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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56399	Six philosophical essays upon several subjects ... by S.P. Gent. of Trinity Colledge in Oxford.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.	1700 (1700)	Wing P473A; ESTC R6835	68,619	138

a Concourse of principles so contrary will beget Fermentations and by those Fermentations the more feculent parts must needs be separated from the finer and lighter into Masses of various Bulk and Figure which if granted upon your Theorist's own terms his Hypothesis unavoidably perishes Bur. As how I beseech you Phil. Why if the grosser parts must be collected into Masses before the Descent of any of them towards the Centre as the case will stand if they were collected by and during the Fermentation then will they upon their Descent lodge themselves so immethodically one upon another and ruinously as both to form Hills and Eminencies on their Surface and leave hollownesses within their Substance and so the Primaeval Earth will be e'ery whit as ill shap'd as that we poor Mortals inhabit even in spight of the Theorist's lucky invention Nay further I see no reason why if we should excuse all Fermentations whatsoever the grosser Particles should not either in their common state of Fluidity or in descending gather into such Masses of different Form and Size according as larger or less numbers of 'em encounter'd and according as their postures and modifications differ'd which circumstances as they must be very various and uncertain in a Mass so compounded as the Chaos and withall so disorderly in the motions of its parts so they cannot but be the cause of horrible irregularities and deformities both upon and within the great collection of the pond'rous solid parts within we shall have Chasms Gulphs and Labyrinths a'top vast rugged Cliffs and wide capacious Chanels Bur. Do not dear Friend celebrate your Triumph before you have conquer'd How much soever you may flatter your self I have yet a Quere in reserve that perhaps may dispose you to lay down your Arms at last Phil. What may that be Bur. Which way these Masses are bound up and fasten'd together so as not to be wash'd asunder again by the motion of the free parts of the Fluid Phil. Either by Hitching and Articulations no matter how accurate as it may frequently happen or else by the Astriction of that Oily matter which the Theorist assigns after the Distribution of the Chaos for the foundation of his great vaulted Crust Bur. But is Oil of so glutinous a Nature Phil. For the uniting of earthy Particles your Theorist has thought it so upon another occasion as well as my self Bur. But he first took care to gather it into a body and fetch it to such a Consistency as might handsomely sustain the impression and support the weight of that shower of Particles which was to light upon it Phil. How unwarrantably he compass'd all that we shall presently evince In the mean while I would gladly be inform'd why oleaginous Particles meeting with earthy and gross in a common Fluid may not couple and hold them together very tightly and effectually especially if it be consider'd that it is the property of Oily Particles to concorporate when they encounter and consequently that by their Combinations they become so much the better capable to collect and retain such dispers'd Particles of Earth as come in their way But this is certain that during its state of Fluidity the Oily Parts of the Chaos when earthy occurr to them must adhere pertinaciously to the earthy so that in the distribution of the Chaos they cannot disengage themselves but are oblig'd to subside along with them and what will you do now for a Sphere of Oil a' top of your Water when the parts of your Chaos are to be digested into order Yet without it you must utterly despair of a Crust and without a Crust of an universal Deluge occasion'd by the disruption and dissolution of it Bur. I confess Philalethes you have shock'd me a little yet perhaps if you will give me leisure to weigh your Objection more accurately I may come to find out where the Fallacy lies Phil. As much leisure as you please only before you set about the matter let me desire you to take another Animadversion of mine along with you That however plausible or exact any Physical System or Hypothesis which varies at all from express accounts of the Divine Oracles may appear at first glance when you have look'd a little deeper into it you will find the Philosophy of it very empty and incongruous Nor do I design this to the disparagement of the Theorist for whose excellent Parts and Learning I profess my self to have as profound a Veneration as even his coràm Vindicator And now I ask your Pardon for detaining you so long with a Dispute which indeed the Theorist himself has according to the Rules of equitable Interpretation determin'd before-hand in favour of me for if for confirmation he so willingly appeals as he often does most willingly to the testimony of the Sacred Writings 't is to be presum'd his pleasure that his cause should stand or fall thereby and then I think 't is impossible for any body to read in Genesis but he must perceive that ingenious Gentleman has fairly cast himself in his own Court Your Servant That Wit and Beauty are naturally the Concomitants of Vertue IT has always surpass'd the skill of our Wits to define their own Excellency What Mr. Cowley and Mr. Dryden have atchiev'd in the Undertaking is perhaps better known and if I may dare to say so less considerable than to challenge the mentioning at present It seems to be altogether as intimate an affection as even simple Perceptions either of Understanding or Sense and though very clearly known to it self yet never can shine out beyond its head I confess that numerous party of Mankind who are no more than qualified to listen and admire may command a faint Idea of it They know there is something tickles in such a certain choice and order of words but how the Pleasure is first form'd and by what art insinuated they apprehend but very imperfectly Nor does the Vanity of the Polytheism of the Ancients appear to me more surprizing and extravagant than their founding a whole College of Gods and Goddesses for the Super-intendency of Wit seems with respect to Polytheists consistent and reasonable For besides its strange variety of Feature and the force of its Influence the manner of its presenting it self resembles not a little a divine Impulse it darts in upon the Imagination unpremeditated and often violently Its motions are rapid and so capacious its embrace that the farthest points of distance lie within its clasp and every thing between 'em dances after its pleasure like a Puppet to the strings It amuses the Understanding and checks it in the Carreer of a sound or false reasoning How often has the Poinancy of a single proposition or the quaintness of a reply determin'd Life and Death No more than O! Solon Solon rescued a Monarch almost in the very article of Fate and snatch'd him from the Pile already kindled to the embrace and confidence of the Victor King Athelstan's Cup-bearer at

whose instigation amongst others that Prince had some years before murther'd his Brother at length became the instrument of Divine Vengeance against himself and that by a pure Lapsus Linguae for chancing to slip one day when he reach'd the Ewer but recovering himself on the other Leg that 's as it should be cry'd he designing only to out-jeer the miscarriage one Brother helps t'other but the words it seems made a far different impression upon the King and easily admonish'd his conscience to do justice upon the person that utter'd ' em Kingdoms and States have sometimes been transform'd by an Elegancy Almost a Troop in season has taken Towns and routed Armies Now so singular a Privilege as this 't is certain it most especially concerns the great Distributer to conferr critically Where Events of such consequence depend upon it both his Justice and Omniscience engage him to exactness Were it a light ordinary concern he might sometimes seemingly recede from the direction of the Plummet and by an After-decree correct the deviation But true Wit is a gratuity too valuable to be put into the hands of those who are ready and resolv'd to pervert it when conferr'd to the worst purposes Like the sweetest and most volatile Perfumes it becomes by abuse most offensive and pernicious and diffuses as wide if not wider than before Yet this reasoning will by no means hold universally Exceptions present themselves too frequently for such a comprehensiveness and no where to our shame more frequently than at home even to such a pass that Dissoluteness and Irreligion are made the Livery of Wit and no body must be conscious of good parts but he loses the credit of them unless he take care to finish 'em with Immoralities However as much as these Examples crowd in upon us there is this yet to be said that the gloss is too slight to hold They may ring the changes a while upon words but the sense and the sound expire together and the Organ of hearing is no sooner compos'd again but the minds of the Audience recollect themselves and nauseate the emptiness of the Quibble I dare say no body ever yet read the Obscenities of my Lord Rochester or the Omnis enim per se of Lucretius but upon cooling saw the Cheat and grew at least in his heart out of Love with it Dactyl and Spondee cannot take fast hold enough The murmurs of a Cascade may lull us in a Grotto but when we are once come abroad any reliques of the noise in our ears serve only to disturb us So that what Providence might have prevented in the Cause it has utterly defeated in the Effect and our Beau'sprits must think of giving warning to their Licentiousness and listing under Vertue if esteem is their Scope Indeed the conditions of their Depravity are such that the Habit endangers the Faculty There is so much of the Absurd in all irreligious Notions as is even apt to obscure and confound the fancy or however reduces its pittance of Elegancies to Oxymoron and Hysteron-Proteron A civil War presently breaks forth between the Judgment and Imagination the former will be continually bearing down upon the latter continually bearing down upon the latter continuall mortifying its pertness and disappointing its motions But then if Intemperance goes hand in hand with Prophaneness 't is a desperate case For Wit is no more proof against the Fumes of Luxury and Indigestion than a Feather against Smoak in spite of Fate they waft it all away and 't is out of reach before you think on 't Quin Corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat unà Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae Some Genius's 't is true retain their alacrity longer than others Some can hold out a Trojan Siege others perhaps scarce a twenty-years course of Bestiality shall effectually reduce and there are of a third sort that are almost obnoxious to one Bottle extraordinary Nay I have generally observ'd that the more refin'd the Genius the more suddenly extinguish'd Many acute Persons instead of being elevated find themselves rather doz'd by the operation of Wine Many again grow Bacchanals in an instant and had need only clap spurs to their Imagination to make it run away with them A few tempers 't is confess'd are Masters of the Medium but none always Assiduity in the practice will effect at long run what Circe compass'd with a single Charm 'T is recorded of Alexander the Macedon that he was a man of Stratagem and singular Acuteness and the progress of his Arms declares him no worse a Politician than Commander but when for some time he had abandon'd himself to Sensuality and Supineness he not only lessen'd his Authority amongst his Soldiers but soon became guilty of the grossest follies 't was possible for him to commit destroying his best Friends burning his own Cities crowning his own Captives insomuch that had he liv'd a few years longer instead of weeping for want of a world to conquer he might have whimper'd for the loss of that he had conquer'd already And much better it is never to have had than at length to have forfeited an eminency of Understanding He who was born with common Intellects neither knows the worth of Wit nor the want of it He 'scapes all notice and takes none He values no Character like that of a downright Dealer and prefers a Shop Beesom to the Bays Whereas he that makes Ship-wrack of his Talent meets with a Destiny much severer he carries his Ignominy in his forehead and sinks from a Father of Jests into the matter of ' em There 's not half the inconvenience in being beggar'd or cashier'd They are misfortunes common to the Wit with the Blockhead and where circumstances and conditions do or may jump the multitude behave themselves towards a sufferer the more candidly for their own sakes But they never have any mercy for him whose losses are foreign to all of their own Capacity especially if he has brought the Calamity upon himself and that by methods only befitting them This they think a just occasion for Triumph and therefore insult without measure upon such a Proselyte to Stupidity D' you see that poor Dog there cry the Journey-men and Prentices as you walk the Street since I remember him he was a modest sober gentile pretty Gentleman and moreover a man of as clear a head and as clever a Tongue as any within forty Miles of him 'till we got him into our Club fox'd him ev'ry bout for a Twelve-month together and now we 've drunk the Bastard out of his Wits we are e'en resolv'd to drink him out of all his Money too and then turn him over to the Boys and the Bailiffs Besides no Wit is so lively as that which is accompanied with a Complacency and Lustre of mind Their Bosom-Monitor will be troublesome to Rakes of Railery Remorse never fails to balk all their good things Good Wits as Plutarch has