from the Real the Mechanical the Experimental Philosophy which hath this advantage over the Philosophy of discourse and disputation That whereas that chiefly aims at the subtilty of its deductions and conclusions without much regard to the first ground-work which ought to be well laid on the sense and memory so this intends the right ordering of them all and making them serviceable to each other In which discourse I do not understand first what they mean by our power over natural causes and effects for we have no power at all over natural causes and effects but onely one particular effect may have some power over another which are natural actions but neither can natural causes nor effects be over-powred by man so as if man was a degree above Nature but they must be as Nature is pleased to order them for Man is but a small part and his powers are but particular actions of Nature and therefore he cannot have a supreme and absolute power Next I say That Sense which is more apt to be deluded then Reason cannot be the ground of Reason no more then Art can be the ground of Nature Wherefore discourse shall sooner find or trace Natures corporeal figurative motions then deluding Arts can inform the Senses For how can a Fool order his understanding by Art if Nature has made it defective or how can a wise man trust his senses if either the objects be not truly presented according to their natural figure and shape or if the senses be defective either through age sickness or other accidents which do alter the natural motions proper to each sense And hence I conclude that Experimental and Mechanick Philosophy cannot be above the Speculative part by reason most Experiments have their rise from the Speculative so that the Artist or Mechanick is but a servant to the Student 3. Of Micrography and of Magnifying and Multiplying Glasses ALthough I am not able to give a solid judgment of the Art of Micrography and the several dioptrical instruments belonging thereto by reason I have neither studied nor practised that Art yet of this I am confident that this same Art with all its Instruments is not able to discover the interior natural motions of any part or creature of Nature nay the questions is whether it can represent yet the exterior shapes and motions so exactly as naturally they are for Art doth more easily alter then inform As for example Art makes Cylinders Concave and Convex-glasses and the like which represent the figure of an object in no part exactly and truly but very deformed and mis-shaped also a Glass that is flaw'd crack'd or broke or cut into the figure of Lozanges Triangles Squares or the like will present numerous pictures of one object Besides there are so many alterations made by several lights their shadows refractions reflexions as also several lines points mediums interposing and intermixing parts forms and positions as the truth of an object will hardly be known for the perception of sight and so of the rest of the senses goes no further then the exterior Parts of the object presented and though the Perception may be true when the object is truly presented yet when the presentation is false the information must be false also And it is to be observed that Art for the most part makes hermaphroditical that is mixt figures as partly Artificial and partly Natural for Art may make some metal as Pewter which is between Tin and Lead as also Brass and numerous other things of mixt natures In the like manner may Artificial Glasses present objects partly Natural and partly Artificial nay put the case they can present the natural figure of an object yet that natural figure may be presented in as monstrous a shape as it may appear mis-shapen rather then natural For example a Lowse by the help of a Magnifying-glass appears like a Lobster where the Microscope enlarging and magnifying each part of it makes them bigger and rounder then naturally they are The truth is the more the figure by Art is magnified the more it appears mis-shapen from the natural in so much as each joynt will appear as a diseased swell'd and tumid body ready and ripe for incision But mistake me not I do not say that no Glass presents the true picture of an object but onely that Magnifying Multiplying and the like optick Glasses may and do oftentimes present falsly the picture of an exterior object I say the Picture because it is not the real body of the object which the Glass presents but the Glass onely figures or patterns out the picture presented in and by the Glass and there may easily mistakes be committed in taking Copies from Copies Nay Artists do confess themselves that Flies and the like will appear of several figures or shapes according to the several reflections refractions mediums and positions of several lights which if so how can they tell or judg which is the truest light position or medium that doth present the object naturally as it is and if not then an edge may very well seem flat and a point of a needle a globe but if the edge of a knife or point of a needle were naturally and really so as the microscope presents them they would never be so useful as they are for a flat or broad plain-edged knife would not cut nor a blunt globe pierce so suddenly another body neither would or could they pierce without tearing and rending if their bodies were so uneven and if the Picture of a young beautiful Lady should be drawn according to the representation of the Microscope or according to the various refraction and reflection of light through such like glasses it would be so far from being like her as it would not be like a humane face but rather a Monster then a picture of Nature Wherefore those that invented Microscopes and such like dioptrical Glasses at first did in my opinion the world more injury then benefit for this Art has intoxicated so many mens brains and wholly imployed their thoughts and bodily actions about phaenomena or the exterior figures of objects as all better Arts and Studies are laid aside nay those that are not as earnest and active in such imployments as they are by many of them accounted unprofitable subjects to the Commonwealth of Learning But though there be numerous Books written of the wonders of these Glasses yet I cannot perceive any such at best they are but superficial wonders as I may call them But could Experimental Philosophers find out more beneficial Arts then our Fore-fathers have done either for the better increase of Vegetables and brute Animals to nourish our bodies or better and commodious contrivances in the Art of Architecture to build us houses or for the advancing of trade and traffick to provide necessaries for us to live or for the decrease of nice distinctions and sophistical disputes in Churches Schools and Courts of Judicature to make men live in unity
their Colours have and if their opinions be as changeable as inconstant Atomes and variable Lights then their experiments will be of no great benefit and use to the world Neither will Artificial Characters and Geometrical Figures be able to make their opinions and experiments more probable for they appear to me like Dr. Dee's numbers who was directed by I know not what spirits which Kelley saw in his holy stone which neither of them did understand much less will Dioptrical glasses give any true Information of them but they rather delude the sight for Art is not onely intricate and obscure but a false informer and rather blinds then informs any particular Creature of the Truth of Nature but my reason perceives that Nature loves sometimes to act or work blind-fold in the actions of Art for although they be natural yet they are but Natures blind at least her winking or jugling actions causing some parts or Creatures to deceive others or else they are her politick actions by which she deceives her Creatures expectations and by that means keeps them from knowing and understanding her subtile and wise Government 21. Whether an Idea haue a Colour and of the Idea of a Spirit I Have declared in my former discourse that there is no Colour without body nor a body without colour for we cannot think of a body without we think of colour too To which some may object That if colour be as proper to a body as matter and if the mind be corporeal then the mind is also coloured I answer The Mind in my opinion has as much colour as other parts of Nature But then perhaps they will ask me what colour the Mind is of My answer is That the Mind which is the rational part of Nature is no more subject to one colour then the Infinite parts of Nature are subject to one corporeal figurative motion for you can no more confine the corporeal mind to a particular complexion then you can confine Infinite matter to one particular colour or all colours to one particular figure Again they may ask Whether an Idea have a colour and if so whether the Idea of God be coloured To which I answer If the Ideas be of corporeal finite figures they have colours according to the nature or property or figure of the original but as for the Idea of God it is impossible to have a corporeal Idea of an infinite incorporeal Being for though the finite parts of Nature may have a perception or knowledg of the existence of God yet they cannot possibly pattern or figure him he being a Supernatural Immaterial and Infinite Being But put the case although it is very improbable nay against sense and reason there were natural immaterial Idea's if those Idea's were finite and not infinite yet they could not possibly express an infinite which is without limitation by a finite figure which hath a Circumference Some may say An Immaterial Idea hath no Circumference But then I answer It is not a finite Idea and it is impossible for an Idea to be Infinite for I take an Idea to be the picture of some object and there can be no picture without a perfect form neither can I conceive how an immaterial can have a form not having a body wherefore it is more impossible for Nature to make a picture of the Infinite God then for Man which is but a part of Nature to make a picture of infinite Nature for Nature being material has also a figure and matter they being all one so that none can be without the other no more then Nature can be divided from her self Thus it is impossible for Man to make a figure or picture of that which is not a part of Nature for pictures are as much parts of Nature as any other parts nay were they monstrous as we call them for Nature being material is also figurative and being a self-moving matter or substance is divideable and composeable and as she hath infinite corporeal figurative motions and infinite parts so she hath infinite figures of which some are pictures others originals and if any one particular Creature could picture out those infinite figures he would picture out Nature but Nature being Infinite cannot be pictured or patterned by any finite and particular Creature although she is material nevertherless she may be patterned in parts And as for God He being individeable and immaterial can neither be patterned in part nor in whole by any part of Nature which is material nay not by infinite Nature her self Wherefore the notions of God can be no otherwise but of his existence to wit that we know there is something above Nature who is the Author and God of Nature for though Nature hath an infinite natural knowledg of the Infinite God yet being divideable as well as composeable her parts cannot have such an infinite knowledg or perception and being composeable as much as divideable no part can be so ignorant of God as not to know there is a God Thus Nature hath both an infinite and finite perceptions infinite in the whole as I may say for better expressions sake and finite in parts But mistake me not I do not mean that either the infinite perception of Nature or the finite perceptions of natural parts and Creatures are any otherwise of that supernatural and divine being then natural but yet they are the most purest parts being of the rational part of Nature moving in a most elevating and subtile manner as making no exact figure or form because God hath neither form nor figure but that subtile matter or corporeal perceptive motion patterns out onely an over-ruling power which power all the parts of Nature are sensible of and yet know not what it is like as the perception of Sight seeeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea or the motion of the Sun yet knows not their cause and the perception of Hearing hears Thunder yet knows not how it is made and if there be such ignorance of the corporeal parts of Nature what of God But to conclude my opinion is That as the sensitive perception knows some of the other parts of Nature by their effects so the rational perceives some effects of the Omnipotent power of God which effects are perceptible by finite Creatures but not his Infinite Nature nor Essence nor the cause of his Infiniteness and Omnipotency Thus although Gods Power may be perceived by Natures parts yet what God is cannot be known by any part and Nature being composeable there is a general acknowledgment of God in all her parts but being also divideable it is the cause there are particular Religions and opinions of God and of his divine Worship and Adoration 22. Of Wood Petrified I Cannot admire as some do that Wood doth turn into stone by reason I observe that Slime Clay Dirt nay Water may and doth often the same which is further off from the nature of Stone then Wood is as being less dense and its
irregularity or some other ways yet next to the rational they are the best informers we have for no man can naturally go beyond his rational and sensitive perception And thus in my opinion the nature of Congelation is not effected by expanding or dilating but contracting and condensing motions in the parts of the sentient body which motions in the congelation of water do not alter the interior nature of water but onely contract its exterior figure into the figure either of Ice Snow Hail Hoar-frost or the like which may be proved by their return into the former figure of water whensoever they dissolve for wheresoever is a total change or alteration of the interior natural motions of a Creature when once dissolved it will never regain its former figure and therefore although the exterior figures of congealed water are various and different yet they have all but one interior figure which is water into which they return as into their principle whensoever they change their exterior figures by dissolving and dilating motions for as a laughing and frowning countenance doth not change the nature of a man so neither do they the nature of water I do not speak of artificial but of natural congealed figures whose congelation is made by their own natural figurative motions But although all congelations are some certain kind of motions yet there may be as many particular sorts of congelations as there are several sorts of frozen or congealed bodies for though I name but one figure of Snow another of Ice another of Hail c. yet I do not deny but there may be numerous particular sorts and figures of Ice Snow Hail c. all which may have their several freezing or congealing motions nay freezing in this respect may very well be compared to burning as being opposite actions and as there are various sorts of burning much differing from each other so there are of freezing for although all burning is of the nature of fire yet not all burning is an elemental fire for example Lime and some Vegetables and other Creatures have burning effects and yet are not an Elemental fire neither doth the Sun and ordinary fire burn just alike The same may be said of Freezing and I observe that fluid and rare parts are more apt to freeze then solid and dense bodies for I do not believe all sorts of metal can freeze so as water or watery liquors unless they were made liquid I will not say that Minerals are altogether insensible of cold or frost but they do not freeze like liquid bodies nay not all liquid bodies will freeze as for example some sorts of spirituous liquors Oil Vinous spirits Chymical extracts c. which proves that not all that is to say the infinite parts of Nature are subject to one particular kind of action to wit the action of freezing for if Congelation did extend to the infinite parts of Nature it would not be a finite and particular but an infinite action but as I said liquid bodies are more apt to freeze especially water and watery liquors then dense and hard bodies or some sorts of oil and spirits for as we see that fire cannot have the same operation on all bodies alike but some it causes to consume and turn to ashes some it hardens some it softens and on some it hath no power at all So its opposite Frost or Cold cannot congeal every natural body but onely those which are apt to freeze or imitate the motions of cold Neither do all these bodies freeze alike but some slower some quicker some into such and some into another figure as for example even in one kind of Creatures as animals some Beasts as Foxes Bears and the like are not so much sensible of cold as Man and some other animal Creatures and dead animals or parts of dead animals will freeze much sooner then those which are living not that living animals have more natural life then those we call dead for animals when dissolved from their animal figure although they have not animal life yet they have life according to the nature of the figure into which they did change but because of their different perceptions for a dead or dissolved animal as it is of another kind of figure then a living animal so it has also another kind of perception which causes it to freeze sooner then a living animal doth But I cannot apprehend what some Learned mean by the powerful effects of cold upon inanimate bodies whether they mean that cold is onely animate and all other bodies inanimate or whether both cold and other bodies on which it works be inanimate if the later I cannot conceive how inanimate bodies can work upon each other I mean such bodies as have neither life nor motion for without life or motion there can be no action but if the former I would fain know whether Cold be self-moving if not I ask What is that which moves it Is it an Immaterial Spirit or some corporeal being If an Immaterial Spirit we must allow that this Spirit is either self-moving or must be moved by another if it be moved by another Being and that same Being again by another we shall after this manner run into infinite and conclude nothing But if that Imaterial Spirit have self-motion why may not a natural corporeal being have the like they being both Creatures of God who can as well grant self-motion to a corporeal as to an incorporeal Being nay I am not able to comprehend how Motion can be attributed to a Spirit I mean natural motion which is onely a propriety of a body or of a corporeal Being but if Cold be self-moving then Nature is self-moving for the cause can be no less then the effect and if Nature be self-moving no part of Nature can be inanimate for as the body is so are its parts and as the cause so its effects Thus some Learned do puzle themselves and the world with useless distinctions into animate and inanimate Creatures and are so much afraid of self-motion as they will rather maintain absurdities and errors then allow any other self-motion in Nature but what is in themselves for they would fain be above Nature and petty Gods if they could but make themselves Infinite not considering that they are but parts of Nature as all other Creatnres Wherefore I for my part will rather believe as sense and reason guides me and not according to interest so as to extoll my own kind above all the rest or above Nature her self And thus to return to Cold as Congelation is not a Universal or Infinite action which extends to the Infinite parts of Nature and causes not the like effects in those Creatures that are perceptible of it so I do also observe that not any other sorts of bodies but Water will congeal into the figure of Snow when as there are many that will turn into the figure of Ice besides I observe that air doth not freeze beyond
able to know it but not one particular kind or sort of Creatures as for example all Man-kind that ever have liv'd or are at present living in this world could never find out the truth of Nature even in the least of her parts nay not in themselves For what man is he that knows the figurative corporeal motions which make him to be such a Creature as Man or that make any part of him and what Man or Art can inform us truly of the figurative motions that make the nature of blood flesh bones c. or can give a reason why the heart is triangular and the head spherical and so for every differently-shaped part of his body I will not say but that Man may guess at it but not infallibly know it by any Art wherefore Reason will more truly discover so much of Nature as is discoverable to one kind or fort of Creatures then Art can do for Art must attend Reason as the chief Mistris of Information which in time may make her a more prudent and profitable servant then she is for in this age she is become rather vain then profitable striving to act beyond her power as I do undertake to write beyond my experience for which 't is probable Artists will condemn me but if I err I ask their pardon and pray them to consider the Nature of our sex which makes us for the most part obstinate and wilful in our opinions and most commonly impertinently foolish And if the Art of Micrography can but find out the figurative corporeal motions that make or cause us to be thus it will be an Art of great same for by that Artists may come to discover more hidden causes and effects but yet I doubt they will hardly find out the interior nature of our fex by the exterior form of their faces or countenances although very curious and full of variety of several beauties nay I dare on the contrary say had a young beautiful Lady such a face as the Microscope expresses she would not onely have no lovers bnt be rather a Monster of Art then a picture of Nature and have an aversion at least a dislike to her own exterior figure and shape and perchance if a Lowse or Flea or such like insect should look through a Microscope it would be as much affrighted with its own exterior figure as a young beautiful Lady when she appears ill-favoured by Art I do not say this as if Optick Glasses could not present the true figure of an Original for if they do not exceed the compass of natural dimensions they may but when they endeavour to go beyond them and do more then Nature has done they rather present monstrous then truly natural figures Wherefore those in my opinion are the best Artists that keep nearest to Natures Rules and endeavour not to know more then what is possible for a finite part or creature to know for surely there is no better way to be rightly and truly informed of Natures works then by studying Natures corporeal figurative motions by the means of which study they will practise Arts as far as Art is able to be practised more easily and successfully then they will do without it But to conclude this discourse some parts of Nature are more indued with regular reason then others which is the cause that some creatures of one and the same fort or kind as for example Mankind are more wife and ingenious then others and therefore it is not art but regular sense and reason that makes some more knowing and some more wife and ingenious then others and the irregular motions of sense and reason that make some more ignorant or more extravagant in their opinions then others 5. Art cannot introduce new forms in Nature SOme account it a great honour That the Indulgent Creator although he gives not to Natural Creatures the power to produce one atome of matter yet allows them the power to introduce so many forms which Philosophers teach to be nobler then matter and to work such changes amongst Creatures that if Adam was now alive and should survelgh the great variety of mans production that are to be found in the shops of Artificers the Laboratories of Chymists and other well furnished Magazines of Art he would admire to see what a new world it were Where first I do not understand how man or any other creature should have the power of making or introducing new forms if those forms were not already in Nature for no Creature by any Art whatsoever is able to produce a new form no more then he can make an atome of new matter by reason the power lies in Nature and the God of Nature not in any of her Creatures and if Art may or can work changes amongst some fellow-creatures they are but natural by reason Nature is in a perpetual Motion and in some parts in a perpetual transformation Next as for the Question Whether forms be more noble then the matter my opinion is that this can with no more ground of truth be affirmed then that the effect is nobler then its cause and if any creature should have power to make forms which are more noble then matter it self then certainly that creature would be above Nature and a creator rather then a creature Besides form cannot be created without matter nor matter without form for form is no thing subsisting by it self without matter but matter and form make but one body and therefore he that introduces a new form must also introduce a new matter and though Art changes forms yet it cannot be said to introduce a new form for forms are and have been eternally in Nature as well as Matter so that nothing is created anew which never was in Nature before 'T is true if Adam were alive now he might see more variety but not more Truth for there are no more kinds and sorts of natural Creatures then there were at his time though never more metamorphosed or rather I may say disfigured unnatural and hermaphroditical issues then there are now which if they should make a new world by the Architecture of Art it would be a very monstrus one But I am sure art will never do it for the world is still as it was and new discoveries by Arts or the deaths and births of Creatures will not make a new world nor destroy the old no more then the dissolving and composing of several parts will make new Matter for although Nature delights in variety yet she is constant in her ground-works and it is a great error in man to study more the exterior faces and countenances of things then their interior natural figurative motions which error must undoubtedly cause great mistakes in so much as mans rules will be false compared to the true Principles of Nature for it is a false Maxime to believe that if some Creatures have power over others they have also power over Nature it might as well be believed that a
of variety then men of arguments which variety is the cause there are so many extravagant and irregular opinions in the world and I observe that most of the great and famous especially our modern Authors endeavour to deduce the knowledg of causes from their effects and not effects from their causes and think to find out Nature by Art not Art by Nature whereas in my opinion Reason must first consider the cause and then Sense may better perceive the effects Reason must judg Sense execute for Reason is the prime part of Nature as being the corporeal soul or mind of Nature But some are so much in love with Art as they endeavour to prove not onely Nature but also Divinity which is the knowledg of God by Art thus preferring Art before Nature when as Art is but Natures foolish changeling Child and the reason is that some parts of Nature as some Men not knowing all other parts believe there is no reason and but little sense in any part of Nature but themselves nay that it is irreligious to say that there is not considering that God is able to give Sense and Reason to Infinite Nature as well as to a finite part But those are rather irreligious that believe Gods power is confined or that it is not Infinite 8. Of Animal Spirits I am not of the opinion of those that place the cause of all Sense and Motion in the animal Spirits which they call the Purest and most aethereal particles of all bodies in the World whatsoever and the very top and perfection of all Natures operations For Animal Spirits in my opinion are no more then other effects of Nature onely they are not so gross as some but are parts of a most pure refined and rare sort of Inanimate Matter which being intermixed with the parts of Animate Matter and enlivened by them become very subtil and active I will not say that they are of the highest and last degree of Inanimate Matter nearest to the Animate as they do say they have the neerest alliance to spiritualities which in my opinion is as much as to say they are almost nothing or of the first degree of sensitive matter there being no such thing as first and last in Nature but that they are onely such pure and rare parts of Inanimate Matter as are not subject to the exterior perception of humane sense for example as the matter of respiration or the like for as there are Infinite parts of Inanimate Matter so there are also infinite degrees of strength weakness purity impurity hardness softness density rarity swiftness slowness knowledg ignorance c. as also several sorts and degrees of complexions statures constitutions humors wits understanding judgment life death and the like all which degrees although they be in and of the infinite body of Nature yet properly they belong to particular Creatures and have onely a regard to the several parts of Nature which being Infinite in number are also of Infinite degrees according to the Infinite changes of self-motion and the propriety and nature of each figure wherefore that opinion which makes Animal Spirits the prime or principal motion of all things and the chief Agent in Natures three Kingdoms Mineral Animal and Vegetable reduces Infinite Nature to a finite Principle whereas any one that enjoys but so much of humane sense and reason as to have the least perception or insight into Natural things may easily conceive that the Infinite effects of Nature cannot proceed from a finite particular cause nay I am firmly perswaded that they who believe any finite part to be the cause and Principle of Infinite self-moving Nature do in my opinion not onely sin against Nature but against God the Author of Nature who out of his Infinite bounty gave Nature the Power of self-motion But if any one desire to know what then the true cause and Principle of all Natures Creatures and Figures be I answer In my opinion it is not a Spirit or Immaterial substance but Matter but yet not the Inanimate part of Matter but the Animate which being of two degrees rational and sensitive both of them are the Infinite Life and Soul of the Infinite body of Nature and this Animate Matter is also the cause of all infinite works changes figures and parts of Nature as I have declar'd above more at large Now as great a difference as there is between Animate and Inanimate Body and Soul Part and Whole Finite and Infinite so great a difference there is also between the Animal Spirits and the Prime Agent or Movent of Nature which is Animate Matter or which is all one thing corporeal self-motion and as it would be paradoxical to make Inanimate Matter to be the cause of Animate or a part to be the cause of the whole whose part it is or a finite to be the cause of Infinite so paradoxical would it also be to make Animal Spirits the top and perfection of all Natures operations nay so far are they from being the Prime Movent of other bodies as they are but moved themselves for to repeat what I mentioned in the beginning Animal Spirits are onely some sorts of rare and pure Inanimate Matter which being thorowly intermixt with the animate parts of Matter are more active then some sorts of more dense and grosser parts of Inanimate Matter I say some for I do believe that some of the most solid bodies are as active as the most rare and fluid parts of Matter if not exteriously yet interiously and therefore we cannot say that rare and fluid parts are more active then fixt and solid or that fixt and solid are less active then fluid bodies because all parts are self-moving But if I was to argue with those that are so much for Animal Spirits I would ask them first whether Animal Spirits be self-moving If they say they are I am of their opinion and do infer thence that if animal spirits which are but a small part of Nature have self-motion much more has Nature her self But if not I would ask what gives them that motion they have If they say Nature then Nature must be self-moving Perchance they 'l say God moves Nature 'T is true God is the first Author of Motion as well as he is of Nature but I cannot believe that God should be the Prime actual Movent of all natural Creatures and put all things into local motion like as one wheel in a Clock turns all the rest for Gods Power is sufficient enough to rule and govern all things by an absolute Will and Command or by a Let it be done and to impart self-motion to Nature to move according to his order and decree although in a natural way Next I would ask whether any dead Creature have such Animal Spirits If they affirm it I am of their mind if not then I would ask what causes in dead bodies that dissolution which we see Thirdly I would ask whether those animal spirits
is an Infinite difference between Divine Attributes and Natural Properties wherefore to similize our Reason Will Understanding Faculties Pasions and Figures c. to God is too high a presumption and in some manner a blasphemy Nevertheless although our natural reason and faculties are not like to divine attributes yet our natural rational perceptions are not always delusions and therefore it is certain that Natures knowing parts both sensitive and rational do believe a God that is some Being above Nature But many Writers endeavour rather to make divisions in Religion then promote the honour and worship of God by a mutual and united agreement which I confess is an irregularity and imperfection in some parts of Nature and argues that Nature is not so perfect but she has some faults and infirmities otherwise she would be a God which she is not 11. Of a General Knowledg and Worship of God given him by all Natural Creatures IT is not the sight of the beauteous frame of this world as some do conceive that makes men believe and admire God but the knowledg of the existence of God is natural and there 's no part of Nature but believes a God for certainly were there not any optick sense in Nature yet God would be the God of Nature and be worshiped and adored by her Creatures which are her parts for it is irreligious to say God should want admiration and adoration for want of an eye or any other of the animal or humane organs surely Nature has more ways then five to express and declare God's Omnipotency It is Infinite sense and reason that doth worship and adore God and the several perceptions of this sense and reason know there is a God that ought to be worshipped and adored and not onely Ears or Eyes or the like exterior organs of man Neither is it man alone but all Creatures that do acknowledg God for although God cannot be perfectly known what he is in his Essence yet he may be known in as much as Nature can know of him But since Nature is dividable in her parts each part has but a particular knowledg of God which is the cause of several Religions and several opinions in those Religions and Nature being also composeable it causes a conformity and union of those Opinions and Religions in the fundamental knowledg which is the existence of God Wherefore that which makes a general and united knowledg of the Existence of God is that Nature is intire in her self as having but one body and therefore all her parts which are of that body have also one knowledg of God for though the parts be different in the Worship of God yet they have not a different belief of the Existence of God not that God can be perfectly known either by Nature or any of her parts for God is Incomprehensible and above Nature but in as much as can be known to wit his Being and that he is All-powerful and that not any thing can be compared or likened to him for he is beyond all draught and likeness as being an Eternal Infinite Omnipotent Incorporeal Individual Immovable Being And thus it is not one part or creature viewing another that causes either the knowledg or admiration of God but the soul and life of Nature which are her sensitive and rational parts and Nature being the Eternal servant and Worshipper of God God hath been also eternally worshipped and adored for surely God's Adoration and Worship has no beginning in time neither could God be worshipped and adored by himself so as that one part of him should adore and worship another for God is an individual and simple Being not composed of parts and therefore as it is impossible for me to believe that there is no general Worship and Adoration of God so it is impossible also to believe that God has not been adored and worshipped from all Eternity and that Nature is not Eternal for although God is the Cause of Nature and Nature the Effect of God yet she may be Eternal however there being nothing impossible to be effected by God but he as an Eternal Cause is able to produce an Eternal Effect for although it is against the rules of Logick yet it is not above the power of God 12. Of a Particular Worship of God given him by those that are his chosen and elect People NAtural Philosophy is the chief of all sorts of knowledges for she is a Guide not onely to other Sciences and all sorts of Arts but even to divine knowledg it self for she teaches that there is a Being above Nature which is God the Author and Master of Nature whom all Creatures know and adore But to adore God after a particular manner according to his special Will and Command requires his Particular Grace and Divine Instructions in a supernatural manner or way which none but the chosen Creatures of God do know at least believe nor none but the sacred Church ought to explain and interpret And the proof that all men are not of the number of those elect and chosen people of God is that there can be but one True Religion and that yet there are so many several and different opinions in that Religion wherefore the Truth can onely be found in some which are those that serve God truly according to his special Will and Command both in believing and acting that which he has been pleased to reveal and command in his holy Word And I pray God of his infinite mercy to give me Grace that I may be one of them which I doubt not but I shall as long as I follow the Instruction of our blessed Church in which I have been educated 'T is true many persons are much troubled concerning Free-will and Predestination complaining that the Christian Church is so divided about this Article as they will never agree in one united belief concerning that point which is the cause of the trouble of so many Consciences nay in some even to despair But I do verily believe that if man do but love God from his soul and with all his power and pray for his saving Graces and offend not any Creature when offences can or may be avoided and follow the onely Instructions of the sacred Church not endeavouring to interpret the Word of God after his own fancy and vain imagination but praying zealously believing undoubtedly and living virtuously and piously he can hardly fall into despair unless he be disposed and inclined towards it through the irregularities of Nature so as he cannot avoid it But I most humbly thank the Omnipotent God that my Conscience is in peace and tranquility beseeching him of his mercy to give to all men the like 13. Of the Knowledg of Man SOme Philosophical Writers discourse much concerning the knowledg of Man and the ignorance of all other Creatures but I have sufficiently expressed my opinion hereof not onely in this but in my other Philosophical Works to wit that I believe other
as fire is beyond smoak which cannot be but dangerous and unfit to be used except it be to encounter opposite extreams By extreams I mean not the extreams of Nature but the height of a distemper when it is grown so far that it is upon point of destroying or dissolving a particular animal figure for Nature being infinite has no extreams neither in her substance nor actions for she has nothing that is opposite to Matter neither is there any such thing as most or least in Nature she being infinite and all her actions are ballanced by their opposites as for example there is no dilation but hath opposite to it contraction no condensation but has its opposite viz. rarefaction no composition but hath its opposite division no gravity without levity no grossness without purity no animate without inanimate no regularity without irregularity All which produces a peaceable orderly and wise Government in Natures Kingdom which wise Artists ought to imitate But you may say How is it possible That there can be a peaceable and orderly Government where there are so many contrary or opposite actions for contraries make war not peace I answer Although the actions of Nature are opposite yet Nature in her own substance is at peace because she is one and the same that is one material body and has nothing without her self to oppose and cross her neither is she subject to a general change so as to alter her own substance from being Matter for she is Infinite and Eternal but because she is self-moving and full of variety of figures this variety cannot be produced without variety of actions no not without opposition which opposition is the cause that there can be no extreams in particulars for it ballances each action so that it cannot run into infinite which otherwise would breed a horrid confusion in Nature And thus much of Principles Concerning the particulars of Chymical preparations I being not versed in that Art am not able to give my judgment thereof neither do I understand their terms and expressions as first what Chymists mean by Fixation for there 's nothing in Nature that can properly be called fixt because Nature and all her parts are perpetually self-moving onely Nature cannot be altered from being material nor from being dependant upon God Neither do I apprehend what some mean by the unlocking of bodies unless they understand by it a separation of natural parts proper for artificial uses neither can natural effects be separated by others any otherwise but occasionally so that some parts may be an occasion of such or such alterations in other parts But I must say this that according to humane sense and reason there is no part or particle in Nature which is not alterable by reason Nature is in a perpetual motion and full of variety 'T is true some bodies as Gold and Mercury seem to be unalterable from their particular natures but this onely appears thus to our senses because their parts are more fixt and retentive then others and no Art has been found out as yet which could alter ther proper and particular figures that is untie and dissolve or rather cause an alteration of their corporeal retentive motions that bind them into so fixt and consistent a body but all that is mixt with them has hitherto been found too weak for the alteration of ther inherent motions Nevertheless this doth not prove that they are not altogether unalterable for though Art cannot do it yet Nature may but it is an argument that they are not composed of straying Atomes or most minute particles for not to mention what I have often repeated before that there cannot be such most minute bodies in Nature by reason Nature knows of no extreams it is altogether improbable nay impossible that wandering corpuscles should be the cause of such fixt effects and by their association constitute such indissoluble masses or clusters as some do conceive which they call primary concretions for there is no such thing as a primary concretion or composition in Nature onely there are several sorts and degrees of motions and several sorts of compositions and as no particular creature can know the strength of motion so neither can it know the degrees of strength in particular natural bodies Wherefore although composition and division of parts are general motions and some figures may be more composed then others that is consist of more or fewer parts then others yet there is none that hath not a composition of parts The truth is there is nothing prime or principal amongst the effects of Nature but onely the cause from which they are produced which is self-moving Matter which is above particular effects yet Nature may have more ways then our particular reason can apprehend and therefore it is not to be admired that Camphor and the like bodies do yield differing effects according to the different occasions that make them move thus or thus for though changes and alterations of particulars may be occasioned by others yet they move by their own corporeal figurative motions as it is evident by the power of fire which makes other bodies move or change their parts and figures not by its own transforming motion but onely by giving an occasion to the inherent figurative motions of those bodies which by imitating the motions of fire change into such or such figures by their own proper innate and inherent motions otherwise if the alteration of combustible bodies proceeded from fire they would all have the like motions which is contradicted by experience I will not deny but there is as much variety in occasioning as there is in acting for the imitation is according to the object but the object is not the immediate agent but onely an occasional efficient so that according to my opinion there is no such difference as the learned make between Patient and Agent when they call the exterior occasional cause as for example Fire the Agent and the combustible body the Patient for they conceive that a body thrown into fire acts nothing at all but onely in a passive way suffers the fire to act upon it according to the degree of its own to wit the fires strength which sense and reason perceives otherwise for to pass by what I mentioned before that those bodies on which they suppose fire doth work change according not to the fires but their own inherent figurative motions it is most certain that if Nature and all her parts be self-moving which regular reason cannot deny and if Self-motion be corporeal then every part of Nature must of necessity move by its own motion for no body can impart motion to another body without imparting substance also and though particular motions in particular bodies may change infinite ways yet they cannot quit those bodies so as to leave them void and destitute of all motion because Matter and Motion are but one thing and therefore though fire be commixed with the parts of the fuel yet
the fuel alters by its own motion and the fire doth but act occasionally and so do Chymical spirits or extracts which may cause a separation and alter some bodies as readily as fire doth for they are a certain kind of fire to wit such as is called a dead or liquid fire for a flaming fire although it be fluid yet it is not liquid The same may be said of the Antimonial-Cup For it is not probable to sense and reason there should be certain invisible little bodies that pass out of the Cup into the liquor and cause such effects no more then there are magnetical effluviums issuing out of the Load-stone towards Iron there being many causes which neither impart nor lose any thing in the production of their effects but the liquor that is within the Antimonial Cup does imitate the corporeal figurative motions of the Cup and so produces the same effects as are proper to Antimony upon other bodies or parts of Nature In the same manner does the Blood-stone stop bleeding not by imparting invisible Atomes or Rays to the affected parts or else if it were long worn about ones body it would be wasted at least alter its proper figure and vertue but by being imitated by the corporeal figurative motions of the distempered parts Thus many other examples could be alledged to prove that natural motions work such or such effects within their own parts without receiving any from without that is by imitation and not by reception of Motion By which it is evident that properly there is no passive or suffering body in Nature except it be the inanimate part of Matter which in its own nature is moveless or destitute of motion and is carried along with and by the animate parts of Matter However although inanimate Matter has no motion inherent in it self as it is inanimate yet it is so closely mixt with the animate parts that it cannot be considered without motion much less be separable from it and therefore although it acts not of it self yet it acts by vertue of the animate parts of Matter Next I cannot conceive what some Chymists mean when they call those Principles or Elements which they say composed bodies consist of distinct substances for though they may be of different figures yet they are not of different substances because there is but one onely substance in Nature which is Matter whose several actions cause all the variety in Nature But if all the parts of Natural bodies should be called Principles or Elements then there would be infinite Principles in Nature which is impossible because there can be no more but one principle which is self-moving Matter and although several Creatures by the help of fire may be reduced or dissolved into several different particles yet those particles are not principles much less simple bodies or else we might say as well that ashes are a principle of Wood Neither are they created anew because they are of another form or figure then when composed into one concrete body for there 's nothing that is material which is not pre-existent in Nature no nor figure motion or the like all being material although not always subject to our humane sensitive perception for the variation of the corporeal figurative motions blindeth our particular senses that we cannot perceive them they being too subtile to be discerned either by Art or humane perception The truth is if we could see the corporeal figurative motions of natural creatures and the association and division of all their parts we should soon find out the causes which make them to be such or such particular natural effects but Nature is too wise to be so easily known by her particulars Wherefore Chymists need not think they can create any thing anew for they cannot challenge to themselves a divine power neither can there be any such thing as a new Creation in Nature no not of an Atome Nor can they annihilate any thing they 〈◊〉 sooner waste their Estates then reduce the least particle of Matter into nothing and though they make waste of some parts of natural bodies yet those are but changes into other figures there being a perpetual inspiration and expiration that is composition and division of parts but composition is not a new Creation nor division an annihilation and though they produce new forms as they imagine yet those forms though they be new to them are not new in Nature for all that is material has been existent in Nature from all Eternity so that the combination of parts cannot produce anything that is not already in Nature Indeed the generation of new figures seems to me much like the generation of new motions which would put God to a perpetual Creation and argue that he was not able to make Nature or Matter perfect at first or that he wanted imployment But say they it is not Matter that is created anew but onely figures or forms I answer If any one can shew me a figure without Matter I shall be willing to believe it but I am confident Nature cannot do that much less Art which is but a particular effect for as Matter cannot be without Figure so neither can Figure be without Matter no more then body without parts or parts without body and if so no figure or form can be created without Matter there being no such thing as a substanceless form Chymists should but consider their own particular persons as whether they were generated anew or had been in Nature before they were got of their Parents if they had not been pre-existent in Nature they would not be natural but supernatural Creatures because they would not subsist of the same matter as other Creatures do Truly Matter being Infinite how some new material creatures could be created without some parts of this Infinite Matter is not conceivable by humane sense and reason for infinite admits of no addition but if there could be an addition it would presuppose an annihilation so that at the same time when one part is annihilating or perishing another must succeed by a new creation which is a meer Paradox But that which puzles me most is how those substances which they call Tria Prima and principles of natural things can be generated anew for if the principles be generated anew the effects must be so too and since they according to their supposition are Catholick or Universal principles all natural effects must have their origine from them and be like their principles created continually anew which how it be possible without the destruction of Nature is beyond my reason to conceive Some endeavour to prove by their Artificial Experiments that they have and can produce such things out of natural bodies which never were pre-existent in them as for example Glass out of Vegetables without any addition of forreign parts onely by the help of fire To which I answer That in my opinion the same Glass was as much pre-existent in the matter of those
Vegetables and the Fire and in the power of their corporeal figurative motions as any other figure whatsoever otherwise it would never have been produced nay not onely Glass but millions of other figures might be obtained from those parts they being subject to infinite changes for the actions of self-moving Matter are so infinitely various that according to the mixture or composition and division of parts they can produce what figures they please not by a new Creation but only a change or alteration of their own parts and though some parts act not to the production of such or such figures yet we cannot say that those figures are not in Nature or in the power of corporeal figurative self-motion we might say as well that a man cannot go when he sits or has no motion when he sleeps as believe that it is not in the power of Nature to produce such or such effects or actions when they are not actually produced for as I said before although Nature be but one material substance yet there are infinite mixtures of infinite parts produced by infinite self-motion infinite ways in so much that seldom any two Creatures even those of one sort do exactly resemble each other But some may say How is it possible That figure being all one with Matter can change and matter remain still the same without any change or alteration I answer As well as an animal body can put it self into various and different postures without any change of its interior animal figure for though figure cannot subsist without matter nor matter without figure generally considered yet particular parts of matter are not bound to certain particular figures Matter in its general nature remains always the same and cannot be changed from being Matter but by the power of self-motion it may change from being such or such a particular figure for example Wood is as much matter as Stone but it is not of the same figure nor has it the same interior innate motions which Stone hath because it has not the like composition of parts as other creatures of other figures have and though some figures be more constant or lasting then others yet this does not prove that they are not subject to changes as well as those that alter daily nay every moment much less that they are without motion for not all motions are dividing or dissolving but some are retentive some composing some attractive some expulsive some contractive some dilative and infinite other sorts of motions as 't is evident by the infinite variety which appears in the differing effects of Nature Nevertheless it is no consequence that because the effects are different they must also have different principles For first all effects of Nature are material which proves they have but one principle which is the onely infinite Matter Next they are all self-moving which proves that this material principle has self-motion for without self-motion there would be no variety or change of figures it being the nature of self-motion to be perpetually acting Thus Matter and Self-motion being inseparably united in one infinite body which is self-moving material Nature is the onely cause of all the infinite effects that are produced in Nature and not the Aristoteleon Elements or Chymists Tria prima which sense and reason perceives to be no more but effects or else if we should call all those Creatures principles which by the power of their own inherent motions change into other figures we shall be forced to make infinite principles and so confound principles with effects and after this manner that which is now an effect will become a principle and what is now a principle will become an effect which will lead our sense and reason into a herrid confusion and labyrinth of ignorance Wherefore I will neither follow the Opinions of the Ancient nor of our Moderns in this point but search the truth of Nature by the light of regular reason for I perceive that most of our modern Writings are not fill'd with new Inventions of their own but like a lumber stuff'd with old Commodities botch'd and dress'd up anew contain nothing but what has been said in former ages Nor am I of the opinion of our Divine Philosophers who mince Philosophy and Divinity Faith and Reason together and count it Irreligious if not Blasphemy to assert any other principles of Nature then what they I will not say by head and shoulders draw out of the Scripture especially out of Genesis to evince the finiteness and beginning of Nature when as Moses doth onely describe the Creation of this World and not of Infinite Nature But as Pure natural Philosophers do not meddle with Divinity or things Supernatural so Divines ought not to intrench upon Natural Philosophy Neither are Chymists the onely natural Philosophers because they are so much tied to the Art of Fire and regulate or measure all the effects of Nature according to their Artificial Experiments which do delude rather then inform their sense and reason and although they pretend to a vast and greater knowledg then all the rest yet they have not dived so deep into Nature yet as to perceive that she is full of sense and reason which is life and knowledg and in parts orders parts proper to parts which causes all the various motions figures and changes in the infinite parts of Nature Indeed no Creature that has its reason regular can almost believe that such wise and orderly actions should be done either by chance or by straying Atomes which cannot so constantly change and exchange parts and mix and join so properly and to such constant effects as are apparent in Nature And as for Galenists if they believe that some parts of Nature connot leave or pass by other parts to join meet or encounter others they are as much in an error as Chymists concerning the power of fire and furnace for it is most frequently observed thus amongst all sorts of Animals and if amongst Animals I know no reason but all other kinds and sorts of Creatures may do the like nay both sense and reason inform us they do as appears by the several and proper actions of all sorts of drugs as also Minerals and Elements and the like so that none ought to wonder how it is possible that medicines that must pass through digestions in the body should neglecting all other parts shew themselves friendly onely to the brain or kidnies or the like parts for if there be sense and reason in Nature all things must act wisely and orderly and not confusedly and though Art like an Emulating Ape strives to imitate Nature yet it is so far from producing natural figures that at best it rather produces Monsters instead of natural effects for it is like the Painter who drew a Rose instead of a Lion nevertheless Art is as active as any other natural Creature and doth never want imployment for it is like all other parts in a perpetual self-motion and
answered That by an annihilation nothing could be produced and that the seeds of Vegetables were so far from being annihilated in their productions that they did rather numerously increase and multiply for the division of one seed said they does produce numbers of seeds out of it self But replied the Empress A particular part cannot increase of it self 'T is true answer'd they but they increase not barely of themselves but by joining and commixing with other parts which do assist them in their productions and by way of imitation form or figure their own parts into such or such particulars Then I pray inform me said the Emperess what disguise those seeds put on and how they do conceal themselves in their transmutations They answered That seeds did no ways disguise or conceal but rather divulge themselves in the multiplication of their off-spring onely they did hide and conceal themselves from their sensitive perceptions so that their figurative and productive motions were not perceptible by animal Creatures Again the Emperess asked them whether there were any Non-beings within the Earth To which they answered That they never heard of any such thing and that if her Majesty would know the truth thereof she must ask those Creatures that are called Immaterial Spirits which had a great affinity with Non-beings and perhaps could give her a satisfactory answer to this question Then she desired to be informed what opinion they had of the beginning of forms They told her Majesty That they did not understand what she meant by this expression For said they there is no beginning in Nature no not of Particulars by reason Nature is Eternal and Infinite and her particulars are subject to infinite changes and transmutations by vertue of their own corporeal figurative self-motions so that there 's nothing new in Nature nor properly a beginning of any thing The Emperess seem'd well satisfied with all those answers and inquired further whether there was no Art used by those Creatures that live within the Earth Yes answered they for the several parts of the Earth do join and assist each other in composition or framing of such or such particulars and many times there are factions and divisions which cause productions of mixt species's as for example weeds instead of sweet flowers and useful fruits but Gardeners and Husbandmen use often to decide their quarrels and cause them to agree which though it shews a kindness to the differing parties yet 't is a great prejudice to the Worms and other animal Creatures that live under ground for it most commonly causes their dissolution and ruine at best they are driven out of their habitations What said the Emperess are not Worms produced out of the Earth Their production in general answered they is like the production of all other natural Creatures proceeding from the corporeal figurative motions of Nature but as for their particular productions they are according to the nature of their species some are produced out of flowers some out of roots some out of fruits some out of ordinary Earth Then they are very ungrateful Children replied the Emperess that they feed on their own Parents which gave them life Their life answered they is their own and not their Parents for no part or creature of Nature can either give or take away life but parts do onely assist and join with parts either in the dissolution or production of other parts and Creatures After this and several other Conferences which the Emperess held with the Worm-men she dismissed them and having taken much satisfaction in several of their answers encouraged them in their studies and observations Then she made a convocation of her Chymists the Ape-men and commanded them to give her an account of the several Transmutations which their Art was able to produce They begun first with a long and tedious discourse concerning the Primitive Ingredients of Natural bodies and how by their Art they had found out the principles out of which they consist But they did not all agree in their opinions for some said That the Principles of all natural bodies were the four Elements Fire Air Water Earth out of which they were composed Others rejected this Elementary commixture and said There were many bodies out of which none of the four Elements could be extracted by any degree of Fire whatsoever and that on the other side there were divers bodies whose resolution by fire reduced them into more then four different ingredients and these affirmed that the onely principles of natural bodies were Salt Sulphur and Mercury Others again declared That none of the forementioned could be called the True principles of natural bodies but that by their industry and pains which they had taken in the Art of Chymistry they had discovered that all natural bodies were produced but from one Principle which was Water for all Vegetables Minerals and Animals said they are nothing else but simple water distinguished into various figures by the vertue of their seeds But after a great many debates and contentions about this subject the Emperess being so much tired that she was not able to hear them any longer imposed a general silence upon them and then declared her self in this following discourse I am too sensible of the pains you have taken in the Art of Chymistry to discover the principles of natural bodies and wish they had been more profitably bestowed upon some other then such experiments for both by my own contemplation and the observations which I have made by my rational and sensitive perception upon Nature and her works I find that Nature is but one Infinite self-moving body which by the vertue of its self-motion is divided into infinite parts which parts being restless undergo perpetual changes and transmutations by their infinite compositions and divisions Now if this be so as surely according to regular sense and reason it appears no otherwise it is in vain to look for primary ingredients or constitutive principles of natural bodies since there is no more but one Universal principle of Nature to wit self-moving Matter which is the onely cause of all natural effects Next I desire you to consider that Fire is but a particular Creature or effect of Nature and occasions not onely different effects in several bodies but on some bodies has no power at all witness Gold which never could be brought yet to change its interior figure by the art of Fire and if this be so Why should you be so simple as to believe that fire can shew you the principles of Nature and that either the four Elements or Water onely or Salt Sulphur and Mercury all which are no more but particular effects and Creatures of Nature should be the Primitive ingredients or Principles of all natural bodies Wherefore I will not have you to take more pains and waste your time in such fruitless attempts but be wiser hereafter and busie your selves with such Experiments as may be beneficial to the publick The Emperess having
Incomprehensible Deity not what it is in its Essence or Nature but that it is existent and that Nature has a dependance upon it as an Eternal Servant has upon an Eternal Master But some might say How is it possible that a Corporeal finite part can have a conception of an Incorporeal infinite Being by reason that which comprehends must needs be bigger then that which is comprehended Besides no part of Nature can conceive beyond it self that is beyond what is Natural or Material and this proves that at least the rational part or the mind must be immaterial to conceive a Deity To which I answer That no part of Nature can or does conceive the Essence of God or what God is in himself but it conceives onely that there is such a Divine Being which is Supernatural And therefore it cannot be said that a natural Figure can comprehend God for it is not the comprehending of the Substance of God or its patterning out since God having no Body is without all Figure that makes the knowledg of God but I do believe that the knowledg of the existency of God as I mentioned before is innate and inherent in Nature and all her parts as much as self-knowledg is Speaking of the difference between Oil and other liquors for the better understanding of that place I thought fit to insert this Note Flame is fluid but not liquid nor wet Oil is fluid and liquid but not wet but Water is both fluid liquid and wet Oil will turn into flame and encrease it but Water is so quite opposite to flame that if a sufficient quantity be poured upon it it will totally extinguish it When I say that Sense and Reason shall be the Ground of my Philosophy and not particular natural effects My meaning is that I do not intend to make particular Creatures or Figures the Principles of all the infinite effects of Nature as some other Philosophers do for there is no such thing as a Prime or principal Figure of Nature all being but effects of one Cause But my Ground is Sense and Reason that is I make self-moving matter which is sensitive and rational the onely cause and principle of all natural effects When 't is said That Ice Snow Hail c. return into their former Figure of Water whensoever they dissolve I mean when they dissolve their exterior Figures that is change their actions When I say That the Exterior Object is the Agent and the Sentient Body the Patient I do not mean that the Object does chiefly work upon the Sentient or is the immediate cause of the Perception in the Sentient body and that the Sentient suffers the Agent to act upon it but I retain onely those words because they are used in Schools But as for their actions I am quite of a contrary Opinion to wit That the sentient body is the principal Agent and the external body the Patient for the motions of the sentient in the act of perception do figure out or imitate the motions of the object so that the object is but as a Copy that is figured out or imitated by the sentient which is the chiefly Agent in all transforming and perceptive actions that are made by way of patterning or imitation When I say That one finite part can undergo infinite changes and alterations I do not mean one single part whereof there is no such thing in nature but I mean one part may be infinitely divided and composed with other parts for as there are infinite changes compositions and divisions in Nature so they must be of parts there being no variety but of parts and though parts be finite yet the changes may be infinite for the finiteness of parts is but concerning the bulk or quantity of their figures and they are call'd finite by reason they have limited and circumscribed figures nevertheless as for duration their parts being the same with the body of Nature are as eternal and infinite as Nature her self and thus are subject to infinite and eternal changes VVhen I say A World of Gold is as active interiously as a world of Air is exteriously I mean it is as much subject to changes and alterations as Air for Gold though its motions are not perceptible by our exterior senses yet it has no less motion then the activest body of Nature onely its motions are of another kind then the motions of Air or of some other bodies for Retentive motions are as much motions as dispersing or some other sorts of motions although not so visible to our perception as these and therefore we cannot say that Gold is more at rest than other Creatures of Nature for there is no such thing as Rest in Nature although there be degrees of Motion VVhen I say That the parts of Nature do not drive or press upon each other but that all natural actions are free and easie and not constrained My meaning is not as if there was no pressing or driving of parts at all in Nature but onely that they are not the universal or principal actions of Natures body as it is the opinion of some Philosophers who think there is no other motion in nature but by pressure of parts upon parts Nevertheless there is pressure and reaction in Nature because there are infinite sorts of motions Also when I say in the same place That Natures actions are voluntary I do not mean that all actions are made by rote and none by imitation but by voluntary actions I understand self-actions that is such actions whose principle of motion is within themselves and doth not proceed from such an exterior Agent as doth the motion of the inanimate part of matter which having no motion of it self is moved by the animate parts yet so that it receives no motion from them but moves by the motion of the animate parts and not by an infused motion into them for the animate parts in carrying the inanimate along with them lose nothing of their own motion nor impart no motion to the inanimate no more than a man who carries a stick in his hand imparts motion to the stick and loses so much as he imparts but they bear the inanimate parts along with them by vertue of their own self-motion and remain self-moving parts as well as the inanimate remain without motion Again when I make a distinguishment between voluntary actions and exterior perceptions my meaning is not as if voluntary actions were not made by perceptive parts for whatsoever is self-moving and active is perceptive and therefore since the voluntary actions of Sense and Reason are made by self-moving parts they must of necessity be perceptive actions but I speak of Perceptions properly so call'd which are occasioned by Forreign parts and to those I oppose voluntary actions which are not occasioned but made by rote as for example the perception of sight in Animals when outward Objects present themselves to the Optick sense
which conditions if any be wanting there is either no perception at all or it is an imperfect perception for the perception of seeing an exterior object is nothing else but a patterning out of the figure of that same object by the sensitive figurative and perceptive motions but there are infinite parts that are beyond our humane perception and it would be but a folly for us to deny that which we cannot see or perceive and if the perceptive motions be not regular in our optick sense we may see different colours in one object nay the corporeal figurative motions in the eye may make several figurative colours even without the patterns of outward objects and as there are several colours so there are also several corporeal figurative motions that make several colours in several parts and the more solid the parts are the more fixt are their inherent natural colours But superficial colours are more various though not so various as they would be if made by dusty Atomes flying about as Flies in Sun-shine for if this opinion were true all colours and other Creatures would be composed or made by chance rather then by reason and chance being so ignorantly inconstant not any two parts would be of the like colour nor any kind or species would be preserved but Wise Nature although she be full of variety yet she is also full of reason which is knowledg for there is no part of Nature that has not sense and reason which is life and knowledg and if all the infinite parts have life and knowledg Infinite Nature cannot be a fool or insensible But mistake me not for I do not mean that her parts in particular are infinitely knowing but I say Infinite Nature hath an Infinite knowledg and by reason Nature is material she is divideable as well as composeable which is the cause that there is an obscurity in her Parts in particular but not in general that is in Nature her self nay if there were not an obscurity in the Particulars men would not endeavour to prove inherent and natural figures by superficial Phaenomena's But as for Colour some do mention the example of a blind man who could discover colours by touch and truly I cannot account it a wonder because colours are corporeal figurative motions and touch being a general sence may well perceive by experience which is gained by practice some Notions of other sensitive perceptions as for example a blind man may know by relation the several touches of Water Milk Broth Jelly Vinegar Vitriol c. as well as what is hot cold rare dense hard soft or the like and if he have but his touch hearing speaking and smelling perfectly he may express the several knowledges of his several senses by one particular sense or he may express one senses knowledg by another but if the senses be imperfect he cannot have a true knowledg of any object The same may be said of Colours for several Colours being made by several corporeal figurative motions may well be perceived by a general sense which is Touch I will not say that touch is the principle of all sensitive knowledg for then I should be of the opinion of those Experimental Philosophers which will have one principal motion or figure to be the cause of all Natural things but I onely say animal touch may have some Notion of the other animal senses by the help of rational perception all which proves that every part is sensible and every sense knowing not onely in particular but that one sense may have some general notion or knowledg of the rest for there are particular and general perceptions in sensitive and rational matter which is the cause both of the variety and order of Nature's Works and therefore it is not necessary that a black figure must be rough and a white figure smooth Neither are white and black the Ground-figures of Colours as some do conceive or as others do imagine blew and yellow for no particular figure can be a principle but they are all but effects and I think it is as great an error to believe Effects for Principles as to judg of the Interior Natures and Motions of Creatures by their Exterior Phaenomena or appearances which I observe in most of our modern Authors whereof some are for Incorporeal Motions others for Prime and Principal Figures others for First Matter others for the figures of dusty and insensible Atomes that move by chance when as neither Atomes Corpuscles or Particles nor Pores Light or the like can be the cause of fixt and natural colours for if it were so then there would be no stayed or solid colour insomuch as a Horse or any other Creature would be of more various colours then a Rain-bow but that several colours are of several figures was always and is still my opinion and that the change of colours proceeds from the alteration of their figures as I have more at large declared in my other Philosophical Works Indeed Art can no more force certain Atomes or Particles to meet and join to the making of such a figure as Art would have then it can make by a bare command Insensible Atomes to join into a Uniform World I do not say this as if there could not be Artificial Colours or any Artificial Effects in Nature but my meaning onely is that although Art can put several parts together or divide and disjoyn them yet it cannot make those parts move or work so as to alter their proper figures or interior natures or to be the cause of changing and altering their own or other parts any otherwise then they are by their Natures Neither do I say that no Colours are made by Light but I say onely that fixt colours are not made by Light and as for the opinion that white bodies reflect the Light outward and black bodies inward as some Authors do imagine I answer 'T is probable some bodies may do so but all white and black Colours are not made by such reflexions the truth is some conceive all Colours to be made by one sort of Motion like as some do believe that all sensation is made by pressure and reaction and all heat by parts tending outward and all cold by parts tending inward when as there are not onely several kinds of heat and cold as Animal Vegetable Mineral and Elemental heat and cold but several sorts in each kind and different particulars in each sort for there is a moist heat a dry heat a burning a dissolving a composing a dilating a contracting heat and many more The like for colds all which several kinds sorts and particulars are made by the several changes of the corporeal figurative Motions of Nature and not by Pressure and Reaction or by tending inward and outward And as there is so great a variety and difference amongst natural Creatures both in their Perceptions and interior natures so there are also varieties of their colours the natural colours of men being
Creatures may cause several refractions reflections and inflections of the rayes of light Wherefore Mechanicks may very much be mistaken concerning the truth of the interior Nature of bodies or natural Creatures by judging them onely according to their exterior figures 24. Of Salt and of Sea or Salt-water THe reason why Salt is made or extracted out of Salt-water is that the Circular lines of Sea or Salt-water are pointed exteriously but not interiously which is the cause that the saltish parts may be easily divided from those watry lines and it is to be observed that those points when joyned to the watry circles are rare but being once separated either by Art or a more natural way by some sorts of dividing motions they become more dense yet not so dense but they may melt or return again into the first figure which is a rare figure and so become liquid salt and afterwards they may be densed or contracted again for there is no other difference between dry and liquid salt but what is made by the rarity or density of those sorts of points As for that sort of Salt which is named volatile it is when some of those rare points become more dilated or rarified then when they are joyned to the watry circle-lines I say some not all for as some points do condense or contract into fixt salt so others do dilate or arise into volatile salt But perchance some will say How can there be several sorts of points since a point is but a point I answer There may very well be several sorts considering the Nature of their substance for some sorts are rare some dense some contracting some dilating some retenting c. besides all points are not alike but there is great difference amongst several pointed figures for all are not like the point of a Pin or Needle but to alledg some gross examples there be points of Pyramids points of Knives points of Pins points of the flame of a Candle and numerous other sorts which are all several points and not one like another for I do not mean a Mathematical or imaginary point such as is onely made by the rational matter in the mind although even amongst those imaginary points there is difference for you cannot imagine or think of the several pointed figures of several sorts or kinds of Creatures or parts but you will have a difference in your mind but I mean pointed figures and not single points It is also to be observed that as some watry Circles will and may have points outwardly so some have also points inwardly for some watry Circles as I have mentioned in my Philosophical Opinions are edged to wit such as are in vitriol water others pointed as those in salt water and others are of other sorts of points as those in cordial or hot waters but those last are more artificial and all these are different in their sorts or kinds although a litttle difference in their own natures may appear great in our humane perception Concerning Oyl there is also difference between Oyl and other wet bodies for Oyl although it be rare liquid and moist yet we cannot say it is absolutely that which we name wet as other liquors are viz. Water and Wine or natural juices and since the interior natural figure of oyl is burning and hot it is impossible to divide those interior fiery points from the circle figure of Oyl without dissolving those liquid circle lines But as the Penetrations of other acid and salt liquors are caused by their exterior points so oyl whose points are interiously in the circle-lines cannot have such quick effects of penetration as those that are exteriously pointed But mistake me not I do not mean such exterior parts as are onely subject to our humane perception but such as cause those Creatures or parts to be of such a figure or nature 25. Of the Motions of Heat and Cold. THose which affim that Heat and Cold are the two primary and onely causes of the Productions of all natural things do not consider sufficiently the variety of Nature but think that Nature produces all by Art and since Art is found out and practised by Man Man conceits himself to be above Nature But as neither Art nor any particular Creature can be the cause or principle of all the rest so neither can heat and cold be the prime cause of all natural productions no more then paint can produce all the parts of a man's face as the Eyes Nose Forehead Chin Cheeks Lips and the like or a 〈◊〉 can produce a natural Head or a suit of Clothes can make the body of Man for then whensoever the fashioned Garments or Mode-dresses do change men would of necessity change also but Art causes gross mistakes and errors not onely in sensitive but also in rational perceptions for sense being deluded is apt to delude Reason also especially if Reason be too much indulgent to sense and therefore those judgments that rely much upon the perception of sense are rather sensitive then rational judgments for sense can have but a perception of the exterior figures of objects and Art can but alter the outward form or figure but not make or change the interior nature of any thing which is the reason that artificial alterations cause false at least uncertain and various judgments so that Nature is as various in mens judgments as in her other works But concerning heat and cold my opinion is that they are like several Colours some Natural and some Artificial of which the Artificial are very inconstant at least not so lasting as those that are not made by Art and they which say that both heat and cold are not made by the sensories or sensitive organs are in the right if their meaning be that both heat and cold in their natures and with all their proprieties as they are particular Creatures are not made or produced by humane or animal senses nevertheless the sensitive animal perception of heat and cold is made by the sensitive motions in their sensitive organs for what heat and cold soever an animal Creature feels the perception of it is made in the sense of touch or by those sensitive motions in the parts of its body for as the perception of any other outward object is not made by a real entrance of its parts into our sensories so neither is all perception of heat and cold made by the intermixture of their particles with our flesh but they are patterned and figured out by the sensitive motions in the exterior parts of the body as well as other objects I will not say that cold or heat may not enter and intermix with the parts of some bodies as fire doth intermix with fuel or enters into its parts but my meaning is that the animal perception of heat and cold is not made this way that is by an intermixture of the parts of the Agent with the parts of the Patient as the learned call them that
its degree of consistency for if it did no animal Creature would be able to breath since all or most of them are subject to such a sort of respiration as requires a certain intermediate degree of air neither too thick nor too thin what respirations other Creatures require I am not able to determine for as there are several infinite parts and actions of Nature so also several sorts of Respirations and I believe that what is called the ebbing and flowing of the Sea may be the Seas Respiration for Nature has ordered for every part or Creature that which is most fitting and proper for it Concerning Artificial Congelations as to turn Water or Snow into the figure of Ice by the commixture of Salt Nitre Allum or the like it may very probably be effected for Water and watery liquors their interior figure being Circular may easily change by contracting that Circular figure into a Triangle or square that is into Ice or Snow for Water in my opinion has a round or Circular interior figure Snow a Triangular and Ice a square I do not mean an exact Mathematical Triangle or Square but such a one as is proper for their figures and that the mixture of those or the like ingredients being shaken together in a Vial doth produce films of Ice on the outside of the Glass as Experimenters relate proves not onely that the motions of Cold are very strong but also that there is perception in all parts of Nature and that all Congelations both natural and artificial are made by the corporeal perceptive motions which the sentient has of exterior cold which is also the reason that Salt being mixt with Snow makes the liquor always freeze first on that side of the Vessel where the mixture is for those parts which are nearest will imitate first the motions of frost and after them the neighbouring parts until they be all turned into Ice The truth is that all or most artificial experiments are the best arguments to evince there is perception in all corporeal parts of Nature for as parts are joyned or commix with parts so they move or work accordingly into such or such figures either by the way of imitation or otherwise for their motions are so various as it is impossible for one particulare to describe them all but no motion can be without perception because every part or particle of Nature as it is self-moving so it is also self-knowing and perceptive for Matter Self-motion Knowledg and Perception are all but one thing and no more differing nor separable from each other then Body Place Magnitude Colour and Figure Wherefore Experimental Philosophers cannot justly blame me for maintaining the opinion of Self-motion and a general Perception in Nature But to return to Artificial Congelations there is as much difference between Natural and Artificial Ice and Snow as there is between Chalk and Cheese or between a natural Child and a Baby made of Paste or Wax and Gummed-silk or between artificial Glass and natural Diamonds the like may be said of Hail Frost Wind c. for though their exterior figures do resemble yet their interior natures are quite different and therefore although by the help of Art some may make Ice of Water or Snow yet we cannot conclude from hence that all natural Ice is made the same way by saline particles or acid Spirits and the like for if Nature should work like Art she would produce a man like as a Carver makes a statue or a Painter draws a picture besides it would require a world of such saline or acid particles to make all the Ice that is in Nature Indeed it is as much absurdity as impossibility to constitute some particular action the common principle of all natural heat or cold and to make a Universal cause of a particular effect for no particular Part or Action can be prime in Nature or a fundamental principle of other Creatures or actions although it may occasion some Creatures to move after such or such a way Wherefore those that will needs have a Primum Frigidum or some Body which they suppose must of necessity be supremely cold and by participation of which all other cold Bodies obtain that quality whereof some do contend for Earth some for Water others for Air some for Nitre and others for Salt do all break their heads to no purpose for first there are no extreams in Nature and therefore no Body can be supreamely cold nor supreamly hot Next as I said it is impossible to make one particular sort of Creatures the principle of all the various sorts of heat or cold that are in Nature for there is an Elemental heat and cold a Vegetable Mineral Animal heat and cold and there may be many other sorts which we do not know and how can either Earth or Water or Nitre or Salt be the Principle of all these different colds Concerning the Earth we see that some parts of the Earth are hot and some cold the like of Water and Air and the same parts which are now hot will often in a moment grow cold which shews they are as much subject to the perception of heat and cold as some other Creatures and doth plainly deny to them the possibility of being a Primum Frigidum I have mentioned in my Poetical Works that there is a Sun in the Center of the Earth and in another place I have described a Chymical heat but these being but Poetical Fancies I will not draw them to any serious proofs onely this I will say that there may be degrees of heat and cold in the Earth and in Water as well as there are in the Air for certainly the Earth is not without Motion a dull dead moveless and inanimate body but it is as much interiously active as Air and Water are exteriously which is evident enough by the various productions of Vegetables Minerals and other bodies that derive their off-spring out of the Earth And as for Nitre and Salt although they may occasion some sorts of Colds in some sorts of Bodies like as some sorts of food or tempers of Air or the like may work such or such effects in some sorts of Creatures yet this doth not prove that they are the onely cause of all kinds of heat and cold that are in Nature The truth is if Air Water Earth Nitre or Salt or insensible roving and wandering atomes should be the only cause of cold then there would be no difference of hot and cold climates but it would freeze as well under the Line as it doth at the Poles But there 's such a stir kept about Atoms as that they are so full of action and produce all things in the world and yet none describes by what means they move or from whence they have this active power Lastly Some are of opinion that the chief cause of all cold and its effects is wind which they describe to be air moved in a considerable quantity and that
intermediate temper which heat being heightened by the burning motions of fire beyond its natural degree causes a burning and smarting pain in the same part and therefore as the fire did occasion an immoderate heat by an intermixture of its own parts with the parts of the flesh so a moderate heat of the fire may reduce again the natural heat of the same parts and that by a sympathetical agreement betwixt the motions of the Elemental and Animal heat But it is to be observed first that the burning must be done by an intermixture of the fire with the parts of the body Next that the burning must be but skin deep as we use to call it that is the burned part must not be totally overcome by fire or else it will never be restored again Neither are all burned bodies restored after this manner but some for one and the same thing will not in all bodies occasion the like effects as we may see by Fire which being one and the same will not cause all fuels to burn alike and this makes true the old saying One Mans Meat is another Mans Poyson The truth is it cannot be otherwise for though Nature and natural self-moving Matter is but one body and the onely cause of all natural effects yet Nature being divided into infinite corporeal figurative self-moving parts these parts as the effects of that onely cause must needs be various and again proceeding from one infinite cause as one matter they are all but one thing because they are infinite parts of one Infinite body But some may say If Nature be but one body and the Infinite parts are all united into that same body How comes it that there is such an opposition strife and war betwixt the parts of Nature I answer Nature being Material is composeable and divideable and as Composition is made by a mutual agreement of parts so division is made by an opposition or strife betwixt parts which opposition or division doth not obstruct the Union of Nature but on the contrary rather proves that without an opposition of parts there could not be a union or composition of so many several parts and creatures nor no change or variety in Nature for if all the parts did unanimously conspire and agree in their motions and move all but one way there would be but one act or kind of motion in Nature when as an opposition of some parts and a mutual agreement of others is not onely the cause of the Miraculous variety in Nature but it poyses and ballances as it were the corporeal figurative motions which is the cause that Nature is steady and fixt in her self although her parts be in a perpetual motion 29. Several Questions resolved concerning Cold and Frozen Bodies c. FIrst I will give you my answer to the question which is much agitated amongst the Learned concerning Cold to wit Whether it be a Positive quality or a bare Privation of Heat And my opinion is That Cold is both a Positive quality and a privation of heat For whatsoever is a true quality of Cold must needs be a privation of Heat since two opposites cannot subsist together in one and the same part at one point of time By Privation I mean nothing else but an alteration of Natures actions in her several parts or which is all one a change of natural corporeal motions and so the death of Animals may be called a privation of animal life that is a change of the animal motions in that particular Creature which made animal life to some other kind of action which is not animal life And in this sense both Cold and Heat although they be positive qualities or natural beings yet they are also privations that is changes of corporeal figurative motions in several particular Creatures or parts of Nature But what some Learned mean by Bare Privation I cannot apprehend for there 's no such thing as a bare Privation or bare Motion in Nature but all Motion is Corporeal or Material for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing Which is the reason that to explain my self the better 〈…〉 of Motion I do always add the word corporeal 〈◊〉 â—â—gurative by which I exclude all bare or immaterial Motion which expression is altogether against sense and reason The second Question is Whether Winds have the power to change the Exterior temper of the Air To which I answer That Winds will not onely occasion the Air to be either hot or cold according to their own temper but also Animals and Vegetables and other sorts of Creatures for the sensitive corporeal Motions in several kinds of Creatures do often imitate and figure out the Motions of exterior objects some more some less some regularly and some irregularly and some not at all according to the nature of their own perceptions By which we may observe that the Agent which is the external object has onely an occasional power and the Patient which is the sentient works chiefly the effect by vertue of the perceptive figurative motions in its own sensitive organs or parts Quest. 3. Why those Winds that come from cold Regions are most commonly cold and those that come from hot Regions are for the most part hot I answer The reason is That those Winds have more constantly patterned out the motions of cold or heat in those parts from which they either separated themselves or which they have met withal But it may be questioned Whether all cold and hot winds do bring their heat and cold along with them out of such hot and cold Countries And I am of opinion they do not but that they proceed from an imitation of the nearest parts which take patterns from other parts and these again from the remoter parts so that they are but patterns of other patterns and copies of other copies Quest. 4. Why Fire in some cold Regions will hardly kindle or at least not burn freely I answer This is no more to be wondered at then that some men do die with cold for cold being contrary to fire if it have a predominate power it will without doubt put out the fire not that the cold corporeal motions do destroy fire by their actual power over it but that fire destroys it self by an imitation of the motions of cold so that cold is onely an occasional cause of the fires destruction or at least of the alteration of its motions and the diminution of its strength But some might ask What makes or causes this imitation in several sorts of Cretures I answer The wisdom of Nature which orders her corporeal actions to be always in a mean so that one extream as one may call it does countervail another But then you 'l say There would always be a right and mean temper in all things I answer So there is in the whole that is in Infinite Nature although not in every particular for Natures Wisdom orders her particulars to the best of the whole and although
hairs breadth causes a several perception besides it is not onely the five organs in an animal but every part and particle of his body that has a peculiar knowledg and perception because it consists of self-moving Matter Which if so then a Looking-glass that patterns out the face of a Man and a Mans Eye that patterns again the copy from the Glass cannot be said to have the same perception by reason a Glass and an animal are different sorts of Creatures for though a piece of Wood Stone or Metal may have a perceptive knowledg of Man yet it hath not a Man's perception because it is a Vegetable or Mineral and cannot have an Animal knowledg or perception no more then the Eye patterning out a Tree or Stone can be said to have a Vegetable or Mineral Perception nay when one Animal as for example one man perceives another he doth not perceive his knowledg for it is one thing to perceive the exterior figure of a Creature and another thing to perceive its interior proper and innate actions also it is one thing to perceive exterior objects and another to receive knowledg for no part can give away to another its inherent and proper particular nature neither can one part make it self another part it may imitate some actions of another part but not make it self the same part which proves that each part must have its own knowledg and perception according to its own particular nature for though several parts may have the like perceptions yet they are not the same and although the exterior figures of some objects may be alike yet the perceptions may be quite different 't is true sensitive and rational knowledg is general and infinite in Nature but every part being finite can have but a finite and particular knowledg and that according to the nature of its particular figure for as not all Creatures although they be composed of one Matter are alike in their figures so not all can have the like knowledges and perceptions though they have all self-motion for particular Creatures and actions are but effects of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and so are particular perceptions and although they are different yet the difference of effects does not argue different causes but one and the same cause may produce several and different effects so that although there be infinite different motions in Nature yet they are all but motions and cannot differ from each other in being motions or self-moving parts and although there be infinite several and different perceptions yet they are all perceptions for the effects cannot alter the cause but the cause may alter the effects Wherefore rational and sensitive corporeal motions cannot change from being motions though they may change from moving thus to move thus nor perceptions from being perceptions though they may change from being such or such particular perceptions for the change is onely in particulars not in the ground or principle which continues always the same The truth is as it is impossible that one figure should be another figure or one part another part so likewise it is impossible that the perception of one part should be the perception of another but being in parts they must be several and those parts being different they must be different also But some are more different then others for the perceptions of Creatures of different sorts as for example of a Vegetable and an Animal are more different then the perception of particulars of one sort or of one composed figure for as there is difference in their interior natures so in their perceptions so that a Mineral or Vegetable that perceives the figure of an Animal has no more the perception of an Animal then an Animal which perceives or patterns out the figure of a Mineral or Vegetable has the perceptions of those Creatures for example when a man lies upon a stone or leans on a tree or handles and touches water c. although these parts be so closely joined to each other yet their perceptions are quite different for the man onely knows what he feels or sees or hears or smells or tasteth but knows not what sense or perception those parts have nay he is so far from that that even one part of his body doth not know the sense and perception of another part of his body as for example one of his hands knows not the sense and perception of his other hand nay one part of his hand knows not the perception of another part of the same hand for as the corporeal figurative motions differ so do particular knowledges and perceptions and although sensitive and rational knowledg is general and infinite in infinite Nature yet every part being finite has but finite and particular perceptions besides perception being but an effect and not a cause is more various in particulars for although all Creatures are composed of rational and sensitive Matter yet their perceptions are not alike neither can the effect alter the cause for though the several actions of sensitive and rational Matter be various and make several perceptions yet they cannot make several kinds of sensitive and rational Matter but when as perceptions change the parts of the sensitive and rational matter remain the same in themselves that is they do not change from being sensitive or rational parts although they may make numerous perceptions in their particular parts according to the various changes of self-motion But some may say If the particular parts of one composed figure be so ignorant of each others knowledg as I have expressed How can they agree in some action of the whole figure where they must all be imployed and work agreeably to one effect As for example when the Mind designs to go to such a place or do such a work How can all the parts agree in the performing of this act if they be ignorant of each others actions I answer Although every Parts knowledg and perception is its own and not anothers so that every part knows by its own knowledg and perceives by its own perception yet it doth not follow from thence that no part has any more knowledg then of it felf or of its own actions for as I said before it is well to be observed that there being an entercourse and commerce as also an acquaintance and agreement between parts and parts there must also of necessity be some knowledg or perception betwixt them that is one part must be able to perceive another part and the actions of that same part for wheresoever is life and knowledg that is sense and reason there is also perception and though no part of Nature can have an absolute knowledg yet it is neither absolutely ignorant but it has a particular knowledg and particular perceptions according to the nature of its own innate and interior figure In short as there are several kinds sorts and particular perceptions and particular ignorances between parts so there are more general perceptions
heel is touched the sensitive spirits who watch in that place do run up to the head and bring news to the mind Truly if the senses have no knowledg of themselves How comes it that a man born blind cannot tell what the light of the Sun is or the light of a Candle or the light of a Glow-worms tail For though some objects of one sense may be guessed by the perception of another sense as we may guess by touch the perception of an object that belongs to sight c. yet we cannot perfectly know it except we saw it by reason the perception of sight belongs onely to the optick sense But some may ask if a man be so blind that he cannot make use of his optick sense what is become of the sensitive motions in that same part of his body to wit the optick sensorium I answer The motions of that part are not lost because the man is blind and cannot see for a privation or absence of a thing doth not prove that it is quite lost but the same motions which formerly did work to the perception of sight are onely changed and work now to some other action then the perception of sight so that it is onely a change or alteration of motions in the same parts and not an annihilation for there 's no such thing as an annihilation in Nature but all the variety in Nature is made by change of motions Wherefore to conclude the opinion of sense and reason or a sensitive and rational knowledg in all parts of Nature is in my judgment more probable and rational then the Opinion which confines all knowledg of Nature to a mans Brains or Head and allows none neither to the Senses nor to any part of Nature 37. Several Questions and Answers concerning Knowledg and Perception I Am not ignorant that endless questions and objections may be raised upon one subject and to answer them would be an infinite labour But since I desire to be perspicuous in delivering my opinions and to remove all those scruples which seem to obstruct the sense thereof I have chosen rather to be guilty of prolixity and repetitions then to be obscure by too much brevity And therefore I will add to my former discourse of knowledg and perception the resolution of these following questions which I hope will render it more intelligible Q. 1. What difference is there between Self-knowledg and Perception I answer There is as much difference betwixt them as betwixt a whole and its parts or a cause and its effects For though Self-motion be the occasional cause of particular perceptions by reason it is the cause of all particular actions of Nature and of the variety of figures yet self-knowledg is the ground or fundamental cause of Perception for were there not selfknowledg there could not be perception by reason perceptions are nothing else but particular exterior knowledges or knowledges of exterior parts and actions occasioned by the various compositions and divisions of parts so that self-moving Matter has a perceptive self-knowledg and consisting of infinite Parts those parts have particular self-knowledges and perceptions according to the variety of the corporeal figurative motions which as they are particular cannot be infinite in themselves for although a whole may know its parts yet the parts cannot possibly know the whole because an infinite may know a finite but a finite cannot know an infinite Nevertheless when many parts are regularly composed those parts by a conjunction or union of their particular self-knowledges and perceptions of each other may know more and so judg more probably of infinite as I have declared above but as for single parts there is no such thing in Nature no more then there can be an Infinite part Q. 2. Whether the Inanimate Part of Matter may not have self-knowledg as well as the Animate I answer That in my opinion and according to the conceptions of my sense and reason the Inanimate part of matter has self-knowledg as well as the Animate but not Perception for it is onely the animate part of matter that is perceptive and this animate matter being of a two-fold degree sensitive and rational the rational not being incumbred with the inanimate parts has a more clear and freer perception then the sensitive which is well to be observed for though the rational sensitive and inanimate parts of matter make but one infinite self-moving body of Nature yet there are infinite particular self-knowledges for Nature is divided into infinite parts and all parts of Nature are self-knowing But as all are not animate so all are not perceptive for Perception though it proceeds from self-knowledg as its ground or principle yet it is also an effect of self-motion for were there no self-motion there would be no perception and because Nature is self-moving all her parts are so too and as all her parts are moving so they have all compositions and divisions and as all are subject to compositions and divisions so all have variety of self-knowledg so that no part can be ignorant And by reason self-knowledg is the ground and Principle of Perception it knows all the effects by the variety of their changes therefore the Inanimate part of Matter may for any thing I know or perceive be as knowing as the other parts of Nature for although it be the grossest part and so the dullest wanting self-motion yet by the various divisions and compositions which the animate parts do make the inanimate may be as knowing as the animate But some may say If Inanimate Matter were knowing of it self then it would also be sensible of it self I answer Self-knowledg is so far sensible of it self that it knows it self and therefore the inanimate part of Matter being self-knowing may be sensible of its own self-knowledg but yet it is not such a sense as self-moving matter has that is a perceptive sense for the difference of animate and inanimate Matter consists herein that one is self-moving and consequently perceptive but the other not and as animate matter is self-moving as well as self-knowing so it is the chief and architectonical part of Nature which causes all the variety that is in Nature for without animate Matter there could be no composition and division and so no variety and without inanimate Matter there could not be such solid compositions of parts as there are for the animate part of Matter cannot be so gross as the inanimate and therefore without these degrees there would be no variety of figures nor no composition of solid figures as Animals Vegetables Minerals c. so that those effects which our sense and reason perceives could not be without the degrees of animate and inanimate Matter neither could there be perception without animate Matter by which all the various effects of Nature are perceived for though one Creature cannot perceive all the effects yet the infinite parts of Nature by their infinite actions perceive infinitely Again Some may
object That if the Inanimate part of Matter have self-knowledg and sense it must of necessity have life also To which I answer That the Inanimate part of Matter may have life according as it hath sense and knowledg but not such a life as the animate part of Matter has that is an active life as to compose and divide the infinite body of Nature into infinite parts and figures and to produce infinite varieties of them for all this cannot be withont motion nevertheless it has so much life as to know it self and so much sense as to be sensible of its own self-knowledg In short the difference between animate and inanimate Matter 's life sense and self-knowledg is that the animate Matter has an active life and a perceptive sense and self-knowledg which the inanimate part of Matter has not because it wants self-motion which is the cause of all actions and perceptions in Nature Q. 3. Whether the Inanimate Matter could have parts without self-motion I answer Yes For wherefoever is body or matter there are also parts because parts belong to body and there can be no body without parts but yet were there no self-motion there could be no various changes of parts or figures The truth is Nature considered as she is and as much as our sense and reason can perceive by her various effects must of necessity be composed or consist of a commixture of animate both rational and sensitive and inanimate matter for were there no inanimate matter there would be no ground or grosser substance to work on and so no solid figures and were there no animate sensitive matter there would be no labourer or workman as I may call it to form the inanimate part of matter into various figures nor would there be such infinite changes compositions divisions productions dissolutions c. as we see there are Again were there no animate rational Matter there would be no designer or surveigher to order and direct all things methodically nor no Fancies Imaginations Conceptions Memory c. so that this Triumvirate of the degrees of matter is so necessary a constitutive principle of all natural effects that Nature could not be without it I mean Nature considered not what she might have been but as she is and as much as we are able to perceive by her actions for Natural Philosophy is no more but a rational inquisition into the causes of natural effects and therefore as we observe the effects and actions of Nature so we may probably guess at their causes and principles Q. 4. How so fine subtil and pure a part as the Animate Matter is can work upon so gross a part as the Inanimate I answer More easily then Vitriol or Aqua-fortis or any other high extracts can work upon metal or the like nay more easily then fire can work upon wood or stone or the like But you will say That according to my opinion these bodies are not wrought upon or divided by the exterior agent as by fire vitriol c. but that they divide themselves by their own inherent self-motion and that the agent is no more but an occasion that the patient moves or acts thus or thus I answer 'T is very true For there is such a commixture of animate and inanimate matter that no particle in Nature can be conceived or imagined which is not composed of animate matter as well as of inanimate and therefore the patient as well as the agent having both a commixture of these parts of matter none can act upon the other but the patient changes its own parts by its own self-motion either of its own accord or by way of imitation But the inanimate part of Matter considered in it self or in its own narure hath no self-motion nor can it receive any from the animate but they being both so closely intermixt that they make but one self-moving body of Nature the animate parts of Matter bear the inanimate with them in all their actions so that it is impossible for the animate parts to divide compose contract c. but the inaimate must serve them or go along with them in all such corporeal figurative actions Q. 5. How is it possible that Parts being ignorant of each other should agree in the production of a figure I answer When I speak of Ignorance and knowledg my meaning is not that there is as much ignorance in the parts of Nature as there is knowledg for all parts have self-knowledg but I understand a perceptive knowledg by which parts do perceive parts and as for the agreeing actions of parts they cannot readily err unless it be out of wilfulness to oppose or cross each other for put the case the sensitive parts were as ignorant of perceptions as the inanimate yet the rational being thorowly intermixt with them would cause agreeable combinations and connexions of parts in all productions because they being not incumbred with the burthens of other parts make more general perceptions then the sensitive and moving freely in their own degree there is a more perfect acquaintance between them then the sensitive parts which is the cause that the rational design and order when as the sensitive labour and work I mean when they move regularly or to one and the same effect for then they must needs move agreeably and unitedly But because the sensitive parts are perceptive as well as the rational and perceive not onely the rational adjoining parts but also those of their own degree they cannot so grosly err as some believe especially since the sensitive parts do not onely know their own work but are also directed by the rational but as I have often said the several sorts both of the sensitive and rational perceptions are well to be considered which are as various as the actions of Nature and cannot be numbred by reason every figurative action is a several perception both sensitive and rational and infinite Matter being in a perpetual motion there must of necessity be infinite figures and so infinite perceptions amongst the infinite parts of Nature Q. 6. Whether there be single Self-knowledges and single Perceptions in Nature I answer If there can be no such thing as a single part in Nature there can neither be a single self-knowledg or perception for body and parts can never be separated from each other but wheresoever is body were it an atome there are parts also and when parts divide from parts at the same time and by the same act they are joined to other parts so that composition and division is done by one act The like for knowledg For knowledg being material consists of parts and as it is impossible that there can be single parts or parts subsisting by themselves without reference to each other or the body of Nature so it is impossible that there can be single knowledges Neither can there be a single magnitude figure colour place c. but all that is corporeal has parts and by reason Nature
a self-perception although there may be an interior self-knowledg Nor is it proper to say a part may perceive it self or have a perception of it self But by perception I mean an exterior or forreign knowledg that is a knowledg of other parts figures or actions These perceptions I say are different according to the difference of the corporeal figurative motions for it is impossible that such or such parts should have such or such perceptions if they have not such or such corporeal motions Therefore though all parts have self-knowledg as well as self-motion yet by reason all parts do not move alike they cannot make the like perceptions and though self-knowledg as it is the ground and fountain not onely of all particular knowledges but also of all exterior perceptions is but one in it self as a fixt being and cannot be divided from its own nature for as Matter cannot be divided from being Matter or self-motion from being self-motion so neither can self-knowledg be divided from being self-knowledg nor can they be separated from each other but every part and particle of natural matter has self-knowledg and perception as well as it hath self-motion Yet all this hinders not but there may be degrees of self-knowledg according to the degrees of Matter for as there is rational and sensitive matter so there is also rational and sensitive self-knowledg nay there are infinite particular self-knowledges and perceptions according to the infiniteness of parts and motions and yet all is but one self-moving and self-knowing Nature for parts are nothing else but a division of the whole and the whole is nothing else but a composition of parts All which I desire may be taken notice of lest my sense be misinterpreted for when I speak of rational and sensitive self-knowledg I do not mean as if there were more self-knowledg then one in the onely infinite Matter to wit a double kind of self-knowledg but I speak in reference to the parts of Matter for the rational part is more pure and so more agil quick and free then the sensitive and the animate part is self-knowing but the inanimate not and thus in respect to parts as they are divided so they have several self-knowledges and perceptions as also numerous lives and souls in one composed figure or Creature and as infinite parts belong to one infinite whole so infinite self-knowledges and infinite perceptions belong to the infinite actions of those infinite parts But some may ask Why there are no more degrees of Matter but two viz. Animate and Inanimate and no more degrees of Animate but Rational and Sensitive I answer humane sense and reason cannot conceive it possible there should be more or fewer for the rational and sensitive are the purest degrees Matter can be capable of and were there any purer then these they would be beyond the nature of Matter which is impossible because Nature cannot go beyond it self Again some may perhaps desire to know why there are more degrees of Inanimate Matter then of Animate to wit of thickness and thinness rarity and density lightness aud heaviness c I answer These are nothing else but the actions of the material parts and do not belong to the nature of Matter so that they cannot make Parts less or more material for all is but Matter neither can they alter the nature of Matter for Matter is still Matter however it moves Lastly some may ask How it is possible that such an infinite variety can proceed but from two degrees of Matter to wit Animate and Inanimate I answer As well as Infinite effects can proceed from one Infinite cause for Nature being an Infinite body must also have Infinite parts and having an Infinite self-motion must of necessity have an infinite variety of parts and being infinitely self-knowing must also have infinite self-knowing parts which proves that Natures body must of necessity consist of those two degrees viz. Animate and Inanimate Matter for were there no Animate matter which is corporeal self-motion there would never be such variety of figures parts and actions in Nature as there is nor no perceptions for Self-knowledg or Matter without self-motion could never make any variety in Nature and therefore although self-motion causes an obscurity by the division of parts yet it causes also particular perceptions between parts and as the motions vary so do perceptions of parts In short there is but one infinite body and infinite parts one infinite self-knowledg and infinite particular self-knowledges one infinite self-motion and infinite particular actions as also infinite particular perceptions for self-motion is the cause of all the variety of Nature and as one figure or part of Nature lies within another so one perception is within another Q. 8. How can there be Self-knowledg and Perception in one and the same part I answer As well as the being or substance of a thing and its actions can consist together or as a cause and its effects for though they are so far different from each other that the cause is not the effect nor the effect the cause as also that the effect must of necessity depend upon the cause but the cause may chuse whether it will produce such or such effects as for example though action or motion depends upon matter yet matter does not depend upon motion as being able to subsist without it and though perception depends upon self-knowledg yet self-knowledg does not depend upon perception nevertheless wheresoever is perception there is also self-knowledg by reason that wheresoever there is an effect in act or being there is also its cause and although perception depends also upon outward objects yet outward objects do not depend upon perceptions but perception as it depends upon self-knowledg so it depends also upon self-motion for without self-knowledg and self-motion there would be no perception so that both exterior perceptions and all interior voluntary actions proceed from self-knowing and self-moving matter but the difference between particular interior self-knowledges and perceptions is caused by the changes of corporeal figurative self-motion Q. 9. Whether particular Parts or Figures be bound to particular perceptions I answer Particular Parts make Perceptions according to the nature of their corporeal figurative motions and their perceptions are as numerous as their actions for example those parts that are composed into the figure of an Animal make perceptions proper to that figures corporeal interior natural motions but if they be dissolved from the animal figure and composed into Vegetables they make such perceptions as are proper for Vegetables and being again dissolved and composed into Minerals they make perceptions proper to Minerals c. so that no part is tied or bound to one particular kind of perception no more then it is bound to one particular kind of figures but when the interior motions of that figure change the perceptions proper to that same figure change also for though self-knowledg the ground of all perceptions is a fixt
works of Natural Philosophy 1. There is but one Matter and infinite Parts one self-motion and infinite Actions one Self-knowledg and infinite particular Knowledges and Perceptions 2. All parts of Nature are living knowing and perceptive because all are self-moving for self-motion is the cause of all particular effects figures actions varieties changes lives knowledges perceptions c. in Nature and makes the onely difference between animate and inanimate Matter 3. The chief and general actions of Nature are division and composition of parts both which are done but by one act for at the same time when parts separate themselves from such parts they join to other parts and this is the cause there can be no Vacuum nor no single parts in Nature 4. Every particular part of figure is infinitely divided and composed from and with other parts 5. The infinite divisions and compositions hinder that Nature cannot run into extreams in her particulars but keep the parts and actions of Nature in an equal ballance 6. The Inanimate part of Matter has life sense and self-knowledg as well as the animate but being not moving in it self or its own Nature it has not such a perceptive sense and self-knowledg nor such an active life as the animate hath 7. The parts of Inanimate Matter alter according to their commixture with the Animate and so do their particular self-knowledges 8. As parts alter by the changes of motions so do particular perceptions 9. Though all perceptions are figurative actions yet no particular Creature can undoubtedly affirm that all are made by patterning or imitation by reason as the parts and actions of Nature are infinite so are also particular perceptions and being infinite they cannot be known by any particular Creature 10. There are besides exterior perceptions voluntary actions both of sense and reason not made by imitation but freely and by rote and these may be called conceptions rather then perceptions 11. Those are much in the wrong who believe that man can know no more then what his five senses do inform him for the rational part which is the purest subtilest most active and inspective part of Nature does inform it self of things which the sensitive cannot as for example how was the new world and the Antipodes found out for they were neither seen nor heard of nor tasted nor smelled nor touched Truly our reason does many times perceive that which our senses cannot and some things our senses cannot perceive until reason informs them for there are many inventions which owe their rise and beginning onely to reason It is not sense but reason that knows or perceives there is something beyond it self and beyond Nature which is the Onely Eternal and Omnipotent God and there can be no higher conception then this for what is beyond it is supernatural and belongs to supernatural Creatures as for example those divine souls which God has given to men above their rational material souls but as for the wicked souls they come not from God but are irregularities of Nature which God certainly will punish as a Master does the evil actions of his Servant 12. Art is but a Natural Creature or effect and not a Creator of any thing 13. Colour Magnitude Figure Place Time Gravity Levity Density Rarity Compositions Divisions Alterations c. are all one and the same with self-moving Matter and nothing else but the various actions of Nature which actions can no more be separated from body then body can from Matter or parts from their whole for all that is natural is corporeal and therefore the distinction into substances and accidents is to no purpose since there cannot really be no not imagined such a thing as an incorporeal or substanceless motion or action in Nature But some perhaps will say If every part and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nature has Magnitude Colour Figure Place c. How is it possible that they can be one and the same with body since they are subject to several perceptions To which I answer The several perceptions do not make them to be several bodies but they are patterned out or perceived as several proprieties or attributes of one body or as several effects of one cause for though there is but one cause in Nature which is self-moving matter yet that onely cause must of necessity have several effects or proprieties as Figure Colour Place Magnitude c. and if I may without offence make a comparison between the Creator and a Creature God is but one in his Essence as one Infinite and Eternal God and yet has several Divine Attributes and though the parts of Nature cannot comprehend conceive or perceive God yet they may conceive somewhat of his several Attributes after several manners or wayes In the like manner although there is but one matter yet that matter may be perceived after several manners or ways it being impossible that matter or any part of particle of matter although it were single should be without those several mentioned proprieties for can any one conceive or imagine a body without Figure Magnitude Place or Colour were it as little as an Atome and since there are no Natural Figures or Creatures but consist of parts those composed Figures may have a different Magnitude Place Colour c. from their parts and particles were they single but being self-moving those figures may alter by self-motion for 't is as impossible for a body to be without parts as for parts to be without body but if matter were not self-moving there would neither be alterations perceptions nor any natural actions although there might be a fixt self-knowledg in Natures parts And thus it is no wonder how there can be several perceptions of one figure by reason there 's no figure but is composed of parts and as we can conceive a whole and its parts which yet are one and the same thing several ways for a whole we conceive as a composition of parts and parts we conceive as a division of the whole so we may Figure Place Magnitude c. And as we cannot conceive nor perceive motion without body so neither can we conceive those mentioned proprieties without body or body without them they being nothing else but the corporeal figurative actions of Nature FURTHER OBSERVATIONS UPON EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY Reflecting withal upon some Principal Subjects in CONTEMPLATIVE PHILOSOPHY 1. Ancient Learning ought not to be exploded nor the Experimental part of Philosophy preferred before the Speculative IN this present age those are thought the greatest Wits that rail most against the ancient Philosophers especially Aristotle who is beaten by all but whether he deserve such punishment others may judg In my opinion he was a very subtil Philosopher and an ingenious Man 't is true he was subject to errors as well as other men are for there is no creature so perfect but may err nay not Nature her self but God onely who is Omnipotent but if all that err should be accounted fools and destitute of
wicked Man or the Devil hath power over God for although one Part may have power over another yet not over Nature no more then one man can have power over all Mankind One Man or Creature may over-power another so much as to make him quit his natural form or figure that is to die and be dissolved and so to turn into another figure or creature but he cannot over-power all Creatures nay if he could and did yet he would not be an absolute destroyer and Creator but onely some weak and simple Transformer or rather some artificial disfigurer and misformer which cannot alter the world though he may disorder it But surely as there was always such a perpetual Motion in Nature which did and doth still produce and dissolve other Creatures which Production and Dissolution is nam'd birth and death so there is also a Motion which produces and dissolves Arts and this is the ordinary action and work of Nature which continues still and onely varies in the several ways or modes of dissolving and composing 6. Whether there be any Prime or Principal Figures in Nature and of the true Principles of Nature SOme are of opinion that the Prime or Principal figures of Nature are Globes or Globular figures as being the most perfect but I cannot conceive why a globular or spherical figure should be thought more perfect then any other for another figure may be as perfect in its kind as a round figure is in its kind for example we cannot say a Bird is a more perfect figure then a Beast or a Beast a more perfect figure then a Fish or Worm neither can we say Man is a more perfect figure then any of the rest of the Animals the like of Vegetables Minerals and Elements for every several sort has as perfect a figure as another according to the nature and propriety of its own kind or sort But put the case man's figure were more perfect then any other yet we could not say that it is the Principle out of which all other figures are made as some do conceive that all other figures are produced from the Globular or Spherical for there is no such thing as most or least perfect because there is no most nor least in Nature Others are of opinion that the Principle of all natural Creatures is salt and that when the World dissolves it must dissolve into salt as into its first Principle but I never heard it determined yet whether it be fixt or volatile salt Others again are of opinion that the first principle of all Creatures is Water which if so then seeing that all things must return into their first principle it will be a great hinderance to the conflagration of the world for there will be so much water produced as may chance to quench out the fire But if Infinite Nature has Infinite parts and those Infinite parts are of Infinite figures then surely they cannot be confined to one figure Sense and Reason proves that Nature is full of variety to wit of corporeal figurative motions which as they do not ascribe their original to one particular so neither do they end in one particular figure or creature But some will wonder that I deny any Part or Creature of Nature should have a supremacy above the rest or be called Prime or Principal when as yet I do say that Reason is the Prime Part of Nature To which I answer That when I say no Creature in Nature can be called Prime or Principal I understand Natural effects that is Natural composed Parts or Creatures as for example all those finite and particular Creatures that are composed of Life Soul and Body that is of the Animate both Rational and Sensitive and the Inanimate parts of Matter and none of those composed Creatures I mean has any superiority or supremacy above the rest so as to be the Principle of all other composed Creatures as some do conceive Water other Fire others all the four Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Natural Creatures and some do make Globous bodies the perfectest figures of all others for all these being but effects and finite particulars can be no principles of their fellow-creatures or of Infinite Nature But when I say that Reason or the Rational part of Matter is the Prime Part of Nature I speak of the Principles of Nature out of which all other Creatures are made or produced which Principle is but one viz. Matter which makes all effects or Creatures of Nature to be material for all the effects must be according to their principle but this matter being of two degrees viz. animate and inanimate the animate is nothing but self-motion I call it animate matter by reason I cannot believe as some do that Motion is Immaterial there being nothing belonging to Nature which is not material and therefore corporeal self-motion or animate matter is to me one and the same and this animate matter is again subdivided into two degrees to wit the rational and sensitive the rational is the soul the sensitive the life and the inanimate the body of Infinite Nature all which being so intermixed and composed as no separation can be made of one from the other but do all constitute one Infinite and self-moving body of Nature and are found even in the smallest particles thereof if smallest might be said they are justly named the Principles of Nature whereof the rational animate matter or corporeal self-motion is the chief designer and surveigher as being the most active subtil and penetrating part and the sensitive the workman but the inanimate part of Matter being thorowly intermixed with this animate self-moving Matter or rather with this corporeal self-motion although it have no motion in it self that is in its own nature yet by vertue of the commixture with the animate is moving as well as moved for it is well to be observed that although I make a distinction betwixt animate and inanimate rational and sensitive Matter yet I do not say that they are three distinct and several matters for as they do make but one body of Nature so they are also but one Matter but as I mentioned before when I speak of self-motion I name it animate matter to avoid the mistake lest self-motion might be taken for immaterial for my opinion is that they are all but one matter and one material body of Nature And this is the difference between the cause or principle and the effects of Nature from the neglect of which comes the mistake of so many Authors to wit that they ascribe to the effects what properly belongs to the cause making those figures which are composed of the foresaid animate and inanimate parts of matter and are no more but effects the principles of all other Creatures which mistake causes many confusions in several mens brains and their writings But it may be they will account it paradoxical or absurd that I say Infinite Matter consists of
into earth and of this again into vegetables minerals and animals proves no more but what our senses perceive every day to wit that there is a perpetual change and alteration in all natural parts caused by corporeal self-motion by which rare bodies change into dense and dense into rare water into slime slime into earth earth into animals vegetables and minerals and those again into earth earth into slime slime into water and so forth But I wonder why rational men should onely rest upon water and go no further since daily experience informs them that water is changed into vapour and vapour into air for if water be resolveable into other bodies it cannot be a prime cause and consequently no principle of Nature wherefore they had better in my opinion to make Air the principle of all things 'T is true Water may produce many creatures as I said before by a composition with other or change of its own parts but yet I dare say it doth kill or destroy as many nay more then it produces witness vegetables and others which Husbandmen and Planters have best experience of and though some animals live in water as their proper Element yet to most it is destructive I mean as for their particular natures nay if men do but dwell in a moist place or near marrish grounds or have too much watery humors in their bodies they 'l sooner die then otherwise But put the case water were a principle of Natural things yet it must have motion or else it would never be able to change into so many figures and this motion must either be naturally inherent in the substance of water or it must proceed from some exterior agent if from an exterior agent then this agent must either be material or immaterial also if all motion in Nature did proceed from pressure of parts upon parts then those parts which press others must either have motion inherent in themselves or if they be moved by others we must at last proceed to something which has motion in it self and is not moved by another but moves all things and if we allow this Why may not we allow self-motion in all things for if one part of Matter has self-motion it cannot be denied of all the rest but if immaterial it must either be God himself or created supernatural spirits As for God he being immoveable and beyond all natural motion cannot actually move Matter neither is it Religious to say God is the Soul of Nature for God is no part of Nature as the soul is of the body And immaterial spirits being supernatural cannot have natural attributes or actions such as is corporeal natural motion Wherefore it remains that Matter must be naturally self-moving and consequently all parts of Nature all being material so that not onely Water Earth Fire and Air but all other natural bodies whatsoever have natural self-motion inherent in themselves by which it is evident that there can be no other principle in Nature but this self-moving Matter and that all the rest are but effects of this onely cause Some are of opinion That the three Catholick or Universal principles of Nature are Matter Motion and Rest and others with Epicure that they are Magnitude Figure and Weight but although Matter and Motion or rather self-moving Matter be the onely principle of Nature yet they are mistaken in dividing them from each other and adding rest to the number of them for Matter and Motion are but one thing and cannot make different principles aud so is figure weight and magnitude 'T is true Matter might subsist without Motion but not Motion without Matter for there is no such thing as an immaterial Motion but Motion must necessarily be of something also if there be a figure it must of necessity be a figure of something the same may be said of magnitude and weight there being no such thing as a mean between something and nothing that is between body and no body in Nature If Motion were immaterial it is beyond all humane capacity to conceive how it could be abstracted from something much more how it could be a principle to produce a natural being it might easier be believed that Matter was perishable or reduceable into nothing then that motion figure and magnitude should be separable from Matter or be immaterial as the opinion is of those who introduce a Vacuum in Nature and as for Rest I wonder how that can be a principle of any production change or alteration which it self acts nothing Others are for Atomes and insensible particles consisting of different figures and particular natures not otherwise united but by a bare apposition as they call it by which although perhaps the composed body obtains new qualities yet still the ingredients retain each their own Nature and in the destruction of the composed body those that are of one sort associate and return into Fire Water Earth c. as they were before But whatever their opinion of Atoms be first I have heretofore declared that there can be no such things as single bodies or Atomes in Nature Next if there were any such particles in composed bodies yet they are but parts or effects of Matter and not principles of Nature or Natural beings Lastly Chymists do constitute the principles of all natural bodies Salt Sulphur and Mercury But although I am not averse from believing that those ingredients may be mixt with other parts of Nature in the composition of natural figures and that especially Salt may be extracted out of many Creatures yet that it should be the constitutive principle of all other natural parts or figures seems no ways conformable to truth for salt is no more then other effects of Nature and although some extractions may convert some substances into salt figures and some into others for Art by the leave of her Mistress Nature doth oftentimes occasion an alteration of natural Creatures into artificial yet these extractions cannot inform us how those natural creatures are made and of what ingredients they consist for they do not prove that the same Creatures are composed of Salt or mixt with Salt but cause onely those substances which they extract to change into saline figures like as others do convert them into Chymical spirits all which are but Hermaphroditical effects that is between natural and artificial Just as a Mule partakes both of the nature or figure of a Horse and an Ass Nevertheless as Mules are very beneficial for use so many Chymical effects provided they be discreetly and seasonably used for Minerals are no less beneficial to the life and health of Man then Vegetables and Vegetables may be as hurtful and destructive as Minerals by an unseasonable and unskilful application besides there may be Chymical extracts made of Vegetables as well as of Minerals but these are bestused in the height or extremity of some diseases like as cordial waters in fainting fits and some Chymical spirits are as far beyond cordial waters
ingenuity and learning in the least but onely to shew by the difference of their opinions and mine that mine are not borrowed from theirs as also to make mine the more intelligible and clear and if possible to find out the truth in Natural Philosophy for which were they alive I question not but I should easily obtain their pardon 1. Vpon the Principles of Thales THales according to Historical Relation was the first that made disquisitions upon Nature and so the first Natural Philosoper His chief points in Philosophy are these 1. He says That Water is the Principle of all natural bodies 2. That Nature is full of Daemons and spiritual substances 3. That the Soul is a self-moving Nature and that it both moves it self and the body 4. That there is but one World and that finite 5. That the World is animate and God is the soul thereof diffused through every Part 6. That the World is contained in a place 7. That Bodies are divisible into infinite Concerning the First viz. That Water is the Principle of all natural things Helmont doth embrace this opinion as I have declared in my Philosophical Letters and in the foregoing part of this Book and have given withal my reasons why water cannot be a principle of natural things because it is no more but a natural effect for though humidity may be found in many parts or Creatures of Nature yet this doth not prove that water is a principle of all natural bodies no more then fire earth air or any other Creature of Nature and though most Philosophers are of opinion that Elements are simple bodies and all the rest are composed of them yet this is no ways probable to reason because they consist of the same matter as other bodies do and are all but effects of one cause or principle which is infinite Matter Next That Nature is full of Daemons or Spiritual substances is against sense and reason for what is incorporeal is no part of Nature and upon this account the soul cannot be immaterial although he makes her to be a self-moving Nature for what has a natural motion has also a natural body because Matter and Motion are but one thing neither can a Spiritual substance move a corporeal they being both of different natures As for the World That there is but one I do willingly grant it if by the World he did mean Nature but then it cannot be finite But Thales seems to contradict himself in this Theoreme when as he grants that Bodies are divisible in infinite for if there be infinite actions as infinite divisions in Nature then surely the body of Nature it self must be infinite Next he says That God is the Soul of the World which if so God being Infinite he cannot have a Finite body to animate it for a Finite Body and an Infinite Soul do never agree together but that God should be the Soul of the World no regular Reason can allow because the Soul of Nature must be corporeal as well as the Body for an incorporeal substance cannot be mixed with a corporeal Next the World as the body of Nature being dividable it would follow that God which is the Soul would be dividable also Thirdly Every part of the world would be a part of God as partaking of the same nature for every part if the Soul be diffused through all the Body would be animate Lastly Concerning Place as that the World is contained in a place my opinion is that place is nothing else but an affection of body and in no ways different or separable from it for wheresoever is body or matter there is place also so that place cannot be said to contain the world or else it would be bigger then the world it self for that which contains must needs in compass or extent exceed that which it contains 2. Some few Observations on Plato's Doctrine 1. PLato says That Life is two fold Contemplative and Active and that Contemplation is an office of the Intellect but Action an operation of the Rational soul To which I answer first That I know no other difference between Intellect and Reason but that Intellect is an effect or rather an Essential Propriety of Reason if Reason be the Principle of Nature for the Rational part is the most Intelligent part of animate Matter Next I say That Contemplation is as much an action as any other action of Nature although it be not so gross as the action of the body for it is onely an action of the mind which is more pure and subtile then either the sensitive or inanimate parts of matter are and acts within it self that is in its own substance or degree of Matter 2. He says That Sense is a passion of the Soul I answer There is as much difference between Sense and the Soul as there is between Sense and Reason or a sensitive life and a rational soul for the Rational parts of Matter are not the Sensitive nor the Sensitive the Rational a Fool may have his sense regular and his reason irregular and therefore sense and reason are not one and the same although they have an inseparable Communion in the body or substance of Nature 3. He argues thus That which moves in it self as being the principle of Motion in those things which are moved is always moved and consequently Immortal Ungenerable and Incorruptible but the Soul is so Ergo c. I answer Natural Matter being thus self-moving is the same 4. From says he is joined to Matter I answer Form and Matter are but one thing for it is impossible to separate Matter from Form or Form from Matter but what is not dividable is not composable and what cannot be separated cannot be joined 5. Qualities says he are incorporeal because they are accidents I answer If Qualities be Incorporeal they do not belong to Nature for since the Principle of Nature is Matter all that is natural must also be material or corporeal and therefore all natural qualities or accidents must of necessity be corporeal by reason quality can no more be divided from Matter then figure magnitude colour place and the like all which are but one and the same with body without any separation or abstraction 6. What Plato affirms of that which never is and never had a Beginning and of that which has a Beginning and not a Being is more then he or any body can rationally prove for what never was nor is no man can know or imagine because all what is known or imagined has its real being if not without yet within the Mind and all thoughts have not onely a being but a material being in Nature nay even the Thought of the existence of a Deity although Deity it self is Immaterial 7. I wonder so witty a Philosopher as Plato can believe that Matter in it self as it is the Principle of Nature is void of all form for he affirms himself That whatsoever hath parts hath also figure but Matter
Aristotle makes the Principles of Nature Matter Form and Privation and leaves out the chief which is Motion for were there no motion there would be no variety of figures besides Matter and Form are but one thing for wheresoever is Matter there is also form or figure but privation is a non-being and therefore cannot be a principle of natural bodies 4. There is no such thing as simple bodies in Nature for if Nature her self consists of a commixture of animate and inanimate Matter no part can be called simple as having a composition of the same parts besides no part can subsist single or by it self wherefore the distinction into simple and mixt bodies is needless for Elements are as much composed bodies as other parts of Nature neither do I understand the difference between perfect and imperfect mixt bodies for Nature may compose mix and divide parts as she pleaseth 5. The primary Qualities of the Elements as Heat and Cold Humidity and Siccity says Aristotle are the cause of Generation when heat and cold overcome the Matter I wonder he makes qualities to be no substances or bodies but accidents which is something between body and no body and yet places them above Matter and makes Generation their effect But whatsoever he calls them they are no more but effects of Nature and cannot be above their cause which is Matter neither is it probable there are but eighteen passive qualities he might have said as well there are but eighteen sorts of motions for natural effects go beyond all number as being infinite 6. Concerning the Soul Aristotle doth not believe That it moves by it self but is onely moved accidentally according to the Motion of the body but he doth not express from whence the motion of the Soul proceeds although he defines it to be that by which we live feel and understand Neither says he is there a Soul diffused through the World for there are inanimate bodies as well as animate but sense and reason perceives the contrary to wit that there is no part of Nature but is animate that is has a soul. Sense says he is not sensible of it self nor of its organ nor of any interior thing for sense cannot move it self but is a mutation in the organ caused by some sensible object But the absurdity of this opinion I have declared heretofore for it is contrary to humane Reason to believe first that sense should be sensible of an outward object and not of it self or which is all one have perception of exterior parts and not self-knowledg Next that an external object should be the cause of sense when as sense and reason are the chief principles of Nature and the cause of all natural effects Again Sense says he is in all Animals but Fancy is not for Fancy is not Sense Fancy acts in him that sleeps Sense not To which I answer first Fancy or Imagination is a voluntary action of Reason or of the rational parts of Matter and if reason be in all Animals nay in all Creatures Fancy is there also Next it is evident that Sense acts as much asleep as awake the difference I have expressed elsewhere viz. That the sensitive motions Work inwardly in sleep and outwardly awake The Intellect to Aristotle is that part of the Soul by which it knows and understands and is onely proper to man when as sense is proper to animals It is twofold Patient and Agent whereof this is Immortal Eternal not mixt with the body but separable from it and ever in action The Patient Intellect is mortal and yet void of corruptive passion not mixt with the body nor having any corporeal organs But these and many other differences of Intellects which he rehearses are more troublesome to the understanding then beneficial for the knowledg of Nature And why should we puzzle our selves with multiplicity of terms and distinctions when there 's no need of them Truly Nature's actions are easie and we may easily apprehend them without much ado If Nature be material as it cannot be proved otherwise sense and reason are material also and therefore we need not to introduce an incorporeal mind or intellect Besides if sense and reason be a constitutive principle of Nature all parts of Nature do partake of the same nor hath man a prerogative before other Creatures in that case onely the difference and variety of motions makes different figures and consequently different knowledges and perceptions and all Fancies Imaginations Judgment Memory Remembrance and the like are nothing else but the actions of reason or of the rational parts of Animate Matter so that there is no necessity to make a Patient and Agent Intellect much less to introduce incorporeal substances to confound and disturb corporeal Nature 6. Of Scepticisme and some other Sects of the Ancient THere are several sorts of Scepticks different from each other for though almost every one of the ancient Philosophers has his own opinions in Natural Philosophy and goes on his own grounds or principles yet some come nearer each other then others do and though Heraclitus Democritus Protagoras and others seem to differ from the Scepticks yet their opinions are not so far asunder but they may all be referred to the same sect Heraclitus is of opinion That contraries are in the same thing and Scepticks affirm That contraries appear in the same thing but I believe they may be partly both in the right and partly both in the wrong If their opinion be that there are or appear contraries in Nature or in the essence of Matter they are both in the wrong but if they believe that Matter has different and contrary actions they are both in the right for there are not onely real but also apparent or seeming contraries in Nature which are her irregularities to wit when the sensitive and rational parts of Matter do not move exactly to the nature of their particulars As for example Honey is sweet to those that are sound and in health but bitter to those that have the over-flowing of the Gall where it is to be observed that Honey is not changed from its natural propriety but the motions of the Gall being irregular make a false copy like as mad men who think their flesh is stone or those that apprehend a Bird for a Stone a Man for a Tree c. neither the Flesh nor Stone nor Tree are changed from their own particular natures but the motions of humane sense in the sentient are irregular and make false copies of true objects which is the reason that an object seems often to be that which really it is not However those irregularities are true corporeal motions and thus there are both real and seeming contraries in Nature but as I mentioned before they are not contrary matters but onely contrary actions Democritus says That Honey is neither bitter nor sweet by reason of its different appearance to differently affected persons but if so then he is like those that make
neutral beings which are between body and no body which is a Paradox to regular reason The Cyrenaick Sect affirms That all bodies are of an incomprehensible nature but I am not of their opinion for although the interior corporeal figurative motions are not subject to every Creatures perception yet in Nature they are not incomprehensible As for example the five senses in man are both knowing and ignorant not onely of each others perception but of the several parts of exterior objects for the Eye onely perceives the exterior figure magnitude and colour and not the Nose the Nose perceives its scent but not its colour and magnitude the Ear perceives neither its magnitude colour nor scent but onely its sound and so forth The like may be said of the infinite perceptive parts of Nature whereby they are both obscured and discovered to particulars and so may be truly known in general but not in particular by any finite Creature or part of Nature The Academicks say That some Fancies are credible others incredible and of those that are credible some are credible onely and some credible and circumcurrent As for example A Rope lying loosely in a dark room a man receives a credible fancy from it and runs away another considering it more exactly and weighing the circumstances as that it moves not that it is of such a colour and the like to him it appears a rope according to the credible and circumcurrent fancy To which I answer A mistake is an irregularity of sense and sometimes of reason too if sense be onely mistaken and not reason reason rectifies sense and if reason be onely mistaken and not sense then sense rectifies reason but when both sense and reason are mistaken the irregularity doth either last longer or changes into regularity by the information of some other circumstances and things which may rectifie sometimes the irregular motions both of sense and reason that is the sensitive and rational motions of other parts may rectifie those irregularities I could make many more Observations not onely upon the aforementioned but several others of the ancient Philosophers but my design is not to refute their opinions but as I mentioned in the beginning to shew the difference between theirs and my own and by this we may see that irregularities do not onely appear in our present age but have been also in times past nay ever since Nature has been or else there would never have been such extravagant opinions concerning the Truth of Nature But the chief which I observe is That most of the Ancient make a commixture of natural and supernatural corporeal and incorporeal beings and of animate and inanimate bodies some derive reason from fancy and some introduce neutral beings which are neither corporeal nor incorporeal but between both especially they do make general principles of particular effects and abstract Quality Motion Accidents Figure Place Magnitude c. from Matter which causes so many confusions and differences in their opinions nor can it be otherwise because of the irregularities and divisions of Natures corporeal actions and most of our Moderns do either follow altogether the opinions of the ancient Philosophers putting them onely into a new dress or patch them up with some of their own and so make a Gallimafry in Natural Philosophy AN EXPLANATION OF Some obscure and doubtful passages occurring in the Philosophical Works hitherto published BY THE AUTHORESSE AS I have made a beginning in my Philosophical Letters to clear some doubtful passages which I marked in my Philosophical Opinions so I thought it necessary to second them with these following Notes and to add not onely what was forgot in the same Book but to explain also some other passages which hitherto I observed in the mentioned Book of Letters For though I know that it is but in vain to hinder all objections yet I 'le endeavour as much as lies in me to prevent such as might be occasioned by the obscurity of my Writings No Creature can be so perfect as not to commit Errors sometimes and so may I in my Philosophical Works where the causes of natural effects are not obvious to every ones sense Wherefore if in some things which yet are but few I have altered my Conceptions from those I maintained heretofore none I hope will condemn me for it but rather account me so great a friend to Truth that instead of being wedded to my own opinions as some or most Philosophers are who think it a great disgrace to go but a hairs breadth from the least tittle of what they have once asserted though the Error be as plain as Noon-day I am most willing to desert what hitherto I have maintained upon more rational and probable arguments then mine and shall joyfully embrace whatever I am in reason convinced to come nearer to Truth But finding as yet my opinions grounded upon sense and reason I am resolved to maintain them so long till the contrary be proved and therefore left their obscurity occasion a wrong interpretation in the mind of the Reader I have as mentioned added an explanation of these following Passages Whensoever in my Philosophical Opinions I say Animate Matter and Motion or the motions of Animate Matter I do not take them to be two different things but one and the same and therefore both in my Philosophical Letters and these present Observations instead of that expression I say Corporeal figurative Motion for Self-motion and Animate Matter are one and the same thing Also when I call the Animate part of Matter the Cause of Motion I do not mean that considered in general they are two distinct things as a Cause and Effect uses to be for as I said before Self-moving Matter and Corporeal Self-motion are equivalent and signifie the same but I speak of particular motions which are particular actions of Infinite self-moving Matter which I call effects and are nothing else but infinite parts of an Infinite whole Again when I name Animate and Inanimate Matter my meaning is not that they are two distinct matters or substances as two wholes but two degrees or parts of one onely Matter whose Nature is one and the same that is to be material When I say that every part or degree of onely Matter is Infinite I do not mean the particular effects parts or figures of self-moving Matter for it is impossible that a part or particular figure can be infinite as I have often declared But I speak of the three prime degrees of Matter which are the constitutive principles of Nature and the cause of all natural effects viz. the animate sensitive and rational and the inanimate which as they are intermixt together are infinite in the body or substance of Nature that is they make but one infinite corporeal self-moving Nature and therefore I desire that my expression of the mentioned parts may be understood as of united and not as of separated parts for it is impossible almost to
Animal tell what perception a Vegetable or Mineral has We may perceive that the Air which is an Element doth pattern out sound for it is not done by reverberation as pressure and reaction by reason there will be in some places not onely two several Ecchoes of one sound but in some three or four but surely one sound cannot be in several distant places at one time Also a Looking-glass we see does pattern out the figure of an object but yet we cannot be certainly affirmed that either the Glass or the Air have the same perceptions which Animals have for although their patterns are alike yet their perceptions may be different As for example the picture of a Man may be like its original but yet who knows what perception it has for though it represents the exterior figure of an Animal yet it is not of the nature of an Animal and therefore although a man may perceive his picture yet he knows not what perception the picture has of him for we can but judg by our selves of the perceptions of our own kind that is of Animal kind and not of the perceptions of other Creatures for example I observe that the perception of my exterior senses is made by an easie way of patterning out exterior objects and so conclude of the rest of my own kind to wit that the perception of their exterior sensitive organs is made after the same manner or way nay I perceive that also some perceptions of several other sorts of Creatures are made by way of patterning as in the forementioned examples of the Air and Glass and in Infectious Diseases where several Creatures will be infected by one object which certainly is not by an immediate propagation on so many numerous parts proceeding from the object but by imitation of the perceiving parts but yet I cannot infer from thence that all perceptions in Nature are made by imitation or patterning for some may and some may not and although our rational perception being more subtil then the sensitive may perceive somewhat more and judg better of outward objects then the sensitive yet it cannot be infallibly assured that it is onely so and not otherwise for we see that some animals are produced out of Vegetables whose off-spring is not any ways like their producer which proves that not all actions of Nature are made by imitation or patterning In short our reason does observe that all perception in general whatsoever is made by corporeal figurative self-motion but it cannot perceive the particular figurative motions that make every perception and though some Learned are of opinion that all perceptions are made by pressure and reaction yet it is not probable to sense and reason for this being but one sort of action would not make such variety of perceptions in the infinite parts of Nature as we may perceive there are Whensoever I say that outward objects work or cause such or such effects in the body sentient I do not mean that the object is the onely immediate cause of the changes of those parts in the sentient body but that it is onely an external or occasional cause and that the effects in the sentient proceed from its own inherent natural motions which upon the perception of the exterior object cause such effects in the sentient as are either agreeable to the motions of the object and that by way of imitation which is called Sympathy or disagreeable which is call'd Antipathy When I say That the several senses of Animals pattern out the several proprieties of one object as for example the Tongue patterns out the taste the Nostrils the smell the Ears the noise the Eyes the exterior figure shape colour c. and do prove by this that they are different things dividable from each other and yet in other places do affirm that colour place figure quantity or magnitude c. are one and the same with body and inseparable from each other 't is no contradiction for to be dividable from such or such parts and to be dividable from Matter are several things Smell and Taste although they be material or corporeal and cannot be divided from Matter yet there is no necessity that all parts of Nature must be subject to smell or taste or that such parts must have such smells and such tastes for though Colour Place Taste Smell c. are material and cannot be without body yet may they be conceived by our sense and reason to be different and several figures parts or actions for as there is no such thing as single parts or single divisions in Nature but all compositions divisions changes and alterations are within the body of Nature and yet there is such a variety and difference of natural figures and actions that one figure is not another nor one action another so it is likewise with the mentioned proprieties or what you 'l call them which although they cannot be separated from body or matter yet they may be altered changed composed and divided with their parts several ways and be perceived as various and different actions of Nature as they are for as one body may have several different motions at one and the same time so it may also have several proprieties though not dividable from Matter for all that is in Nature is material nor can there be any such thing as Immaterial accidents qualities properties and the like yet discernable by their different actions and changeable by the self-moving power of Nature But mistake me not when I say they are several different figures parts or actions for my meaning is not as if body and they were different things separable from each other or as if Colour Place Figure Magnitude c. were several parts of matter for then it would follow that some parts could be without place some without figure some without colour c. which is impossible for could there be a single Atome yet that Atome would have Colour Place Figure Magnitude c. onely there would be no motion for want of Parts and consequently no Perception But my meaning is That the several properties of a Body as for example Tast Touch Smell Sound being perceived by the several senses of Animals to wit the Tast by the Tongue the Smell by the Nose and Colour and Figure by the Eye c. it proves that they are several corporeal actions for the Tast is not the Smell nor Smell the Sound nor Sound the Colour Nevertheless they are all proprieties of the same body and no more dividable from body then motion is from body or body from matter onely they are made according to the several compositions and divisions of parts And as for Colour Place Magnitude Figure c. as I said before could there be an Atome it would have Colour Place Figure and though parts be changed millions of ways yet they cannot lose Colour Place and Figure The truth is as there are no single finite parts in Nature so there
is of the exterior object and the sentient or else the perception of all exterior objects would be made by such an intermixture which is against sense and reason and therefore even in such a commixture where the parts of the object enter into the body of the sentient as fire doth into fuel the perception of the motions of fire in the fuel and the fuels consumption or burning is not made by the fire but by the fuels own perceptive motions imitating the motions of the fire so that fire doth not turn the fuel into ashes but the fuel doth change by its own corporeal figurative motions and the fire is onely an occasion of it The same may be said of Cold. Neither is every Creatures perception alike no more then it can be said that one particular Creature as for example Man hath but one perception for the perception of sight and smelling and so of every sence are different nay one and the same sense may have as many several perceptions as it hath objects and some sorts of peceptions in some Creatures are either stronger or weaker then in others for we may observe that in one and the same degree of heat or cold some will have quicker and some slower perceptions then others for example in the perception of touch if several men stand about a fire some will sooner be heated then others the like for Cold some will apprehend cold weather sooner then others the reason is that in their perception of Touch the sensitive motions work quicker or slower in figuring or patterning out heat or cold then in the perception of others The same may be said of other objects where some sentient bodies will be more sensible of some then of others even in one and the same kind of perception But if in all perceptions of cold cold should intermix with the bodies of animals or other Creatures like as several Ingredients then all bodies upon the perception of cold would dissolve their figures which we see they do not for although all dissolving motions are knowing and perceptive because every particular motion is a particular knowledg and perception yet not every perception requires a dissolution or change of its figure 'T is true some sorts or degrees of exterior heat and cold may occasion some bodies to dissolve their interior figures and change their particular natures but they have not power to dissolve or change all natural bodies Neither doth heat or cold change those bodies by an intermixture of their own particles with the parts of the bodies but the parts of the bodies change themselves by way of imitation like as men put themselves into a mode-fashion although oftentimes the senses will have fashions of their own without imitating any other objects for not all sorts of perceptions are made by Imitation or patterning but some are made voluntarily or by rote as for example when some do hear and see such or such things without any outward objects Wherefore it is not certain steams or agitated particles in the air nor the vapours and effluviums of exterior objects insinuating themselves into the pores of the sentient that are the cause of the Perception of Heat and Cold as some do imagine for there cannot probably be such differences in the pores of animal Creatures of one sort as for example of Men which should cause such a different perception as is found in them for although exterior heat or cold be the same yet several animals of the same sort will have several and different perceptions of one and the same degrees of exterior heat and cold as above mentioned which difference would not be if their perception was caused by a real entrance of hot and cold particles into the pores of their bodies Besides Burning-Fevers and Shaking-Agues prove that such effects can be without such exterior causes Neither can all sorts of Heat and Cold be expressed by Wind Air and Water in Weather-glasses for they being made by Art cannot give a true information of the Generation of all natural heat and cold but as there is great difference between Natural and Artificial Ice Snow Colours Light and the like so between Artificial and Natural Heat and Cold and there are so many several sorts of heat and cold that it is impossible to reduce them all to one certain cause or principle or confine them to one sort of Motions as some do believe that all sorts of Heat and Cold are made by motions tending inward and outward and others that by ascending and descending or rising and depressing motions which is no more probable then that all Colours are made by the reflexion of Light and that all White is made by reflecting the beams of light outward and all black by reflecting them inward or that a Man when he is on Horse-back or upon the top of an House or Steeple or in a deep Pit or Mine should be of another figure then of the figure and nature of man unless he were dissolved by death which is a total alteration of his figure for neither Gravity nor Levity of Air nor Almospherical Pillars nor any Weather-glasses can give us a true information of all natural heat and cold but the several figurative corporeal motions which make all things in Nature do also make several sorts of heat and cold in several sorts of Creatures But I observe experimental Philosophers do first cry up several of their artificial Instruments then make doubts of them and at last disapprove them so that there is no trust nor truth in them so much as to be relied on for it is not an age since Weather-glasses were held the onely divulgers of heat and cold or change of weather and now some do doubt they are not such infallible Informers of those truths by which it is evident that Experimental Philosophy has but a brittle inconstant and uncertain ground and these artificial Instruments as Microscopes Telescopes and the like which are now so highly applauded who knows but may within a short time have the same fate and upon a better and more rational enquiry be found deluders rather then true Informers The truth is there 's not any thing that has and doth still delude most mens understandings more then that they do not consider enough the variety of Natures actions and do not imploy their reason so much in the search of natures actions as they do their senses preferring Art and Experiments before Reason which makes them stick so close to some particular opinions and particular sorts of Motions or Parts as if there were no more Motions Parts or Creatures in Nature then what they see and find out by their Artificial Experiments Thus the variety of Nature is a stumbling-block to moft men at which they break their heads of understanding like blind men that run against several posts or walls and how should it be otherwise since Natures actions are Infinite and Mans understanding finite for they consider not so much
perceptive after their way as those that work to the act of Perception properly so called that is to the act of seeing made by patterning or imitation But it is well to be observed That although the eye has the quickest action in the Perception of seeing yet is this action most visible not onely by its motions but by the figures of the objects that are represented in the eye for if you look into anothers eye you will plainly perceive therein the picture of your own figure and had other objects but such an optick perception as Animals they would without question observe the same Some will say Those figures in the Eye are made by reflection but reflections cannot make such constant and exact patterns or imitations Others believe it proceeds from pressure and reaction but pressure and reaction being but particular actions cannot make such variety of figures Others again say That the species of the objects pass from the objects to the optick organ and make figures in the air but then the multitude of those figures in the air would make such a confusion as would hinder the species's passing through besides the species being corporeal and proceeding from the object would lessen its quantity or bulk Wherefore my opinion is that the most rare and subtilest parts in the animal sensitive organs do pattern out the figures of exterior objects and that the perception of the exterior animal senses to wit sight hearing tasting touching smelling is certainly made by no other way then by figuring and imitation Q. 12. How the bare patterning out of the Exterior figure of an object can give us an information of its Interior nature My answer is That although our sensitive Perception can go no further then the exterior shape figure and actions of an object yet the rational being a more subtil active and piercing Perception by reason it is more free then the sensitive does not rest in the knowledg of the exterior figure of an object but by its exterior actions as by several effects penetrates into its interior nature and doth probably guess and conclude what its interior figurative motions may be for although the interior and exterior actions of a composed figure be different yet the exterior may partly give a hint or information of the interior I say partly because it is impossible that one finite particular Creature should have a perfect knowledg or perception of all the interior and exterior actions of another particular Creature for example our sensitive Perception patterns out an Animal a Mineral a Vegetable c. we perceive they have the figure of flesh stone wood c. but yet we do not know what is the cause of their being such figures for the interior figurative motions of these Creatures being not subject to the perception of our exterior senses cannot exactly be known nevertheless although our exterior senses have no perception thereof yet their own parts which are concern'd in it as also their adjoining or neighbouring parts may For example a man knows he has a digestion in his body which being an interior action he cannot know by his exterior senses how it is made but those parts of the body where the digestion is performed may know it nay they must of necessity do so because they are concerned in it as being their proper imployment The same may be said of all other particular parts and actions in an Animal body which are like several workmen imployed in the building of a house for although they do all work and labour to one and the same end that is the exstruction of the house and every onemay have some inspection or perception of what his neighbour doth yet each having his peculiar task and employment has also its proper and peculiar knowledg how to perform his own work for a Joiner knows best how to finish and perfect what he has to do and so does a Mason Carpenter Tiler Glasier Stone-cutter Smith c. And thus it is with all composed figures or Creatures which proves That Perception has onely a respect to exterior parts or objects when as self-knowledg is an interior inherent inate and as it were a fixt being for it is the ground and fountain of all other particular knowledges and perceptions even as self-motion is the cause and principle of all other particular actions and although self-knowledg can be without perception yet perception cannot be without self-knowledg for it has its being from self-knowledg as an effect from its cause and as one and the same cause may produce numerous effects so from one self-knowledg proceed numerous perceptions which do vary infinitely according to the various changes of corporeal self-motion In short self-knowledg is the fundamental cause of perception but self-motion the occasional cause Just like Matter and self-motion are the causes of all natural figures for though Perception could not be without self-knowledg yet were there no self-motion there would be no variety of figures and consequently not exterior objects to be perceived Q. 13. How is it possible that several figures can be patterned out by one act of Perception for example how can a man when he sees a statue or a stone pattern out both the exterior shape of the statue the matter which the statue is made of and its colour and all this by one and the same act I answer First it is to be observed That Matter Colour Figure Magnitude c. are all but one thing and therefore they may easily be patterned out by one act of Perception at one and the same time Next I say That no sense is made by one single part but every sense consists of several parts and therefore the perception of one sense may very well pattern out several objects at once for example I see an embroidred bed my eye patterns out both the Velvet Gold Silver Silk Colour and the Workmanship nay superficially the figure of the whole Bed and all this by one act and at one the same time But it is to be observed That one object may have several proprieties which are not all subject to the perception of one sence as for example the smell of an odoriferous body and its colour are not subject to the same sense neither is the hardness or softness roughness or smoothness of its parts subject to the sense of smelling or seeing but each is perceived by such a sense as is proper for such a sort of Perception Nevertheless these different perceptions do not make them to be different bodies for even one and the same attribute or propriety of a body may be patterned out by several senses for example Magnitude or shape of body may be patterned out both by fight and touch which proves that there is a near affinity or alliance betwixt the several senses and that Touch is as it were a general sense which may imitate some other sensitive perceptions The truth is it is as easie for several senses to pattern
out the several proprieties of one body as it is for several Painters to draw the several parts of one figure as for example of a burning Candle one may draw the wax or tallow another the wick another the flame The like for the Perceptions of several senses Sight may pattern out the figure and light of a Candle Touch may pattern out its weight hardness or smoothness the Nose may pattern out its smell the Ears may pattern out its sparkling noise c. All which does evidently prove That Perception cannot be made by pressure and reaction or else a fire coal by the perception of sight would burn out the eye because it would by pressure inflame its next adjoining parts and these again the next until it came to the eye Besides it proves that all objects are material for were Light Colour Figure Heat Cold c. immaterial they would never be patterned out by corporeal motions for no Painter is able to copy out or draw an immaterial mode or motion Neither could immaterial motions make pressure nor be subject to reaction Lastly it proves That Perception is an effect of knowledg in the sentient and not in the external object or else there would be but one knowledg in all parts and not several knowledges in several parts whereof sense and reason inform us otherwise viz. that particular figures have variety of knowledges according to the difference and variety of their corporeal figurative motions But then some will say That the actions of Matter would be more infinite then the parts I answer There can be neither more nor less in infinite For infinite can be but infinite but since parts figures changes of motion and perceptions are one and the same and since division and composition are the chief actions of Nature it does necessarily follow That as the actions vary so do also their parts and particular perceptions Q. 14. How is it possible that any Perception of outward objects can be made by patterning since patterning doth follow perception for how can any one pattern out that which he has no perception of I answer Natural actions are not like Artificial for Art is but gross and dull in comparison to Nature and although I alledg the comparison of a Painter yet is it but to make my meaning more intelligible to weaker capacities for though a Painter must see or know first what he intends to draw or copy out yet the natural perception of exterior objects is not altogether after the same manner but in those perceptions which are made by patterning the action of patterning and the perception are one and the same for as self-knowledg is the ground of Perception so self-motion is the action of Perception without which no perception could be and therefore perception and self-action are one and the same But I desire that it may well be observed what I have mentioned heretofore to wit That although there is but one self-knowledg and one selfmotion in Nature yet they being material are divideable and therefore as from one infinite cause there may flow infinite effects and one infinite whole may be divided into infinite parts so from one infinite self-knowledg and self-motion there may proceed infinite particular actions and perceptions But some may perhaps ask 1. Why those particular knowledges and perceptions are not all alike as being all but effects of one cause To which I answer That if the actions or motions of Nature were all alike all parts would have the like knowledges and perceptions but the actions being different how can it be otherwise but the perceptions must be different also for since every perception is a particular self-action then as the actions of Nature vary and as parts do divide and compose so are likewise their perceptions 2. It may be objected That if the Perception of the exterior senses in animals be made by the way of patterning then when a part of the body feels pain the rational motions by patterning out the same would be pained or sick I answer This does no more follow then that the Eye patterning out the exterior figure of Water Fire Earth c. should become of the same nature for the original is one thing and the copy another the picture of a house of stone is not made of natural stone nor is the picture of a Tree a natural Tree for if it were so Painters would do more then Chymists by fire and furnace but by reason there is a very close conjunction between the rational and sensitive perceptive motions so that when the sensitive motions of the body pattern out some exterior object the rational most commonly do the same That which we call pain or sickness in the body when patterned out by the mind is called trouble or grief for as there are degrees in their purity subtilty and activity so their perceptions are also different But it is well to be observed That although some parts are ignorant of others when they work not to one and the same perception yet sometimes there is a more general knowledg of a disease pain or soreness for example a man may have an inflamation or soreness in one part of his arm or leg and all the rest of the parts of that limb may be ignorant thereof but if the inflamation soreness or pain extend throughout the whole arm or leg then all the parts of that limb are generally sensible of it 3. It may be objected That if the rational perceptive motions take patterns from the sensitive then reason can never judg of things as naturally they are but onely of their copies as they are patterned out by the sensitive motions I answer first That reason is not so necessitated as to have no other perception then what sense presents for Reason is the instructer and informer of sense as an architect or surveigher is in the extruction of a house Next I say That in the act of Perception Reason doth not onely perceive the copies of the senses but it perceives with the sense also the original for surely the rational part of Matter being intermixed with the sensitive must perceive as well the original as sense doth for it is not so involved within the sensitive that it cannot peep out as a Jack-in-a-Box but both being closely intermixed one makes perceptions as well as the other as being both perceptive and by reason the rational part makes the same perception as the sensitive doth it seemeth as if the rational did take copies from the sensitive which although it doth yet this doth not hinder it from making a perception also of the original But then some may say if the rational Part has liberty to move as it will then it may perceive without sense that is Reason may make perceptions of outward objects in the organs of the senses when the senses make none as for example the rational motions in the eye may perceive light when the sensitive do not and sound in the ear
although the interior actions of all other parts do not appear to our senses yet they may be perceived by regular reason for what sense wants reason supplies which oftener rectifies the straying and erring senses then these do reason as being more pure subtile and free from labouring on the inanimate parts of Matter then sense is as I have often declared which proves that reason is far beyond sense and this appears also in Chymistry which yet is so much for sensitive experiments for when the effects do not readily follow according to our intentions reason is fain to consider and enquire into the causes that hinder or obstruct the success of our designs And if reason be above sense then Speculative Philosophy ought to be preferred before the Experimental because there can no reason be given for any thing without it I will not say that all Arts have their first origine from Reason for what we name chance does often present to the sensitive perception such things which the rational does afterwards take into consideration but my meaning is that for the most part Reason leads and directs the ways of Art and I am of opinion that Contemplative Philosophy is the best Tutoress and gives the surest instructions to Art and amongst the rest to the Art of Chymistry which no doubt is very profitable to man many several ways and very soveraign in many desperate diseases if discreetly and moderately used but if Chymical medicines should be so commonly applied as others they would sooner kill then cure and if Paracelsus was as frequently practised as Galen it would be as bad as the Plague Wherefore Chymical Medicines are to be used as the extreme Unction in desperate cases and that with great moderation and discretion 21. Of the Universal Medicine and of Diseases IAm not of the opinion that there can be a Universal Medicine for all diseases except it be proved that all kinds of Diseases whatsoever proceed from one cause which I am sure can never be done by reason there is as much variety in the causes of diseases as in the diseases themselves You may say All diseases proceed but from irregular motions I answer These irregular motions are so numerous different and various that all the Artists in Nature are not able to rectifie them Nay they might sooner make or create a new Matter then rectifie the irregularities of Nature more then Nature herself is pleased to do for though Art may be an occasion of the changes of some parts or motions of their compositions and divisions imitations and the like like as a Painter takes a copy from an original yet it cannot alter infinite Nature for a man may build or pull down a house but yet he cannot make the materials although he may fit or prepare them for his use so Artists may dissolve and compose several parts several ways but yet they cannot make the matter of those parts and therefore although they may observe the effects yet they cannot always give a true or probable reason why they are so nor know the several particular causes which make them to be so To see the effects belongs to the perception of sense but to judg of the cause belongs onely to reason and since there is an ignorance as well as a perceptive knowledg in Nature no creature can absolutely know or have a thorow perception of all things but according as the corporeal figurative motions are so are the perceptions not onely in one composed figure but also in every part and particle of the same figure for one and the same parts may make several perceptions in several Creatures according to their several figurative motions But reason being above sense is more inspective then sense and although sense doth many times inform reason yet reason being more subtile piercing and active doth oftener inform and rectifie the senses when they are irregular nay some rational parts inform others like as one man will inform another of his own voluntary conceptions or of his exterior perceptions and some sensitive parts will inform others as one Artist another and although Experimental Phylosophy is not to be rejected yet the Speculative is much better by reason it guides directs and governs the Experimental but as knowledg and understanding is more clear where both the rational and sensitive perception do join so Experimental and Speculative Philosophy do give the surest informations when they are joined or united together But to return to the Universal Medicine although I do not believe there is any nor that all Diseases are curable yet my advice is that no applications of remedies should be neglected in any disease whatsoever because diseases cannot be so perfectly known but that they may be mistaken and so even the most experienced Physician may many times be deceived and mistake a curable disease for an incurable wherefore Trials should be made as long as life lasts Of Dropsies Cancers Kings-evils and the like diseases I believe some may be cureable especially if taken at the first beginning and that without great difficuly and in a short time but such diseases which consist in the decay of the vital parts I do verily believe them incurable as for example those Dropsies Consumptions dead Palsies c. which are caused either through the decay of the vital parts or through want of radical substance Neither do I think a natural Blindness Dumbness Deafness or Lameness curable nor natural Fools or Idiots Nay I fear the best Chymist will be puzled to cure a setled or fixt Gout or the Stone in such bodies as are apt to breed it for Stones are produced several ways and as their productions are different so are they wherefore although many do pretend to great things yet were their cures so certain they would be more frequent I will not say but many times they perform great cures but whether it be by chance or out of a fundamental knowledg I know not but since they are so seldom performed I think them rather to be casual cures In my opinion the surest way both in Diseases and Applications of Remedies is to observe the corporeal figurative motions of both which are best and surest perceived by the rational perception because the sensitive is more apt to be deluded 22. Of Outward Remedies REmedies which are applied outwardly may be very beneficial by reason the bodies of Animal Cratures are full of Pores which serve to attract nourishment or foreign matter into the body and to vent superfluities Besides the interior parts of those bodies to which outward Remedies are applied may imitate the qualities or motions of the remedies by the help of their own sensitive motions and therefore the application of outward remedies is not altogether to be rejected But yet I do not believe that they do always or in all persons work the like effects or that they are so sure and soveraign as those that are taken inwardly The truth is as Remedies properly and
ever as it is now how is it possible that it should be reduced into Atomes He says also That the Vniniverse is immovable and immutable If he mean it to be so in its Essence or Nature so that it cannot be changed from being material and that it is immovable so that it cannot be moved beyond or without it self I am of his opinion For Nature being purely and wholly material cannot be made immaterial without its total destruction and being infinite has nothing without it self to move into Otherwise Nature is not onely a self-moving body but also full of changes and varieties I mean within her self and her particulars As for his infinite Worlds I am not different from his opinion if by Worlds he mean the parts of infinite Nature but my Reason will not allow that those infinite Worlds do subsist by themselves distinguished from each other by Vacuum for it is meer non-sense to say the Universe consists of body and Vacuum that is of something and nothing for nothing cannot be a constitutive principle of any thing neither can it be measured or have corporeal dimensions for what is no body can have no bodily affections or properties God by his Omnipotency may reduce the World into nothing but this cannot be comprehended by natural reason 2. The Matter or Principle of all natural Beings Epicurus makes Atomes For say he There are Simple and Compounded bodies in the Universe the Simple bodies are the first matter out of which the Compounded bodies consist and those are Atomes that is bodies indivisible immutable and in themselves void of all mutation consisting of several infinite figures some bigger and some less Which opinion appears very Paradoxical to my reason for if Atomes be bodies I do not see how they can be indivisible by reason wheresoever is body there are also parts so that divisibility is an essential propriety or attribute of Matter or Body He counts it impossible that one finite part should be capable of infinite divisions but his Vacuum makes him believe there are single finite parts distinguished from each other by little spaces or intervals of vacuity which in truth cannot be but as soon as parts are divided from such or such parts they immediately join to other parts for division and composition as I mentioned before are done by one act and one countervails the other 'T is true there are distinctions of parts in Nature or else there would be no variety but these are not made by little intervals of vacuity but by their own figures interior as well as exterior caused by self-motion which make a difference between the infinite parts of Nature But put the case there were such Atomes out of which all things are made yet no man that has his sense and reason regular can believe they did move by chance or at least without sense and reason in the framing of the world and all natural bodies if he do but consider the wonderful order and harmony that is in Nature and all her parts Indeed I admire so witty and great a Philosopher as Epicurus should be of such an extravagant opinion as to divide composed bodies into animate and inanimate and derive them all from one Principle which are senseless and irrational Atomes for if his Atomes out of which all things consist be self-moving or have as he says some natural impulse within themselves then certainly all bodies that are composed of them must be the same He places the diversity of them onely in figure weight and magnitude but not in motion which he equally allows to all nay moreover he says that although they be of different fifiures weight and magnitude yet they do all move equally swift but if they have motion they must of necessity have also sense that is life and knowledg there being no such thing as a motion by chance in Nature because Nature is full of reason as well as of sense and wheresoevever is reason there can be no chance Chance is onely in respect to particulars caused by their ignorance for particulars being finite in themselves can have no Infinite or Universal knowledg and where there is no Universal knowledg there must of necessity be some ignorance Thus ignorance which proceeds from the division of parts causes that which we call chance but Nature being an infinite self-moving body has also infinite knowledg and therefore she knows of no chance nor is this visible World or any part of her made by chance or a casual concourse of senseless and irrational Atomes but by the All-powerful Decree and Command of God out of that pre-existent Matter that was from all Eternity which is infinite Nature for though the Scripture expresses the framing of this World yet it doth not say that Nature her self was then created but onely that this world was put into such a frame and state as it is now and who knows but there may have been many other Worlds before and of another figure then this is nay if Nature be infinite there must also be infinite Worlds for I take with Epicurus this World but for a part of the Universe and as there is self-motion in Nature so there are also perpetual changes of particulars although God himself be immovable for God acts by his All-powerful Decree or Command and not after a natural way 3. The Soul of Animals says Epicurus is corporeal and a most tenuious and subtile body made up of most subtile particles in figure smooth and round not perceptible by any sense and this subtile contexture of the soul is mixed and compounded of four several natures as of something fiery something aerial something flatuous and something that has no name by means whereof it is indued with a sensitive faculty And as for reason that is likewise compounded or little bodies but the smoothest and roundest of all and of the quickest motion Thus he discourses of the Soul which I confess surpasses my understanding for I shall never be able to conceive how senseless and irrational Atomes can produce sense and reason or a sensible and rational body such as the soul is although he affirms it to be possible 'T is true different effects may proceed from one cause or principle but there is no principle which is senseless can produce sensitive effects nor no rational effects can flow from an irrational cause neither can order method and harmony proceed from chance or confusion and I cannot conceive how Atomes moving by chance should onely make souls in animals and not in other bodies for if they move by chance and not by knowledg and consent they might by their conjunction as well chance to make souls in Vegetables and Minerals as in Animals 4. Concerning Perception and in particular the Perception of sight Epicurus affirms that it is performed by the gliding of some images of external objects into our eyes to wit that there are certain effluxions of Atomes sent out from the surfaces of bodies preserving
especially those that consist of different parts Besides the rational parts of matter being the surveighing ordering and designing parts do not suffer them in such actions to work as they please but order them all according to the Wisdom of Nature and though sometimes it may happen that they work or move irregularly yet that is not perpetual in all actions but sometimes for wheresoever is crossing and opposition there must of necessity be sometimes irregularities and disorders When in my Philosophical Letters I say That there is difference between Life and Knowledg by Life I understand Sense or the sensitive parts of matter and by Knowledg Reason or the Rational parts of Matter not as if the sensitive parts had not Knowledg as well as the rational or the rational Life as well as the sensitive but I speak comparatively in the same sense as I name the sensitive part the Life the rational the Soul and the inanimate the Body of Nature And thus much for the present There may be many more the like places in my Philosophical Works especially my Philosophical and Physical Opinions which may seem dubious and obscure but I will not trouble you now with a long Commentary or Explanation of them but if God grant me life I intend to rectifie that mentioned Book of Philosophical Opinions in the best manner I can because it contains the Ground of my Philosophy in which I hope there will be no labour lost but it will facilitate the Understanding of the Reader and render my Conceptions easie and intelligible which is the onely thing I am at and labour for THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World WRITTEN By the Thrice Noble Illustrious and Excellent PRINCESSE THE Duchess of Newcastle LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell in the Year 1666. TO THE DUCHESSE OF NEWCASTLE ON HER New Blazing World OUr Elder World with all their Skill and Arts Could but divide the World into three Parts Columbus then for Navigation fam'd Found a new World America 't is nam'd Now this new World was found it was not made Onely discovered lying in Times shade Then what are You having no Chaos found To make a World or any such least ground But your creating Fancy thought it fit To make your World of Nothing but pure Wit Your Blazing-world beyond the Stars mounts higher Enlightens all with a Coelestial Fier William Newcastle TO THE READER If you wonder that I join a work of Fancy to my serious Philosophical Contemplations think not that it is out of a disparagement to Philosophy or out of an opinion as if this noble study were but a Fiction of the Mind for though Philosophers may err in searching and enquiring after the Causes of Natural effects and many times embrace falshoods for Truths yet this doth not prove that the Ground of Philosophy is meerly Fiction but the error proceeds from the different motions of Reason which cause different Opinions in different parts and in some are more irregular then in others for Reason being dividable because material cannot move in all parts alike and since there is but one Truth in Nature all those that hit not this Truth do err some more some less for though some may come nearer the mark then others which makes their Opinions seem more probable and rational then others yet as long as they swerve from this onely Truth they are in the wrong Nevertheless all do ground their Opinions upon Reason that is upon rational probabilities at least they think they do But Fictions are an issue of mans Fancy framed in his own Mind according as he pleases without regard whether the thing he fancies be really existent without his mind or not so that Reason searches the depth of Nature and enquires after the true Causes of Natural Effects but Fancy creates of its own accord whatsoever it pleases and delights in its own work The end of Reason is Truth the end of Fancy is Fiction But mistake me not when I distinguish Fancy from Reason I mean not as if Fancy were not made by the Rational parts of Matter but by Reason I understand a rational search and enquiry into the causes of natural effects and by Fancy a voluntary creation or production of the Mind both being effects or rather actions of the rational part of Matter of which as that is a more profitable and useful study then this so it is also more laborious and difficult and requires sometimes the help of Fancy to recreate the Mind and withdraw it from its more serious Contemplations And this is the reason why I added this Piece of Fancy to my Philosophical Observations and joined them as two Worlds at the ends of their Poles both for my own sake to divert my studious thoughts which I employed in the Contemplation thereof and to delight the Reader with variety which is always pleasing But left my Fancy should stray too much I chose such a Fiction as would be agreeable to the subject I treated of in the former parts it is a'Description of a New World not such as Lucian's or the French man's World in the Moon but a World of my own Creating which I call the Blazing-World The first part whereof is Romancical the second Philosophical and the third is meerly Fancy or as I may call it Fantastical which if it add any satisfaction to you I shall account my self a Happy Creatoress if not I must be content to live a melancholly Life in my own World I cannot call it a poor World if poverty be onely want of Gold Silver and Jewels for there is more Gold in it then all the Chymists ever did and as I verily believe will ever be able to make As for the Rocks of Diamonds I wish with all my soul they might be shared amongst my noble female friends and upon that condition I would willingly quit my part and of the Gold I should onely desire so much as might suffice to repair my Noble Lord and Husband's Losses For I am not Covetous but as Ambitious as ever any of my Sex was is or can be which makes that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth or Charles the Second yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First and although I have neither power time nor occasion to conquer the world as Alexander and Caesar did yet rather then not to be Mistress of one since Fortune and the Fates would give me none I have made a World of my own for which no body I hope will blame me since it is in every ones power to do the like THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World A Merchant travelling into a forreign Country fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady but being a stranger in that Nation and beneath her both in Birth and Wealth he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire however his love growing more and more vehement upon him even to the slighting of all difficulties he resolved at last
thus declared her mind to the Ape-men and given them better Instructions then perhaps they expected not knowing that her Majesty had such great and able judgment in Natural Philosophv had several conferences with them concerning Chymical Preparations which for brevities sake I 'le forbear to rehearse Amongst the rest she asked how it came that the Imperial Race appear'd so young and yet was reported to have lived so long some of them two some three and some four hundred years and whether it was by Nature or a special Divine blessing To which they answered That there was a certain Rock in the parts of that World which contained the Golden Sands which Rock was hollow within and did produce a Gum that was a hundred years before it came to its full strength and perfection this Gum said they if it be held in a warm hand will dissolve into an Oyl the effects whereof are following It being given every day for some certain time to an old decayed man in the bigness of a little Pea will first make him spit for a week or more after this it will cause Vomits of Flegm and after that it will bring forth by vomits humors of several colours first of a pale yellow then of a deep yellow then of a green and lastly of a black colour and each of these humors have a several taste some are fresh some salt some sower some bitter and so forth neither do all these Vomits make them sick but they come out on a sudden and unawares without any pain or trouble to the patient And after it hath done all these mentioned effects and clear'd both the stomack and several other parts of the body then it works upon the brain and brings forth of the nose such kind of humors as it did out of the mouth and much after the same manner then it will purge by stool then by urine then by sweat and lastly by bleeding at the nose and the Emerodes all which effects it will perform within the space of six weeks or a little more for it does not work very strongly but gently and by degrees Lastly when it has done all this it will make the body break out into a thick scab and cause both Hair Teeth and Nails to come off which scab being arrived to its full maturity opens first along the back and comes off all in a piece like an armour and all this is done within the space of four months After this the Patient is wrapt into a sear-cloth prepared of certain Gums and Juices wherein he continues until the time of nine Months be expired from the first beginning of the cure which is the time of a Childs formation in the womb In the mean while his diet is nothing else but Eagles-eggs and Hinds-milk and after the Sear-cloth is taken away he will appear of the age of Twenty both in shape and strength The weaker sort of this Gum is soveraign in healing of wounds and curing of slight distempers But this is also to be observed that none of the Imperial race does use any other drink but Lime-water or water in which Lime-stone is immerged their meat is nothing else but Fowl of several sorts their recreations are many but chiefly Hunting This Relation amazed the Emperess very much for though in the world she came from she had heard great reports of the Philosophers-stone yet had she not heard of any that had ever found it out which made her believe that it was but a Chymera she called also to mind that there had been in the same world a man who had a little Stone which cured all kinds of Diseases outward and inward according as it was applied and that a famous Chymist had found out a certain liquor called Alkahest which by the vertue of its own fire consumed all diseases but she had never heard of a Medicine that could renew old Age and render it beautiful vigorous and strong Nor would she have so easily believed it had it been a medicine prepared by Art for she knew that Art being Natures Changeling was not able to produce such a powerful effect but being that the Gum did grow naturally she did not so much scruple at it for she knew that Natures Works are so various and wonderful that no particular Creature is able to trace her ways The Conferences of the Chymists being finished the Emperess made an Assembly of her Galenical Physicians her Herbalists and Anatomists and first she enquired of her Herbalists the particular effects of several Herbs and Drugs and whence they proceeded To which they answered that they could for the most part tell her Majesty the vertues and operations of them but the particular causes of their effects were unknown onely thus much they could say that their operations and vertues were generally caused by their proper inherent corporeal figurative motions which being infinitely various in Infinite Nature did produce infinite several effects And it is observed said they that Herbs and Drugs are as wise in their operations as Men in their words and actions nay wiser and their effects are more certain then Men in their opinions for though they cannot discourse like Men yet have they sense and reason as well as Men for the discursive faculty is but a particular effect of sense and reason in some particular Creatures to wit Men and not a principle of Nature and argues often more folly then wisdom The Emperess asked Whether they could not by a composition and commixture of other Drugs make them work other effects then they did used by themselves They answered That they could make them produce artificial effects but not alter their inherent proper and particular natures Then the Emperess commanded her Anatomists to dissect such kinds of Creatures as are called Monsters But they answered her Majesty That it would be but an unprofitable and useless work and hinder their better imployments for when we dissect dead Animals said they it is for no other end but to observe what defects or distempers they had that we may cure the like in living ones so that all our care and industry concerns onely the preservation of Mankind but we hope your Majesty will not preserve Monsters which are most commonly destroyed except it be for novelty neither will the dissection of Monsters prevent the errors of Natures irregular actions for by dissecting some we cannot prevent the production of others so that our pains and labour will be to no purpose unless to satisfie the vain curiosities of inquisitive men The Emperess replied That such dissections would be very beneficial to Experimental Philosophers If Experimental Philosophers answer'd they do spend their time in such useless inspections they waste it in vain and have nothing but their labour for their pains Lastly her Majesty had some Conferences with the Galenick Physicians about several Diseases and amongst the rest desired to know the cause and nature of Apoplexy and the spotted Plague They answered