all these effects in a better order and in compleater rankes then those which we haue here expressed and yet in them so coursely hewed out appeareth a possibility of hauing the worke done by corporeall agents Surely it were very well worth the while for some curious and iuditious person to obserue carefully and often the seuerall steppes of nature in this progresse for I am strongly persuaded that by such industry we might in time arriue to very particular knowledge of the immediate and precise causes that worke all these effects And I coÌ„ceiue that such obseruation needeth not be very troublesome as not requiring any great variety of creatures to institute it vpon for by maâ—king carefully all that passeth among our homebred hennes I beleeue it were easy to guesse very neerely at all the rest THE EIGHT AND THERTIETH CHAPTER Of prescience of future euentes prouidencies the knowing of thinges neuer seene bâ—fore and such other actions obserued in some liuing creatures which seeme to be euen aboue the reason that is in man himselfe THe fourth and last kind of actions which we may with astonishment obserue among beastes I conceiue will auayle litle to inferre out of them that the creatures which do them are endewed with reason and vnderstanding for such they are as if we should admitt that yet we
noysome smell that would almost poysone an other man And thus if in the breath of the wolfe or in the steame coming from his body be any quality offensiue to the lambe as it may very well be where there is so great a contrariety of natures it is not strange that at the first sight and approach of him he should be distempered and fly from him as one fighting cocke will do from an other that hath eaten garlike and the same happeneth between the weasell and the toade the lyon and the cocke the toade and the spider and seuerall other creatures of whom like enmities are reported All which are caused in them not by secret instincts and antipathies and sympathies whereof we can giue no account with the bare sound of which wordes most men do pay themselues without examining what they meane but by downe right materiall qualities that are of contrary natures as fire and water are and are eyther begotten in them in their originall constitution or are implanted in them afterwardes by their continuall foode which nourishing them changeth thier constitution to its coÌ„plexion And I am persuaded this would goe so farre that if one man were nourished continually with such meate and greedily affected it which an other had auersion from there would naturally follow much dislike betweene them vnlesse some superiour regard should master this auersion of the sense And I remember to haue seene two notable examples of it the one in Spaine of a Gentleman that had a horrour to garlike who though he was very subiect to the impressions of beauty could neuer weane himselfe from an auersion he had settled him to a very handsome woman that vsed to eate much garlike though to winne him she forebore the vse of that meate which to her was the most sauory of all others And the like I knew in EnglaÌ„d betweene two whereof the one did extremely loue cheese and the other as much hated it and would fall into a strange agony and be reduced one would thinke to the point of death if by inaduertence or others tryall of him he had swallowed neuer so litle of what the other would haue quitted all meates else to liue vpon And not only such auersions as spring from differences of complexions in the constitutions of seuerall animals do cause these effects of feare and of trembling and of flying from those that do make such impressions but euen the seeing them angry and in fury doth the like for such passions do alter the spirits and they issuing from the body of the animal in passion can not choose but be receiued by an other in a different manner then if they were of an other temper Then if the one kind be agreeable to their nature the other must needes be displeasing And this may be the reason why bees neuer sting such as are of a milde and gentle disposition and will neuer agree with others that are of a froward and angry nature And the same one may obserue among dogges and peraduenture a mans fantasy may be raised to such a height of fury that the fiercest beastes may be affraide to looke vpon him and can not endure that those mastering spirits which streame out of the mans eyes should come into his so much they distemper his fantasy and therefore he will turne away from the man and auoyde him Which discourse may be coÌ„firmed by sundry examples of lyons and beares that haue runne from angry and confident men and the like Since then a man that in his naturall hew giueth no distast doth so much affright fiercest beastes when he putteth on his threatning lookes it is no wonder that beastes of a milder and softer nature should haue feare of him settled in them when they neuer saw him otherwise then angry and working mischiefe to them And since their brood do receiue from their parents a nature easily moued vnto feare or anger by the sight of what moued them it is not strange that at the first sight they should tremble or swell according as the inward motion of the spirits affordeth Now if this hath rendered the birdes in the wilde Islandes affraide of men who otherwise would be indifferent to them it is no maruayle to see more violent effects in the lambes auersion from the wolfe or in the larkes from the hobbey since they peraduenture haue ouer and aboue the hurt they vse to do them a diâ—formity in their constitutions and therefore though a larke will flye as well from a man as from a hobbey yet because there is one cause more for his dislike against the hobbey then against the man namely the diâ—formity of their constitutions he will flye into the mans hand to auoyde the hawkes talons Vnto some of these causes all antipathies may be reduced and the like reason may be giuen for the sympathies we see betweene some creatures The litle corporeities which issue from the one haue such a conformity with the temper of the other that it is thereby moued to ioyne it selfe vnto the body from whence they flow and affecteth vnion with it in that way as it receiueth the impression If the smell do please it the beast will alwayes be smelling at it if the tast nothing shall hinder it from feeding vpon it when it can reach it The fishermen vpon the banke ouer against newfound land do report that there flocketh about them a kind of bird so greedy of the fishes liuers which they take there as that to come at them and feede vpon them they will suffer the men to take them in their handes and will not fly away as long as any of their desired meate is in their eye whence the French men that fish there do call them Happe foyes The like power a certaine worme hath with nigthingales And thus you see how they are strong impressions vpon sense and not any discourse of reason that do gouerne beastes in their actions for if their auoyding men did proceed from any sagacity in their nature surely they would exercise it when they see that for a bitte of meate they incurre their destruction and yet neyther the examples of their fellowes killed before their eyes in the same pursuite nor the blowes which themselues do seele can serue them for warning where the sense is so strongly affected but as soone as the blow that remoued them is passed if it misle killing or laming them and they be gotten on wing againe they will returne to their prey as eagerly and as confidently as if nothing were there to hinder them This then being the true reason of all sympathy and antipathy we can not admitt that any beastes should loue or hate one on other for any other cause then some of those we haue touched All which are reduced to locall motion and to materiall application of bodies of one nature to bodies of an other and are as well transmitted to their yong ones as begotten in themselues and as the
rest do nibble vpon it there and do feede themselues first with that which consequently hindereth the groweth of the corne And here againe men will contend that this must be done by prouidence and discourse to preuent that their store should not grow out of their reach and changing nature become vselesse to them in their neede To conclude the foreknowing of beastes is nothing else but their timely receiuing impressions from the first degrees of mutation in thinges without them which degrees are almost imperceptible to vs because our fantasies and spirits hâ—ue otherwise such violent agitations more then theirs which hinder them from discerning gentle impressioÌ„s vpon them If you be at sea after along calme a while before a gaile bloweth to fill your sailes or to be discernable by your sense in quality of wind you shall perceiue the sea beginne to wrinkle his smooth face that way the wind will come which is so infaillible a signe that a gaile will come fâ—om that coast as marriners immediately fall to trimming their sailes accordingly and vsually before they can haue done the wind is with them shall we therefore say that the sea hath a prouidence to foresee which way the wind will blow Or that the cornes vpon our toes or calluses or broken bones or ioyntes that haue beene dislocated haue discourse and can foretell the weather It is nothing else but that the wind rising by degrees the smooth sea is capable of a change by it before we can feele it and that the ayre being changed by the forerunners of worse weather worketh vpon the crasiest partes of our body when the others feele not so small a change so beastes are more sensible then we for they haue lesse to distract them of the first degrees of a changing weather and that mutation of the ayre without them maketh some change within them which they expresse by some outward actions or gestures Now they who obserue how such mutations and actions are constantly in them before such or such weather do thinke they know beforehand that raine for example or wind or drought is coming according to the seuerall signes they haue marked in them which proceedeth out of the narrownesse of their discourse that maketh them resort to the same causes whensoeuer they meere with like effects and so they conceiue that thinges must needes passe in beastes after the same tenour as they do in meÌ„ And this is a generall and maine errour running through all the conceptions of mankind vnlesse great heede be taken to preuent it that what subiect soeuer they speculate vpon whether it be of substances that haue a superiour nature to theirs or whether it be of creatures inferiour to them they are still apt to bring them to their owne standard and to frame such conceptions of them as they would do of themselues as when they will haue Angels discourse and moue and be in a place in such sort as is naturall to men or when they will haue beastes rationate and vnderstand vpon their obseruing some orderly actions performed by them which in men would proceed from discourse and reason And this dangerous rocke against which many fine conceptions do suffer shipperackâ— whosoeuer studyeth truth must haue a maine caution to auoyde Sed nos immensum spatijs confecimus aequor Etiam tempus equum fumantia soluere colla THE CONCLVSION OF THE FIRST TREATISE THus at the last by Gods assistance we are clymbed vp to the toppe of the hill from whence looking downe ouer the whole region of bodies we may delight our selues with seeing what a height the weary steppes we ascended by haue brought vs vnto It is true the path we haue walked in is of late so vntrodden and so ouergrowne with bryars as it hath not beene without much labour that we haue made our way through And peraduenture it may seeme toylesome vnto others to follow vs especially such as are not much enured to like iourneyes but I hope the fruite which both we and they are now arriued to gather of our paines in this generall view we haue taken of the empire of matter and of corporeall agents is such as none of vs hath reason to be ill satisfyed with the employing of them For what can more powerfully delight or more noblâ— entertaine an vnderstanding soule then the search and discouery of those workes of nature which being in their effects so plainely exposed to our eyes are in their causes so abstruse and hidden from our comprehension as through despaire of successe they deterre most men from inquiring into them And I am persuaded that by this summary discourse short indeede in regard of so large a scope how euer my lame expressions may peraduenture make it appeare tedious it appeareth euidently that none of natures greatest secrets whereof our senses giue vs notice in the effects are so ouershaded with an impenetrable veyle but that the diligent and wary hand of reason might vnmaske them and shew them to vs in their naked and genuine formes and delight vs with the contemplation of their natiue beauties if we had as much care and constancy in the pursuite of them as we dayly see men haue in heaping vp of wealth or in striuing to satisfy their boundelesse ambitions or in making their senses swimme in the muddy lake of base and contemptible pleasures For who shall througly consider and weigh what we haue hitherto said will plainely see a continuall and orderly progresse from the simplest heighest and most common conception that we frame of a body in generall vnto the furthest and most abstruse effects that in particular are to be found in any body whatsoeuer I meane any that is meerely corporeall without mixture of a nobler nature for hitherto we haue not moued nor so much as looked out of that oâ—be He shall find one continued thridde spunne out from the beginning to the end He will see that the various twisting of the two specieses of Bodies Rare and Dense do make the yarne of which all thinges and actions within the sphere of matter are wouen And although peraduenture in the drawing out of the thridde there may be some litle brackes or the stuffe made of it be not euery where so close wrought as a better workeman at more leisure might haue done yet truly I beleeue that the very consent of thinges throughout is such as demonstrateth that the maine contexture of the doctrine I haue here touched is beyond quarrelling at It may well be that in sundry particulars I haue not lighted vpon exact truth and I am so farre from maintaining peremptorily any thing I haue here said as I shall most readily haâ—ken to whatsoeuer shall be obiected against it and be as ready vpon cause to desert my owne opinions and to yield vnto better reason But withall I conceiue that as the fayling of a bricke here and there in the rearing of the walles of a house doth nothing at all preiudice the
Aristotles Whether the motion of weighty and light thinges and of such as are forced be not by him as well as by vs atttibuted to externe causes In which all the differēce betweene vs is that we enlarge ourselues to more particulars then he hath done Lett any man reade his bookes of Generation and Corruption and say whether he doth not expressely teach that mixtion which he deliuereth to be the generation or making of a mixt body is done per minima that is in our language and in one word by atomes and signifyeth that all the qualities which are naturall qualities following the composition of the Elements are made by the mingling of the least partes or atomes of the said Elements which is in effect to say that all the nature of bodies their qualities and their operations are compassed by the mingling of atomes the shewing and explicating of which hath beene our labour in this whole Treatise Lett him reade his bookes of Meteores and iudge whether he doth not giue the causes of all the effects he treateth of there by mingling and seperating of great and litle grosse and subtile fiery and watry aery and earthy partes iust as we do The same he doth in his Problemes and in his Parua naturalia and in all other places wheresoeuer he hath occasion to render Physically the causes of Physicall effects The same do Hippocrates and Galen the same their Master Democritus and with them the best sort of Physitians the same do Alchymistes with their Master Geber whose maxime to this purpose we cited aboue the same do all naturall Philosophers eyther auncient commentatours of Aristotle or else moderne inquirers into naturall effects in a sensible and vnderstandable way as who will take the paines to looke into them will easily perceiue Wherefore lett any iuditious Reader that hath looked further into Aristotle then only vpon his Logicall and Metaphysicall workes iudge whether in bulke our doctrine be not conformable to the course of his and of all the best Philosophers that haue beene and are though in detaile or particulars we sometimes mingle therewith our owne priuate iudgements as euery one of them hath likewise shewed vs the way to do by the liberty themselues haue taken to dissent in some pointes from their predecessours And were it our turne to declare and teach Logike and Metaphisikes we should be forced to goe the way of matter and of formes and of priuations in such sort as Aristotle hath trodden it out to vs in his workes of that straine But this is not our taske for the present for no man that contemplateth nature as he aught can choose but see that these notions are no more necessary when we consider the framing of the elements then when we examine the making of compounded bodies and therefore these are to be sett apart as higher principles and of an other straine then neede be made vse of for the actuall composition of compounded thinges and for the resolution of them into their materiall ingredients or to cause their particular motions which are the subiects we now diseourse of Vpon this occasion I thinke it not amisse to touch how the latter sectatours or rather pretenders of Aristotle for truly they haue not his way haue introduced a modell of doctrine or rather of ignorance out of his wordes which he neuer so much as dreamed of howbeit they alleage textes out of him to confirme what they say as Heretikes do out of scripture to prooue their assertions for whereas he called certaine collections or positions of thinges by certaine common names as the art of Logike requireth terming some of them Qualities others actions others places or habites or relatiues or the like these his latter followers haue conceited that these names did not designe a concurrence of sundry thinges or a diuers disposition of the partes of any thing out of which some effect resulted which the vnderstanding considering all together hath expressed the notion of it by one name but haue imagined that euery one of these names had correspondent vnto it some reall positiue entity or thing seperated in its owne nature from the maine thing or substance in which it was and indifferent to any other substance but in all vnto which it is linked working still that effect which is to be expected from the nature of such a quality or action c. And thus to the very negatiues of thinges as to the names of pointes lines instantes and the like they haue imagined positiue Entities to correspond likewise to the names of actions places and the like they haue framed other Entities as also to the names of colours soundes tastes smels touches and the rest of the sensible qualities they haue vnto euery one of them allotted speciall Entities and generally to all qualities whatsoeuer Whereas nothing is more euidēt then that Aristotle meaned by qualities no other thing but that disposition of partes which is proper to one body and is not found in all as you will plainely see if you but examine what beauty health agility science and such other qualities are for by that name he calleth them and by such examples giueth vs to vnderstand what he meaneth by the word Quality the first of which is nothing else but a composition of seuerall partes and colours in due proportion to one an other the next but a due temper of the humours and the being of euery part of the body in the state it should be the third but a due proportion of the spirits and strength of the sinnewes and the last but ordered Phantasmes Now when these peruerters of Aristotle haue framed such Entities vnder that conception which nature hath attributed to substances they do immediately vpon the nicke with the same breath that described them as substances deny them to be substances and thus they confound the first apprehensions of nature by seeking learned and strained definitions for plaine thinges After which they are faine to looke for glew and paste to ioyne these entities vnto the substance they accompany which they find with the same facility by imagining a new Entity whose nature it is to do that which they haue neede of And this is the generall course of their Philosophy whose great subtility and queint speculations in enquiring how thinges do come to passe afford no better satisfaction then to say vpon euery occasion that there is an Entity which maketh it be so As if you aske them how a wall is white or blacke They will tell you there is an Entity or Quality whose essence is to be whitenesse or blackenesse diffused through the wall If you continue to aske how doth whitenesse sticke to the wall They reply that it is by meanes of an Entity called Vnion whose nature it is actually to ioyne whitenesse and the wall together And then if you enquire how it cometh to passe that one white is like an other They will as readily answere that this is wrought by an
other Entity whose nature is to be likenesse and it maketh one thing like an other The consideration of which doctrine maketh me remember a ridiculous tale of a trewant schooleboyes latine who vpon a time when he came home to see his frendes being asked by his father what was latine for bread answered breadibus and for beere beeribus and the like of all other thinges he asked him adding only a termination in Bus to the plaine English word of euery one of them which his father perceiuing and though ignorant of Latine yet presently apprehending that the mysteries his sonne had learned deserued not the expence of keeping him at schoole bad him immediately putt of his hosibus and shoosibus and fall to his old trade of treading Morteribus In like manner these great Clerkes do as readily find a pretty Quality or moode whereby to render the nature or causes of any effect in their easy Philosophy as this Boy did a Bus to stampe vpon any English word and coyne it into his mockelatine But to be serious as the weight of the matter requireth lett these so peremptory pretenders of Aristotle shew me but one text in him where he admitteth any middle distinction such as those moderne Philosophers do and must needes admitt who maintaine the qualities we haue reiected betwixt that which he calleth Numericall and that which he calleth of Reason or of Notion or of Definition the first of which we may terme to be of or in thinges the other to be in our heades or discourses or the one Naturall the other Logicall and I will yield that they haue reason and that I haue grossely mistaken what he hath written and that I do not reach the depth of his sense But this they will neuer be able to do Besides the whole scope of his doctrine and all his discourses and intentions are carryed throughout and are built vpon the same foundations that we haue layed for ours Which being so no body can quarrell with vs for Aristotles sake who as he was the greatest Logician and Metaphysitian and Vniuersall scholler peraduenture that euer liued and was so highly esteemed that the good turne which Sylla did the world in sauing his workes was thought to recompence his many outragious cruelties and tyranny so his name must neuer be mentioned among schollers but with reuerence for his vnparalleled worth and with gratitude for the large stocke of knowledge he hath enriched vs with Yet withall we are to consider that since his raigne was but at the beginning of sciences he could not chose but haue some defects and shortenesses among his many great and admirable perfections THE SECOND TREATISE DECLARING THE NATVRE AND OPERATIONS OF MANS SOVLE OVT OF WHICH THE IMMORTALITY OF REASONABLE SOVLES IS CONVINCED Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata libelli THE PREFACE IT is now high time for vs to cast an eye vpon the other leafe of our accounts or peraduenture I may more properly say to fall to the perusall of our owne accountes for hitherto our time and paines haue beene taken vp in examining and casting the accountes of others to the end that from the foote and totall of them we may driue on our owne the more smoothly In ours then we shall meete with a new Capitall we shall discouer a new world of a quite different straine and nature from that which all this while we haue employed ourselues about We will enter into them with taking a suruay of the great Master of all that large family we haue so summarily viewed I meane of Man as he is Man that is not as he is subiect to those lawes whereby other bodies are gouerned for therein he hath no praeeminence to raise him out of their throng but as he exceedeth the rest of creatures which are subiect to his managing and as he ruleth ouer nature herselfe making her serue his designes and subiecting her noblest powers to his lawes and as he is distinguished from all other creatures whatsoeuer To the end we may discouer whether that principle in him from whence those actions do proceede which are properly his be but some refined composition of the same kind we haue already treated of or whether it deriueth its source and origine from some higher spring and stocke and be of a quite different nature Hauing then by our former Treatise mastered the oppositions which else would haue taken armes against vs when we should haue beene in the middest of our aedifice and hauing cleared the obiections which lay in our way from the peruerse Qualities of the soules neighbours the seuerall common wealthes of Bodies we must now beginne with Dauid to gather together our Materialls and to take a suruay of our owne prouisions that so we may proceed with Salomon to the sacred building of Gods temple But before we goe about it it will not be amisse that we shew the reason why we haue made our porch so great and haue added so long an entry that the house is not likely to haue therevnto a correspondent bulke and when the necessity of my doing so shall appeare I hope my paines will meete with a fauourable censure and receiue a faire admittance We proposed vnto our selues to shew that our soules are immortall wherevpon casting about to find the groundes of immortality and discerning it to be a negatiue we conceiued that we ought to beginne our search with enquiring What Mortality is and what be the causes of it Which when we should haue discouered and haue brought the soule to their teste if we found they trēched not vpon her nor any way concerned her condition we might safely conclude that of necessity she must be immortall Looking then into the causes of mortality we saw that all bodies round about vs were mortall whence perceiuing that mortality extended it selfe as farre as corporeity we found our selues obliged if we would free the soule from that law to shew that she is not corporeall This could not be done without enquiring what corporeity was Now it being a rule among Logitians that a definition can not be good vnlesse it comprehend and reach to euery particular of that which is defined we perceiued it impossible to know compleatly what a Body is without taking a generall view of all those thinges which we comprise vnder the name and meaning of Bodies This is the cause we spent so much time in the first Treatise and I hope to good purpose for there we found that the nature of a Body consisted in being made of partes that all the differencies of bodies are reduced to hauing more or lesse partes in comparison to their substance thus and thus ordered and lastly thall all their operations are nothing else but locall motion which followeth naturally out of hauing partes So as it appeareth euidently from hence that if any thing haue a being and yet haue no partes it is not a body but a substance of an other quality and condition
vniuersality or particularity for that vnity which the two termes whose identification is enquired after must haue by being ioyned with the third becometh much varied by such diuers application and from hence shooteth vp that multitude of kindes of syllogismes which our Logitians call moodes All which I haue thus particularly expressed to the end we may obserue how this great variety hangeth vpon the sole string of identity Now these Syllogismes being as it were interlaced and wouen one within an other so that many of them do make a long chaine whereof each of them is a linke do breede or rather are all the variety of mans life they are the stepps by which we walke in all our conuersations and in all our businesses man as he is man doth nothing else but weaue such chaines whatsoeuer he doth swaruing from this worke he doth as deficient from the nature of man and if he do ought beyond this by breaking out into diuers sortes of exteriour actions he findeth neuerthelesse in this linked sequele of simple discourses the art the cause the rule the boundes and the modell of it Lett vs take a summary view of the vast extent of it and in what an immeÌ„se Ocean one may securely sayle by that neuer varying compasse when the needle is rightly touched and fitted to a well moulded boxe making still new discoueries of regions farre out of the sight and beliefe of them who stand vpon the hither shore Humane operations are comprised vnder the two generall heades of knowledge and of action if we looke but in grosse vpon what an infinity of diuisions these branch themselues into we shall become giddy our braines will turne our eyes will grow weary and dimme with ayming only att a suddaine and rouing measure of the most conspicuous among them in the way of knowledge We see what mighty workes men haue extended their labours vnto not only by wild discourses of which huge volumes are coÌ„posed but euen in the rigorous methode of Geometry Arithmetike and Algebra in which an Euclide an Apollonius an Archimedes a Diophantus and their followers haue reached such admirable heights and haue wound vp such vast bottomes sometimes shewing by effects that the thing proposed must needes be as they haue sett downe and can not possibly be any otherwise otherwhiles appaying the vnderstanding which is neuer truly at rest till it hath found the causes of the effects it seeth by exposing how it cometh to be so that the reader calling to mind how such a thing was taught him before and now finding an other vnexpectedly conuinced vpon him easily seeth that these two put together do make and force that third to be whereof he was before in admiration how it could be effected which two wayes of discourse are ordinarily knowne by the names of Demonstrations the one called a Priori the other a Posteriori Now if we looke into the extent of the deductions out of these we shall find no end In the heaueÌ„s we may perceiue Astronomy measuring whatsoeuer we can imagine and ordering those glorious lights which our Creator hath hanged out for vs and shewing them their wayes and pricking out their pathes and prescribing them for as many ages as he pleaseth before hand the various motions they may not swarue from in the least circumstance Nor want there sublime soules that tell vs what mettall they are made of what figures they haue vpon what pillars they are fixed and vpon what gimals they moue and performâ— their various periodes wittnesse that excellent and admirable worke I haue so often mentioned in my former Treatise If we looke vpon the earth we shall meete with those that will tell vs how thicke it is and how much roome it taketh vp they will shew vs how men and beastes are hanged vnto it by the heeles how the water and ayre do couer it what force and power fire hath vpon them all what working is in the depths of it and of what composition the maine body of it is framed where neyther our eyes can reach nor any of our senses can send its messengers to gather and bring back any relations of it Yet are not our Masters contented with all this the whole world of bodies is not enough to satisfy them the knowledge of all corporeall thinges and of this vast machine of heauen and earth with all that they enclose can not quench the vnlimited thirst of a noble minde once sett on fire with the beauty and loue of truth Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi Vt Gyarae clausus scopulis paruâque seripho But such heroike spirits cast their subtile nettes into an other world after the winged inhabitans of the heauens and find meanes to bring them also into account and to serue them how imperceptible soeuer they be to the senses as daynties at the soules table They enquire after a maker of the world we see and are ourselues a maine part of and hauing found him they conclude him oâ—t of the force of contradiction to be aeternall infinite omnipotent omniscient immutable and a thousand other admirable qualities they determine of him They search after his tooles and instruments wherewith he built this vast and admirable pallace and seeke to grow acquainted with the officiers and stewardes that vnder him gouerne this orderly and numerous family They find them to be inuisible creatures exalted aboue vs more then we can estimate yet infinitely further short of their and our maker then we are of them If this do occasion them to cast their thoughts vpon man himselfe they find a nature in him it is true much inferiour to these admirable Intelligences yet such an one as they hope may one day arriue vnto the likenesse of them and that euen at the present is of so noble a moulde as nothing is too bigge for it to faddome nor any thing too small for it to discerne Thus we see knowledge hath no limits nothing escapeth the toyles of science all that euer was that is or can euer be is by them circled in their extent is so vast that our very thoughts and ambitioÌ„s are too weake and too poore to hope for or to ayme at what by them may be coÌ„passed And if any man that is not invred to raise his thoughts aboue the pitch of the outward obiects he coÌ„uerseth dayly with should suspect that what I haue now said is rather like the longing dreames of passionate louers whose desires feede them with impossibilities then that it is any reall truth or should imagine that it is but a poetike Idea of science that neuer was or will be in act or if any other that hath his discoursing faculty vitiated and peruerted by hauing beene imbued in the schooles with vnsound and vmbratile principles should persuade himselfe that howsoeuer the pretenders vnto learning and science may talke loude of all thinges and make a noise with scholastike termes and persuade their ignorant hearers that they speake
his head and beateth his braines to call such thinges into his minde as are vsefull vnto him and are for the present out of his memory which as we see it so necessary that without it no matter of importance can be performed in the way of discourse whereof I my selfe haue too frequent experience in the writing of this Treatise so on the other side we can not perceiue that any creature besides man doth it of sett purpose and formally as man doth THE FOVRTH CHAPTER How a man proceedeth to Action HAuing thus taken a summary view of the principall Qualities a man is endewed withall Apprehending Iudging and Discoursing and hauing shewed how he is enriched in and by them with the natures of all thinges in the world it remaineth for our last worke in this part to consider in what manner he maketh vse of this treasure in his ordinary actions which it is euident are of two different kindes and consequently haue two seuerall principles vnderstanding and sense these sway by turnes and sometimes ioyne together to produce a mixed action of both If only sense were the fountaine from whence his actions spring we should obserue no other straine in any of them then meerely that according to which beastes performe theirs they would proceede euer more in a constant vnuaryable tenour according to the law of materiall thinges one body working vpon an other in such sort as we haue declared in the former Treatise On the other side if a man were all vnderstanding and had not this bright lampe enclosed in a pitcher of clay the beames of it would shine without any allay of dimmenesse through all he did and he could do nothing contrary to reason in pursuite of the highest end he had prefixed vnto himselfe for he neyther would nor could do any thing whatsoeuer vntill he had first considered all the particular circumstaÌ„ces that had relation to his action in hand and had then concluded that vpon the whole matter at this time and in this place to attaine this end it is fitting and best to do thus or thus which conclusion could be no sooner made but that the action would without any further disposition on his side immediately ensue agreeable to the principles it springeth from Both partes of this assertion are manifest for the first it is euident that whensoeuer an Agent worketh by knowledge he is vnresolued whether he shall worke or not worke as also of his manner of working vntill his knowledge that ought to direct and gouerne his working be perfect and complete but that can not be as long as any circumstance not as yet considered may make it seeme fitt or vnfitt to proceede and therefore such actions as are done without exact consideration of euery particular circumstance do not flow from a pure vnderstanding From whence if followeth that when an vnderstanding is not satisfyed of euery particular circumstance and consequently can not determine what he must immediately do but apprehendeth that some of the circumstances not as yet considered may or rather must change some part of his action it must of necessity be vndetermined in respect of the immediate action and consequently it must refraine absolutely from working The other part is cleare to witt that when the vnderstanding vpon consideration of all circumstances knoweth absolutely what is best the act on followeth immediately as farre as dependeth of the vnderstanding without any further disposition on his behalfe for seeing that nothing but knowledge belongeth to the vnderstanding he who supposeth all knowledge in it alloweth all that is requisite or possible for it to worke by now if all be put nothing is wanting that should cause it to worke but where no cause is wanting but all requisite causes are actually being the effect must also actually be and follow immediately out of them and consequently the action is done in as much as concerneth the vnderstanding and indeede absolutely vnlesse some other cause do faile as soone as the vnderstanding knoweth all the circumstances belonging to it so as it is manifest out of this whole discourse that if a man wrought only by his vnderstanding all his actions would be discreete and rationall in respect of the end he had proposed to himselfe and till he were assured what were best he would keepe himselfe in suspens and do nothing and as soone as he were so he would admitt of no delayes but would at the instant proceede to action according to hiâ— knowledge the contrary of all which we dayly see by experience in euery man We may then safely conclude that in humane nature there are two different centers from whence crosse actions do flow the one he hath common with beasts and whose principles and lawes we deliuered in the former Treatise where we discoursed of life and the motions of life and of passions the other is the subiect of our present enquiry which in this place expecteth at our handes that we should consider how it demeaneth it selfe and what it doth in vs when by its guidance we proceede to any action Experience must be our informer in generall after which our discourse shall anatomise what that presenteth vs in bulke She giueth vs notice of three especiall effects of our vnderstaÌ„ding first that it ordereth a right those conceptions which are brought vnto it secondly that when they appeare to be not sufficient for the intended worke it casteth about and seeketh out others and thirdly that it strengthneth those actions which spring from it and keepeth them regular and firme and constant to their beginnings and principles Vnto which last seemeth to belong that it sometimes châ—cketh its owne thoughts and bringeth backe those it would haue and appeareth to keepe as it were a watch ouer its owne wayes As for the ordering of the present notions it is cleare that it is done by a secret dependance from the rules of discourse and from the maximes of humane action I call this dependance a secret one because a man in his ordinary course maketh vse of those rules and maximes which serue his turne as though they were instilled into him by nature without so much as euer thinking of them or reflecting vpon them to square out his actions by them nay some of them so farre out of the reach of most men as they can not thinke of them though they would for they know them not as in particular the rules of discourse the vse of which is so necessary as without it no man can conuerse with an other nor do any thing like a man that is reasonably From whence then can this proceede that so familiarly and readily a man maketh vse of what he is not conscious to himselfe that he hath any acquaintance withall It can be nothing else but that the soule being in her owne nature ordered to do the same thing which schollers with much difficulty arriue to know what it is by reflection and study and then frame rules
what we command them and carrying vs whither we desire because the spirits which are sent into them from our braine are strong enough to raise and moue them as they are directed but if our sinewes be so steeped in some cold and watry humour that the spirits coming downe find not meanes to swell and harden them well we may wish and striue but all in vaine for we shall not be able to make them performe their due functions In like manner if reason do send her emissaries into the same arme or legge or other member and no other spirits do there striue against them then that limbe is moued and gouerned absolutely according to her directions but if at the same time a greater multitude of others do hinder Reasons seruants from coming thither or flocking into other sinewes do carry that limbe a contrary way in vaine doth Reason striue to moue them to her byas for those obeyng partes must obserue the rules which the violent conquerour prescribeth THE FIFT CHAPTER Containing proofes out of our single apprehensions that our soule is incorporeall AS in our first Treatise we dissected nature and shewed how out of the notion and first diuision of Quantity ariseth that vast multiplicity of thinges which filling this world falleth vnder the consideration of our senses so in the beginning of this second Treatise we haue searched into those operations of a man attributed to his soule by which he is conceiued to excell all other liuing creatures and there discouered that the admirable and vnlimited variety of workes which is seene in mens writinges and actions doth all flow from the source of single apprehensions and euen from one bare notion of Being which is the roote and principle from whence all others deriue their origine and into which all may be resolued workes proceeding from resolutions they from discourses these being composed to iudgements and iudgements of single apprehensions This part we must now reuiew and enquire what we can find in mans operation arguing the Quality of his Soule whether it be corporeall or no. For if these single apprehensions and the processes compounded of them may be performed by the ordering of rare and dense partes as the other workes of nature are then they will be corporeall and of the same kind with those which we opened in the first Treatise but if we shall proue that they can not possibly be deduced from multiplicity and order of Quantitatiue partes then we may confidently resolue ourselues that in the cause from which they flow is a nature wholy discrepant from that which resideth among bodies and among corporeall thinges This we shall here labour to do and to that end we will beginne our worke with reflecting vpon what we haue deliuered of a single apprehension in the first Chapter of this second Treatise whose nature we there first explicated common and thence proceeded to some particular apprehensions and lastly shewed the extent they comprehended These then must be the subiect of our present speculation As for their nature we may remember how we resolued three thinges first that by apprehension the very thing apprehended is by it selfe in our soule next that the notion of Being is the first of all notions and is resumed in all others and thirdly that what is added to the notion of Being is but respects to other thinges Now then lett vs consider what kind of engines they must be that may haue the power to make thinges themselues to be in our soule if they were to be there materially How shall the place or the time passed be remoued and be putt in an other place and in an other time How shall the quaÌ„tity of the heaueÌ„s of the whole world nay of biggenesse exceeding all that by millions of proportionall encreases be shutt vp in the litle circuite of mans braine And yet if we examine our selues strictly we shall find nothing wanting all is there How shall the same thing be corporeally in two nay in two thousand places at the same time And yet in so many is the sunne when two thousand men thinke of it at once We must then allow that thinges are there immaterially and consequently that what receiueth them is immateriall since euery thing is receiued according to the measure and nature of what receiueth it But I easily conceiue that the strangenesse and incredibility of our position may counterballance the force of it for who can persuade himselfe that the very thing he apprehendeth is in his minde I acknowledge that if its being there were to be vnderstood corporeally it were impossible but on the other side who shall consider that he knoweth the thing he â—ightly apprehendeth that it worketh in him and maketh him worke agreeable to its nature and that all the properties and singularities of it may be displayed by what is in him and are as it were vnfoulded in his mind he can neyther deny nor doubt but that it is there in an admirable and spirituall manner If you aske me how this cometh to passe And by what artifice bodies are thus spiritualized I coÌ„fesse I shall not be able to satisfy you but must answere that it is done I know not how by the power of the soule shew me a soule and I will tell you how it worketh but as we are sure there is a soule that is to say a Principle from wheÌ„ce these operatioÌ„s spring though we can not see it so we may and do certainely know that this mystery is as we say though because we vnderstand not the true and complete nature of a soule we can as litle expresse the manner how it is done by a soule Yet before we take our leaue of this matter of Apprehensions we will in due place endeauour to say something towardes the clearing of this obscure point Our second consideration vpon the nature of Apprehension was that our primary and maine notion is of Being This discouereth some litle glympse of the nature of the soule for it is manifest that she applyeth this notion as well to no partes as to partes which we proued in the first Treatise when we shewed that we haue a particular notion of substance distinct from the notion of Quantity for quantity and Partes being the same it followeth that if there be a notion supposed by quantity as in substance there is it must of necessity abstract from partes and consequently we may conclude that the notion of Being which is indifferently applyable eyther to quantity or to substance doth of its owne nature wholy abstract eyther from Partes or from no Partes I then inferre that since this notion of Being is the very first and virgin notion our soule is imbued with or is capable of and that it is the roote of all other notions and into which she resolueth euery other notion in such sort as when we haue sifted and searsed the essence of any notion whatsoeuer we can discouer nothing that is deeper
then this or precedent to it and that it agreeth so completely with our soule as she seemeth to be nothing else but a capacity fitted to Being it can not be denyed but that our soule must needes haue a very neere affinity and reseÌ„blance of nature with it but it is euident that Being hath not of it selfe any partes in it nor of it selfe is capable of diuision and therefore it is as euident that the soule which is framed as it were by that patterne and Idea and is fitted for Beinâ— as for its end must also of it selfe be voyde of partes and be in capable of diuisioÌ„ For how can partes be fitted to an indiuisible thing And how can two such different natures euer meete porportionably If it be obiected that the very notion of Being from whence we estimate the nature of the soule is accommodable to partes as for example we see that substance is endewed with quantity We answere that euen this doth corroborate our proofe for seing that the substances which our senses are acquainted withall haue partes and can not be without partes and yet neuerthelesse in our soule the notion of such substance is found without partes it is cleare that such substance hath this meerely from our soule and because it hath this indisibility from our soule it followeth that our soule hath a power and nature to bestow indiuisibility vpon what cometh into her And since it can not be denyed but that if any substance were once existent without partes it could neuer after haue partes it is euident that the nature of the soule is incapable of partes because it is existent without partes And that it is in such sort existent is cleare for this effect of the soules giuing indiuisibility vnto what she receiueth into her proceedeth from her as she is existent Now since this notion of Being is of all others the first and originall notion that is in the soule it must needes aboue all others sauour most of the proper and genuine nature of the soule in which and by which it is what it is and hath its indiuisibility If then it be pressed how can substance in reality or in thinges be accommodated vnto Quantity seing that of it selfe it is indiuisible We answere that such substance as is the subiect of Quantity and that hath Quantity is not indiuisible for such substance can not be subsistent without Quantity and when we frame a notion of it as being indiuisible it is an effect of the force of our soule that is able to draw a notion out of a thing that hath partes without drawing the notion of the partes which sheweth maâ—ifestly that in her there is a power aboue hauing of partes which being in her argueth her existence to be such Our last consideration vpon the nature of apprehension was how all that is added to the notion of Being is nothing else but respects of one thing to an other and how by these respects all the thinges of the world come to be in our soule The euideÌ„ce we may draw from hence of our soules immateriality will be not a whitt lesse then eyther of the two former for lett vs cast our lookes ouer all that cometh into our senses and see if from one end to an other we can meete with such a thing as we call a respect it hath neyther figure nor colour nor smell nor motion nor tast nor touch it hath no similitude to be drawne out of by meanes of our senses to be like to be halfe to be cause or effect what is it The thinges indeed that are so haue their resemblances and pictures but which way should a painter go about to draw a likenesse Or to paint a halfe or a cause or an effect If we haue any vnderstanding we can not choose but vnderstand that these notions are extremely different from whatsoeuer cometh in vnto vs by the mediation of our senses and then if we reflect how the whole negotiation of our vnderstanding is in and by respects must it not follow necessarily that our soule is of an extreme different nature from our senses and from our Imagination Nay if we looke well into this argument we shall see that whereas Aristotle pretendeth that Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu this Maxime is so farre from being true in rigour of the wordes that the quite contrary followeth vndenyably out of it to witt that Nihil est in intellectu quod fuit prius in sensu Which I do not say to contradict Aristotle for his wordes are true in the meaning he spoke them but to shew how thinges are so much changed by coming into the vnderstanding and into the soule that although on the one side they be the very same thinges yet on the other side there remaineth no likenesse at all between them in themselues as they are in the vnderstading which is a most euident proofe when the weight of it is duely considered that the nature of our soule is mainely different from the nature of all corporeall thinges that come into our sense By this which we now come from declaring the admiration how corporeall thinges can be in the soule and how they are spiritualized by their being so will in part be taken away for reflecting that all the notioÌ„s of the soule are nothing but the generall notion of a substance or of a thing ioyned with some particular respect â—f then we consider that the respects may be so ordered that one respect may be included in an other we shall see that there may be some one respect which may include all those respects that explicate the nature of some one thing and in this case the generall notion of a thing coupled with this respect will containe all whatsoeuer is in the thing as for example the notion of a knife that it is a thing to cutt withall includeth as we haue formerly declared all that belongeth vnto a knife And thus you see how that mysticall phrase of corporeall thinges being spiritualized in the soule signifyeth no more but that the similitudes which are of them in the soule are Respects Thus hauing collected out of the nature of Apprehension in common as much as we conceiue needefull in this place to proue our assertion our next worke must be to try if we can do the like by reflecting vpon particular apprehensions We considered them of two sortes calling one kind vniuersall ones and the other collectiue ones in the vniuersall ones we tooke notice of two conditions the abstraction and the vniuersality of them now truly if we had no other euidence but what will rise from the first of these that alone would conuince and carry the conclusion for though among corporeall thinges the same may be now in one place now in an other or sometimes haue one figure sometimes an other and still be the same thinges as for example waxe or water yet it is impossible
corporeall or bodily thing since of all bodily thinges the motions that are made by the sensible qualities arriue neerest to a spirituall nature It remayneth now that we should argue for the immateriality of the soule out of the extent of our apprehension which seemeth to be so excessiue as not to be comprehensible by the limitations of bodies and therefore can not belong vnto a body but because all that needeth to be said in this particular followeth plainely out of groundes already vrged and that this point containeth not any notable particularity deseruing mention here we will not enlarge ourselues any further vpon it but will passe on to the next line of operations proper vnto our mind Only we may not omitt taking notice of the expressions which our mind maketh of nothing or as Logitians terme it of Negations and Priuations which do argue an admirable power in the soule and of a quite different straine from all corporeall thinges and do euidently conuince the immateriality of it for it can not be doubted but that the soule knoweth what she meaneth when she discourseth of Nothing Now if all her knowledge were nothing else but corporeall phantasmes or pictures made by corporeall thinges how should she come to haue a notion of Nothing for since it is most cleare that something can not be like Nothing and that there can not be a participation of what is not how can we conceiue that there should be a similitude made of Nothing The way therefore that the soule taketh in this operation is that comparing two thinges together and finding that the one of them is not the other she reflecteth vpon her owne action and diuiding in it the thing said from the saying she taketh the thing said for a quality or property or predicate as Logitians call it of that thing which she denyeth to be the other thing and then she giueth it a positiue name after she hath first made a positiue notion vnto which the name may agree as for example when the soule considereth a man that hath not the power to see as soone as she hath to her selfe pronunced that he hath not such a power she taketh the not power to see for a quality of that man and then giueth the name of blindenesse to that not power of seeing which though of it selfe it be nothing yet by being that which satisfyeth her act wheÌ„ she sayeth that he hath not the power of seeing it seemeth to be ranked among those thinges vnto which names are due for it hath a notion and the hauing a notion is the clayme or merite or dignity in vertue whereof thinges are preferred to names Now then lett vs enquire how the power of rarity and density or the multiplication and order of partes can be raised and refined to the state of being like nothing or of being the similitude of a negation or what operation of rarity ad density can forge out this notion of blindenesse which we haue explicated and when we â—ind it is beyond their reach to compasse we must acknowledge that the soule is an other kind of engine then all those which are in the storehouse of bodies THE SIXT CHAPTER Containing proofes out of our soules operations in knowing or deeming any thing that she is of a spirituall nature OVr next consideration shall be to see what testimony our manner of Iudging doth yield vs of the nature of the soule concerning which three thinges offer themselues worthy the reflecting on which are our manner of thinking the opposition which frequently occurreth in our thoughts and the nature of truth and of falsehood As for the first we may remember how we haue shewed that all iudgement or deeming is but an apprehension of identification or something immediately following out of it and that a settled iudgement or assent of the mind is as it were a limbe or branch or graft in our soule so that we find that our perceiuing of identification between two thinges or our seeing that the one is the other is that by which our soule encreaseth Now because when two thinges are identifyed the one reacheth not further then the other it is cleare that this encrease of the soule is not made by partes which being added one to an other do cause it to be greater and therefore since this latter course is the only meanes of encrease in bodies and in quantity it is as cleare that the nature of the soule is quite different from the nature of all corporeall or Quantitatiue thinges Againe it is against the nature of identification to be of partes and therefore they who take quantity to be one thing and not many thinges tyed together do acknowledge that truly there are no partes in it and this is so rigorously true that although we speake of two thinges that in reality are identifyed one with an other yet if our wordes be such as imply that our vnderstanding considereth them as distinct partes and by abstraction giueth them the nature of partes then they are no longer identifyed but in good Logike we ought in this case to deny the one of the other As for example though the hand and the foote be the same thing as we haue declared in our first Treatise yet because in the name hand there is a secret exclusion of any thing that is not in the definition of a hand it followeth that in our speech we must say that a hand is not a foote Likewise though it be confessed that the thing which is rationality is also risibility neuerthelesse it is a solecisme in Logike to say that rationality is risibility because it is the nature of these abstracted names to confine their signifycations to one definition and the definitions of these two termes are diuers Out of this consideration it followeth clearely that seeing the nature of partes is contrary to the nature of identity and that the soule in her iudgements worketh alltogether by identity it is impossible that her operations should consist of partes or in any sort resemble any proceeding of Quantitatiue thinges The like will be conuinced out of the opposition we find in our thoughts In it we may consider two thinges first the generation of it next the incompossibility of opposites in the soule To beginne with the first we see that in our speaking opposition is produced by the addition of this word Not as when we say not a man not a penny not a word and therefore it followeth that in our soule there is a notion of it correspondent to the word that expresseth it Now seeing that a notion is a thing and that it is the likenesse of its obiect or rather the same with the obiect lett vs cast about how we should of partes and of Quantity make a nothing or an identification to not and when we find that it is ridiculous and absurd to go about it lett vs conclude that the manner of working which our soule vseth is farre
what his senses may be iudges of and that he may handle and turne on euery side like a bricke or a tile and will be still importune with cauillous scrupules and wilde doubts that in truth and at the bottome do signify nothing we will leaue him to meditate at his leisure vpon what we haue said whiles we proceed on to what followeth out of this great principle That our soule is incorporeall and spirituall THE NINTH CHAPTER That our soule is a Substance and Immortall HAuing concluded that our soule is immateriall and indiuisible to proceed one steppe further it can not be denyed but that it is eyther a substance or an accident if the later it must be of the nature of the substance whose accident it is for so we see all accidents are but in man when his soule is excluded there is no spirituall substance at all whereof we haue any notice and therefore if it be an accident it must be a corporeall accident or some accident of a body as some figure temperature harmony or the like and consequently it must be diuisible but this is contrary to what is proued in the former Chapters and therefore it can not be a corporeall accident Neyther can it be a spirituall accident for vnto what spirituall substance should it belong when as nothing in man can be suspected to be spirituall but it selfe Seeing then that it can be no accident a substance it must be and must haue its Existence or Being in it selfe Here we haue passed the Rubiton of experimentall knowledge we are now out of the boundes that experience hath any iurisdiction ouer and from henceforth we must in all our searches and conclusions rely only vpon the single euidence of Reason And euen this last conclusion we haue beene faine to deduce out of the force of abstracted reasoning vpon what we had gathered before not by immediate reflection vpon some action we obserue proceeding from a man yet withall nature flasheth out by a direct beame some litle glimmering of the verity of it to the eye of Reason that is within vs for as whē we see a clocke mooue or a mill or any thing that goeth by many wheeles if we marke that there are two contrary motions in two diuers partes of it we can not think that those contrary motions do belong to one and the same continued body but shall presently conclude that there must be in that engine two seuerall bodies compacted together so in man though his body be the first moouer that appeareth vnto vs yet seeing that in his actions some effects do shew themselues which it is impossible should proceed from a body it is euident that in him there is some other thing besides that one which we see and consequently we may conclude that he is composed of a body and of somewhat else that is not a body which somewhat else being the spring from whence those actions flow that are of a different straine from them that are deriued from the body must necessarily be a spirituall substance But whiles we are examining how farre our present considerations and short discourses may carry vs as it were experimentally to confirme this truth we must not omitt what Auicenna in his booke de Anima Almahad and Monsieur des Cartes in his Methode do presse vpon the same occasion Thus they say or to like purpose if I cast with my selfe who I am that walke or speake or think or order any thing my reason will answere me that although my legges or tōgue were gone and that I could no longer walke or speake yet were not I gone and I should know and see with my vnderstanding that I were still the very same thing the same Ego as before The same as of my tongue or legges would reason tell me of my eyes my eares my smelling tasting and feeling eyther all of them together or euery one of them single that were they all gone still should I remaine As when in a dreame where I vse none of all these I both am and know my selfe to be Reason will tell me also that although I were not nourished so I were not wasted which for the drift of the argument may be supposed yet still I should continue in Being Whence it would appeare that my hart liuer lnges kidneyes stomacke mouth and what other partes of me soeuer that serue for the nourishment of my body might be seuered from me and yet I remaine what I am Nay if all the beautifull and ayry fantasmes which fly about so nimbly in our braine be nothing else but signes vnto in our soule of what is without vs it is euident that though peraduenture she would not without their seruice exercise that which by errour we missename Thinking yet the very same soule and thinker might be without them all and consequently without braine also seeing that our braine is but the play-house and scene where all these faery maskes are acted so that in conclusion Reason assureth vs that when all body is abstracted in vs there still remaineth a substāce a thinker an Ego or I that in it selfe is no whitt diminished by being as I may say stripped out of the case it was enclosed in And now I hope the intelligēt Reader will conceiue I haue performed my promise and haue shewed the soule of man to be an Immortall substance for since it is a substance it hath a Being and since it is an immateriall substance it hath a Being of its owne force without needing a consort body to helpe it to sustaine its Existence for to be a substance is to be the subiect of Existence and consequently to be an immateriall substance is to be a subiect capable of Existence without the helpe of matter or of Quantity It can not therefore be required of me to vse any further industry to proue such a soule to be immortall but who will contradict her being so is obliged to shew that she is mortall for it followeth in reason that she will keepe her being vnlesse by some force she be bereaued of it it being a rule that whosoeuer putteth a thing to be is not bound for the continuation of that thinges being to proue that it is not changed but on the other side he that auerreth it is changed is bound to bring in his euidence of a sufficient cause to change it for to haue a thing remaine is natures owne dictamen and followeth out of the causes which gaue it being but to make an alteration supposeth a change in the causes and therefore the obligation of proofe lyeth on that side Neuerthelesse to giue satisfaction to those who are earnest to see euery article positiuely prooued we will make that part too our Prouince Lett vs then remember that Immortality signifyeth a negation or a not hauing of Mortality and that a positiue terme is required to expresse a change by since nature teacheth vs that whatsoeuer is will
remaine with the Being it hath vnlesse it be forced out of it if then we shew that Mans soule hath not those groundes in her which maketh all thinges we see to be mortall we must be allowed to haue acquitted ourselues of the charge of prouing her Immortall For this end lett vs looke round about vs and enquire of all the thinges we meete with by what meanes they are changed and come to a periode and are no more The pure elements will tell you that they haue their change by rarefaction and condensation and no otherwise mixed bodies by alteration of their mixture small bodies by the actiuity of the Elements working vpon them and by the meanes of rarefaction and condensation entering into their very constitution and breeding an other temperament by seperation of some of their partes and in their steade mingling others Plantes and trees and other liuing creatures will tell you that their nourishment being insinuated through their whole bodies by subtile pores and blinde passages if they either be stopped by any accident or else be filled with bad nourishment the mixture of the whole faileth of it selfe and they come to dye Those thinges which are violently destroyed we see are made away for the most part by diuision so fire by diuision destroyeth all that cometh in its way so liuing creatures are destroyed by their parting of their bloud from their flesh or of one member from an other or by the euaporation or extinction of their naturall heate In fine we are sure that all thinges which within our knowledge loose the ir Being do so by reason of their Quantity which by diuision or by rarefaction and compression gaineth some new temperature that doth not consist with their former temper After these premisses I neede say no more the conclusion displayeth it selfe readily and plainely without any further trouble for if our labour hath beene hitherto to shew that our soule is indiuisible and that her operations are such as admitt not quantitatiue partes in her it is cleare that she can not be mortall by any of those wayes whereby we see thinges round about vs to perish The like argument we may frame out of locall motion for seeing that all the alteratiue actions we are acquainted withall be performed by locall motion as is deliuered both in grosse and by detaile in our first Treatise and that Aristotle and all vnderstanding Philosophers do agree there can be no locall motion in an indiuisible thing the reason whereof is euident to whomsoeuer reflecteth vpon the nature of Place and of locall motion it is manifest that there can be no motion to hurt the soule since she is concluded to be indiuisible The common argument likewise vsed in this matter amounteth to the same effect to witt that since thinges are destroyed only by their contraries that thing which hath no contrary is not subiect to destruction which Principle both Reason and experience do euery where confirme but a humane soule is not subiect to contrariety and therefore such â—n one can not be destroyed The truth of the assumption may be knowne two wayes first because all the contrarieties that are found within our cognisance do arise out of the primary opposition of Rarity and Density from which the soule being absolutely free she likewise is so from all that groweth out of that roote and secondly we may be sure that our soule can receiue no harme from contrariety since all contraries are so farre from hurting her as contrary wise the one helpeth her in the contemplation of the other and as for contradiction in thoughts which att different times our soule is capable of admitting experience teacheth vs that such thoughts do change in her without any preiudice to her substance they being accidents and hauing their contrariety only betwixt themselues within her but no opposition at all to her which only is the contrariety that may haue power to harme her and therefore whether soeuer of such contrary thoughts be in the soule pertaineth no more to her subsistence then it doth to the subsistence of a body whether it be here or there on the right hand or on the left And thus I conceiue my taske is performed and that I am discharged of my vndertaking to shew the soules Immortality which importeth no more then to shew that the causes of other thinges mortality do not reach her Yet being well persuaded that my reader will not be offended with the addition of any new light in this darke subiect I will striue to discouer if it be possible some positiue proofe or guesse out of the property and nature of the soule it selfe why she must remaine and â—nioy an other life after this To this end lett vs cast our eye backe vpon what hath beene already said concerning her nature We found that truth is the naturall perfection of Mans soule and that she can not be assured of truth naturally otherwise then by euidence and therefore it is manifest that euidence of truth is the full complete perfection at which the soule doth ayme We found also that the soule is capable of an absolute infinity of truth or euideÌ„ce To these two we will adde only one thing more which of it selfe is past question and therefore needeth no proofe and then we will deduce our conclusion and this is that in a man his soule is a farre nobler and perfecter part of him then his body and therefore by the rules of nature and of wisedome his body was made for his soule and not his soule finally for his body These groundes being thus layed lett vs examine whether our soule doth in this life arriue to the end she was ordained for or no and if she do not then it must follow of necessity that our body was made but for a passage by which our soule should be ferried ouer into that state where she is to attaine vnto that end for which her nature is framed and fitted the great skill and artifice of nature shewing and assuring vs that she neuer faileth of compassing her end euen in her meanest workes and therefore without doubt would not breake her course in her greatest whereof man is absolutely the head and chiefe among all those that we are acquainted with Now what the end is vnto which our soule doth ayme is euident since the perfection of euery thing is the end for which it is made the perfection then and end of the soule being euidence and she being capable of infinite euidence lett vs enquire whether in this life she may compasse it or no. To determine this question lett vs compare infinite euidence to that euidence which the greatest and most knowing man that euer liued hath acquired by the worke of nature alone or to that euidence which by aime we may imagine is possible euer to happen vnto any one man to arriue vnto and balancing them well together lett vs iudge whether all that any man can know
here is not in respect of what a mans soule is capable of to be stiled as nothing and deserueth not the name of euidence nor to be accounted of that nature and if our sentence do conclude vpon this lett vs acknowledge that our soule arriueth not to her perfection nor enioyeth her end in this world and therefore must haue infaillibly an other habitation in the next world vnto which nature doth intend her Experience teacheth vs that we can not fully comprehend any one of natures workes and those Philosophers who in a disciplinable way search into nature and therefore are called Mathematicians after they haue written large volumes of some very slender subiect do euer find that hey haue left vntouched an endlesse abisse of knowledge for whomsoeuershall please to build vpon their foundations and that they can neuer arriue neere saying all that may be said of that subiect though they haue said neuer so much of it We may not then make difficulty to beleeue that the wisest and learnedest men in the world haue reason to professe with the father of Philosophers that indeede they know nothing And if so how farre are they from that happinesse and perfection which consisteth in knowing all thinges Of which full sea we neuerthelesse find euen in this low ebbe that our soule is a channell capable and is framed a fitt vessell and instrument to receiue it when the tide shall come in vpon it which we are sure it can not do vntill the bankes of our body which hinder it be broken downe This last consideration without doubt hath added no small corroboration to our former proofes which are so numerous and so cleare as peraduenture it may appeare superfluous to say any more to this point since one conuincing argument establisheth the verity of a conclusion as efficaciously as a hundred and therefore Mathematicians vse but one single proofe in all their propositions after which other supernumerary ones would be but tedious Neuerthelesse since all the seuerall wayes by which we may looke into the nature of our soule the importantest subiect we can busy our thoughts vpon can not faile of being pleasing and delightfull to vs we must not omitt to reflect a litle vpon that great property of our soule by which she is able to mooue and to worke without her selfe being mooued or touched Vnto which adding that all life consisteth in motion and that all motion of bodies cometh from some other thing without them we may euidently conclude that our soule who can mooue without receiuing her motioÌ„ from abread hath in her selfe a spring of life for the which she is not beholding as bodies are to some extrinsecall cause of a nature like vnto her but only to him who gaue her to Be what she is But if she haue such a spring of life within her it were vnreasonable to imagine that she dyed vpon the occasion of the death of an other thing that exerciseth no action of life but as it is caused by an other Neyther may we neglect that ordinary consideration which taketh notice that our soule maketh vse of propositions of eternall truth which we haue aboue produced among our proofes for her being of a spirituall nature and shall now employ it for the prouing her Immortall by considering that the notion of Being which settleth these propositions so as they feare no mutation or shaking by time is the very roote of the soule and that which giueth her her nature and which â—heweth it selfe in all her operations so that if from Being arriueth vnto these propositions to feare no time the like must of necessity betide also the substaÌ„ce of the soule And thus we see that her nature is out of the reach of time that she can comprehend time and sett it limits and that she can think of thinges beyond it and cast about for them All which are cleare testimonies that she is free and secure from the all deuouring and destroying tyranny of that Saturniall Conquerour of the whole world of matter and of Bodies whose seruant is death After all these proofes drawne from the nature of the soule it selfe euery one of them of force to conuince her immortality I must craue leaue to adde one consideration more though it seemeth to belong vnto an others haruest namely to the science of Morals and it is that the position of Mortality in the soule taketh away all morality and changeth men into beastes by taking away the ground of all difference in those thinges which are to gouerne our actions For supposing that the soule dyeth with the body and seeing that man hath a comprehension or notion of time without end it is euident that the spanne of this life must needes appeare contemptible vnto him that well considereth and weigheth it against the other infinite duration and by consequence all the goods and euils which are partes of this life must needes become as despicable and inconsiderable so that better or worse in this life hath not any appearance of difference betweene them at the least not enough to make him labour with paine to compasse the one and eschew the other and for that end to crosse his present inclination in any thing and engage himselfe in any the least difficult taske and so it would ensue that if to an vnderstanding man some course or action were proposed vnto him as better then that he were going about or for the instant had a mind vnto he would relish it as a great marchant or a Banquier would do who dealing for Millions one should presse him with earnestnesse to make him change his resolued course for the gaine of a farthing more this way then the other which being inconsiderable he would not trouble his head with it nor stoppe at what he was in hand with In like manner whosoeuer is persuaded that for an infinity of time he shall be nothing and without sense of all thinges he scorneth for this litle twinckling of his life to take any present paines to be in the next moment well or to auoyde being ill since in this case dying is a secure remedy to any present euill and he is as ready to dye now as a hundred yeares heÌ„ce nor can he estime the losse of a huÌ„dred yeares to be a matter of moment and therefore he will without any further guidance or discourse betake himselfe to do whatsoeuer his present inclination beareth him to with most facility vpoÌ„ this resolutioÌ„ that if any thing crosse him he will preseÌ„tly forgoe his life as a trifle not worth the keeping and thus neyther vertue nor honour nor more pleasure then what at the present tickleth him doth fall into his account which is the ouerthrow of the whole body of Morality that is of mans action and nature But all they who looke into sciences do crosse that for an erroneous and absurd position which taketh away the Principles of any science and consequently the position of the
endeauours be freed from the subiection of time and Place Thus then we plainely see that it is a very different thing to be and to be in a Place and therefore out of a Thinges being in no Place it can not be inferred That it is not or that it is no substance nor contrariwise out of its being can it be inferred that it is in a Place there is no man but of himselfe perceiueth the false consequence of this argument a thing is therefore it is hoat or it is cold and the reason is because hoat and cold are particular accidents of a body and therefore a body can be without eyther of them The like proportion is betweene Being in generall and Being a Body or Being in a Body for both these are particulars in respect of Being but to be in a Place is nothing else but to be in a circumstant Body and so what is not in a Body is not in a Place therefore as it were an absurd illation to say it is therefore it is in a Body no lesse is it to say it is therefore it is somewhere which is equiualent to in some Body and so a great Master Peraduenture one of the greatest and iudiciousest that euer haue beene telleth vs plainely that of it selfe it is euident to those who are truly learned that incorporeall substances are not in Place and Aristotle teacheth vs that the Vniuerse is not in Place But now to make vse of this discourse we must intimate what it is we leuell at in it we direct it to two endes first to lead on our thoughts and to helpe our apprehension in framing some conception of a spirituall substance without residence in Place and to preueÌ„t our fansies checking at such abstraction since we see that we vse it in our ordinary speech when we thinke not on it nor labour for it in all vniuersall and indefinite termes next to trace out an eminent propriety of a seperated soule namely that she is no where and yet vpon the matter that she is euery where that she is bound to no Place and yet remote from none that she is able to worke vpon all without shifting from one to an other or coming neere any and that she is free from all without remoouing or parting from any one A second propriety not much vnlike this first we shall discouer in a seperated soule if we compare her with time We haue heretofore explicated how Time is the motion of the heauens which giueth vs our motion which measureth all particular motions and which comprehendeth all bodies and maketh them awayte his leisure From the large empire of this proud commander a separated soule is free for although she do consist with time that is to say she is whiles time is yet is â—he not in time nor doth she in any of her actions expect time but she is able to frame time to spinne or weaue it out of her selfe and to master it All which will appeare manifestly if we consider what it is to be in time Aristotle sheweth vs that to be comprehended vnder time or to be in time is to be one of those mooueables whose being consisting in motion taketh vp but a part of Time and hath its termes before and behind in time and is measured by Time and must expect the flowing of Time both for Being and for Action Now all this manifestly belongeth vnto Bodies whose both action and being is subiect to a perpetuall locall motion and alteration and consequently a separated soule who is totally a Being and hath her whole operation all together as being nothing but her selfe when we speake of her perfectiue operation can not be said to be in time but is absolutely free from it though time do glide by her as it doth by other thinges and so all that she knoweth or can do she doeth and knoweth at once with one act of the vnderstanding or rather she is indeede and really all that and therefore she doth not require time to manage or order her thoughts nor do they succeed one an other by such vicissitudes as men are forced to thinke of thinges by because their fansie and the images in it which beate vpon the soule to makâ—â—er thinke whiles she is in the body are corporeall and therefore do require time to mooue in and to giue way to one and other but she thinketh of all the thinges in the world and of all that she can thinke of together and at once as hereafter we intend to shew A third propriety we may conceiue to be in a separated soule by apprehending her to be an Actiuity which that we may rightly vnderstand lett vs compare her in regard of working with a body reflecting then vpon the nature of bodies we shall find that not any of them will do the functions they are framed for vnlesse some other thing do stirre them vp and cause them so to do As for example a knife if it be thrust or pressed will cutt otherwise it will lye still and haue no effect and as it fareth with a knife so it doth in the same manner with those bodies which seeme most to mooue themselues as vpon a litle consideration will appeare plainely A beast seemeth to mooue it selfe but if we call to minde what we haue deliuered vpon this subiect in the first Treatise we shall find that whensoeuer he beginneth to mooue he eyther perceiueth something by his sense which causeth his motion or else he remembreth something that is in his braine which worketh the like effect Now if sense presenteth him an obiect that causeth his motion we see manifestly that it is an externall cause which maketh him mooue but if memory do it we shall find that stirred by some other part as by the stomacke or by the heart which is empty or heated or hath receiued some other impression from an other body so that sooner or later we shall discouer an outward moouer The like is in naturall motions as in heauy thinges their easy following if they be sucked an other way then downewardes testifyeth that their motion downewardes hath an extrinsecall motor as is before declared and not only in these but throughout in all other corporeall thinges So that in a word all bodies are of this nature that vnlesse some other thing presse them and alter them when they are quiett they remaine so and haue no actiuity otherwise then from an extrinsecall moouer but of the soule we haue declared the contrary and that by its nature motion may proceed from it without any mutation in it or without its receiuing any order direction or impulse from an extrinsecall cause So that now summing vp together all we haue said vpon this occasion we find a soule exempted from the body to be An indiuisible substance exempted from place and time yet present to both an actuall and present knowledge of all thinges that may be knowne and a skill or rule euen
by what it selfe is to all thinges whatsoeuer This she is if she be perfect but if she be imperfect then is she all this to the proportion of her groweth if so I may say and she is powerfull according to the measure of her knowledge and of her will So that in fine a seperated soule is of a nature to haue and to know and to gouerne all thinges I may reasonably suspect that my saying how imperfect soules are rules to the proportion of their groweth may hau◠occasioned great reflexion and may haue bredd some trouble in the curious and heedefull reader I confesse this expression was deliuered by me only to free my selfe for the present from the labour of shewing what knowledge euery seperated soule hath but vpon second thoughts I find that such sliding ouer this difficult point will not serue my turne nor saue me the paines of vntying this knott for vnlesse I explicate what I meane by that speech I shall leaue my Reader in great doubt and anxiety which to free him from I must wade a litle further in this question of the extent of a seperated soules knowledge into which I haue thus vpon the by engaged my selfe but lett him first be aduertised that I do not here meddle with what a seperated soule may know by reuelation or by supernaturall meanes but that I do only tracke out her naturall pathes and do guesse at what she is or knoweth by that light which her conuersation in her body affordeth vs. Our entrance into this matter must be to consider what mutation in respect of knowledge a soules first change out of her body maketh in her for it is not vnlikely but that nature may some way enlighten vs so farre as to lett vs vnderstand what must follow out of the negation of the bodies consorteshippe added vnto what we know of her and other workes in this world This then first occurreth that surely she can not choose but still know in that state all that she did know whiles she was in the body since we are certaine that the body hath no part in that which is true knowledge as is aboue declared when we shewed first that all true knowledge is respectiue secondly that the first impressions of the fansie do not reach to the interiour soule and lastly that she worketh by much more then what hath any actuall correspondence in the fansie and that all thinges are vnited to her by the force of Being from which last it followeth that all thinges she knoweth are her selfe and she is all that she knoweth wherefore if she keepeth her selfe and her owne Being she must needes keepe the knowledge of all that she knew in this world Next she must vndoubtedly know then somewhat more then she knew in the body for seeing that out of the thinges she already knoweth others will follow by the meere ordering and connexion of them and that the soules proper worke is to order thinges we can not doubt but that both the thinges she knoweth in this world must of necessity be ordered in her to the best aduantage and likewise that all that will be knowne which wanteth no other cause for the knowing of it but the ordering of these thinges for if the nature of a thing were order who can doubt but what were putt into that thing were putt into order Now that the nature of the soule is such we collect easily for seeing that all order proceedeth from her it must be acknowledged that order is first in her but what is in her is her nature her nature then is order and what is in her is ordered In saying of which I do not meane that there is such an order betweene the notions of a seperated soule as is betweene materiall thinges that are ordered by the soule whiles she is in the body for seeing that the soule is adaequate cause of such order that is to say a cause which can make any an such and the whole kind of it it followeth that such order is not in her for if it were she would be cause of her selfe or of her owne partes Order therefore in her must signify a thing more eminēt thē such inferiour order in which resideth the power of making that inferiour order and this is nothing else but the cōnexion of her notions by the necessity of Being which we haue oftē explicated And out of this eminēt or superiour kind of order our conclusion followeth no lesse then if the inferiour order which we see in our fansies whiles our soule is in our Body did reside in our interiour soule for it is the necessity of identification which doth the effect and maketh the soule know and the order of fantasmes is but a precedent condition in the bodily Agent that it may worke vpon the soule and if more fantasmes then one could be together this order would not be necessary Out of this a notable and a vast conclusion manifestly followeth to witt that if a soule can know any one thing more when she is out the body then what she did know whiles she was in the body without any manner of doubt she knoweth all that can be drawne and forced out of those knowledges which she had in her body How much this is and how farre it will reach I am affraide to speake only I entreate Mathematicians and such as are acquainted with the manner how sciences proceed to consider how some of their definitions are made to witt by composing together sundry knowne termes and giuing a new name to the compound that resulteth out of them wherefore cleare it is that out of fewer notions had at the first the soule can make many more and the more she hath or maketh the more she can multiply Againe the maximes which are necessary to be added vnto the definitions for gaining of knowledge we see are also compounded of ordinary and knowne termes so that a seperated soule can want neyther the Definitions nor the Maximes out of which the bookes of sciences are composed and therefore neyther can the sciences themselues be wanting vnto her Now if we consider that in the same fashion as demonstrations are made and knowledge is acquired in one science by the same meanes there is a transcendence from science to science and that there is a connexion among all the sciences which fall into the consideration of man and indeede among all at the least corporeall thinges for of spirituall thinges we can not so assuredly affirme it although their perfection may persuade vs that there is rather a greater connexion among them then among corporeall thinges it will follow that a soule which hath but any indifferent knowledge in this world shall be replenished with all knowledge in the next But how much is this indifferent knowledge that for this purpose is required in this world Vpon mature consideration of this point it is true I find it absolutely necessary that the soule must haue here
that can be imagined in nature For we haue already shewed how a separated soule comprehendeth at once all place and all times so that her actiuity requireth no application to place or time but she is of her selfe mistresse of both comprehending all quantity whatsoeuer in an indiuisible apprehension and ranking all the partes of motion in their complete order and knowing at once what is to happen in euery one of them On the other side an incorporated soule by reason of her being confined to the vse of her senses can looke vpon but one single definite place or time at once and needeth a long chaine of many discourses to comprehend all the circumstances of any one action and yet after all how short she is of comprehending all So that comparing the one of these with the other it is euident that in respect of time and place and in respect of any one singular action the proportion of a separated soule to one in the body is as all time or all place in respect of any one piece or least parcell of them or as the entire absolute comprehender of all time and all place is to the discouerer of a small measure of them For whatsoeuer a soule willeth in that state she willeth it for the whole extent of her duration because she is then out of the state or capacity of changing and wisheth for whatsoeuer she wisheth as for her absolute good and therefore employeth the whole force of her iudgement vpon euery particular wish Likewise the eminency which a separated soule hath ouer place is also then entirely employed vpon euery particular wish of hers since in that state there is no variety of place left vnto her to wish for such good in one place and to refuse it in an other as whiles she is in the body happeneth to euery thing she desireth Wherefore whatsoeuer she then wisheth for she wisheth for it according to her comparison vnto place that is to say that as such a soule hath a power to worke at the same time in all place by the absolute comprehension which she hath of place in abstract so euery wish of that soule if it were concerning a thing to be made in place were able to make it in all places through the excessiue force and efficacy which she employeth vpon euery particular wish The third effect by which among bodies we gather the vigour and energy of the cause that produceth it to witt the doing of the like action in a lesser time and in a larger extent is but a combination of the two former and therefore it requireth no further particular insistance vpon it to shew that likewise in this the proportion of a separated to an incorporated soule must needes be the selfe same as in the others seeing that a separated soules actiuity is vpon all place in an indiuisible of time Therefore to shutt vp this point there remaineth only for vs to consider what addition may be made vnto the efficacity of a iudgement by the concurrence of other extrinsecall helpes We see that when an vnderstanding man will settle any iudgement or conclusion in his mind he weigheth throughly all that followeth out of such a iudgement and considereth likewise all the antecedents that lead him vnto it and if after due reflection and examination of whatsoeuer concerneth that conclusion which he is establishing in his mind he findeth nothing to crosse it but that euery particular and circumstance goeth smoothly along with it and strengtheneth it he is then satisfyed and quiett in his thoughts and yieldeth a full assent therevnto which assent is the stronger by how many the more concurrent testimonyes he hath for it And although he should haue a perfect demonstration or sight of the thing in it selfe yet euery one of the other extrinsecall proofes being as it were a new persuasion hath in it a further vigour to strengthen and content his mind in the forehad demonstration for if euery one of these be in it selfe sufficient to make the thing euident it can not happen that any one of them should hinder the others but contrariwise euery one of them must needes coucurre with all the rest to the effectuall quieting of his vnderstanding in its assent to that iudgement Now then according to this rate lett vs calculate if we can what concurrence of proofes and wittnesses a separated soule will haue to settle and strengthen her in euery one of her iudgemēts We know that all verities are chained and connected one to an other and that there is no true conclusion so farre remote from any other but may by more or lesse consequences and discourses be deduced euidently out of it it followeth then that in the abstracted soule where all such consequences are ready drawne and seene in themselues without extension of time or employing of paines to collect them euery particular verity beareth testimony to any other so that euery one of them is beleeued and worketh in the force and vertue of all Out of which it is manifest that euery iudgement in such a separated soule hath an infinite strength and efficacity ouer any made by an embodyed one To summe all vp in a few wordes we find three rootes of infinity in euery action of a separated soule in respect of one in the body first the freedome of her essence or substance in it selfe next that quality of hers by which she comprehendeth place and time that is all permanent and successiue quantity and lastly the concurrence of infinite knowledges to euery action of hers Hauing then this measure in our handes lett vs apply it to a well ordered and to a disordered soule passing out of this world lett vs consider the one of them sett vpon those goodes which she shall there haue present and shall fully enioy the other languishing after and pining away for those which are impossible for her euer to obtaine What ioy what content what exultation of mind in any liuing man can be conceiued so great as to be compared with the happinesse of one of these soules And what griefe what discontent what misery can be like the others These are the different effects which the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in soules after they are deliuered from their bodies out of which and out of the discourse that hath discouered these effects vnto vs we see a cleare resolution of that so maine and agitated question among the Philosophers why a rationall soule is imprisoned in a grosse body of flesh and bloud In truth the question is an illegitimate one as supposing a false ground for the soules being in the body is not an imprisonnement of a thing that was existent before the soule and body mett together but her being there is the naturall course of beginning that which can no other way come into the listes of nature for should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body eyther
with his vertue from an other body 4 The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 5 The vettue of the loadestone worketh more strongly in the poles of it then in any other part 6 The loadestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out 7 Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one loadestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone 8 CoÌ„cerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone is toucheth 9 The vertue of the loadestone goeth from end to end in lines almost parallele to the axis 10 The vertue of the loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such 11 The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies 12 The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone 13 The loadestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth 14 The conformity betwixt the two motioÌ„s of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges 1 Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone 2 Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue 3 Whether an iron placed â—erpeÌ„dicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes 4 Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other 5 Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe 6 Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7 The Authors solution to the former questions 8 The reasoÌ„ why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iroÌ„ froÌ„ the greater 9 Why the variation of a touched needle froÌ„ the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole 10 Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more froÌ„ the north and att an other time lesse 11 The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short 1 The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones 2 Concerning seuerall coÌ„positions of mixed bodies 3 Two sortes of liuing creatures 4 An engine to expresse the first sort of liuing creatures 5 An other engine by which may be expressed the second sort of liuing creatures 6 The two former engines and some other comparisons applyed to expresse the two seuerall sortes of liuing creatures 7 How plantes are framed 8 How sensitiue creatures are formed 1 The opinion that the seede containeth formally euery part of the parent 2 The former opinion reiected 3 The Authors opinion of this question 4 Their opinion refuted who hold that euery thing containeth formally all thinges 5 The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirmed 6 That one substance is changed into an other 7 Concerning the hatching of chickens and the generation of other Animals 8 From whence it happeneth that the deficiences or excrescences of the parents body are often seene in their children 9 The difference between the Authors opinion and the former one 10 That the hart is imbued with the generall specifike vertues of the whole body whereby is confirmed the doctrine of the two former paragraphes 11 That the hart is the first part generated in a liuing creature 1 That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinarie secoÌ„â— causes as well as any other corporeall effect 2 That the seuerall figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of the three dimensions caused by the concurraÌ„ce of accidentall causes 3 The former doctrine is confirmed by seuerall instances 4 The same doctrine applyed to Plants 5 The same doctrine declared in leafes of trees 6 The same applyed to the bodies of Animals 7 In what sense the Author doth admitt of Vis formatrix 1 Fromwhence doth proceed the primary motion and growth in Plantes 2 Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the hart 3 The former opinion reiected 4 The Authors opinion concerning the motion of the hart 5 The motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud 6 An obiection answered against the former doctrine 7 The circulatioÌ„ of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the hart 8 Of Nutrition 9 Of Augmentation 10 Of death and sicknesse 1 The coÌ„nexion of the subsequent chapters with the precedent 2 Of the senses and sensible qualities in generall And of the end for which they serue 3 Of the sense of touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 4 Of the tast and its qualities that they are bodies 5 That the smell and its qualities are reall bodies 6 Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting 7 The reasoÌ„ why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beastes with a wonderfull historie of a man who could wind a sent as well aâ— any beast 1 Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motioÌ„ 2 Of diuers artes belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirme that sound is nothing but motion 3 The same is confirmed by the effects caused by great noises 4 That solide bodies may conueye the motion of the ayre or sound to the organe of hearing 5 Where the motion is interrupted there is no sound 6 That not only the motion of the ayre but all other motions coming to our eares make sounds 7 How one sense may supply the want of an other 8 Of one who could discerne souÌ„ds of words with his eyes 9 Diuers reasons to proue sound to be nothing els but a motioÌ„ of some reall body 1 That Colours are nothing but light mingled with darknesse or the disposition off a bodies superficies apt to reflect light so mingled 2 CoÌ„cerning the disposition of those bodies which produce white or blacke coulours 3 The former doctrine coÌ„firmed by Aristotâ—les authority reason and experience 4 How the diuersity of coulours doe follow out of various degrees of rarity and density 5 Why some bodies are Diaphanous others opacous 6 The former doctrine of coulours coÌ„firmed by the generation of white and Blacke in bodies 1 Apparitions of coulours through a prisme or triaÌ„gular glasse are of two sortes 2 The seuerall parts of the obiect make seuerall angles at their entrance into the prisme 3 The reason why some times the same obiect appeareth throwgh the prisme in two places and in one place more liuely in the other place more dimmes 4 The reason of the various colours that appeare in looking throwgh a prisme 5 The reasonÌ„ why the prisme in one position may make the colours appeare quite contrary to what
the want of a continuall sucker But if the nose of that arme that hangeth out of the water be but euen with the water then the water will stand still in both pipes or armes of the syphon after they are filled with sucking But if by the running out of the water the outward pipe do grow shorter then to reach as low as the superficies of the water in the fountaine from whence it runneth in this case the water in each arme of the syphon will runne backe into the fountaine Withall it is to be noted that though the arme which is out of the water be neuer so long yet if it reach not lower then the superficies of the fountaine the ouer quantity and weight of the water there more then in the other arme helpeth it nothing to make it runne out Which is because the decliuity of the other arme ouerrecompenceth this ouerweight Not that the weight in the shorter pipe hath so much force as the weight in the longer pipe but because it hath more force then the greater weight doth exercise there in its running for the greatest part of its force tendeth an other way then to the end of the pipe to witt perpendicularly towardes the center And so is hindered from effect by the great sloaping or little decliuity of the pipe vpon which it leaneth But some considering how the water that is in the longer arme of the syphon is more in quantity then the water that is in the other arme of it whereat it runneth out do admire why the greater quantity of water doth not draw backe the lesse into the cisterne but suffereth it selfe to be lifted vp and drayned away as if it runne steeply downewardes And they imagine that hence may be deduced that the partes of water in the cisterne doe not weigh as long as they are within the orbe of their owne body Vnto when we answere that they should consider how that to haue the greater quantity of water which is in the longer arme of the syphon which arme is immersed in the water of the cisterne to draw backe into the cisterne the water which is in the other arme of the syphon that hangeth out in the ayre it must both raise as much of the water of the cisterne as its owne bulke is aboue the leuell which att present the whole bulke of water hath and withall it must att the same time pull vp the water which is in the other arme Now it is manifest that these two quantities of water together are heauyer then the water in the sunke arme of the syphon since one of them single is equall vnto it And by consequence the more water in the sunke arme can not weigh backe the lesse water in the hanging arme since that to do that it must att the same time weigh vp ouer and aboue as much more in the cisterne as it selfe weigheth But turning the argument I say that if once the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre be supposed to draw any water be it neuer so little out of the cisterne whether occasioned by sucking or by whatsoeuer other meanes it followeth that as much water as is drawne vp aboue the leuell of the whole bulke in the cisterne must needes presse into the suncken arme from the next adiacent partes that is from the bottome to supply its emptying and as much must of it selfe presse downe from aboue according to its naturall course when nothing violenteth it to rest in the place that the ascending water which is lower then it leaueth att liberty for it to take possession of And then it can not be doubted but that this descending water hauing all its weight in pressing downe applyed to driue vp the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon and the water in the other arme of the syphon without hauing all its weight in running out applyed att the same time to draw vp the same water in the sunke arme this single resistant must yield to their double and mastering force And consequently the water in the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre must needes draw the water that is in the other immersed arme as long as the end of its pipe reacheth lower then the leuell of the water in the cisterne for so long it appeareth by what we haue said it must needes be more weighty since part of the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon is counterpoysed by as much descending water in the cisterne And thus it is euident that out of this experiment it can not be inferred that partes of water do not weigh within the orbe of their owne whole but onely that two equall partes of water in their owne orbe namely that which riseth in the sunken arme and that which presseth downe from the whole bulke in the cisterne are of equall weight and do ballance one an othet So that neuer so little oddes between the two counterpoysing parcells of water which are in the ayre must needes make the water runne out att that end of the syphon where the ouerweight of water is The attraction whose cause next to this is most manifest is that which is made by the force of heate or of fire for we see that fire euer draweth ayre vnto it so notably that if in a close roome there be a good fire a man that standeth att the dore or att the window especially without shall heare such a noise that he will thinke there is a great wind within the chamber The reason of this attraction is that fire rarifying the ayre which is next vnto it and withall spending it selfe perpetually causeth the ayre and his owne body mingled together to fly vp through the chimney or by some other passage Whence it followeth of necessity that the next body must succeed into the place of the body that is flowne away This next body generally is ayre whose mobility and fluidity beyond all other bodies maketh it of all others the fittest to be drawne and the more of it that is drawne the more must needes follow Now if there be floating in this ayre any other atomes subiect to the current which the ayre taketh they must also come with it to the fire and by it must be rarifyed and be exported out of that little orbe Hence it is that men with very good reason do hold that fire ayreth a chamber as we terme it that is purifyeth it both because it purifyeth it as wind doth by drawing a current of ayre into it that sweepeth through it or by making it purify it selfe by motion as a streame of water doth by running as also because those vapours which approach the fire are burned and dissolued So that the ayre being noysome and vnwholesome by reason of its grossenesse proceeding from its standing vnmoued like a stagnation of dead water in a marish place the fire taketh away that cause of annoyance By this very rule we learne that other hoat
thinges which participate the nature of fire must likewise in other respects haue a resemblance in this quality And accordingly wee see that hoat loafes in a bakers shoppe newly drawne out of the ouen are accounted to draw vnto them any infection which is in the ayre The like we say of onyons and other strong breathing substances which by their smell shew much heate in them In like manner it is conceiued that pigeons and rabets and catts easily take infection by reason of their extraordinary warmth which they haue in themselves And this is confirmed by the practise of Physitians who vse to lay warme pigeons newly killed to the feete wristes or heades of sicke persons and young puppies to their stomakes and sometimes certaine hoat gummes to their nauels to draw out such vapors or humors as infest the body for the same reason they hang amuletes of arsenike sublimate dryed toades or spiders about their patients neckes to draw vnto them venimous qualities from their bodies Hence also it is that if a man be strucken by a viper or a scorpion they vse to breake the body of the beast it selfe that stung him if they can gett it vpon the wound but if that beast be crawled out of their finding they do the like by some other venimous creature as I haue seene a bruised toad layed to the biting of a viper And they manifestly perceiue the applyed body to swell with the poyson sucked out from the wound and the patient to be relieued and haue lesse poyson in the same manner as by cupping glasses the poyson is likewise drawne out from the wound so that you may see the reason of both is the very same or att the least very like one an other Onely we are to note that the proper body of the beast out of which the venome was driuen into the wound is more efficacious then any other to sucke it out And the like is to be obserued in all other kindes that such vapors as are to be drawne do come better and incorporate faster in bodies of like nature then in those which haue onely the common conditions of heate and drynesse the one of which serueth to attract the other to fasten and incorporate into it selfe the moisture which the first draweth vnto it So we see that water soaketh into a dry body whence it was extracted allmost inseparably and is hidden in it as when it raineth first after hoat weather the ground is presently dryed after the shoure Likewise we see that in most ciments you must mingle a dust of the nature of the thinges which are to be cimented if you will haue them bind strongly Out of this discourse we may yield a reason for those magicall operations which some attribute to the Diuels assistance peraduenture because mans wickednesse hath beene more ingenious then his good will and so hath found more meanes to hurt then to helpe nay when he hath arriued some way to helpe those very helpes haue vndergone the same calumny because of the likenesse which their operations haue to the others Without doubt very vniustly if there be truth in the effects For where haue we any such good suggestions of the enemy of mankind proposed vnto vs that we may with reason beleeue he would duly settledly and constantly concurre to the helpe and seruice of all those he so much hateth as he must needes do if he be the Author of such effects Or is it not a wrong to almighty God and to his carefull instruments rather to impute vnto the Diuell the aydes which to some may seeme supernaturall then vnto them of whom we may iustly beleeue and expect such good officies and assistances I meane those operations both good and bad which ordinarily are called Magneticall though peraduenture wrongfully as not hauing that property which denominateth the loadestone One thing I may assure that if the reportes be true they haue the perfect imitation of nature in them As for example that the weapons salue or the sympathetike pouder doth require in the vsing it to be conserued in an equall and moderate temper and that the weapon which made the wound or the cloth vpon which the blood remaineth that issued from it be orderly and frequently dressed or else the wounded person will not be cured likewise the steame or spirits which att the giuing of the wound did enter into the pores of the weapon must not be driuen out of it which will be done by fire and so when it is heated by holding ouer coales you may see a moysture sweate out of the blade att the opposite side to the fire as farre as it entered into the wounded persons body which being once all sweated out you shall see no more the like steame vpon the sword neyther must the blood be washed out of the bloody cloth for in these cases the pouder or salue will worke nothing Likewise if there be any excesse eyther of heate or of cold in keeping the medicated weapon or cloth the patient feeleth that as he would do if the like excesse were in any remedy that were applyed to the wound it selfe likewise if the medicated weapon or bloody cloth be kept too close no effect followeth likewise the natures of the thinges vsed in these cures are of themselues soueraigne for healing the like griefes though peraduenture too violent if they were applyed in body without much attenuation And truly if we will deny all effects of this kind we must in a manner renounce all humane fayth men of all sortes and qualities and many of them such in my owne knowledge as I can not question their prudence in obseruing or their sincerity in relating hauing very frequently made experience of such medicines and all affirming after one fashion to haue found the same effects Adde to these the multitude of other like effects appearing or conceited to appeare in other thinges In some countries it is a familiar disease with kine to haue a swelling in the soales of their feete and the ordinary cure is to cutt a turfe vpon which they haue troden with their sore foote and to hang it vpon a hedge and as that dryeth away so will their sore amend In other partes they obserue that if milke newly come from the cowe do in the boyling runne ouer into the fire and that this do happen often and neere together to the same cowes milke that cowe will haue her vdder sore and inflamed and the preuention is to cast salt immediately into the fire vpon the milke The herbe Persicaria if it be well rubbed vpon wartes and then be layed in some fitt place to putrify causeth the wartes to weare away as it rotteth some say the like of fresh beefe Many examples also there are of hurting liuing creatures by the like meanes which I sett not downe for feare of doing more harme by the euill inclination of some persons into whose handes they may fall then profitt by their knowing them