very well known that he that puts on a Garment or touches it leaves upon it his Scent that is Corpuscles which proceed from his Body and which constitute part of it and by the help of these Corpuscles a Dog is able to know his Masters Handkerchief Hat or Garment from ten thousand others This being supposed if the Dead Man's Garment or Gloak be put into a Press or Chest first and for some days when the Body that is Buried begins to putrifie there will be a considerable noise and disturbance in the Press or Chest enough to frighten Children and other folks too and the Corpuscles of the dead Body being attracted by those that are going away by their motion make this noise among the Cloaths And whereas this attraction is made in a streight Line and these Corpuscles cannot pass through the Bords but obliquely the Wood suffering violence makes a noise as if it were crackt Any one may trye this and know whether this Experiment made by others be true or no I see no reason to doubt of it From hence appears that invisible Bond of the Parts with the Body from whence they did proceed A third Experiment may be made which will serve to the illustrating this Subject Take a piece of Veal or any other Flesh from the Shambles and with it rub the Warts of any ones Face or Hands then afterwards fling it upon the Dunghil or Bury it and as that putrifies the Warts will fall off which denotes that the Corpuscles of Flesh returning to their whole or greater part and being violently attracted do in the same manner attract the Warts and make them go away which some Learned Men say they have Experienced We may admire in all these things the Providence of God who hath Created Atoms and out of them hath compounded the Universe wherein we find so great a number of wonderful things which are the subject of our admiration and convince our Ignorance CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals SEeing that Man dyes other Animals cannot escape Death let us see wherein it consists The Followers of Aristotle are very much puzzled in explaining the Death of a Dog for when it is destitute of all Sense and Motion it is dead without doubt yet in the mean time it hath all its parts and Organs What therefore happens to this Animal It s Soul is separated from its Body say they and the Spirit of Life is not in him they do the Beast much honour who speak thus in his Favour But what becomes of this Soul Is it corrupted or annihilated or does it subsist apart in some other place or is it taken into some other Body No by no means say they it is not it is destroyed and that 's sufficient So it is sufficient to People who don 't seek after the Truth For if this Soul be a substance as they say it is a material one it is impossible but it must go into some other thing or else be reduced into nothing It is reduced into nothing say they therefore it is annihilated therefore it is Created and made out of nothing which is Ridiculous and unbecoming a Christian Philosopher It is true this Opinion is very common in the Schools but this Errour is detected and they who are wiser than others say with us that the Spirits of Life or Corpuscles of Light being altogether dissipated or hindred in their motion do withdraw and return to their Original and Copulate with others which are in the Air so dyes a Dog without the loss of that which God made the Parts are separated the Spirits seek the Air the Body the Earth Plants dye like other Living Creatures but their Death very much differs from the Death of Animals for as much as their Organical Parts do not appear so as they do in Animals nor does a Plant dye so easily as an Animal For a Plant is not dead so soon as it is pulled out of the ground its Life continues to the extream dryness or evaporation of the Radical moisture which contains all the Spirits of Life and though the Plant be calcined or burnt to Ashes part of the Spirits will remain in those Ashes for the Lixivium that is made or the Salt that is extracted gives all the Savour of the Plant and where that Lixivium is congealed by the Cold of the Night the Figure of the burnt Plant will appear in the very Ice But what is more to be observed is that a Plant dryed in a Kilne and put into a particular Water whose Virtue is Universal receives its pristine Greenness Leaves and Flowers without doubt in this dryed Plant some Vital Spirits were shut up which are relaxed by the Spirits of this Water or the Vital Spirits exhaling give way to the Spirits of the Water we speak of to take their places This Water is endued with Vital Spirits which can fill the place of those that exhale in us and with this sole Remedy Life may be prolonged and the losses of ruined Old-Age be repaired by filling up the Vacuities of the radical moisture which is dissipated But you will say where is this Water it is to be found in Light according to our Principles and certainly no where else This Water is the true Elixir-Vitae and the Universal Medicine of the Antients and it is meet that we use it to the preservation of the most Sacred Persons Mettals have a more abstruse Life than Plants nor is their Death more conspicuous Their Life consists in a certain disposition of Parts which permits a free motion to the Atoms of Life and Light. This is the State of Mettals in their Mines and when they are melted this Liberty is lost by the intervention of the Atoms of Fire and when after melting they grow cold they may be called Dead for they are deprived of motion nor do they perform any action Gold melted when it is grown cold is dead it Lived in the Mine it is dying whilst it is melting and it is dead when cast into Ingots In vain therefore do the Chymists seek for the Living among the Dead Common Gold is dead and good for nothing but to make Money of but if any one can dissolve this Body and bring the Dead to Life again by the benefit of that resuscitative Water which we spoke of before he may prepare a Medicine profitable to humane and Mettalick Bodies It is said before that Stones want Life But this I meant that they not a Life so notorious as Mettals whose Life hitherto is yet obscure enough for I have Learnt being convinced by Experience that the greatest part of Stones are multiplied and encrease according to all their dimensions and that Sand is turned into Shells And this very thing is the Cause that I conclude Light to be the Spirit of Life that by the benefit of it all things Live the very Stones also take their Life from hence Seeds owe all their Vigour to Light and seeing that Light is woven out of thin threads of Gold all things therefore Live by the Spirit of Gold. But the Soul of Man is Spiritual and a Ray of Divine Light and owes its Life to God and his Word as also it is an Immortal Substance as we shall say in the next and last Chpater
the Sciatica Quick-Silver or a Toad hung about the Neck is a preservative against the Plague the Tooth of a Dead Man carried about you shall cure you of the Tooth-ach Oak-Moss gathered at a certain time and an Elkes hoof cure the Epilepsie There are such as preserve Children from having the Small-Pox and others which being tied to the wrist cure the Tertian and Semitertian So there are many others whose Effects are ascribed to occult causes and to the Sympathy and Antipathy of things I do not question the truth of these experiments because I am certain as to the greatest part of them having tryed them Without doubt there are many others which I do not know of and which nevertheless others might have seen but this I know that the aforementioned Effect is not infallible and when it happens it is done by the emission of certain Spirits or Atoms proceeding from those Remedies and penetrating the Pores of Mans Body and giving strength to the Animal Spirits to resist internal Poysons or resisting the external Poysons and fixing and hindring them from hurting those who carry the Amulets I shall say nothing of Medals which are called Talisman importing good Luck to those by whom they are carried about them nor of white Magnets which procure the kindness of all People and the favour of a Mistriss I give little credit to such things neither can I easily believe all things which are said of them and if Stars ought to have place here rather than Demons all is done by the means of Atoms Now I come to that which I am better acquainted with and of which I can speak with more certainty I mean of Experiments concerning Quick-silver and Gold it is certain that if any Man hath Quick-Silver in his Body or any where about him that the Gold-Ring which he hath upon his Finger or which he holds in his Mouth will turn white because the Quick-Silver sticks to the Gold and if this Gold-Ring be thrown into the Fire the Quick-Silver flyes and evaporates and if the same Ring be again put upon the Finger or held in the Mouth it will still grow white every time as long as any Quick-Silver remains in the Body This Phoenomenon is commonly ascribed to a Sympathy which is betwixt Quick-Silver and Gold as if the Quick-Silver should hastily go to the Gold and embrace it or that the Gold did draw the Quick-Silver to it but Gold enclosed in smooth Glass does not turn white no more doth it then when Quick-Silver is enclosed hermetically in a Glass there is no Sympathy to call it forth thence no more than out of a Box or Bladder wherein it is kept we ought not therefore to say that it was the Sympathy of these two Mettals which was the only cause by which the one adheres to the other for though we should grant that there is a Sympathy that is an agreeableness proportion and likeness between these two substances not in their imaginary qualities but in the figure of their Atoms nevertheless it must be confessed that the attraction of Quick-Silver to Gold is by an emission of their Spirits and Corpuscles near after the same manner as we observed of the Load-Stone and Iron There is no less a connexion betwixt Silver which the Chymists call the Moon and Copper which they call Venus than there is betwixt Mercury that is in their Dialect Quicksilver and the Sun that is Gold. If one Ounce of Silver be disolved in three Ounces of Aquafortis made of Nitre and Vitriol the Silver is reduced to Water neither is it ever after seen and if we would recover the Silver after such a dissolution you must take leaves of Copper and put them into an Earthen Vessel and pour upon them one pint of common Water then to this Water put the liquor in which the Silver was dissolved and it will turn it as white as Milk and in the space of two or three hours the Silver will leave the Aqua-fortis and joyn it self to the Copper in the form of Curd or white Moss when the water is clear throw it all out the silver sticking to the Copper is dryed and reduced to a mealy Powder and this is called Calx Lunae or Silver Calcined As to this we must take notice that if in stead of Copper you put in leaves or pieces of Gold Silver Lead or Tin the Experiment will not answer expectation neither will Silver stick to them as well as to Gold whence we must necessarily conclude that there is a certain Sympathy or peculiar connexion between Silver and Copper as there is betwixt Gold and Quick-silver so that we grant that if the transmutation of Mettals be not impossible no Mettal can be sooner changed into another than Copper into Silver and Mercury into Gold The difficulty is in knowing the true cause of a Connexion or Affinity which is so remarkable It is commonly said to be done by that sympathy or agreeableness which is between these two Mettals But in saying that we say nothing for we must enquire farther into the cause and foundation of this Sympathy so that we are forced to search for another Cause of this Effect and to say that Silver is not joined to Copper but by the means of a certain local motion of the Particles of the Silver which are dispersed in this great quantity of water and are congregated to joyn and unite themselves to the Copper there is no other cause of this local motion besides the Spirits and scent of the Copper which are dispersed thorow the water and there meeting with particles of the Silver which are wandring separated and dispersed are fixed to them by reason of the conformity of their Pores when the Corpuscles of the Silver are loosed and set at liberty in the water they leave it and descend being forced downwards by the concurring Particles of the Water and leaving no vacuity wherein the Particles of the Silver may be contained they find the Atoms of the Copper emitting themselves like the Odors of Aromatique Bodies and mutually entangle one another like littlè hooks they go directly towards the Copper and falls upon it as it lies in the bottom of the Vessel this Explication doth imply the Doctrine of Atoms and their figures weight and motions as it shall appear in following Chapters after we have discoursed of Antipathy CHAP. X. Of Natural Phaenomena which are attributed to Antipathy THere are observed to be many Effects for which no Reason can be given without the help of this feigned Antipathy I 'le instance to you some few which I shall endeavour to explain In the first place occurs the sight of the Basilisk who kills all whom he sees which they say is by Antipathy which is betwixt it and other Animals But it may be said rather that it is done by the emission of certain venomous Spirits which penetrate the Eyes of those which were seen by the Basilisk The nature of this poison
little Grains which are called Manna From this same Matter Sugar is made in the Madera-Islands and in both the Indies where it is found inclosed in Reeds Lastly after the same manner Pearls are formed and nourished in Shells He that studies to know the wonders of Dew and the vertue of the Spirits it contains may extract from thence admirable secrets for health but for nothing else that I know of CHAP. XIII Of Winds Tempests and Whirl-winds WInds are the same thing in the Air as Billows are in the Sea or as Floods are upon Land. And indeed they do sometimes disturb and move the Air so violently that the best rooted Trees and strongest built Houses are now and then pulled up by the Roots and overturned by them And yet Winds are nothing but Air agitated nor Tempests but Air floods or violent Agitations of the Air. Some Philosophers seek for the Causes of these Agitations of Air in the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies and to illustrate this Effect they bring an Experiment of Air rarified and going out with great force out of a large glass Bottle and of Air condensed in another Phial or Glass in which the least opening being made the external Air breaks in with great Force and Noise of both which Experiments I with others have been an Eye-witness We took therefore a great round Bottle and placed it in a cold place and then covering it with a double Skin made wet it was placed to a gentle Fire which by degrees being thorowly hot and the Skin prickt with a Needle the Air or Wind broke out from thence with so much violence that it blew out a Candle two Paces distant from it more than once The same Tryal was made with another Bottle in which Pease were put and the Hole shut with the Thumb which afterwards being taken away the Air immediately with the Pease burst out with so much Violence that they like Pistol Bullets entred into a Deal-board A second Eperiment was likewise made a Bottle was placed in a hot place and well stopped with Leather which being brought into a cold place and the Skin pierced through the external Air for half a quarter of an hours time rushed into the Bottle with so much noise and hissing that it seemed to indanger the breaking of it I confess these Experiments have left us an Idea of Winds and their vehemency but there always remains this one difficulty to wit what should be the Principle of this rarefaction and condensation of the Air for in the first Experiment refrigerated Air is shut up in the Glass Bottle and dilated with heat and then it goes violently out of the little hole that is made but how can Cold condense and Heat rarifie and dilate this Air Lastly what is it that presses it and forceth it with violence to seek its Exit And as to the second Experiment in which rarified Air is condensed in the Bottle how being rarified can part of the Glass remain empty And lastly from what Cause is the external Air forced to break in with so much precipitation All these things I mention that it may be seen that these difficulties do not escape me As to the first instance I say that Cold condenses Air in as much as it makes the vacuities dispersed through it lesser and more closely shut together so that there is â—uch more of matter in refrigerated Air than in the same made Hot But that this Doctrine may be rightly apprehended we must know in What Heat and Cold consists for when Cold condenses the Air and presses it together it performs it by its close solid heavy and plain particles as shall be treated of elsewhere Secondly Heat rarifies Air by an introduction of its Corpuscles which are almost destitute of all solidity by which the vacuities of the Air are increased and enlarged Thirdly the Air rushes forcibly out of the Bottle because their Corpuscles are compelled to dilate themselves which they cannot do nay from hence they break the Glass Bottle unless a hole be made in the skin It is true also that the Air going out of the hot Bottle is altogether Cold for they are the Corpuscles of Cold which go out and the noise with which they break out proceeds from the plain figures of the Corpuscles of Cold which cannot pass through the litle round holes without being entangled together and dashing one against another besides these Corpuscles being plain they are subtile also like little Razers thus in the Winter time we see the hands and feet of such as are tender hurt with Chops and Cliffs To the second Experiment I say that the Air in the Bottle being rarified by the help of Heat is afterwards compressed and condensed by the help of Cold passing through the substance of the Glass and breaking of it if it be not looked after Secondly the cold entring in drives out or into the sides the particles of Heat and the Glass on the part of its Orifice remains without Air and the disseminated Vacuities are gathered together into one Vacuum Thirdly the external Air enters with precipitation because it is pressed against its Nature by this great Cold and finding a place where to betake it self it possesseth it immediately We must here observe that rarefaction is never made on the one side but condensation is made on the other and so on the contrary and this is the first or immediate Cause of Winds when the Air is rarified by heat in subterraneous places and Caverns of the Earth and breaks out with violence or when it being condensed other supervenes with violence rushing towards it Another Cause of Winds or rather of Tempests and Storms by Sea and Land are the emancipated Atoms of which we have spoke already and which by justling one another more agitate the Air from divers parts diversly opposite from whence comes the reciprocal meeting and incursion of winds in the Region of the air which when they happen near the Earth they cause fearful and dangerous Whirl-winds This Opinion concerning the emancipation of Atoms supposes that in the dissolution of greater Bodies the lesser Particles and Atoms are emancipated and procure themselves liberty so that enjoying their own power they run through the Air and easily and vehemently move it These emancipated Atoms in the great World are not only very much to be feared where they use greatest violence but also in the little World where they produce most Diseases as are Horrors Fits of Feavers and their duplications Translations to the Brain Diliriums or Light-headedness and Phrensies To Cure which Sudorifick Medicines opening the Pores and driving out those sharp-pointed Atoms are chiefly to be commended CHAP. XIV Of Thunder Lightning and the Thunder-Bolt THunder Lightning and the Thunder-Bolt would be more stupendious were it not that there is something on Earth from whence we learn the manner how these things are done above us The first thing which gives us light concerning these three
doubts but every cause is a principle and that all niceties concerning this matter are altogether useless Philosophers do commonly reckon all Causes to be but Five in number they give the first place to that which they call the Efficient Cause which is that Agent which produces the things that are in Nature and gives them their essence and existences In the next place they rank the Material Cause being that subject which receives the impression of the efficient and operating cause The third is called the Formal Cause which gives a being to every thing as the most Noble and principal part of it The fourth is called the Exemplary Cause according to whose rule the efficient produces its action when it operates by Knowledge The fifth and last is the Final Cause which is the end for whose sake the efficient produces its effect In this first Part we shall speak of all things which concern these several Causes not omitting any thing which shall be thought necessary to the knowledge of them CHAP. I. Of the Efficient Cause and of its Essence and Differences THere is such a relation and connection between the Cause and the Effect that we cannot have a true notion of the cause unless at the same time we have a conception of the effect so in general we say that a cause is nothing else but that which gives being to another thing which is the effect of it which way soever it happens according to the Five Causes before mentioned All Philosophers do agree That of all Causes the Efficient is the most Noble because properly speaking this alone hath Effect though it be produced after several ways as we shall shew hereafter If the Efficient Cause acts by a power proper to it self then it is called the Principal cause but if onely by the force and impression of another then it is termed the Instrumental cause So we distinguish betwixt the Painter and the Pencil though both contribute to the production of the Picture Also the Universal Cause which produces many effects as the Sun the Stars and the Elements is distinguished from a Particular Cause which is determinate to one effect in particular Of this kind there are many sublunary causes acting in this inferior World. There is also a difference between the Total Cause which produces its effect without the help of another and That Cause which cannot act alone but only produces part of the effect There are also necessary and free causes the first acts necessarily and without choice as Fire the Sun and all created causes except Men and Angels for they act by a Free Will wherein consists the essence of Liberty The Efficient Cause is likewise either Physical or Moral the Physical acts really and immediately as Fire consuming a House with its Flame and he that sets fire to it for that purpose is the next moral cause and he who advises it is a moral but a remote cause of the consequential burning But if the Fire happens by chance and by the imprudence of one that carries a Candle in his hand and some sparks fall into the thatch which takes fire whereby the House is burnt here this Man is only an accidental cause of the Burning Lastly it is rightly distinguished between the First Cause which is Author of Nature and Nature created under which are comprehended all second causes and such are all Creatures As to the Efficient Cause whereof we speak it may be observed that when it acts by Knowledge all the said causes after their respective manner do concurr to the production of one and the same effect As the Painter drawing his Picture is the principal cause the Pencil the instrumental the End proposed by the Painter is the final cause and the Idea directing is the exemplary cause the form and disposition of the parts of the Piece that is painted may be taken for the form of it the Colours and the Cloath whereupon they are laid may be reckoned the material cause because they are the constituent matter of the Work. But if a Limner in his anger throws his Pencil as it is reported to have hapned to him who had in vain endeavoured to represent to the life a high mettled Horse Foaming at his Mouth or if a Limner undesignedly and by chance touches the Picture which thereby as it befell the former in his anger is made better the representation more agreeable the lines stronger or more piercing this would be only an effect of an accidental cause There are some things to be observed in an efficient cause when it acts which are inseparable from it such as these the nature of the Agent the existence of the cause the power which makes it act the intervening act the effect which is produced the subject whereby into which and wherein it is produced as we shall see in what follows CHAP. II. Of the first Cause THE existence of the first Cause or first Princple is so evident and so necessary that it is like Truth known by it self and ought not to be supposed liable to any difficulty especially amongst Christians who are illuminated by the Light of Divine Revelation And since a Man that submits himself to Faith hath not thereby renounced the light of Reason it will not be amiss to confirm this truth with natural reasons lest any doubt should remain in Spirits less tractable Which the better to effect I suppose a Truth so well known that no Man can deny unless he hath a mind to be thought ridiculous and infatuated This Truth so obvious that it ought to pass for a Principle whereupon as a sure foundation the existence of the first cause ought to be built is grounded upon our own proper existence there is nothing so evident nothing so certain than That we are in the World this truth is confirmed by the testimony of all our senses whatsoever we think whatsoever we say and whatsoever we do will not suffer us to imagine that our existence is an illusion Therefore it is certain and more than evident that we are in the World but that we are in it from our selves or by our selves or by casualty or chance or by the necessity of being is absolutely impossible so that it is necessary that we are in the World by the means and assistance of a certain other Being who as the Author was also the free Principle of that essence which we possess This Principle is necessarily either a first or second cause if the first then you shall see that we are agreed and that the true existence of the first cause which some would deny is rightly built upon the truth of our Being which no Man can deny if we make the cause of our being to be a second cause then it must be confessed that this second cause is produced by a third and the third by a fourth and so in going upwards as they do in the Genealogies of ancient and Noble Progenies at last we find the
head of the Family that is the first cause who by his great Atchievements purchased to himself the Quality and Title of Nobility and left those Titles to his Illustrious Family It is likewise true that there is no Family so Illustrious or so Ancient but the Genealogy of it terminates in one private person who gave it both its Name and Original and which was the first Cause of its Nobility no certainly unless we erect a ridiculous and an infinite Genealogie or like the Egyptians who imagined themselves to be older than the Moon will say that its Origine is as unknown as the Head of Nilus In the same manner after we have by way of ascent to our Fathers and Ancestors examined what kind of Author we had of our being whom we may call the first cause of all things which are in us we do necessarily find a certain Being which was before all things and which is the effect of no other causes and which is the Cause of all things which are in the World and consequentially the first who is that God whom we adore This demonstration doth abundantly convince any Person who hath in him the least spark of the light of reason It is ridiculous to say that we our selves were the cause of our Being because from thence it would follow that we did exist before we had a being that we gave our selves that which we were not in posession of and that the cause and the effect was one and the same thing which is impossible It is no less an errour to affirm That we are in the World by Necessity for if we were so in the World our existence would never have had a beginning and we would have been immutable and independent and infinite in every kind of perfection which is repugnant to experience and right Reason That perswasion of Epicurus and his Followers is no less ridiculous That the first Authors of our existence were produced by Chance or by a fortuitous occurrence of Attoms This opinion of it self falls to the ground Let it be supposed that the World was produced by this fortuitous occurrence of Atoms yet still the question will be Whether these Atoms were Created or Uncreated If created they acknowledge a Cause of their existence and this cause must own another and so ad infinitum which cannot be maintained for then the World would be eternal and thence to this present time there would have been an infinite number of rational Souls in the World Aristotle who supposed the eternity of the World and the immortality of the Soul yet did deny the Transmigration of Souls and would allow nothing in Nature to be actually infinite whereby he makes himself guilty of an absurd contradiction The same Aristotle stumbles upon another Contradiction in Relation to the First Cause for if the World be Eternal and without a beginning this Second Cause is of no use for the same Reason which proves the World to have a beginning proves likewise the existence of the first cause on the other hand the same reason which proves the existence of the first cause does at the same time prove that the World once had a beginning and doth demonstrate that it was not Eternal In the same manner Epicurus is guilty of an absurd contradiction when he says that Atoms which according to his opinion he makes to be the causes of all things were produced and created by another But if he says these Atoms were Uncreated and that they were Eternal Beings necessary and independent then every Atom must be some Divinity and that they are both the efficient and material cause of all things which is impossible because the opposition and relation which is necessarily betwixt a principle acting and the subject whereupon it acts do imply a necessary distinction CHAP. III. The Perfections of the first Cause THey who are throughly satisfied with the existence of the first cause must of necessity attribute to it all the Perfections which are or can be in the World that it is not only the most perfect and most noble of causes but also it ought to be supposed that all the effects which it hath produced or is yet capable of producing are in its Being in all perfections and that every one of them is infinite and as it is the first cause in the unity of its Being for it is necessary it should have the perfections of those beings which it hath or can produce for otherwise it would or could communicate that which it neither hath nor can have The first cause would not be absolutely perfect if it were not eternal for so it would have had a beginning and might have an end and then it could not be the first cause in so much that it derives its existence from that which was pre-existent to it and by consequence this cause which we suppose to be first would be a second cause limited in its being and perfections as in its duration and it would seem to have a dependence upon another Whereas when we suppose it to be the first all others must depend upon it and be subordinate to it whence it follows that these qualities of the first cause are inseparable from it Independence Eternity Infinity and Supreme Authority and that we cannot conceive any first cause but at the same time we acknowledge the existence of God. This first Cause or to say better this first Being which is God must necessarily have that perfect Unity which admits no multiplication either of Nature or Perfections Certainly if God was not one in his being but had several Natures the number of them ought to be infinite and that none of these Beings in particular would be infinite because when the perfection of one cannot be the perfection of another there will not be one to be found but will stand in need of the perfection of the other that is in whom there would not be requisite that perfection which the other Beings do possess I add moreover That all these supposed Beings would be opposite independent and all Supreme which is impossible or that all would be subject to one or other of them which is ridiculous whence it follows that there is but one only God who is one in his existence incapable of any multiplication and who is the Primary and Universal Cause of all things The great number or rather the infinity of perfections which we apprehend to be in the First Cause is not repugnant to the Supreme Unity because that does not divide the being and they are but one and the same thing though we give them several Names and do consider them under several Ideas which we are forced to correct since without that Unity there would be necessarily a composition of parts which would be the cause of the whole Compound and which would precede its existence which cannot be the ingredient of that composition without something else intervening they might also be divided and separated
Tyrants as persecuted the Church and thereby procured Glory to Martyrs and as those who were the death of our Lord Jesus Christ obtained us Life destroyed the Synagogue built the Church they fulfilled the Prophecies and laid the foundation of the Gospel In the fourth and last place That is an accidental cause which produces a particular effect not foreseen and according to the course of Nature unavoidable if it hath respect to an intelligent cause and the effect be agreeable to wish the Heathens did point at this by the name of Fortune and according to their way of speaking we say such a thing is the effect of Fortune as when a Man is digging up the Foundation of a house and by chance finds a Treasure but if the effect be otherwise than prosperous then it is misfortune or the chance of Fortune As when a Tile falls from the top of a House upon a Mans Head that is passing by and Kills him here the Tile is the Physical and accidental cause of this Mans death which was inevitable according to the course of second causes having either their free or necessary motions These accidental causes gave the Heathens occasion to frame to themselves a Blind Goddess which they called Fortune to whom they did attribute an unconstant an uncertain and a various disposition of good and evil to this Man 's good to that Man's prejudice Of all errors this is not the least neither was it entertained by any but the ignorant and the meaner sort of People The wiser sort in that age did aim at a cause of all the effects which happen in the World that was less feigned and more solid this they would have to be Fate and that what without any reason was ordained by this universal and chief cause was inevitable so when any great misfortune happened as the loss of a Battel the defeat of an Army the change of State the subversion of a Common Wealth or the sudden death of some Illustrious Person all this was ascribed to Fate and they did commonly say Sic erat in Fatis this was the inevitable will of Fate so the Fates would have it And when any person undertook any great Enterprise as it was said of Aeneas being in search of the Golden Fleece if the Fates call thee that is if the Fates favour thee thou shalt attain thy end The great Wits of our Age are almost of the same Opinion concerning all the various successes of Prosperity and Adversity and all things which come to pass in this Life as if humane Prudence had been of no use and Divine Providence without any care had been idle But that we may speak like a Christian Philosopher supposing the existence of the First Cause and having demonstrated that it hath all the perfections of the Chief Cause since Wisdom and Power are the two inseparable perfections of the Supream Being and indeed so necessary for the conservation and government of humane affairs we ought to conclude that nothing happens in this World which is not decreed foreseen directed and perfected by the wisdom and strong hand of some Supream Cause which so exactly directs all things that they come to pass according to the end that was proposed in the production of them and indeed all those things by means unknown to humane Wisdom yet notwithstanding in respect of God who is the first cause they are certain and infallible who established the infallibility of effects in such manner that causes in their motion should be neither forced nor too violent There is nothing but what God soresees nothing but what is absolutely inevitable and free causes act always freely in actions which ought to be free CHAP. VI. Of Sympathy and Antipathy and the effects depending upon them THe wonderful effects which we see in Nature whose true and natural causes are not easily found out obliges Philosophers to have recourse to Occult Causes and to attribute all these effects to natural Sympathy and Antipathy which happens amongst the several Bodies whereof the World is compounded but if you press these Philosophers to tell you and to explain wherein this Sympathy and Antipathy doth consist they will give you no other reason but onely tell you they are done by certain occult and unknown causes to which they ascribe all those effects whose true causes they do not at all know But they would do much better plainly to confess their ignorance and say they know nothing of the matter That we may the better understand what may be said upon a subject so nice and delicate and give a reason of those wonderful effects which are attributed to Simpathy and Antipathy without the help of occult causes in the first place I suppose that the difficulty which occurs in explaining an Effect of this nature doth arise from this That the Mind is not able to know the truth of things but by the Senses which are the gates through which the Objects enter and form their Ideas in our understanding but because there are abundance of things which escape our senses it is no wonder that it is so hard to give a reason of things which are so remote from the reach of our senses as for example Iron moves it self and that by way of local motion and joins it self to the Load-stone we do not see that which draws the Iron to it though we see it attracted but we know not by what ways or means it is done but if we explicate this and such like Effects by saying they are wrought by Sympathy obscure and occult causes we deceive our selves for that is only a shelter and the true way of hiding our ignorance which we are loath to discover for there is no man in nature so blockish but after this manner can resolve all the Phoenomena in the Universe If it be asked why the Needle turns always to the North Pole is it enough to say that there is a Sympathy betwixt this Needle which is touched with the Load-stone and the Pole and that the cause of this Sympathy is obscure unsearchable and past finding out But if this be the way of Philosophising I refer it to those who are competent Judges of the matter Therefore that we may give a more ingenuous and solid Reason in the second place I suppose that there are no Bodies but that continually emit certain subtile particles and imperceptible corpuscles which are dispersed through the air and are at sometimes carried at a great distance unless they justle with other Bodies in their way By the help of this principle we find the reason why a Dog follows the foot-steps of a Hare or from a heap of a thousand stones he readily knows that stone which his Master threw and picks it out and by his command brings it to him From this dispersion of corpuscles we find the reason how the contagion of the Plague either from the person infected or from the wind blowing from that Region is carried a
Pole repels it because the Spirit of the North Pole enters in at the Pores of the Iron but the Southern cannot for it strikes against the Iron and drives back too much its Elastick Particles This Explication presupposes the Being of Spirits and Atoms and their Figures and Motions and as also small occult vacuities which are dispersed through all Bodies as we shall shew hereafter CHAP. VIII An Explication of many other Effects which we endeavour to attribute to Sympathy I Do not design in this place to shew all the Effects which do proceed from Sympathy and to give the reason of every one of them in particular I conceive such a Labour besides that it is very difficult is moreover useless for an Explication of one will serve to explain the rest therefore instead of all it will be sufficient to Explain some few of them That which first presents it self to our consideration is the Sympathetick Powder the Sympathetick Wood and the Sympathetick Ointment an Amulet and the Medalls which are of the same Nature which they call Talisman Sir Kenelm Digby Reports that the Sympathetick Powder will cure a wound when the person wounded is distant a hundred nay two hundred Miles so that the Cloath be dressed to which the Matter or Blood sticks which proceeded from the wound but principally there must be care taken that the wound be kept clean and that the Cloath be kept in a temperate place for if it be thrown into a place which is too warm it will cause an inflammation in the wound no solid reason can be given of this Phaenomenon so wonderful in it self but that it is by a continual entercourse of the Spirits proceeding from the Bodies which by continual motion are coming and going and keeping a tye or bond betwixt the Bodies and though our Senses are too gross to perceive them it doth not therefore follow that there are not such things as it appears by the example of the Spider descending or ascending and drawing after him an invisible Thread which proceeds from his Body so that he being in one end of the Chamber remains firm and fixed to the other end by the same thread by which he bears himself up and is moved from one part to the other I confess it is hard to conceive that there should be a Thread of Communication betwixt the Wound and the Blood which issued from it But that is neither impossible nor incomprehensible though the Phenomenon is not plainly infallible because this Thread being broke or interrupted the wound cannot be cured unless we take again fresh Blood and excite it by the means of this Powder whose Spirits do drive those which are in the Blood and mixing themselves by the strength of the Powder do carry and communicate its vertue to the wound and that at a considerable distance but not indifferently not at the distance of a hundred Miles as it is conmonly believed it is certain if that were done by Sympathy the Effect would be the same at any distance neither would it ever deceive us I cannot produce any more sensible or just reason to explain the Vertues and Effects of the Sympathetick Powder which depend much upon the due preparation of it they do not extend themselves so far nor are they so infallible as some would have for the reasons by us alledged The same thing may be said of the Sympathetick Wood which stops Blood if a little of the Blood which runs out of the would be put upon this Wood where so soon as that Blood is dryed the Flux of the other Blood is stanched and this they say is done by Sympathy but the true reason proceeds from the invisible adherence whereby both these Bloods are so subtilly connected together by the astringent Vertue of this Wood and by this Thread of Friendship composed out of Atoms variously twisted together communicates it to the Blood which flows in great quantity whereupon this Flux if it be not too vehement is stopped If this Effect did arise from Sympathy it would never deceive us because nothing can oppose Sympathy but it is not infallible as experience shews us Of all the Effects which hold us in suspence that which we call the Divining-Rod is not the least for it is very strange to see a Rod which is held fast in the Hand visibly to incline and bend it self towards that place where there is any Water or Mettal and more or less as the Water or Mettal is nearer to the Superficies of the Earth or is more remote from it and more deep in the ground and that which is most stupendious is that this Rod which does it shews no motion but in the hands of those who have obtained a particular vertue to this purpose which distinguishes them from others though it cannot be said who gave them this power nor why this Rod hath this motion in the hands of one Man and not in anothers Concerning this Subject the cause of this motion is to be considered which cannot be attributed to Sympathy for Sympathy is a necessary Cause and then this motion would be always and in the hands of every body which yet we see is not done Therefore the most natural Cause is to be enquired into which I deduce from these Mineral or Aquatick Spirits issuing from those places wherein the Mettals or Waters are which meeting with the Rod whose Pores are fitted for them to lay hold on attracts it by a Perpendicular motion which is natural to them and bends it as it were with a Silken Thread or a Golden Chain The difficulty is about the hand which holds the Rod for every hand is not qualified for this purpose nor is every Tree fit for it unless it be Hazel or some other of the same quality with it As to the Hand it is certain that the Hands as well as the Men do differ and that the Spirits proceeding from them are different and so it ought not to be looked upon as such a wonder that there should be Spirits which retain the Rod and hinders this motion and that they should proceed from the hand of one and not from the hand of another and that every sort of Wood is not fitted to receive the hold of all Atoms Of portative remedies which are called Amulets I say nothing but what experience taught me concerning them and of the manner how Quick-Silver sticks to Gold and Silver to Copper which forces me to write a particular Chapter concerning them CHAP. IX Experiments concerning Portative Remedies of Quick-Silver Gold Silver and Copper THere are certain Remedies by Physitians called Amulets which give ease to Humane Bodies in many Distempers as long as the Person carries them about him as experience teaches us of a Spider shut up in a Nut-shell and hung about the Neck is good to cure all Diseases of the Lungs the true Nephritick Stone being carried about one cures the Stone a little Bone of the Thigh heals
mixture of the humours doth not proceed but from things constituting and preserving this just temperament and by the same it is conserved As there are many things which destroy Health so there are also a great number of those things which restore and confirm it The things which destroy it are those which rarifie the humours and occasion winds which dissolve bodies and do emancipate Atoms Those which restore it are such things or such remedies which hinder the division rarefaction and dissolution of the Humours and Parts of our body or since it happens that necessarily there is a corruption in every digestion and a division of the aliment chyle and the blood as we observed before from the same Principle it necessarily follows that every thing that preserves Health hinders the alteration of it and also restores it being lost which drives out of the body these Winds these Corpuscles or these injurious Atoms And that also which removes these Seeds or internal Principles of our Diseases out of our Bodies doth not produce that Effect by a certain Vertue or Physical quality or by a certain Antipathy as it is said of Rubarb and Senna but by motion and action which is made upon these rarified bodies these loosed Corpuseles or emancipated Atoms proceeding from every digestion in the bodies of those which are most healthful This Motion is performed either by Purgatives or Emeticks or by Sudorificks the two former of these are fitted to eject those which arise from the first and second digestion and Sudorificks do expel Corpuscles or Atoms of the third digestion but here is no room to shew the differences of these Remedies however we must trace out the manner of those Operations I said a while that Medicaments do operate only by a vellication of Membranes Nerves and Fibres and which is produced by sharp Corpuscles flowing from the Medicines and sticking to the aforementioned parts whose motion is communicated to the subtle Foreign bodies that is the Excrements of every particular digestion whereby these matters are driven forth the nearest and most commodious way for evacuation I 'le make an end of this Chapter with an Example of a familiar Remedy by Means whereof every man may preserve his Health without either bleeding or Purging nevertheless I do allow that bleeding sometimes is necessary and very useful to evacuate those emancipated Atoms or Corpuscles which are loosed in the veins from the digestion in the Liver especially when they being shut up and cannot find their way out they stick to the Pleura Membrane and prick and vellicate it and thereon produce an inflammation known by the name of Pleurisie Therefore in this Distemper as also in continual Fevers Bleeding and Sudorificks are by no means to be omitted The same thing may be said of using Purgative Remedies or Emeticks to evacuate earthy Excrements as flegme and slimy humours arising from the first digestion and also Serosities or Choller and Melancholly being the Excrements of the second Concoction but because the defects of the first Concoction are not mended or repaired in the second and the first is more perfect as the Ventricle is more pure and more clean and cleared of that viscous Flegm which disturbs its action and hinders digestion Without either envy or prejudice I do here produce a vulgar Remedie as most useful to preserve or restore Health if it be rightly used as it should be as I have found it by experience besides that it manifests the Truth of my Principles which supposes every evacuation to be made by motion and vellication of the sharp Corpuscles or penetrating Atoms Therefore I take every morning a Goose Feather fit and slender as it is in its own Nature I put this gently into my mouth and I thrust it further to my jaws and hold it there for some time and I draw backwards and forwards and I perceive a vellication made by the Feather on my Jaw Palate and the other Parts adjoyning and likewise after this vellication I do observe that Water Phlegm and viscous humours being dissolved do flow in great quantity for the space of a quarter of an hour And all this is done without any violence or danger hereby I find that the Head is lightsome and the Stomach freed and disburthened and that thereby the Appetite is increased and that the Corpuscles which before ascended to the Brain by way of Vapours are evacuated incarcerated or involved in the viscuous humours which are flowing and afterward the first digestion is better made and it is evidenced by experience that as the ventricle is less burdned so our Sleep is longer sweeter and less interrupted Were it not that I fear to exceed those bounds which I proposed to my self I could make many useful Observations upon this Subject But I must remember that I do not speak of Medicine Remedies Health and Diseases but by chance and occasionally and it is sufficient if I oblige the Publick and the Learned with the Doctrine of Atoms and that I be helpful to Them as well as to the Sick by the means of those Remedies which I discover and which I freely propose And though I offer many things which were neither said taught nor writ before nevertheless I beg the Readers pardon for that I add no more to this matter for I am afraid if I should to be tedious to him and if I have enlarged my self too far I hope he will forgive me it were hard to say less of these things except a man would say nothing at all of them besides that it is grateful to every man to speak and write of those things which he loves and are agreeable with his Profession CHAP. XVII Of Formal Exemplary and Material Causes FOrm and Formal Cause is one and the same thing and when we say there are two sorts of Forms that is only according to our manner of conceiving things So we say there are two sorts of Formal Causes the Substantial and Accidental But all these Forms are imaginary neither do true Philosophers acknowledge any other Substance to be in Natural Compounds than Matter except only in man nor any other Form than the disposition of the Parts because all these Forms are altogether useless Moreover these great Sticklers for Forms cannot say what they would mean by a Substantial or Accidental Form Therefore we do with a great deal of Justice lay aside these fictitious Forms as being but Chimeras and of no use The Exemplary Cause may be referred to the formal because it is the Idea and inward form of that which we frame in our Spirit so the formal Cause of a Picture is the disposition of its parts according to the disposition and ordination which it then had in the Spirit of the Painter The same may be said of all rational Agents which are endued with understanding There is no difference be twixt Matter and a Material Cause and there are two sorts of material Causes as well as of matter
it may be concluded that there are as many parts in the Millet Seed as there are in the whole Terrestrial Globe Also according to this Opinion we must grant that a Body cannot be divided into as many parts as really it may and that neither the hither or further end of a staff can be found nor that there is a Circle or perfect Piramid nor that the parts of a Body can be immediately divided All which consequences as they are absolutely necessary so they are all equally absurd Descartes did endeavour to free himself from this difficulty by saying that the number of the parts of the Millet-Seed was neither finite nor infinite but only that they were indefinite But the evasion is ridiculous and these two Philosophers are forced to confess that every part of the Millet-seed hath its extension and if their Number be either infinite or indefinite then their extensions also will be either infinite or indefinite at the least which is absurd to affirm I add no more to avoid Scholastic Intricacies and distinctions CHAP. XX. The Properties Magnitude Figure Weight and Motion of Atoms AN Atom is a corporeal Being simple invisible and indivisible Solidity constitutes its Essence or essential property which distinguishes it from Spirits and Vacuity which have no power of resisting Atoms do necessarily avoid all our Senses because these are composed of many distinct and gross parts whose Object ought to be composed e're it can be perceived by the external Organ which nevertheless doth not destroy the truth and reality of Atoms because small Corpuscles do escape our Senses as we observe in Dust which sticks to our Cloaths and also in the Corpuscles of a Ring which is wasted and diminished by time and use in the Corpuscles of a Stone which is made hollow by the drops of Water which fall upon it in divers occult parts in a Mite which cannot be seen without the help of a Microscope and lastly in small Corpuscles which are seen to move in a Chamber by the help of the Sun-beams that we may omit many others which are smaller which without doubt we could see if our sight was sharper as I shall mention in my Animadversions about Experiments of Miscroscopes Though Atoms are most subtle and inperceptible yet they have their particular extension magnitude and figure from whence their differences do arise for the figure of some of them is round as the Atoms of Water Oyl and Quick-Silver others have cubicular figures such are the Atoms of Sea-Water and others are Pyramidal as those whereof Nitre doth consist there are some which have sharp points like needles ' as Fire whence we are to suppose that there are others variously figured This difference is necessary to distinguish Compounds And as these Atoms as to their solidity or invisibility and indivisibility which are their inseparable Properties are alike so also if they did not differ in their figure and thickness all bodies would be of the same likeness Weight is the Principle of the said Natural Motion insomuch as it doth resist a violent motion That I mention here that we may know whether motion of Atoms hath an internal or an external Principle or whether Weight be determined only to one Motion or that it be indifferently inclined to many And whether the motion of Atoms do tend to some Center And whether it be continuant or interrupted And lastly whether it be perpendicular or horizontal Parallel or declined right or parabolical or circular In order to resolve well this difficulty I suppose that Atoms may be considered in a double State The First State of them is before the Composition of the bodies which are made of them which may be called the State of Liberty The other is that which they have in the bodies which do consist of them which may be termed the State of obligation or servitude If Attoms be considered in their First State their motion is perpetual So that an Atom that is loose and freed from any composition is essentially in motion which ought not in the least to be wondred at for Motion in respect of a free Atom is the same that Understanding is in respect of an Angelâ— which is never without knowing unless his Intellect is bound and clouded From this Principle it is evident That Atoms are in continual motion unless they are hindred or that there is some obstruction in the way or that there are other Atoms resisting and repelling of them or that they find such as will stick unto them or that they insinuate themselves into the Atoms of certain bodies or or that they enter into some composition whereby their motion is stopped Nevertheless Atoms in Compounds are not altogether void of motion because they are not so straitly imbodied together but that they have some motion like Vibrations and Palpitations according to the liberty which is granted them by the disseminated Vacuities nay some of them sometimes do attempt their escape especially in porous bodies which therefore are sooner corrupted and perish than other Bodies which are more solid and more close It is yet more evident in living bodies out of which the animal Spirits which are but the bodies of Atoms and most subtile Corpuscles are dissipated by transpiration whence aliments are necessarily requisite for to supply the Spirits of the whole body which are dissipated by motion and agitation This motion of Atoms or the least Corpuscles in living bodies may be deservedly accounted the Image of their first liberty and tho' they do but seldom enjoy their full liberty yet they are apt to raise the greatest commotions in order to be freed and to gain their liberty this is the origine of many distempers as in Acute Fevers the Atoms or Corpuscles of the boiling blood or obstructed choller are carried and driven into the Brain where they produce watchfulness Deliriums and Phrensies According to this Principle that which we said before may be concluded That many Distempers do arise from minute Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms For These being driven forwards by other Atoms and forced back do run into the membranes Periostiam Meninges or intestines and cause Pains which they call the Collick Headach Gouts and Rheumatisms So that this solution of Corpuscles and emancipation of Atoms in our Bodies are much to be feared and to prevent this danger all motions of the body which are too violent must be avoided for these are the external cause of the confusion of the Spirits and the emancipation of the Atoms The emancipation of Atoms and also of the small Corpuscles which are composed of those Atoms are to be feared no less in the great than little World for the Winds are nothing else but emancipated Atoms which by their impetuosity being driven backwards and forwards do force all bodies which they meet with in their way It is these Atoms which agitate the Air and the Sea and cause Earth-quakes and also over-turn all things which resist their motion
we have the fire of thefix'd Stars encompassing the Sun every where on all sides and keeping this same Gold in cohtinual fusion as if it were under a great Winters Glove bored through every where with little holes as we find in essaying Gold. I do not say with Epicurus that the fixed Stars are really little holes and apertures by which the empyrial Heaven which is altogether Fiery transmits its Ardors but I affirm that these are either little empty holes or else filled with so many Diamonds or Chrystals through which the heat of the Coelestial Flames pass through or else that they are as it were so many Carbuncles or burning Coals This is sufficient to convince them of great ignorance who have affirmed these Coelestial Fires to flow from the solar Globe and to be borrowed thence whereas on the contrary they are Coelestial Fires and Flames which passing through this great Globe of the Heavens causes the Gold in the Cupel in the middle of the Universe to be boyled and wheeled round by an equidistant and equally distributed heat I confess as to what belongs to the third difficulty it is very subtle and supposes a very fair Experiment For in the course of all my curious Labours I have wondred how Gold after it had a long while smoaked in the Cupel and circulated to expel in smoak all Forreign Bodies mixt with it does at last stand still and remains suddenly fix'd in the bottom and is so condensed that it cannot be melted again by the strongest fire or made to circulate unless Lead be added to it either with or without some other Mettal for by the addition of these Bodies it is at the same time melted and by the same degree of Fire and begins a new to boyl to be librated and to be turned round as before and it will continue so as long as the Lead or other foreign Matter is in it From whence we may conclude that so long as the Sun like melted Gold is wheeled round its Centre mixt and infected with foreign Corpuscles which it receives on every si de as being placed in the Centre of the World and of the Planets which like imperfect Mettals furnish it with Corpuscles which are exhaled and are emancipated and being mixed with it cause it to wheel round and supply it with matter for motion and so long as he returns them back in the form of smoak like a Vortex excepting only those which are digested and turned into Gold which he reserves within himself and does farther digest and circulate and when they are sufficiently subtilised and purged although involved with grosser fumes does send them forth which meeting with the Vortex of the Earth penetrates into the pores of it and are changed into Gold Silver or some other Mettal according to their greater or lesser purity and according to the various disposition of the Matrixes or Beds wherein they lodge So long I say we may conclude that from these fumes which are sent towards the Sun from imperfect Bodies are made a liquid and Mercurial Water out of which in the Bowels of the Earth Gold and other mettals are made The experience which we acquire by essaying Gold although after a rude manner in comparison of it with this great Natural Cupel shews us this this truth before our eyes for I have with pleasure tryed that the fumes arising from the common Cupels being collected in an Alembick are condensed into a clear viscous pulverulent or gritty and consequently mettalline Water whose value the curious may be able to know I represent therefore to my self Gold wheeled round in this great Cupel which is the Sun it self placed in the middle of the World and which emitting subtile fumes receives other more gross which it so long and so often circulates that they being in the bosome of the Earth the matrix of seed and only habitable Planet purified and collected do there make Gold Silver or other mettals So the Sun is the Father of Mettals and especially of Gold its Legitimate Off-Spring whereas the others are only Bastards and being defiled in the Matrix or Womb they cannot attain to the Dignity of Gold unless they are free'd from their original impurity He then that can tell how to purifie and consecrate these solar influences which are the fumes of this admirable Cupel hath found out a great secret in Nature extreamly profitable both for Health and Wealth Let me tell you an Experiment which I did not see but heard related by the late Monseigneur Bezancon a Gentleman well known in Paris who professed himself an eye-witness of it He said that when he was Governour of Provence he sav'd a Man's Life that was unjustly Condemned to dye who in a grateful acknowledgement of it shewed him a thing wonderful This Man said he took a Vessel in which put three simple things and buried them in the Earth in a place exposed to the Sun-Beams which are the most subtile fumes and having taken a Concave Parabolick or Burning-Glass which he placed opposite to the place wherein the Vessel was put the Sun Beams being collected and concentred descended into the Vessel in troops in which at length was found a very clear yellowish and gritty Water which being boyled in a Bolt-head was brought into a Powder and afterwards being put into a Crusible with Borax turned into Gold This was performed three several times From this Experiment we must gather whether or no the Sun Beams do supply Water and Flames serving to the production of Gold which as I have said is the legitimate Son of the Sun and is in the Earth the Image of its Father But to make an end of this digression I conclude that the Sun will so long persevere in its Cupel in continual motion and Circum-rotation till these Planets shall deny it Vapours for then it would receive no foreign Matter but would be throughly purged and so would be wheeled round no more but would remain Fixed The World it self with its motion and circulation would be at an end as well as all Generations which proceed from this continual circulation by which the seminal and Luminous Spirits are dispersed every where throughout the World. I add another reflection concerning the Sun's motion like the motion of Gold in the Cupel to wit that whilst the fire of the superiour Stars do without intermission heat the Body of the Sun foreign Corpuscles through its Pores enter into it nor is it ever at quiet till they go out again for as much as the Figures of these Foreign Bodies can by no mean be accommodated to the figures of the Corpuscles of Gold for they drive one another backwards and forwards and from hence arises the Equilibrium and agitation of the Atoms of Gold which is in motion and seeing that they cannot have a perpendicular motion unless they forsake the rest they are compelled to turn round like a Horse in a Mill which goes on and thinks he
goes streight forwards whenas he continually treads the same steps in the same Circle But to do this there must be a propulsion on every side for Gold would not be turned round in the Cupel if Fire were only applyed to it from beneath and not from above and quite round it which ought to be well taken notice of We will say then that the Sun cannot be moved about its own Centre that is the Centre of the World unless at the same time it moves the ambient Bodies by the assistance of the Corpuscles coming out of its Globe like so many streams of Light just as we see Rivers of Water flowing out of the Sea and yet the Sea is never the less for this Effusion no more than the Sun is lessened by a continual effusion of his Light because it receives in as much as it pours out and these Waters return back to the Sea as these Corpuscles of Light do to the Sun by a continual Circulation CHAP. X. Of the Moon and its Changes THe Moon is like an Optick Looking-Glass in which Light and the Corpuscles flowing from the Sun are concentred and gathered together from whence for divers respects and changes they are sent towards the Earth One of the Antients affirmed the Moon to be a Planet very near and familiar to the Earth it is moved about the Sun because it is in the solar Vortex by which it is carried round and in it three kinds of Motions are observed viz its Annual Monthly and Diurnal from these divers motions divers Aspects in respect of the Sun and it do arise from whence are its various yet constant appearances It s Figure is round but its Mass is partly solid partly fluid like Earth and Water its roundness appears at Full and New-Moons without this roundness we could never see its increase or decrease It s solidity is the Cause why the Light of the Sun is from thence reflected to us even as by reason of its fluidity we observe in it obscure parts like Spots because they do not reflect the Sun so much as the solid parts do but if in the Body of the Moon there are some parts higher than others in the shape of Mountains or Hills the Sun Beams do there produce small shadows which are observed by the help of Perspective Glasses That it cannot be half so big as the Earth is proved by Optick Principles Shades and Paralaxes in respect of it self it is always in the full because one half of it is continually illustrated by the Sun But it does not always appear full to us but only at the time of its Opposition and Recession from the Sun and then also in respect of us it may be Eclipsed because our Earth at that time is directly placed between it and the Sun and by its shadow makes the Moon more or less obscure as it is nearer or farther off and as it is more or less opposite to it These two opposite points in which when the Moon suffers an Eclipse those great Lights are found Astrologers call the Dragons Head and Tail. But as the Earth by its interposition is the Cause of the Moon 's Eclipse so also by the interposition of the Moon betwixt the Sun and the Earth is produced an Eclipse of the Sun which is either greater or less according as the Moon is more or less posited between us and the Sun or is nearer or farther from us Lunar Eclipses can happen naturally only in the time of Full Moon but these of the Sun in the time of New Moon An Eclipse of the Moon may be Total and Universal But that of the Sun can never without a Miracle be so at the same time but this is not a real defect of light in the Body of the Sun as it is in the Moon which is a dark Body and possesses only a borrowed Light. We may hear what Astronomical Philosophers and Astronomers say of it I told you before that the Sun is like melted Gold I told you likewise by the way that the Moon might be compared to melted Silver but I think it may be truly said that its Matter as to its Circumference is more like to real Silver but be it as it is it continues in the manner we see it suspended in one massie lump a most subtile Aetherial matter full of many empty spaces being by the Creator shut up in its Circumference which hinders the Moon chiefly from changing its place and from being immerged more deeply in the Sun 's Vortex whose Atoms are indeed more thick and gross By reason of its vacuities there is no fear that it should descend nearer the Sun or be able to resist the impression of its Vortex any more than the Earth which has plenty of Pores Cavities and empty Spaces without which it would too much resist the solar Vortex and would be able to get nearer its Centre that is the Sun. But its empty Cavities hinder that like Air contained in a Bladder which hinders it from sinking to the bottom and as the hollowness of the Quils of Birds bear them up in the Air. The Moon in her daily motion finishes her Course round the Earth in the space of twenty four hours or rather the Earth performs its daily motion about the Sun and its own proper Centre in twenty four hours time the Moon being carried away by the same Solar Vortex with the Earth is daily retarded some degrees whereupon we say it rises every day later and later until by this resistance or retrocession in twenty nine or thirty days it hath compleated its Monthly motion And besides this Retrocession it is moved by the Libration of the Sun from one Tropick to another and twice in every Month runs through the Equinoctial Line after the same manner as the Earth does it twice every Year There can be no Annual motion of the Moon unless about its own proper Centre But I will wander no further about a matter meerly Astrological CHAP. XI Of the Planets Comets and Fixed Stars SATURN Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury are Five wandring Stars called Planets of the same Nature with the Sun but less pure whose Corpuscles are sent and driven towards the Body of the Sun they are likened to divers melted Mettals and sparkling in Chrystalline or Adamantine Crâ—â—bles and the Fire melting them is that of the Sun and the Fixed Stars If it be asked why they are not joyned with the Sun I answer that they consist of a Matter full of many empty Spaces and besides that they daily disburthen themselves upon the Body of the Sun and supply it with matter for depuration and resining which the Sun sends back to them more subtilised and they distill down these seminal and Mettalline Spirits upon the Earth They are diversely whirled about by the solar Vortex after which manner they obtain divers motions as Astronomers teach us Who affirm the Planets Mars and Venus to be less than the Earth
and it is certain that the Twenty four Letters serve to the composition of all Syllables Words Sayings Discourses nay of all the Books which are Composed in the World. And even as words Sayings Syllables Discourses and Books themselves are changed the Letters being still the same unvaried so also the greater and lesser compound Bodies are changed and corrupted the Atoms being unchanged and remaining the same nothing new happens to them unless it be that they are no more the parts of one compound but may be of a second third and others successively to the end of the World. When all Generations Corruptions and Motions in things of Nature shall cease Letters are the true Image of Atoms in respect of the compositon or division of Things And as the substance essence and quality of Words depend upon Syllables and Syllables upon Letters and their disposition So after the same manner the substance essence and quality of Bodies arises from Corpuscles or smaller Bodies and the diversity of These from Atoms and their various dispositions From these principles may be taken away a question no less agitated than unprofitable in the Schools viz. whether in the corruption of Bodies a reduction or resolution of the compound may be made even unto the very first Matter To this it may be answered that this reduction is continually made in respect of some emancipated Atoms but not in respect of all Atoms for the division is not always so general as that all the Atoms should be entirely separated and the small number of those which flye away is scarce able to be taken notice of besides that they almost all mutually adhere together or it is seldom but they meet with others to which they remain affixed or with Bodies into which they enter or on which they are stayed CHAP. IV. Of the special Qualities depending upon the Composition of Bodies OUR Doctrine rests upon two general Principles that is to say the Doctrine of Atoms and of a Vacuum Atoms are the first Elements of Bodies because forsooth in their universal and radical division and solution they are reduced into them and the division can proceed no farther And a Vacuum is necessary to the explaining the motion of Bodies and to the giving a reason of the diverse and particular qualities of every one compound Body For there are Bodies thin and thick transparent and diaphanous as Air and Glass thick and dark as the Earth and lastly dry and moist hard and soft solid and fluid We will begin with thickness and thinness the Parents of so great difficulties to the Followers of Cartesius and Aristotle and I determine one Body to be more thin than another when it is endowed either with greater Vacuities or with a greater number of them so Air is thinner than Water and on the other hand Water is thicker than Air because Air has more and greater Vacuities than Water and this is thicker than Air because this has fewer and lesser They that reject a Vacuum and set up a Plenitude find themselves very much intricated when they are compelled to say wherein the thinness and thickness of Bodies consist for if they say that either of them is a quality or accidental form brought out of Matter in power or out of the power of Matter they conceive not what they say nor can they assign the Nature of these imaginary forms But if with Cartesius they say that there is much more of the Materia Subtilis or subtile Matter in thin Bodies than there is in thick and condensed Bodies I would ask them why this Matter is more subtile and delicate than all other Matter for as much as all Matter is equally gross and solid But then they will say that this Matter is highly rarified Yet nevertheless the same difficulty remains still viz how it comes to be more rarified They will say that it arises from this that its parts are not so much compressed therefore they will be at a greater distance from one another For that Cause there are Vacuities and Intervals For unless they be granted the parts are alike compressed in That as well as in condensed Matter If they are alike compressed than they are not more remote from one another and lastly if they be not more remote from one another they are no more rarified and so this subtile Matter will be no less gross than any other We therefore explain the thickness and thinness of Bodies in a more easie Method than these Philosophers and the reason which we give of them is more clear and more Natural than theirs It is the same thing concerning clear bright and dark Bodies and we say a Body is more or less pellucid or transparent as it possesses a greater or lesser number of Vacuities or as they are placed in a right or oblique Line so Air for Example is pellucid at a certain distance by reason of the great number of its great Vacuities and Glass is transparent by reason of the Vacuities dispersed through it which are placed in a right Line and are very long as they are observed to be by the help of a new Microscope The moisture and dryness of Bodies arises from a Mixtion of Atoms or Particles either of Air or Water predominating For if the Aqueous Particles predominate the Composition is moist if on the contrary the Earth is more eminent it will be dry and it may be justly said that moisture is nothing else but moist Bodies which are Air and Water as they insinuate themselves into Compounds which are therefore moist by reason of their presence and dry when they are evaporated After the same manner as it happens to Wood which hath a long time lain in the Water and becomes dry by the evaporation of that Water which it was full of A Linnen cloth dipped in Water and taken out from thence is more heavy because its pores are filled with Water and it remains moist and equally heavy until the Corpuscles of Water are exhaled and evaporated which suffices to make it afterwards dry and light without the addition of two Physical Accidents distinct from Matter Water therefore to speak properly is not moist but the moisture it self that moistens all things From the same Fountain the hardness and softness of Bodies arises for a Body is soft when it yields to the hand that touches and the less it resists the softer it is but if it hath no sensible resistance it is fluid like Air but if it hath a little more than that then it is Liquid as Water in which if with your hand you thrust a Stick it enters and goes even to the bottom It is otherwise in a soft Body as Wax and Flesh into which indeed one may thrust ones Finger but it finds some kind of resistance and there are always found some compressed Particles that strongly resist All which arises from the disposition of the little Bodies Atoms and dispersed Vacuities for an Atom being in its own
Water clear sweet pure and not at all Corrosive fetch'd from the beams of the Sun and Moon in which Gold is reduced into a clear and heavy Water and is as easily melted as Ice in warm water and then lastly Gold cannot be said to be reduced to its first state that is body unless this Water be turned into Earth and this Earth be made fusile fixt tinging and fit to elevate inferiour things making poor people rich and to make that perfect which was not actually so although it was potentially I say this division is hardly radical because it doth not proceed from a separation of its Atoms For Gold is only brought into Water and that is sufficient for to bring it into Atoms were to destroy it and it would be to no purpose and this I think exceeds the power of all Natural Agents For God only is capable of reducing Gold into its first Elements and to cause it to be no longer Gold either Natural or Philosophical CHAP. IX Of Silver Copper and other imperfect Mettals SIlver is a Mettal much less perfect than Gold because its Atoms are endued with Figures scarcely so perfect for there are mixt with it particles reflected from the Body of the Moon nor is that Mettal so heavy as Gold by reason of Vacuities dispersed through it which are both greater and more numerous in it than in Gold for which reason Aqua-fortis dissolves it without hurting the Gold. It is true indeed that Aqua-Regis dissolves Gold without touching Silver but that ariseth from the different disposition of Vacuities in these two Mettals and because the Vacuities of Silver are too vast for the subtile Spirit of Aqua-Regis which passeth through them without division and from the magnitude of these Vacuities in Silver arises a greater sound from Silver than is given from Gold. For the same Cause a greater and clearer sound arises from Copper than from Silver by reason to wit of its greater Vacuities into which not a few Bodies of Air penetrate which by their motion produce this sound And for the same reason That is also lighter than Silver for as much as Metallick Bodies are not so strictly bound together by reason of strange Corpuscles of impure Sulphur mixed with them hence it is that Copper is not so flexible or ductile as is Silver They are both of them softned in Rust because Silver has too little and Copper too great a quantity of Sulphur wherefore they mutually temper each other and the particles of each lose their acrimony Silver may be made potable as well as Gold and as potable Gold is the best Medicine in Diseases of the Heart so potable Silver is a wonderful specifick in affects of the Head. These Medicines are potable and extreamly profitable to Health when they are dissolved the third way we spoke of and are brought into water by a sweet water and a Friend to Nature and which the Sun and Moon make use of as a Bath As to Copper from it is drawn a potent and innocent Sudorifick Extract performing wonders in Chronick Diseases The Spirits of these three united by a fourth make a most excellent Medicine CHAP. X. Of Lead Tin and Iron IRON is heavier than Copper because its Vacuities are not so great and besides it is burthened with much strange Earth the Corpuscles of which enter into its Composition It is the only Mettal hard to be melted because of this not mettalline Earth it possesseth also many Corpuscles of a dry and not fusible Sulphur and very little of Mercury especially crude which melts Mettals so that to melt it there is required a body abounding with Mercury such as is Antimony But if it be mingled with a Sulphurous Body it is brought into a red yellowish Saffron-colour'd Calx out of which are made the powerfullest Medicines for obstructions of the Hypocondria The Salt of it is sweeter than Sugar and the Salt of Antimony is like it nor is there in Nature above one Salt that exceeds it in vertue and eminency These three Salts are the restorers of the radical moisture Tin is a Mettal abounding with much Mercury much Salt and but a little Sulphur the Salt of it is the sweetest in the World the Particles of these three substances leave many Vacuities in the mettalline Body from whence ariseth its greater sound and lightness There are three wonderful things to be observed in Tin The first of which appears in its calcination in which we see the weight of this Mettal encreased although many Vapours rise up from it and one would think that should much abate its gravity This according to our Opinion arises from this that the Pores of Tin are opened in calcination that the compound is inverted and a great many Atoms enter into them and fill them and leave fewer Vacuities than there were before and so upon that account there is more Matter or weight Another that I observe is That the Calx of Tin is very hard to be melted and indeed so very hard it is that the wished for end cannot be obtained unless you add a special Melter But this difficulty arises from strange and immettalick Particles which have parted the body of Tin and have entred into its Pores and hinder the re-union of the parts of this Mettal in melting The third is That Tin when it is mixed with other Mettals calcines them and hinders their refining and on the contrary makes them Volatile which ariseth from the irregularity of its composition from its fixed Salt incapable of being melted from the subtilty of its Atoms and the aptitude of its figures arising from their easily being divided Lead as it is more sweet so it is more sociable it purifies and refines Gold and Silver from all impurities and foreign mixtures It is the heaviest of all Mettals but Gold and Quick-Silver because there is a fewer number of Vacuities dispersed through it After the same manner and for the same reason in calcination it is increased as Tin is and it is easily melted because it abounds with a crude and indigested Mercury which makes all Mettals fluid and fusible It may be separated also from its terrestrial part and from its very sweet Salt. There are many things more worthy of note which I observe in Lead The first of which is its weight not much differing from that of Gold and arising from that because this Mettal is in a manner almost altogether Quick-Silver as also that the void intertities are filled with terrestrial and impure Matter which hinders the fixity of the Quick-Silver from whence an ill and imperfect coagulation precipitates it self but he that can separate this Quick-Silver and digest it by an agreeable Sulphur in a Vessel appropriated to this work hath found a most excellent Remedy against most Diseases For the aforesaid Cause this Mettal is lighter than Quick-silver and if Quick-silver be poured upon Leaden-Bullets laid at the bottom of a Pot the Bullets will ascend and swim
Sea that offers it self of Note is the Saltness of its Waters Originally produced from saline massy Bodies produced at the beginning in the Earth and melted by the help of the Waters which from thence as now they are were impregnated with Saltness The heat of the Sun does not a little contribute to thâ—â— saltness consuming its humidity and Phlegm as do also the Salt which Rivers and Floods wash out of the Earth in their passage thither From whence it appears that it may be truly said that all the Salt which is contained in the Earth is carried into the Sea and drawn out of the Earth by the help of Rivers and Waters derived from them and running through the Earth whilst they are filtred to constitute Fountains of fresh Water Now if we could filter Sea-Water after this manner there would never be any scarcity of fresh-water in Ships and long Voyages Another thing that I observe in the Sea is the Ebbing and Flowing of its Waters in some places so very remarkable and regular in their turns every six hours There are some who have thought that Rivers entring into the Sea on one part are the Cause of its flowing but falling into it from another part are the Causes of its Ebbing Others have attributed this effect to winds but the greatest part to the motion of the Moon and to the condensation and rarefaction of the Lunar Air. This is the Opinion of Antonius à Reita extant in his Book entituled Oculus Enoch Eliae where he supposes that rarified Air presses the Sea and lifts it up on both sides like Mountains from whence there ariseth its Flowing Which Air being afterwards condensed the Sea begins to subside and the Waters to return to their first State that is they Ebb. He endeavours to build this Opinion by this Argument to wit that this motion is most observable at the Full of the Moon at which time the Air is very much rarified and at the new of the Moon when it is very much condensed For my part I would rather say that the Ebbing and flowing of the Sea ariseth from the Earths motion from one Tropick to the other For it cannot possibly in its diurnal motion move a degree forwards daily as it doth without driving the Waters from one part and attracting them from the other According to this Opinion a reason may be given why its ebbing and flowing is only from South to North and from North to South and that they are lesser between the Tropicks Besides there is nothing contained in this Opinion which is not very probable But if there are some irregularities observed in ebbing and flowing they arise from Islands Rocks Straights or Promo 〈…〉 tories which very much hasten retard or lessen this motion and partly upon this account that is to say by reason of the Straights of Gibralter there is no notable ebbing and flowing in the Mediterranean Sea besides it is seated between the two Tropicks and is neither too much Northerly nor too much Southerly CHAP. XVII Of Springs and Rivers THere are two kinds of Springs viz. those that sometimes run and those that run always the first proceed from Rains but these arise from the Sea But to speak properly the Sea is the source of all Springs and Fountains for Rains arise from Vapours raised out of the Sea by the help of the Sun and then falling down by drops out of which arise the first sort of Springs which are not perpetual But perpetual Springs are derived from it more immediately by the help of some subterraneous Watery Store-Houses which are filled by aqueducts proceeding from the Sea. It is commonly asked why Sea-water is salt and yet Spring-water which comes from it is sweet To which difficulty it is answered the aqueducts rising out of the Sea run through subterraneous Sands by which the Water in its passage 〈◊〉 filtred and deposits its Salt or else the Salt is precipitated and falls to the bottom of these subterraneous Watery store-Houses as we see in Salt-Pits or after the mixing of Oyl of Tartar and Spirits of Vitriol or that the Atoms pass through imperceptible aqueducts through which the saline Atoms cannot pass by reason of their square Figures So water is made fresh by the help of straining Or lastly by the means of distillation So water being raised up in Vapours and then condensed distils into other receptacles which recieve it and send it to others till it comes to the place where the Spring breaks out It seems a Wonder that Springs arising out of the Sea should be able to ascend to the tops of Mountains To which difficulty it may be answered that the Water of the Sea is equally as high as the highest Mountain because the Earth and Water make but one Globe and the Mountains of the Earth do appear to us to be high and lofty only in regard of the Plains and Vallies in which we are placed and from whence we look upon them But the Sea is higher than the Plains and Vallies if you conceive it all Universally because it makes a perfect Circle And if a Line should be drawn encompassing the whole terraqueous Globe it would be found a perfect circle without any irregularity From this supposed principle it is evident that Sea-water does not ascend that it may find an exit out of the tops of Mountains but that going out of them it descends and produces Rivers in the middle of Plains and bottom of Vallies And this They ought to mind who have said that Water ascends out of the Sea to our Mountains three ways by which it is wont to be raised to wit by the means of Pumps Pipes or woollen Cloth so they say Sea-water may be drawn up to the heighth of Mountains by help of the Beams of the Sun and Stars or by Channels or Pores unknown to us and made in the shape of Pipes and disposed of after the manner as we see all the Wine in the Vessel taken out from thence by the help of a Pipe or lastly Sea water may insinuate it self into a spongy and light Earth which imbibes it and causeth it to ascend and flow after the same manner as we see all the Water contained in a Bason to ascend to the brims of it and by degrees to go beyond by the help of Cotten or a little Woollen Cloth As pleasant and as subtile soever as this fancy may be I think my Opinion is better grounded and more agreeable to truth By what hath been said it is apparent hitherto that Sea-water supplies Matter to Springs and Fountains these do supply Matter to Rivulets and Rivulets to Streams and Rivers which empty themselves into the Sea from whence they come out to moisten the Earth and that as I said before by a continual fluid circulation It may be lastly asked what may be the Cause of this circulation and from whence proceeds that force with which we see Floods and Rivers to
without the pretended Qualities of Aristotle or Corpuscles of Gassendus except those of the Air which are in motion For they being wanting or stirred up by an opposite motion little or very little is observed of it The motion therefore of Bodies is the Object of Sounds but there is a necessity for a fluid Body to be present that it may be violently moved to and fro which happens in irregular Sounds or with Method and Measure as in Musick and the use of Instruments This Fluid Body is sometimes intercepted by two Solid Bodies and is forced to go back with violent motion CHAP. XII Particular Questions concerning Hearing THe first Question is concerning the Penetration of Sounds and it is asked How it comes to pass that a Sound constant in Motion can more easily penetrate through a thick Wall than through Glass or Water I answer that the thickest Walls have great Cavities into which the Air insinuates it self or lies shut up in them whilst they are Building After which manner without doubt it is shut up in Guns made of melted Brass which is the cause that when they are tryed they sometimes burst asunder which hapned about two Months ago at Niverina in a Field near St. Germans Air therefore is more easily shut up within Walls whilst they are Building than in Guns whilst they are casting And this included Air receives its motion from the external Air and communicates the same with that which is found in the Breech or adverse part of the Gun. Which thing does not happen in Glasses which have but very small pores into which the External Air cannot enter only Light and the most subtile Air enjoying this priviledge From hence it follows that Bodies which have none or but very small Vacuities and contain no Air or but very little are more surd and less resounding as Gold and Lead however Lead is more surd than Gold although it hath more frequent vacuities but they are less regular for since it is endowed with more Pores than Gold it ought to give a greater sound than Gold. For to the making a sound it is not sufficient that the Body contains Air but that the Air be so bound up that it cannot sind a way out and as to the sound of Bells that depends upon the Air intercepted between the Clapper and the Bell and wandring round the compass of the Bell before it can get out and drive on other Air yet so as that it presupposes Air shut up in the Pores of the Mettal The second Question regards the propagation of Sound or the sound of Bells and Guns are heard a great way off But the reason of this is not difficult to be given for the Air violently driven on because it is easily moved gives a sound according to its motion greater or lesser and because the motion of Air is not momentaneous so the sound likewise is not in a moment brought to the Ears Certainly the Air that is impelled drives on other Air on every side until that circular motion ceaseth as we see when a stone is thrown into a Pool the water is moved in circles This motion in respect of Sight is not in the Air we see the stroak ere we perceive the sound for Light is determined in a moment nor does a contrary wind hinder Light as it doth sound for Light does not depend upon the motion of the Air and the Light of the Air is fixed in the same manner as the Centre of the World from whence it draws its Origine to which it is firmly and immoveably annexed at least that it be not condensed and grow thick The third Question regards the repetition of Sound and is called Eccho and it is nothing else than a repercussed and reflected motion of the Air by hard Bodies or retained and renewed by other Air shut up in the Cavities of Bodies and if there are many Cavities in a streight Line there are made many reflections and the Eccho is multiplied and that more or less distinctly as the reflections are more or less perfect and the Ear more or less distant from the angle of reflection which is always formed right forwards and is streight unless there be some hindrance and hath always a certain and determined Distance Fourthly it is asked how it comes to pass that the strings of two Harps Tuned alike although they be distant two or three paces from one another the one being struck the other will give a sound I answer that the air of one being struck into motion does by its motion excite the motion of the other which is constituted in the same state or tuned alike For here to alledge Sympathy would be nothing else but to flye to the Sanctuary of Ignorance Fifthly It is asked Why some sounds are sweet and very pleasant and others on the other hand harsh and displeasing It is answered that this proceeds from a diverse motion and from the ruggedness and smoothness of Bodies as also from the smiteing of the Air that is driven to and fro Sixthly it may be enquired from whence the noise in the Ears proceed and it is answered that this inconvenience proceeds from a motion of the interior Air against Nature which sometimes happens from the breaking in of foreign Corpuscles or from the solution and emancipation of some Atoms or from the Pulse of the Arteries or motion of Vapours which striking against the Drum of the Ear make that humming noise of the Ears Lastly it is asked why some People hear better than others and we may answer that this proceeds from the impurity of the interior Air For not to say any thing of those that are born deaf or have their Organs ill formed or have no interior or included Air or of Old Men in whom this Air is dissipated or of those whom a kind of thick humor falling upon the Organ after a long Disease makes Deaf or who are wounded or have an Imposthume in their Ears I say that those who have most of this interior and purer Air have their Ears more accurate and their Hearing more distinct if withal the Auditory Nerve be well Composed CHAP. XIII Of Smelling its Organ and Object SMELLING is an action by which we perceive and distinguish Smells the external Organ is the Nostrils the internal are some glandulous and spongy parts like Teats which descend from the Brain to the Nostrils or the Olfactory Nerve or Odours which affect the Spirits contained in the Nerve and move them and these Spirits being moved and stirred up carry the sense of the Odor to the common sense The Object of Smell are Odours in quality not distinct from Bodies but are rather Atoms or sulphurous Particles going out of Bodies their Figure is hooked and adhering from whence it comes to pass that they adhere like Oyle or fatness and are preserved a long time in Chests among Cloaths especially Woollen ones And therefore contagious Particles lye hid for many Years
clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is