his greatest Followers imitating his submission would submit themselves first of all For in short as they know by evident Demonstrations not only that 't is God that is the Cause of the motion in the least portion of the Matter but also that it is his Omnipotent hand which directs ordereth it throughout it would be much more easie for them than others to conceieve that the same Hand can direct the Motions of the Sun and of all the Celestial Matter about the Earth so as it should not receive the least shaking from it For the rest I think I cannot repeat too often that M. Des Cartes hath not pretended that his Hypothesis was true in all and hath even acknowledged that it was not so in certain things But once more I esteem he had reason to think that it was allowable for Men to make suppositions and that they were all receivable so they did satisfie all the Appearances and were not contrary to Religion You 'l find in some of his Letters that he took much pains when he was about to advance certain Propositions to know whether they had been condemned It is by the Motives of this discreet apprehension that he dedicated his Meditations to the Doctors of the Sorbon And in short it appears in his whole Conduct that he would not for all the knowledge and Honour of the World run the hazard of an Anathema I must tell you also that I think I know some of the best Wits which are much addicted to his Tenets and I know not one of them that would not abandon them if they had been condemned I doubt whether the same would be done by those that follow Aristotle if his Opinions should be condemned anew I say anew because you know that they have been so by the Laws and even by a Council And yet although nothing have been changed since in the Canons about it many think they may follow him notwithstanding My chief Design is not to blame Aristotle I intend only to justifie M. Des Cartes and I think I have done it sufficiently I am Reverend Father Your Humble and Obedient Servant Des FOVRNEILLIS At Paris Nov. 6. 1669. THE GENERAL SYSTEME OF THE CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY By Francois Bayle Dr. of Physick at Tholose Englished out of French LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the White Hart in Little Britain 1670. A TABLE of the HEAD' 's of this SYSTEME I. OF Metaphysicks II. Of Logick III. Of Physiology in general IV. Of the Productions in the Bowels of the Earth V. Of Meteors VI. Of Sensible Qualities VII Of Plants VIII Of Animals IX Of Man X. Of the Passions XI Of Morals and the Soveraign Good of Nature THE GENERAL SYSTEME OF THE CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY Of METAPHYSICKS HE that will have a Metaphysical certainty of the Existence of things may with reason and even ought to call in question all which the Senses represent to us because they do ordinarily deceive us But whilst he doubts of the existence of the Objects of the Senses he cannot possibly doubt that he or that part of himself we call Soul which doubteth and thinketh exists And because Thinking alone maketh the Soul know its existence she is convinced that she is a Substance whose Essence or Nature is to Think and nothing else and consequently that she thinks alwayes Whence it also follows that the Soul is more assured of her Existence than of that of any other thing and that she knows her self better than any other thing since she cannot discover any propriety of it but she must discover in her self a new one that is the faculty or propriety to know it If the Soul makes reflection upon the Idaea's or Conceptions she hath she will find one of them which represents to her a Being infinitely perfect which is God And observing that this Idaea contains by representation an Infinity of Perfections she will be constrained to acknowledge that this Idaea could not be in her if this infinitely perfect Being which she represents had not lodged it there and consequently that this Being which is God exists And because this very same Idaea contains the external Existence of this infinitely perfect Being which she represents the Soul is obliged by a new conviction to avow that Existence belongs to the Essence of God and by consequence that he exists necessarily Lastly Forasmuch as the Soul knows that there is not any necessity for her to exist to day because she did exist yesterday she is thence convinced that she needs to be conserved and because Conservation is nothing but a continual Production she must needs confess that God to whom alone belongs this Production exists and that 't is in vain here to have recourse to a progress in infinitum because the matter in question is the present Conservation the first cause of which must exist The Idaea we have of God whereby we apprehend him to be a Being soveraignly perfect although it be not complete because it comprehends not explicitly all that is intelligible of him yet it is very clear and very distinct because it clearly shews us his whole Nature just as we say that a man knows the whole Nature of a Triangle when he knows a Superficies bounded by three Lines although he do not know many of its Proprieties which perhaps will never be all known to the best Geometers Being most assured that there is a God and his Nature being such that he cannot deceive us we are certain that we shall never erre in things we know clearly and distinctly Wherefore having clear and distinct Idaea's of the Corporeal Nature or of Substance in general and also in particular of some Bodies which present themselves dayly to our mind by the Senses and knowing besides that we are not the Causes of those Idaea's since we often have them against our will we must necessarily conclude that they are excited in us by sensible Beings that are without us and actually exist in the World and that these Beings are really distinct from the Soul because that her Nature is altogether different from theirs whence it follows that she is Immortal And because the Idea's which we have of things corporeal are often different we have cause to believe that the Beings which produce them are different also And because these Idaea's are sometimes renewed after they have ceased to be for some time and that we have no reason to believe that a thing which is once should be anihilated we are obliged to hold that there are Beings which last even when they are not felt and this is the only means we have to assure our selves of the existence of the Number and Duration of Sensible Beings We are not only assured of the Existence of Bodies but also that there is one which is more properly ours than all others because it accompanies us every where and the Motions made therein excite some Thoughts in our Soul and the Thoughts of
our Soul produce reciprocally some Motions in the Body Which convinceth us of the Union there is between the Soul and the Body which consists not only in their mutual presence but in a true mode which in its nature is such that we cannot comprehend it by our Understanding nor by our Imagination but we infer it only by the Experiments of the Senses Our Errors proceed from the ill use of our Freedom in that our Will being in some manner of a vaster extent than our Understanding we do not contain that within the Bounds of this but we either judge of things we do not clearly conceive or we judge of them otherwise than we conceive them For it belongs to the Understanding alone to conceive or to represent Objects simply whereas the Judgment and all other determination is an Act of the Will The chief perfection of Man consists in the good use of his Freedom and in never judging otherwise of things than he conceives them which is so proper to every one that even those who have their Understanding less enlightened may altogether possess this perfection forasmuch as 't is alwayes in their power to suspend their Judgment that is to keep themselves from asserting or from denying a thing of which they have not clear and distinct Idaea's which is to be understood of those only that belong to the Instruction of the Mind for very often we ought not to look for evidence in things which concern the Conduct of our Life and less in those which pertain to Religion because knowing evidently that God cannot deceive us and that there are infinite things in him which are above the reach of our Spirit his Authority ought to produce in us a certainty which surpasseth that of the greatest Evidence We may distinguish three degrees in each sense In the first we are to consider nothing but the Motion which the external Objects do immediately cause in the corporeal Organ and 't is this alone we have common with Brutes The second contains all that results immediately in our Mind because it is united to the Corporeal Organ mov'd and dispos'd by those Objects Such are the Sentiments of Heat of Titillation c. And this is all we ought to refer to Sense if we will exactly distinguish it from the Vnderstanding The third comprehends all the Judgments which we have been accustom'd to make from our Infancy concerning things that are about us upon the occasion of the Impressions that are made in the Organs of our Senses and 't is in these Judgments that our principal Errors do consist so that when we say that the certainty of our Understanding is greater than that of our Senses we mean nothing else than that the judgments we form in a riper age by reason of some new Observations we have made are more certain than those we have formed from our Infancy without having reflected on them Of LOGICK IT cannot be said that the Precepts which are commonly taught in Schools are to be altogether rejected or despised since they are established upon very good Reasons nor that a great number of Questions which are treated therein and which at first sight appear odd enough are of no use For although it be not valuable to know the truths which they explain yet the difficulty there is in examining them exerciseth the Mind and renders it more able to penetrate and to clear up the Difficulties which are met with in weighty matters provided Men use this Caution that by too much applying the Mind to those things which subsist no otherwise than in an Idaea they be not taken for real Beings and such as do exist without the Understanding Thus Geometricians make themselves capable promptly to explicate the most difficult Problemes in those matters which are of use in the life of Man by exercising themselves in the most knotty and the most abstract Questions of Algebra and by making Magical Squares and other things which are of no use in themselves But to speak precisely no man of good sense that acts candidly and labours only to find out Truth either alone or jointly with others without any design of deceiving them and without any ground of fearing to be deceived himself by any Sophism needs any other Precepts of Logick but these four ensuing The first is never to receive any thing for true which is not evidently known to be such that is never to take in more into our Judgments than what presents it self so clearly and so distinctly that we cannot at all doubt thereof The second to divide each of the difficulties which we discuss into as many small parts as is possible and necessary for examining them the better The third orderly to conduct our Thoughts by beginning with the most simple and the most easily knowable Objects and so by degrees to ascend to the knowledge of the more compounded The fourth to make throughout such complete Enumerations and such universal Reviews that we be assured we omit nothing Of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY Of the Systeme of the World and the Causes of the Disposition and Order of the most considerable parts thereof THE extension into length breadth and thickness is that we call Body or First Matter and whosoever shall attentively consider the Idaea he hath of this Matter will be convinced that a Vacuum is impossible that Rarefaction is made only by the acquisition of some new Matter and Condensation by the loss of some other that the interior place of a Body is not different from that Body that the World is indefinite that 't is repugnant there be more Worlds than one although there may be many Bodies that may be inhabited as our Earth is that the Matter of the Heavens and that of things Sublunary are of the same kind Lastly that a Cubique Foot of Lead holds not more Matter than a Cubique Foot of Cork Divisibility Figure and Impenetrability are the Essential Proprieties of Matter Motion Light Colours c. are its common Accidents That which Philophers call the Quantity of a Body is not the extension of that Body precisely but its Extension as such that is forasmuch as it may be measur'd by such and such a number of Feet Fathoms or the like measure Divisibility is the most fertil of all the proprieties of Matter 't is from thence that the several Magnitudes and Figures of her parts are derived and from the different disposition of these do proceed all the different Beings which make up the World The Matter cannot be actually divided but by Local Motion and this being taken formally is nothing else but the successive application of a Body in all it hath outwardly to the several parts of the Bodies which touch it immediately Motion which is called Efficient consists in the force or power of moving which God from the beginning hath put into the parts of the Matter and which he still conserveth therein in the same quantity for which cause he is called the
which maketh some appear lighter and others heavier It cannot be doubted but that the Systeme in which we are is such as hath bin declared since of so many which Philosophers have fancied there is none but this which agrees perfectly with that delivered by Moses Besides that therein we find in a very natural and very simple motion not only the Causes of the general Phaenomena as are the Direction Station and Retrogradation of the Planets of the Motion of the Spots of the Sun of the Motion of the Planets about their Center of the Vicissitudes of Days and Nights and of the Diversity of the Seasons but also of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea of all the Proprieties observed in the Magnet and in short of all the Appearances in the particular Bodies Of all the Systemes there is none that deserveth so much to be rejected as that of Ptolomy For besides that from the Aggregate of all the parts thereof there results a Whole that is monstrous it is not able to give an accompt why Venus appears sometimes increasing and sometimes full why Mars Jupiter Saturn are alwaies in the lower part of their Epicycle at the time when they are retrograde why the Moon respects us alwayes from the same side why Saturn appears to us under different Shapes now round then oval nor give a reason of many Appearances more Of the PRODUCTIONS made in the Bowels of the Earth THE Diversity of the Pores of the Earth is the Cause that the Matter of the first Element passing through them taketh the Form of so many several Juices Salts and Oyles of which are afterwards formed all the Metals and Minerals which are found in the Bowels of the same The Magnet hath the propriety to draw Iron or Iron to draw the Magnet only from this Cause that the Pores of them are so disposed that the striate or channell'd Matter as the Philosopher calls it which comes from the Poles of the Elementary Mass and continues its way thorow the Pores which are parallel to the Axe of the Earth pasing more easily through the pores of the Loadstone and of Iron than through those of all the other Bodies drives away by this means all the Air met with between both And because this Air finds no place to pass into because all is full but into that which the one or the other of these two Bodies quitteth there is a necessity that the Iron should be thrust towards the Loadstone or the Loadstone towards the Iron The Sea furnishes Water to all Fountains those that are on the tops of Mountains are formed of Waters that are reduced into Vapours by the heat which is found in the Entrails of the Earth The subterraneous Fires differ nothing at all from those that are kindled in our Chimneys They come from this that where there are Mines of Sulphur or Bitumen there are raised Exhalations which lighting upon subterraneous Cavities fasten to the Roofs as Soot does to the inside of our Chimneys and there make a kind of Crust which hath a great disposition to take Fire and which taketh flame actually either by the attrition of its parts which their weight loosens from one another or by the fall of some great Stone which tumbling down from the top of the Vault sets it on fire as the Pestle doth Gunpowder when being very dry 't is too violently stamped Of METEORS VVInds do principally come from nothing but the dilatation of Vapours And this dilatation depends from the presence of the Sun or from the heat he hath left in the Earth or in the Waters When the Sun riseth we feel an Easterly wind when he setteth a Westerly about Noon a Northerly and about Midnight a Southerly Men seldom fail to find these four sorts of Wind every day upon the great Seas but they are not in the same order observ'd upon Land by reason of the Mountains and of the variety of Climates which hinder it Mists and Clouds are nothing else but the same Vapours that made the Winds which having lost their agitation stop in great number in certain places and thereby hinder the action of the Rays of Light Rain is nothing else but the same Vapours that made the Clouds which are converted into many little drops of Water by the action of the Air which a wind hath carried upwards after it had been considerably heated near the Earth The parts of the Clouds which meet only with cold Air to pass through after that they are loosned do come unto us in the same state and by this means do make that Substance we call Snow Hail is nothing else but some portions of a Cloud which having been melted in part do meet with a cold Air that congealeth them afresh Thunder depends from this that in the Air there are divers Stories of Clouds of which the higher fall upon the lower the Air driven out from between them being determined to produce a sound for the same reason that another Air produces one in Musical Organs Lightning proceeds ordinarily from this that the Exhalations which are between two Clouds whereof the one falls upon the other are so pressed that there is some part of those Exhalations which swims but in the sole Matter of the first Element and consequently taketh the form of Fire A Thunderbolt is nothing else but a portion of these kindled Exhalations which moveth down to the Earth where it must needs strike high Bodies rather than lower ones and produce so many different and wondrous Effects as we see according to the Nature of the Exhalations of which this Thunder-bolt is formed A Rain-bow is nothing else but many drops of Rain which receiving the Rayes of the Sun break them many different ways and which after they have thus broken them return them to our Eyes with the modifications requisite to excite in us all the sentiments of the Colours we perceive in this Meteor Of SENSIBLE QUALITIES HArd Bodies are those all whose parts are at rest one by another Liquid Bodies are such as have all their parts moving separately whence it comes that these latter have the propriety of dissolving the former And if a Liquid is unable to dissolve an Hard Body or if it have the force to dissolve one rather than another that proceeds from hence that its parts are more or less gross or agitated and from this that the configuration of the Pores of the Bodies which are to be dissolved is different All the diversities of Liquors consist in the different sizes and shapes of their parts Those that have irregular and entangling figures do compose Liquors that are called Fat and those whose figures are very well polish'd and very smooth make those we call Lean. All Liquors are kept in motion by the matter of the first and second Element which slides into their Pores and moveth alwayes of it self ever since it was first put in motion in the beginning of the World The constrained Figure
given to the Pores of Hard Bodies when we bend them is the dispositive Cause of the force they have of redressing themselves and the Matter of the second Element passing through these Pores is the Efficient Cause of the same The Suppleness of hard Bodies consisteth in the texture and connection of their parts Their Fragility in that their parts do but immediately touch without being otherwise locked in with one another The Heat of hot Bodies consists in the agitation of all their insensible parts about their own Center whence it follows that the greater this agitation is the stronger is the heat and consequently there can be nothing hotter than a Flame there being nothing more agitated as Experience confirms it All the diversities of Flames proceed from this that the parts which compose them are more or less gross and consequently more or less capable to agitate the Bodies which are the Subject of their Action The propriety of Heat is always to dissipate and never to congregate but by accident Forasmuch as it consists in Motion it must rarifie certain Bodies and condense others at the same time according as the parts of those Bodies are equal or unequal and diversly ranged and disposed Cold consists in whatsoever can make an hot Body lose that kind of Motion wherein Heat consists and because one Body cannot take from another Body the Motion it hath without losing the same it self it follows from thence that whatever Body refrigerates another must grow hot it self Odors in scenting Objects are nothing else than the insensible parts of the same which being sever'd from one another swim up and down in the Air and being taken in together with the inspired Air excite a Motion in the extremities of the Olfactory Nerves which they do so many several ways as we find several kinds of Smells Tasts in savoury Bodies consist only in the parts of the same forasmuch as they are subtil enough and sufficiently agitated to penetrate the Pores of the Tongue and to move the Nerves serving for the Organ of Tast All the diversity of Tasts depends upon the size shape and motion of the Savoury Bodies Sound is double the one from the Body resonant which is called the primitive cause of Sound and the other from the Medium which ordinarily is the Air. The Sound of this latter consists only in a simple tremulous Motion of the Air which striketh our Ear and exciteth the Organ of Hearing The Sound from the resonant Body consists in general in the force it hath to excite that trembling in the Air but in particular this force depends upon many Modes of Being which are very different as appears in Bells and strings of Instruments A sharp sound comes from thence that the trepidations of the Air do closely follow one upon another The grave that those Motions of the Air are less frequent The Consonancies and Dissonancies depend upon this that the impressions which several resonant Bodies make in the Air at the same time do meet or not meet at all Light in luminous Bodies consists in an actual Motion of all their parts and in transparent Bodies it depends upon this that the Matter of the second Element which is in their Pores and which reacheth to our Eyes is thrust forward by the parts of the luminous Body whence it follows 1. That it is not so much a Motion as an inclination to Motion 2. That it passeth in an instant to all sorts of distances 3. That it is nothing material in the Medium through which it passeth and that it doth but mark in what manner the Luminous Body acts against that which it enlightens 4. That many Lights do not confound one another 5. That Light must refract and reflect and in short have all those proprieties that are observed in it Colours in general are nothing else but Light it self modified by the Surface of the Bodies we call colour'd The White Colour particularly consists in this that the Superficies of the white Body is asperated by innumerable small Surfaces of an almost specular nature which are so placed that some looking this way and some that way they yet reflect the Rays of Light falling on them not towards one another but outwards to our Eyes The Black consists in this that the Surface of the Black Body is asperous after such a manner that it altogether deads the Rays of Light which fall upon it and keeps them from reflecting back again to the Spectators eyes All other Colours consist in this that the Superficies of the Bodies thus coloured are in such a manner unequal that the little Globes of the second Element which enter into the composition of the Rays encountring them do reflect losing a part of their direct Motion and acquiring in stead of it somewhat of a Circular Motion And 't is also in the several proportions to be met with between these two Motions that all the several Colours do consist And because these Proportions may be changed a thousand different wayes 't is no wonder we see so many different Colours The Humors which compose our Eyes are contrived by Nature to determine the Rayes that come from one and the same point of the Object to re-unite in one and the same point of the Retina whence 't is that it may be said that there is formed a true Image of the Object on the bottom of the Eye Yet this Image doth not consist in a resemblance to the Object but only in this that it is capable to give to the Soul an occasion to perceive all the several Qualities of the Objects which it relateth to which it doth by the simple Motions wherein it consists Although one only Object imprints two Images at once in the two Eyes yet we do not therefore see double because the Eyes are not the immediate Organs of Sight but the Brain alone in which the two Impressions made in the Eyes do re-unite by the intervention of the Sympaticall strings of the Optick Nerves before the Soul perceives it Of PLANTS THE form of Plants consists in the particular texture of their Fibres and in the size shape and disposition of the parts which compose them Whence do result in Plants such Channels and Tubes as are fit to receive those Juices which are proper for them and no other and the Matter of the first and second Element is determined to make those Juices to run to be variously agitated and fermented to concoct and prepare them that they may serve according to their several parts for Matter to nourish the Wood Pith and Bark and to produce Leaves Flowers and Fruits The Vicissitude of Day and Night of Winds warm and cold dry and moist contributeth much to cause the Juice which from the Root of the Plant hath passed into the Bark to be attenuated to run with more force to jelly and fix and to run afresh As the vicissitude of the Seasons of the Year maketh that this Juice runs more
Design of the Prophet and also that of the Philosopher you will confess that this difference ought not to make us say that they have receded from one another Moses hath delivered the thing as 't was done He saith that God created the Earth the Waters the Celestial Parts then the Light and the rest so that when the Sun was created the Earth was already inriched with Fruits and adorned with Flowers Whereas M. Des Cartes maketh the Sun the Cause not only of the Fruits and Flowers but also of the gathering together of many inward parts of the Earth The same also maketh the Earth to have been formed a long time after the Sun although the Scripture noteth that it was created before But here we are to take notice of 2 things The one is that M. Des Cartes hath said himself that his Hypothesis was false in this that he supposeth that the formation of each Being is made successivly assuring that this way not being so proper for God we are to believe that his Omnipotency hath put every thing in the most perfect condition it could be in from the first moment of its production The other is that M. Des Cartes was like a Philosopher to explicate only the reason why things are conserved as they are and the different effects we now admire in Nature Now as 't is certain that things are naturally conserved by the same means which hath produced them so it was necessary for to find whether the Laws which he supposeth Nature follows to conserve her self are true that he should examine whether the same Laws could have disposed it as now it is And finding that according to the History of Moses it self although the Sun was formed after the Earth it is yet by the Sun that God conserveth the Earth as now it is the heat thereof being cause of all the Productions and Changes therein M. Des Cartes was to shew that this same Sun could have put it into that state we now find it in if the great Creator had not put it there in an instant by his Omnipotent power 'T is true indeed that the manner in which M. Des Cartes describeth that the Sun hath disposed the Earth is successive which he acknowledgeth as I have already noted to be not so sutable to God in producing things But however as that which God doth in conserving the World is successive and must be so that every thing may have a certain duration it was proper for our Philosopher to examine whether the Principles which he laid down to give an accompt of the duration of all Natural Beings could have produced them by succession of time which he hath done with an exactness which seems to me incomparable And so M. Des Cartes hath therein done nothing contrary to the Design of Moses Moses knew that 't is by the Sun that God conserveth the Earth and the Natural Beings those at least which are nearest unto us but lest it should be thought that that Luminary was the cause of all he would have us know that Light which depends most of all from the Sun was made before the Sun And this was necessary to give notice of to those who were to know these Wonders that God hath wrought them all by his sole will and if he conserveth them now with a kind of mutual Dependency yet they do not owe their Being nor their Conservation to one another but to God alone M. Des Cartes on his part being to explain that correspondence which God hath put between the things of Nature and being to give an accompt by the Sun of all that is done in that part of the World which is most known to men could not better declare to us how well the Sun is fitted and disposed by the First Power to maintain the natural state of all we see than by shewing that following this same disposition the Sun could have in progress of time put our World into the condition 't is in if it had not been more proper to form all the Creatures in an Order altogether contrary to that which was required by the dependance that now is between them and to produce each Being in a way which might shew that as the Author of the World had need of nothing to make all things so he needed no time to bring forth any of the things we admire Lastly If you consider that that Wisdom which put the first Man into his most perfect state from the first moment of his Production did subject his Conservation to the same Laws from which he hath made to depend the formation of those that are born of him and that for the right knowledge of the Nature of Man it would be much more proper to examine the different Changes which happen in the Seed from the time of Conception unto the Birth of those that are generated than to examine the miraculous formation of him whom Omnipotency finish'd in beginning him you will doubtless find that for the well knowing whether what is taught of the Laws which conserve the order of Nature be true there is no better way than to consider whether those Laws could have produced the same I will not examine here whether what is commonly believed of the stability of the Earth is better explicated by the Hypothesis of M. Des Cartes than by those which have preceded him Neither shall I examine whether it be more true than others himself hath said as I have already noted that it may be false And certainly among an Infinity of ways which God may use to make one and the same thing it is difficult to assure which that is he hath taken actually But me thinks that Men have reason to be content when they have found one of them which can give an accompt of all the Phaenomena and is not contrary to what the H. Scripture and the Church propose to us M. Des Cartes hath been so shy to advance any thing not conform to what they declare to us that he hath expresly submitted to the one what he seems to have wholly taken out of the other Thus whosoever shall read his Writings with the same Spirit wherein he wrote them will not be in any danger of being deceived and will be alwayes ready to acknowledge his Errors as soon as those that are to direct his Belief shall make him understand them As for me I am perswaded that if we should condemn what M. Des Cartes hath written touching the manner in which the several Aspects of the Sun the Earth are made and that upon judging it would not be a sufficient stability for the Earth to remain always at rest in the midst of all the Celestial matter which is found between the Body of the Moon and it we should come to determine that the Circle which M. Des Cartes makes all that matter run through in 1. year about the Sun is contrary to what we ought to believe of the rest of the Earth
First Mover The parts of the Matter according as they differ in Magnitude and Figure are called the Second Causes of this same Motion forasmuch as they communicate it mutually to one another or retain it according as they have the power of it and that is done following these Rules 1. All Body which is moved and meets with another quiescent Body in its way if it propels it communicateth to the same of its own motion in proportion to its Bulk 2. When the Motion of a Body is made in a curve Line each of its parts in particular tends always to continue its Motion in a streight Line and effectually continueth it if it can separate it self srom the rest 3. All Body which is moved and communicateth nothing of its Motion to another Body which it meets must reflect that is loose its determination without loosing any thing of its Motion whence it follows THAT that Body must not rest as they speak in the point of Reflection and that the direct Motion and the Motion reflected are not contrary but only their Determinations are so 4. When an hard Body falls perpendicularly upon another hard Body which it moveth not the Reflection must be made in the same Line in which the Incidence is made And when an hard Body falleth obliquely upon another hard Body which it moveth not the Reflection must be made at equal Angles 5. When a Body passeth obliquely out of one Medium into another which it penetrateth more easily it must be diverted by approaching to the Perpendicular On the contrary it must be farther removed from the same when it penetrateth the second Medium more difficultly There is no Motion differing from the Local not even that which is called the Motion of Generation whence it follows that 't is useless to admit Substantial Forms in Beings meerly Material Being assur'd that God hath put into the Matter of which the World is composed a certain quantity of Local Motion and that he alwayes conserveth the same we are also assur'd that although God had not produced the World all at once it would have come to pass by the Rules of Motion we have laid down that in the indefinite Extension of the Matter there would have been form'd a great number of Vortexe or Whirl-pools which would have continued to move of themselves without the succours of any Intelligence and kept always the same Situation in respect to one another It is likewise evident that many parts of the Matter which composeth each Vortex of what Figure soever you suppose them must in hitting one against the other have broken their Angles until they were made near round and so formed the Matter which we call the Second Element The Matter that is come away from about the parts made round must necessarily have acquired a Motion much swifter than that of the said round ones Whereunto if you add that those parts being extreamly small their smalness must make that they can change their Figure every Moment to adapt themselves to the Figure of the places where they are to pass you have that we call the First Element The third and last Element is nothing else but the Surplus of the parts of the Matter that are insensible but yet grosser than those of the first and second Element and which having kept the entangling Figures they had in the beginning have been proper more easily to be joined many together and to compose great Bodies as the Planets than to be made round 'T is superfluous to admit other Elements than these three because there are no other Bodies in the whole Universe that are simple that is the Forms of which do not contain any Qualities that are contrary From thence that all the Matter of each Vortex turns round striveth to recede from the Center it must come to pass that the Matter of the second Element does recede farther from it than that of the first which consequently must take up the space which is at the Center of every Vortex Whence striving still to recede it thrusts from all sides the second Element and adds to its force the impression which is requisite to move the Optique Nerve the Motion of which passing afterwards into the Brain giveth the Soul occasion to produce the Sentiment of Light As to the Great Bodies that were formed of the third Element and are called Planets they were to follow the Circular Motion of the first and second and to range themselves in each Vortex the nearer to or the farther from the Center the more or less solidity they had and because the more solid are actually gone farther from it they also take up in making a Revolution so much the longer time the greater their distance is from the Center But although the Planets do without resistance follow the course of the Matter of the Heavens which carrieth them about Circularly yet we must not therefore say that they move altogether as swift whence it comes to pass that the Matter of the Heavens not being able to continue its course in the degree which its swiftness requireth by reason of the Encounter of these great Bodies it is forced to turn about them and to make a particular Vortex which maketh them wheel about their Center the same way wherein it turns it self And because all things continue in the state wherein they are and by the same means they were put into it it follows that the Vortex or Systeme wherein we are still maintains and keeps it self by the Rules above declared The Sun takes up the Center of our Vortex as every Star possesseth that of some other He turns continually about the Axe of the Ecliptick And because he is made up of the most subtile Matter it may be said that he is made up only of that of the first Element the Heavens of the second and the Earth with the Planets of that of the third Whence it follows that there can be no composed Bodies but on the surface of these last After the Sun follows Mercury which is distant from the Sun 200 Diameters of the Earth and maketh his Revolution in about 8 Moneths The Earth is distant above 600 such Diameters and maketh her conversion about the Sun in one year and about her own Center in 24 hours Mars is remote from the Sun about 900 Diameters and maketh his Revolution in 12 years Saturn is about 6000 Diameters off from the Sun and finisheth his period in 30 years The Earth carrieth about in her Vortex the Moon which maketh a Revolution in 27 days and some hours All the Matter which extends it self from the Earth unto the Moon is call'd the Elementary Matter and because this Matter contains many parts which are mov'd much swifter than others 't is consequent that all are unequally determin'd to recede from the Center of the Motion and that those which move swiftest receding from it with more force than the rest are able to beat them downwards