a strong bituminous smel in them All which circumstances shew that this electrical virtue consists in a certain degree of rarity or density of the bodies unctuous emanations Now if these refined and viscuous thrids of Jet or Amber in their streaming abroad meet with a piece of straw or hay or dried leaf or some such light and spungy body 't is no marvel if they glew themselvs to it like birdlime and that in their shrinking back by being condens'd again and repuls'd through the coldness of the air they carry it along with them to their entire body Which they that only see the effect and cannot penetrate into a possibility of a natural cause therof are much troubled withal And this seems to me to bear a fairer semblance of truth then what Cabeus delivers for the cause of Electrical attractions whose speculation herein though I cannot allow for solid yet I must for ingenious And certainly even errours are to be commended when they are witty ones and proceed from a casting-further-about then the beaten Tract of verbal learning or rather terms which explicate not the nature of the thing in question He sayes that the coming of straws and such other light bodies to Amber Jet and the like proceeds from a wind raised by the forcible breaking out of subtile emanations from the Electrical bodies into the air which brings those light bodies along with it to the Electrical ones But this discourse cannot hold For First 't is not the nature of unctuous emanation generally speaking to cause smart motions singly of themselvs Secondly although they should raise a wind I do not comprehend how this wind should drive bodies directly back to the source that raised it but rather any other way and so consequently should drive the light bodies it meets with in its way rather from then towards the Electrical body Thirdly if there should be such a wind raised and it should bring light bodies to the Electrical ones yet it could not make them stick therto which we see they do turn them which way you will as though they were glew'd together Neither do his experiences convince any thing For what he saies that the light bodies are somtimes brought to the Electrical body with such a violence that they rebound back from it and then return again to it makes rather against him for if wind were the cause of their motion they would not return again after they had leaped back from the Electrical body no more then we can imagine that the wind it self doth The like is of his other experience when he observ'd that some little grains of Saw-dust hanging at an Electrical body the furthermost of them not only fell off but seem'd to be driven away forcibly for they did not fall directly down but side-wayes and besides flew away with a violence and smartness that argued some strong impulse The reason wherof might be that new emanations might smite them which not sticking and fast'ning upon them wherby to draw them nearer must needs push them further or it might be that the emanations to which they were glew'd shrinking back to their main body the later grains were shoulder'd off by others that already besieg'd the Superficies and then the emanations retiring swiftly the grains must break off with a force or else we may conceive it was the force of the air that bore them up a little which made an appearance of their being driven away as we see feathers and other light things descend not straight down CHAP. XX. Of the Loadstones generation and its particular motions THere is yet remaining the great Mystery of the Loadstone to discourse of Which all Authors both ancient and modern have agreed upon as an undeniable example and evidence of the shortness of mans reach in comprehending and of the impossibility of his reason in penetrating into and explicating such secrets as nature hath a mind to hide from us Wherfore our Reader I am sure will not in this subject expect clear satisfaction or plain demonstrations at our hands but will judg we have fairly acquitted our selves if what we say be any whit plausible Therefore to use our best indeavours to content him let us reflect upon the disposition of parts of this habitable Globe wherof we are Tenants for life And we shall find that the Sun by his constant course under the Zodiack heats a great part of it unmeasurably more then he doth the rest And consequently that this Zodiack being in the mid'st between two as it were ends which we call the Poles these Poles must necessarily be extremely cold in respect of the Torrid Zone for so we call that part of the earth which lies under the Zodiack Now looking into the consequence of this we find that the Sun or the Suns heat which reflects from the earth in the Torrid Zone must rarifie the air extremely and according to the nature of all heat and fire must needs carry away from thence many parts of the air and earth sticking to that heat in such sort as we have formerly declared Whence it follows that other air must necessarily come from the Regions towards both the Poles to supply what is carried away from the middle as is the course in other fires and as we have explicated above Especially considering that the air which comes from the Polewards is heavier then the air of the Torrid Zone and therfore must naturally press to be still nearer the earth and so as it were shoulders on the air of the Torrid Zone towards the circumference by rolling into its place and this in great quantities and consequently the polar air must draw a great train after it Which if we consider the great extent of the Torrid Zone we shall easily perswade our selvs must reach on each side to the very Pole For taking from Archimedes that the Spherical Superficies of a portion of a Sphere is to the Superficies of the whole Sphere according as the parts of the axis of that Sphere comprised within the said portion is to the whole axis and considering that in our case the part of the axis comprised within the Torrid Zone is to the whole axis of the earth in about the proportion of 4. to 10 it must of necessity follow that a fire or great heat reigning in so vast an extent will draw air very powerfully from the rest of the world Neither let any man apprehend that this course of the Sun 's elevating so great quantities of Atoms in the Torrid Zone should hinder the course of gravity there For first the medium is much rarer in thâ— Torrid Zone then in other parts of the earth and therfore the force of the descending Atoms needs not be so great there as in other places to make bodies descend there as fast as they do elsewhere Secondly there being a perpetual supply of fresh air from the Polar parts streaming continually into the Torrid Zone it must of
neither great nor little and consequently the whole machine raised upon that supposition must be ruinous His argument is to this purpose What is nothing cannot have parts but vacuum is nothing because as the Adversaries conceive it vacuum is the want of a corporeal substance in an inclosing body within whose sides nothing is whereas a certain body might be contain'd within them as if in a pail or bowl of a gallon there were neither milk nor water nor air nor any other body whatever therefore vacuum cannot have parts Yet those who admit it put it expresly for a Space which essentially includes Parts and thus they put two contradictories nothing and parts that is parts and no parts or something and nothing in the same proposition And this I conceive to be absolutely unavoidable For these reasons therfore I must entreat my Readers favour that he will allow me to touch upon Metaphysicks a little more than I desire or intended but it shall be no otherwise then as is said of the Dogs by the River Nilus side who being thirsty lap hastily of the water only to serve their necessity as they run along the shore Thus then remembring how we determin'd that Quantity is Divisibility it follows that if besides Quantity there be a Substance or Thing which is divisible that Thing if it be condistinguish'd from its Quantity or Divisibility must of it self be indivisible or to speak more properly it must be not divisible Put then such Substance to be capable of the Quantity of the whole world or Universe and consequently you put it of it self indifferent to all and to any part of Quantity for in it by reason of the negation of Divisibility there is no variety of parts wherof one should be the subject of one part of Quantity or another of another or that one should be a capacity of more another of â—ess This then being so we have the ground of more or less Proportion between Substance and Quantity for if the whole Quantity of the Universe be put into it the proportion of Quantity â—o the capacity of that substance will be greater than if but half â—hat quantity were imbibed in the same substance And because proportion changes on both sides by the single change of only one side it follows that in the latter the proportion of that Substance to its Quantity is greater and that in the former 't is less though the Substance in it self be indivisible What we have said thus in abstract will sink more easily into us if we apply it to some particular bodies here among us in which we see a difference of Rarity and Density as to air water gold or the like and examine if the effects that happen to them do follow out of this disproportion between substance and Quantity For example let us conceive that all the quantity of the world were in one uniform substance then the whole universe would be of one and the same degree of Rarity and Density let that degree be the degree of water it will then follow that in what part soever there happens to be a change from this degree that part will not have that proportion of quantity to its substance which the quantity of the whole world had to the presupposed uniformsubstance But if it happens to have the degree of rarity which is in the air it will then have more quantity in proportion to its substance then would be due to it according to the presupposed proportion of the quantity of the universe to the aforesaid uniform substance which in this case is as it were the standard to try all other proportions by And contrariwise if it happens to have the degree of Density which is found in earth or in gold then it will have less quantity in proportion to its substance then would be due to it according to the aforesaid proportion or common standard Now to proceed from hence with examining the effects which result out of this compounding of Quantity with substance we may first consider that the Definitions which Aristotle has given us of Rarity and Density are the same we drive at He tells us that that body is rare whose quantity is more and its substance less that contrariwise dense where the substance is more and the quantity less Now if we look into the proprieties of the bodies we have named or of any others we shall see them all follow clearly out of these definitions For first that one is more diffused another more compacted such diffusion and compaction seem to be the very natures of Rarity and Density supposing them to be such as we have defined them to be since substance is more diffused by having more parts or by being in more parts and is more compacted by the contrary And then that rare bodies are more divisible then dense ones you see is coincident into the same conceit with their diffusion and compaction And from hence again it follows that they are more easily both divided into great and by the force of natural Agents divisible into lesser parts for both these that is facility of being divided and easie divisibility into lesser parts are contain'd in being more divisible or in more enjoying the effect of Quantity which is divisibility From this again follows that in rare bodies there is less resistance to the motion of another body through it than in dense ones and therefore a like force passes more easily through the one than through the other Again rare bodies are more penetrative and active than dense ones because being by their overproportion of quantity easily divisible into small parts they can run into every little pore and so incorporate themselvs better into other bodies than more dense ones can Light bodies likewise must be rarer because most divisible if other circumstances concur equally Thus you see decypher'd to your hand the first division of bodies flowing from Quantity as it is ordain'd to Substance for the composition of a Body for since the definition of a Body is a thing which hath parts and quantity is that by which it hath parts and the first propriety of quantity is to be bigger or lesse and consequently the first differences of having parts are to have bigger or lesse more or fewer what division of a Body can be more simple more plain or more immediate than to divide it by its Quantity as making it have bigger or less more or fewer parts in proportion to its Substance Neither can I justly be blamed for touching thus on Metaphysicks to explicate the nature of these two kinds of Bodies for Metaphysicks being the Science above Physicks it belongs to her to declare the principles of Physicks of which these we have now in hand are the very first step But much more if we consider that the composition of quantity with substance is purely Metaphysical we must necessarily allow the inquiry into the nature of Rarity and Density to be wholly Metaphysical since
as positive gravity or levity but that their course upwards or downwards happens to them by the order of nature which by outward causes gives them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wherever they are as being of themselvs indifferent to any motion But because our words express our notions and they are fram'd according to what appears to us when we observe any body to descend constantly towards our earth we call it heavie and if it move contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such gravity and levity as if they were Entities that work such effects since upon examination it appears that these words are but short expressions of the effects themselves the causes whereof the vulgar of mankind who impose names to things do not consider but leave that work to Philosophers to examine whiles they onely observe what they see done and agree upon words to express that Which words neither will in all circumstances always agree to the same thing for as cork descends in aire and ascends in water so also will any other body descend if it lights among others more rare then it self and will ascend if it lights among others that are more dense then it And we term Bodies light and heavy only according to the course which we usually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or gravity it were irrational to conceive that all bodies should descend at the same rate and keep equal pace with one another in their journey downwards For as two knives whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being press'd with equal strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cut deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the others that which is so will cut the air more powerfully and descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the kniefs edge since in it consists the power of dividing as we have heretofore determin'd And therefore the pressing them downwards by the descending atomes being equal in both or peradventure greater in the more dense body as anon we shall have occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of division must be the greater where the divider is the more powerful Which the more dense body is and therefore cuts more strongly through the resistance of the air and consequently passes more swiftly that way 't is determin'd to move I do not mean that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one another as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we have discours'd of above when we examin'd the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparisons of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone results the differences of their velocities nor that neither but in as much as concerns the consideration of the moveables for to make the calculation exact the Medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare For since the motion depends of all them together though there should be difference between the moveables in regard of one only and that the rest were equal yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference consider'd single in that regard will have one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will have another As for example reckon the density of one moveable to be double the density of another moveable so that in that regard it has two degrees of power to descend whereas the other has but one suppose then the other causes of thier descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then joyn these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the moveables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other moveable and you will find that thus altogether their difference of power to descend is no longer in a double proportion as it would be if nothing but their density were considered but is in the proportion of five to four But after we have consider'd all that concerns the moveables we are then to cast an eye upon the Medium they are to move in and we shall find the addition of that decreases the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the Medium Which if it be Air the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men use to take in making experiences of their descent in that yeelding Medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Even as the difference of a sharp or dull knife which is easily perceiv'd in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguish'd in dividing of water or oyl And likewise in Weights a pound and a scruple will bear down a dram in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet put a pound in that scale in stead of the dram and then the difference of the scruple will be very notable So then those bodies whose difference of descending in water is very sensible because of the greater proportion of weight in water to the bodies that descend in it will yield no sensible difference of velocity when they descend in air by reason of the great disproportion of weight between air and the bodies that descend in it The reason of this will clearly shew it self in abstracted proportions Thus Suppose air to have one degree of density and water to have 400 then let the moveable A. have 410 degrees of density and the moveable B. have 500. Now compare their motion to one another in the several mediums of air and water The exuperance of the density of A. to water is 10 degrees but the exuperance of B. to the same water is 100 degrees so that B. must have in water swifter then A in the proportion of 103 to ten that is of 10 to one Then let us compare the exuperance of the two moveables over air A is 409 times more dense then air but B is 499 times more dense then it by which account the motion of B. must be in that medium swifter then the motion of A in the proportion of 499 to 409 that is about 50 to 41 which to avoid fractions we may account as 10 to 8. But in water they exceed one another as 10 to one so that their difference of velocity must be scarce perceptible in air in respect of what it is in water Out of all which discourse I only infer in common that a greater velocity in motion will follow the greater density of the moveable without determining
extracted like a quintessence out of the whole mass is reser'd in convenient receptacles or vessels till there be use of it and is the matter or seed of which a new Animal is to be made in whom will appear the effect of all the specifical virtues drawn by the bloud in its iterated courses by its circular motion through all the several parts of the parents body Whence it follows that if any part be wanting in the body wherof this seed is made or be superabundant in it whose virtue is not in the rest of the body the vertue of that part cannot be in the bloud or will be too strong in the bloud and by consequence it cannot be at all or it will be too much in the seed And the effect proceeding from the seed that is the young Animal will come into the world savouring of that origine unless the Mother's seed supply or temper what the Father 's was defective or superabundant in or contrariwise the Father's correct the errours of the Mother's But peradventure the Reader will tell us that such a specifical virtue cannot be gotten by concoction of the blood or by any petended impression in it unless some little particles of the nourished part remain in the blood and return back with it according to that maxim of Geber Quod non ingreditur non immutat no body can change another unless it enter into it and mixing it self with it become one with it And that so in effect by this explication we fall back into the opinion which we rejected To this I answer that the difference is very great between that opinion and ours as will appear evidently if you observe the two following assertions of theirs First they affirm that a living creature is made mâ—erly by the assembling together of similar parts which were hidden in those bodies from whence they are extracted in generation wheras we say that bloud coming to a part to irrigate it is by its passage through it and some little stay in it and by its frequent returns thither at length transmuted into the nature of that part and therby the specifical vertues of every part grow greater and are more diffused and extended Secondly they say that the Embryon is actually formed in the seed though in such little parts as it cannot be discerned till each part have enlarged and increased it self by drawing to it from the circumstant bodies more substance of their own nature But we say that there is one Homogenal substance made of the blood which hath been in all parts of the body and this is the seed which contains not in it any figure of the Animal from which it is refined or of the Animal into which it hath a capacity to be turned by the addition of other substances though it have in it the vertues of all the parts it hath often run through By which term of specifike vertues I hope we have said enough in sundry places of this discourse to keep men from conceiving that we mean any such inconceivable quality as modern Philosophers too frequently talk of when they know not what they say or think nor can give any account of But that it is such degrees and numbers of rare and dense parts mingled together as constitute a mixed body of such a temper and nature which degrees and proportions of rare and dense parts and their mixture together and incorporating into one Homogeneal substance is the effect resulting from the operations of the exteriour agent that cuts imbibes kneads and boyls it to such a temper Which exteriour agent in this case is each several part of the Animals body that this juice or blood runs through and that hath a particular temper belonging to it resulting out of such a proportion of rare and dense parts as we have even now spoken of and can no more be with-held from communicating its temper to the bloud that first soaks into it and soon after drains away again from it according as other succeeding parts of bloud drive it on then a mineral channel can chuse but communicate its vertue to a stream of water that runs through it and is continually grating off some of the substance of the Mineral earth and dissolving it into it self But to go on with our intended discourse The seed thus imbued with the specifical vertues of all the several parts of the parents body meeting in a fit receptacle the other parents seed and being there duly concocted becomes first a heart Which heart in this tender beginning of a new Animal contains the several virtues of all the parts that afterwards will grow out of it and be in the future Animal in the same manner as the heart of a complete Animal contains in it the specificke virtues of all the several parts of its own body by reason of the bloods continual resorting to it in a circle from all parts of its body and its being nourished by that juice to supply the continual consumption which the extreme heat of it must needs continually occasion in its own substance wherby the heart becoms in a manner the Compendium or abridgment of the whole Animal Now this heart in the growing Embryon being of the nature of fire as on the one side it streams out its hot parts so on the other it sucks oyl or fewel to nourish it self out of the adjacent moist parts which matter aggregated to it being sent abroad together with the other hot parts that steam from it both of them together stay and settle as soon as they are out of the reach of that violent heat that would not permit them to thicken or rest And there they grow into such a substance as is capable to be made of such a mixture and are linked to the heart by some of those strings that steam out from it for those steams likewise harden as we shew'd more particularly when we discours'd of the tender stalks of plants and in a word this becoms some other part of the Animal Which thus encreases by order one part being made after another till the whole living creature be completely framed So that now you see how mainly their opinion differs from ours since they say that there is actually in the seed a complete living creature for what else is a living creature but bones in such parts nerves in such others bloud and humours contain'd in such and such places all as in a living creature All which they say But we make the seed to be nothing else but one mixed body of one homogeneal nature throughout consisting of such a multiplicity of rare and dense parts so ballanced and proportioned in number and magnitude of those parts which are evenly shuffled and alike mingled in every little parcel of the whole substance in such sort that the operation of nature upon this seed may in a long time and with a due process bring out such figures situation and qualities as fluidity consisence
we have of things without us give names to them according to the passions and affections which those things cause in our senses which being the same in all mankind as long as they are consider'd in common and their effects are look'd upon in gross all the world agrees in one Notion and Name of the same thing for every man living is affected by it just as his neighbour is and as all men else in the world are As for example Heat or Cold works the same feeling in every man composed of flesh and bloud and therfore whoever should be ask'd of them would return the same answer that they cause such and such affects in his sense pleasing or displeasing to him according to their degrees and as they tend to the good or evil of his whole body But if we descend to particulars we shall find that several men of differinâ— constitutions frame different notions of the same things according as they are conformable or disagreeing to their natures and accordingly they give them different names As when the same liquor is sweet to some mens tast which to anothers appears bitter one man takes that for a perfume which to another is an offensive smel In the Turkish Baths where there are many degrees of heat in divers rooms through all which the same person uses to pass and to stay a while in every one of them both at his entrance and going out to season his body by degrees for the contrary excess he is going to that seems chilly-cold at his first return which appear'd melting hot at his going to it as I my self have often made experience in those Countreys Beauty and loveliness will shine to one man in the same face that will give aversion to another All which proclaims that the Sensible Qualities of Bodies are not any positive real thing consisting in an indivisible and distinct from the body it self but are meerly the very body as it affects our senses to discover how they do which must be our labour here Let us therfore begin with considering the difference between sensible and insensible creatures These later lie exposed to the mercy of all outward agents that from time to time by the continual motion which all things are in come within distance of working upon them and they have no power to remove themselvs from what is averse to their nature nor to approach nearer what comforts it But the others having within themselvs a principle of motion as we have already declared are able whenever such effects are wrought on them as on the others upon their own account and by their own action to remove themselvs from what begins to annoy them and to come nearer to what they find a beginning of good by These impressions are made on those parts of us which we call the Organs of our Senses and by them give us seasonable advertisements and knowledges wherby we may govern and order to the best advantage our little charge of a body according to the tune or warnings of change in the great circumstant body of the world as far as it may concern ours Which how it is done and by what steps it proceeds shall be in the following discourse laid open Of this great machine that environs us we who are but a small parcel are not immediately concern'd in every part It imports not us for the conservation of our body to have knowledge of other parts then such are within the distance of working upon us those only within whose sphere of activity we are planted can offend or advantage us and of them some are near us others further from us Those that are next us we discern according as they are qualified either by our Touch or our Tast or our Smelling which three Senses manifestly appear to consist in a meer gradation of more or less gross and their operations are level'd to the three Elements that press upon us Earth Water and Air. By our other two Senses our Hearing and our Seeing we have notice of things further off and the agents which work on them are of a more refined nature But we must treat of them all in particular and that which we will begin with shall be the Touch as being the grossest of them and that which converses with none but the most material and massie objects We see it deals with heavy consistent bodies and judges of them by conjunction to them and by immediate reception of something from them And according to the divers impressions they make in it it distinguishes them by divers names which as we said of the qualities of mixed bodies are generally reduced to certain pairs as hot and cold wet and dry soft and hard smooth and rough thick and thin and some others of the like nature which were needless to enumerate since we pretend not to deliver the science of them but only to shew that they and their actions are all corporeal And this is sufficiently evident by meer repenting but their very names for 't is plain by what we have already said that there are nothing else but certain effections of quantity arising out of different degrees of rarity and density compounded together And 't is manifest by experience that our sense receivs the very same impressions from them which another body doth For our body or our sense will be heated by fire burned by it too if the heat be too great as well as wood it will be constipated by cold water moistened by humide things and dryed by dry bodies in the same manner as any other body whatever Likewise it may in such sort as they be wounded and have its continuity broken by hard things be pleas'd and polish'd by soft and smooth be press'd by thick and heavy and rub'd by those that are rugged c. So that those Masters who will teach us that the impressions upon sense are made by spiritual or spirit-like things or qualities which they call intentional specieses must labour at two works the one to make it appear that there are in nature such things as they would perswade us the other to prove that these material actions we speak of are not able to perform those effâ—cts for which the senses are given to living creatures And till they have done that I conceive we should be much too blame to admit such things as we neither have ground for in reason nor can understand what they are And therfore we must resolve to rest in this belief which experience breeds in us that these bodies work on our senses no other ways then by a corporeal operation and that such a one is sufficient for all the effects we see proceed from them as in the process of this discourse we shall more amply declare The Element immediately next to Earth in grosness is Water And in it is the exercise of our tast or Mouth being perpetually wet within by means of which moysture our Tongue receives into it some
while longer fighting would have sunk one another But besides the motions in the air which receiv'd them easily by reason of the fluidity of it we see that even solid bodies participate of it As if you knock never so lightly at one end of the longest beam you can find it will be distinctly heard at the other end The trampling of men and horses in a quiet night wil be heard some miles off if one lay their ear to the ground and more sensibly if one make a little hole in the earth and put ones ear into the mouth of it but most of all if one set a Drum smooth upon the ground and lay ones ear to the upper edge of it for the lower membrane of the Drum is shaked by the motion of the earth and then multiplies that sound by the hollow figure of the Drum in the conveying it to the upper membrane upon which your ear leans Not much unlike the Tympane or Drum of the ear which being shaked by outward motion causes a second motion on the inside of it correspondent to this first and this having a free passage to the brain strikes it immediately and so informes it how things move without which is all the mystery of hearing If any thing break or stop this motion before it shake our ear it is not heard And accordingly we see that the sound of Bells or Artillery is heard much further if it have the conduct of waters then through the pure air because in such bodies the great continuity of them makes that one part cannot shake alone and upon their superficies there is no notable unevenness nor any dense thing in the way to check the motion as in the air hills buildings trees and such like so that the same shaking goes a great way And to confirm that this is the true reason I have several times observ'd that standing by a river side I heard the sound of a ring of Bells much more distinctly and loud then if I went some distance from the water though nearer to the steeple from whence the sound came And it is not only the motion of the air that makes sound in our ears but any motion that hath access to them in such a manner as to shake the quivering membranous Tympane within them will represent to us those motions which are without and so make such a sound there as if it were convey'd onely by the air Which is plainly seen when a man lying a good way under water shall there hear the same sounds as are made above in the air but in a more clumsie manner according as the water by being thicker and more corpulent is more unwieldy in its motions And this I have tryed often staying under water as long as the necessity of breathing would permit me Which shews that the air being smartly moved moves the water also by means of its continuity with it and that liquid element being fluide and getting into the ear makes vibrations upon the drum of it like to those of air But all this is nothing in respect of what I might in some sort say and yet speak truth Which is that I have seen one who could discern sounds with his eyes 'T is admirable how one sense will oftentimes supply the want of another whereof I have seen an other strange example in a different strain from this of a man that by his grosser senses had his want of sight wonderfully made up He was so throughly blind that his eyes could not inform him when the Sun shined for all the cry stalline humour was out in both his eyes yet his other senses instructed him so efficaciously in what was their office to have done as what he wanted in them seem'd to be overpay'd in other abilities To say that he would play at Cards and Tables as well as most men is rather a commendation of his memory phantasie then of any of his outward senses But that he should play wel at Bowles and Shovelbord and other games of aim which in other men require clear sight and an exact level of the hand according to the qualities of the earth or table and to the situation and distance of the place he was to throw at seems to exceed possibility And yet he did all this He would walk in a chamber or long alley in a garden after he had been a while used to them as straight and turn as just at the ends as any seeing man could do He would go up and down every where so confidently and demean himself at table so regularly as strangers have sitten by him several meals and seen him walk about the house without ever observing any want of seeing in him which he endeavour'd what he could to hide by wearing his hat low upon his brows He would at the first abord of a stranger as soon as he spoke to him frame a right apprehension of his stature bulk and manner of making And which is more when he taught his Schollers to declame for he was School-master to my sons and lived in my house or to represent some of Seneca's Tragedies or the like he would by their voice know their gesture and the situation they put their bodies in so that he would be able as soon as they spoke to judge whether they stood or sate or in what posture they were which made them demean themselvs as decently before him whiles they spoke as if he had seen them perfectly Though all this be very stange yet me thinks his discerning of lights is beyond it all He would feel in his body and chiefly in his brain as he hath often told me a certain effect by which he knew when the Sun was up and would discern exactly a clear from a cloudy day This I have known him frequently do without missing when for trial sake he has been lodged in a close chamber whereto the clear light or Sun could not arrive to give him any notice by its actual warmth nor any body could come to him to give him private warnings of the Changes of the weather But this is not the relation I intended when I mention'd one that could hear by his eyes if that expression may be permited me I then reflected upon a Noble man of great quality that I knew in Spain the younger brother of the Constable of Castile But the reflection of his seeing of words call'd into my remembrance the other that felt light in whom I have often remark'd so many strange passages with amazement and delight that I have adventured upon the Readers patience to record some of them conceiving they may be of some use in our course of doctrine But the Spanish Lord was born deaf so deaf that if a Gun were shot off close by his ear he could not hear it and consequently he was dumb for not being able to hear the sound of words he could never imitate nor understand them The loveliness of
to express our notions the one common to all men the other proper to Scholars 7. Great errours arise by wresting words from their common meaning to express a more particular or studied notion 1. We must know the vulgar and common notion of Quantity that we may understand the nature of it 2. Extension or Divisibility is the common notion of Quantity 3 Parts of Quantity are not actually in their whole 4 If parts were actually in their whole Quantity would be composed of indivisibles 5. Quantity cannot be composed of indivisibles 6 An objection to prove that parts are actually in Quantity with a declaration of the mistake from whence it proceed 7 The solution of the former objection and that Sense and not discern whether one part be distinguish'd from another or no. Chap 〈◊〉 8. 2. 3. 8. An enumeration of the several specieses of Quantity which confirms that the essente of it is divisibilitie 1 What is meant by Rarity and Densitie 2. 'T is evident that some bodies are rare and others dense though obscure how they are such 3. A brief enumeration of the several properties belonging to rare and dense bodies 4. The opinion of those Philosophers declared who put Rarity to consist in an actual division of a Body into little parts 5. The former opinion rejected and the ground of their errour discover'd 6 The opinion of those Philosophers related who put Rarity to consist in the mixtion of Vacuity among bodies The opinion of Vacuities refuted Dialog 1. del Movim pag. 18. Archimed promot 8. Rarity and Density consist in the severall proportions which Quantity hath to its Substance 9. All must admit in Physical bodies a Metaphysical composition 1. The notions of density and rarity have a latitude capable of infinite variety 2. How mâ—istness and dryness are begotten in dense bodies 3. How moistness and drieess are begotten in rare bodies 4. Heat is a propertie of rare bodies and cold of dense ones 5. Of the two dense bodies the less dense is more cold but of the two rare ones the less rare is less hot 6 The extreme dense body is more dry then the extreme rare one 7. There are but four simplebodies and these are rightly named Elements 8 The Author doth not determine whether every Element comprehends under its name one only lower species or many nor whether any of them be found pure 1. The first operation of the Elements is division out of which resulreth local motion What place is both notionally and really 3. Locall motion is that division whereby a body changes its place 4. The nature of quantity of it self is sufficient to unite a body to its place 5. All operations amongst bodies are either local motion or such as follow out of local motion 6. Earth compared to water in activity S. 6. 7. The manner whereby fire gets into fewel proves that it exceeds earth in activity 8. The same is proved by the manner wherby fire comes out of fewel and works upon other bodies 1. In what sense the Author rejects Qualities In what sense the Author admits of qualities 3. Five arguments proposed to prove that light iâ— not a body 4. The two first reasons to prove light a body are the resemblance it hath with fire and because if it were a quality it would always produce an equall to it self 5. The third reason because if we imagine to our selves the substance of fire to be rarified it will have the sâ—me appearances which light hath 6. The fourth reason from the manner of the generation and corruption of light whcih agrees with fire 7. The fifth reason because such properties belong to light as agree only to bodies 1. That all light is hot and apt to heat 2. The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feel the heat of pure light 3. The experience of burning glasses and of soultry gloomy weather prove light to be fire 4. Philosophers ought not to judge of things by the rules of vulgar people 5. The different names of light and fire proceed from different notions of the same substance 6. The reason why many times fire and head are deprived of light 7. What becoms of the body of light when it dies 8. An experiment of some who petend that light may be precipitated into powder 9. The Authors opinion concerning lamps pretended to have been found in Tombes with inconsumptible lights 1. Light is not really in every part of the room it enlightens nor fills entirely any sensible part of it though it seem to us to do so 2. The least sensible point of a diaphanous body hath room sufficient to contain both air and light together with a multitude of beams issuing from several lights without penetrating one another * Willibrord Snell 3. That light doth not enlighten any room in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion doth make it imperceptible to our senses 4. The reason why the motion of light is not discern'd coming towards us and that there is some reall tardity in it 5. The Planets are not certainly ever in that place where they appear to be 6. The reason why light being a body doth not by its motion shatter other bodies into pieces 7. The reason why the body of light is never perceiv'd to be fanned by the wind The reasons for and against lights being a body compared together A summary repetition of the reasons which prove that light is fire 1. No local motion can be perform'd without succession 2. Time is the common measure of all sucessione 3 What velocity is and that it cannot be infinite 4. No force so little that is not able to move the greatest weight imaginable 5. The chief principle of Mechanicks deduced out of the former discourse 6. No moveable can passe from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degrees which are below the obtained degree 7. The conditions which help to motion in the movable are three in the medium one Dialog 1. of Motion 8. No body hath any intrinsecal vertue to move it self towards any determinate part of the Universe 9. The encrease of motion is always made in the proportion of the odd numbers 11. Certain problems resolved concerning the proportion of some moving agents compared to their effects 12. When a moveable comes to rest the motion decreases according to the rules of encrease 1. Those motions are call'd natural which have constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them 2. The first and most general operation of the Sun is the making and raising of atomes 3. The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causes two streams in the air the one ascending the other descending and both of them in a perpendicular line 4. A dense body placed in the air between the ascending and descending streams must needs descend 5. A more particular explication of all the former doctrine
cranies then the wide channel it streams in it will turn out of its straight way to glide along there where it findes an easier and more declive bed to tumble in so these atoms will infallibly deturn themselvs from their direct course to pass through such a stone as far as their greater conveniency leads them And what we have said of these atoms which from the Poles range through the vast sea of air to the Equator is likewise to be appli'd to those atoms which issue out of the stone so that we may conclude that if they meet with any help which may convey them on with more speed and vigour then whiles they stream directly forwards they will likewise deturn themselvs from directly forwards to take that course And if the stone it self be hang'd so nicely that a less force is able to turn it about then is requisite to turn awry out of its course the continued stream of atoms which issues from the stone in this case the stone it self must needs turn towards that stream which climbing and filtring it self along the stones stream draws it out of its course in such sort as the nose of a Weather-cock buts it self into the wind Now then it being known that the strongest stream comes directly from the North in the great earth and that the Southern stream of the Terrella or Loadstone proportion'd duly by nature to incorporate with the North stream of the earth issues out of the north end of the stone it follows plainly that when a Loadstone is situated at liberty its North and must necessarily turn towards the North pole of the World And it will likewise follow that whenever such a stone meets with another of the same nature and kind they must comport themselvs to one another in like sort that is if both of them be free and equal they must turn themselvs to or from one another according as they are situated in respect of one another So that if their axis be parallel and the South pole of the one and the North of the other look the same way they will send proprtionate and greeing streams to one another from their whole bodies that will readily mingle and incorporate with one another without turning out of their way or seeking any shorter course or chāging their respects to one another But if the poles of the same denomination look the same way and the loadstones do not lie so as to have their axis parallel but that they incline to one another then they will work themselvs about till they grow by their opposite poles into a straight line for the same reason as we have shew'd of a loadstones turning to the pole of the earth But if only one of the loadstones be free and the other fixed and that they lie inclined as in the former case then the free stone will work himself till his pole be opposite to that part of the fixed stone from whence the stream which agrees with him issues strōgest for that streā is to the free loadstone as the Northern streā of the earth is to a loadstone compared to the earth But withal we must take notice that in this our discourse we abstract from other accidents and particularly from the influence of the earths streams into the loadstones which will cause great variety in these cases if they lie not due North South when they begin to work And as loadstones and other magnetick bodies thus of necessity turn to one another when they are both free and if one of them be fast'ned the other turns to it so likewise if they be free to progressive motion they must by a like necessity and for the same reason come together and joyn themselves to one another And if only one of them be free that must remove it self to the other for the same vertue that makes them turn which is the strength of the steam will likewise in due circumstances make them come together by reason that the steams which climbe up one another by the way of filtration and thereby turn the bodies of the stones upon their centers when they are only free to turn must likewise draw the whole bodies of the stones entirely out of their places and make them joyn when such a total motion of the body is an effect that requires no more force than the force of conveying vigorously the streams of both the Magnetick bodies into one another that is when there is no such impediment standing in the way of the Magnetick bodies motion but that the celerity of the atomes motion mingling with one another is able to overcome it For then it must needs do so and the magnetick body by natural coherence to the steam of atomes in which it is involved follows the course of the steam in such sort as in the example we have heretofore upon another occasion given of an eggs-shell fill'd with dew the Sun-beams converting the dew into smoke and raising up that smoke or steam the eggs-shell is likewise rais'd up for company with the steam that issues from it And for the same reason it is that the Load-stone draws iron For iron being of a nature apt to receive and harbor the steams of a Loadstone it becomes a weak loadstone and works towards a loadstone as a weaker Loadstone would do so moves towards a Loadstone by the means we have now described And that this conformity between iron and the Loadstone is the true reason of the Loadstones drawing iron is clear out of this that a Loadstone will take up a greater weight of pure iron then it will of impure or drossie Iron or of Iron and some other mettal joyn'd together and that it will draw further through a slender long Iron then in the free open air all which are manifest signs that iron co-operates with the force which the Loadstone grafts in it And the reason why iron comes to a loadstone more efficaciously then another loadstone doth is because loadstones generally are more impure then iron is as being a kind of Oar or Mine of Iron and have other extraneous and Heterogeneal natures mix'd with them whereas iron receives the loadstones operation in its whole substance CHAP. XXI Positions drawn out of the former Doctrine and confirm'd by experimental proofs THe first Position is that The working of the loadstone being throughout according to the tenour of the operation of bodies may be done by bodies and consequently is not done by occult or secret qualities Which is evident out of this that a greater loadstone has more effect then a lesser and that if you cut away part of a loadstone part of his vertue is likewise taken from him and if the parts be join'd again the whole becomes as strong as it was before Again if a loadstone touch a longer iron it gives it less force then if it touch a shorter nay the vertue in any part is sensibly lesser according as it is further from
the touched part Again the longer an iron is in touching the greater vertue it gets and the more constant And both an iron and a loadstone may lose their vertue by long lying out of their due order and situation either to the earth or to another loadstone Besides if a loadstone touch a long iron in the middle of it he diffuses his vertue equally towards both ends and if it be a round plate he diffuses his vertue equally to all sides And lastly the vertue of a loadstone as also of an iron touched is lost by burning it in the fire All which symptoms agreeing exactly with the rules of bodies make it undeniable that the vertue of the loadstone is a real and solid body Against this position Cabeus objects that little atomes would not be able to penetrate all sorts of bodies as we see the vertue of the loadstone doth And argues that although they should be allow'd to do so yet they could not be imagin'd to penetrate thick and solid bodies so suddenly as they would do thin ones and would certainly shew then some sign of facility or difficulty of passing in the interposition and taking away of bodies put between the loadstone and the body it works upon Secondly he objects that atomes being little bodies cannot move in an instant as the working of the loadstone seems to do And lastly that the loadstone by such abundance of continual evaporations would quickly be consumed To the first we answer That atomes whose nature 't is to pierce iron cannot reasonbly be suspected of inability to penetrate any other body and that atomes can penetrate iron is evident in the melting of it by fire And indeed this objection comes now too late after we have so largely declared the divisibility of quantity and the subtility of nature in reducing all things into extreme small parts for this difficulty has no other avow then the tardity of our imaginations in subtilizing sufficiently the quantitative parts that issue out of the loadstone As for any tardity that may be expected by the interposition of a thick or dense body there is no appearance of such since we see light pass through thick glasses without giving any sign of meeting with the least opposition in its passage as we have above declared at large and magnetical emanations have the advantage of light in this that they are not obliged to straight lines as light is Lastly as for Loadstones spending themselves by still venting their emanations odoriferous bodies furnish us with a full answer to that objection for they continue many years palpably spending themselvs and yet keep their odour in vigour wheras a loadstone if it be laid in a wrong position will not continue half so long The reason of the duration of both which makes the matter manifest and takes away all difficulty which is that as in the root of a vegeâ—able there is a power to change the advenient juyce into its nature so is there in such like things as these a power to change the ambient air into their own substance as evident experience shews in the Hermetike Salt as some modern writers call it which is found to be repair'd and encreas'd in its weight by lying in the air and the like happens to Saltpeter And in our present subject experience informs us that a Loadstone will grow stronger by lying in due position either to the earth or to astronger Loadstone whereby it may be better impregnated and as it were feed it self with the emanations issuing out of them into it Our next position is that This virtue comes to a magnetick body from another body as the nature of bodies is to require a being moved that they may move And this is evident in iron which by the touch orby standing in due position near the loadstone gains the power of the Loadstone Again if a Smith in beating his iron into a rod observe to lay it North South it gets a direction to the North by the very beating of it Likewise if an iron rod be made red hot in the fire and kept there a good while together and when it is taken out be laid to cool just North and South it will acquire the same direction towards the North. And this is true not only of iron but also of all other sorts of bodies whatever that endure such ignition particularly of pot-earths which if they be moulded in a long form and when they are taken out of the Kiln be laid as we said of the iron to cool North and South will have the same effect wrought in them And iron though it has not been heated but only continued long unmoved in the some situation of North and South in a building yet it will have the same effect So as it cannot be denied but this virtue comes to iron from other bodies wherof one must be a secret influence from the North. And this is confirmd by a Loadstones losing its virtue as we said before by lying a long time unduly disposed either towards the earth or towards a stronger Loadstone wherby in stead of the former it gains a new virtue according to that situation And this happens not only in the virtue which is resident and permanent in a Loadstone or a touch'd iron but likewise in the actual motion or operation of them As may be experienc'd First in this that the same loadstone or touch'd iron in the South hemisphere of the world hath its operation strongest at that end of it which tends to the North and in the North Hemisphere at the end which tends to the South each pole communicating a vigour proportionable to its own strength in the climate where it is receiv'd Secondly in this that an iron joyn'd to a Loadstone or within the Sphere of the Loadstones working will take up another piece of iron greater then the Loadstone of it self can hold and as soon as the holding iron is removed out of the sphere of the Loadstones activity it presently lets fall the iron it formerly held up And this is so true that a lesser loadstone may be placed so within the sphere of a greater loadstones operation as to take away a piece of iron from the greater Loadstone and this in virtue of the same greater Loadstone from which it plucks it for but remove the lesser out of the sphere of the greater and then it can no longer do it So that 't is evident in these cases the very actual operation of the lesser Loadstone or of the iron proceeds from the actual influence of the greater Loadstone upon and into them And hence we may understand that whenever a magnetick body works it has an excitation from without which makes it issue out and send its streams abroad so as 't is the nature of all bodies to do and as we have given examples of the like done by heat when we discours'd of Rarefaction But to explicate this point more clearly by
is changed into another as when a Caterpillar or a Silk-worm becomes a Flie 't is manifest there can be no such precedent collection of parts And therfore there is no remedy but we must seek out some other means and course of generation then this To which we may be lead by considering how a Living Creature is nourish'd and augmented for why should not the parts be made in Generation of a matter lik that which makes them in Nutrition If they be augmented by one kind of juyce that after several changes turns at length into flesh and bone and every sort of mixed body or similiar part wherof the sensitive creature is compounded and that joyns it self to what it finds already made why should not the same juyce with the same progress of heat and moysture and other due temperaments be converted at first into flesh and bone though none be formerly there to joyn it self to Let us then conclude that the juyce which serves for nourishment of the Animal being more then is requisite for that service the superfluous part of it is drain'd from the rest and reserv'd in a place fit for it where by little and little through digestion it gains strength and vigour and spirits to it self and becomes an homogeneal body such as other simple compounds are which by other degrees of heat moisture is chang'd into another kind of substance that again by other temperaments into an other And thus by the course of nature and by passing successively many degrees of temper and by receiving a total change in every one of them at length an Animal is made of such juice as afterwards serves to nourish him But to bring this to pass a shorter way and with greater facility some have been of opinion that all similar things of whatever substance are undiscernably mixed in every thing that is and that to the making of any body out of any thing there is no more required but to gather together those parts which are of that kind and to separate and cast away from them all those which are of a nature differing from them But this speculation will appear a very aiery and needless one we consider into how many several substances the same species of a thing may be immediately changed or rather how many several substances may be encreas'd immediately from several equal individuals of the same thing and then take an account how much of each individual is gone into each substance which it hath so increas'd For if we sum up the quantities that in the several substances are therby encreas'd we shall find they very much exceed the whole quantity of any one of the individuals which should not be if the supposition were true for every individual should be but one one total made up of the several different similar parts which encrease the several substances that extract out of them what is of their own nature This will be better understood by an example Suppose that a Man a Horse a Cow a Sheep and 500 more several species of living creatures should make a meal of Letuces To avoid all perplexity in conceiving the argument let us allow that every one did eat a pound and let us conceive another pound of this herb to be burned as much to be putrified under a Cabage root and the like under 500 plants more of divers species Then cast how much of every pound of letuce is turned into the substances that are made of them or encreas'd by them as how much ashes one pound hath made how much water hath been distil'd out of another pound how much a man hath been encreas'd by a third how much a horse by a fourth how much earth by the putrefaction of a fifth pound how much a Cabage hath been encreas'd by a sixth and so go over all the pounds that have been turned into substances of different species which may be multiplied as much as you please And when you have sum'd up all these several quantities you find them far to exceed the quantity of one pound which it would not do if every pound of Letuce were made up of several different similiar parts actually in it that are extracted by different substances of the natures of those parts and that no substance could be encreas'd by it unless pats of its nature were originally in the letuce On the other side if we but cast our eye back upon the principles we have laid where we discourse of the composition of bodies we shall discern how this work of changing one thing into another either in nutrition in augmention or in generation will appear not only possible but easie to be effected For out of them 't is made evident how the several varieties of solid and liquid bodies all differences of natural qualities all consistences and whatever else belongs to similar bodies results out of the pure and single mixture of rarity and density so that to make all such varieties as are necessary there 's no need of mingling or separating any other kinds of parts but only an art or power to mingle in due manner plain rare and dense bodies one with another Which very action and none other but with excellent method and order such as becomes the great Architect that hath design'd it is perform'd in the generation of a living creature which is made of a substance at first far unlike what it afterwards grows to be If we look upon this change in gross and consider but the two extremes to wit the first substance of which a living creature made and it self in its full perfection I confess it may well seem incredible how so excellent a creature can derive its origine from so mean a principle and so far remote and differing from what it grows to be But if we examine it in retail and go along anatomizing it in every step and degree that it changes by we shall find that every immediate change is so near and so palpably to be made by the concurrent causes of the matter prepared as we must conlude it cannot possibly become any other thing then just what it doth become Take a Bean or any other seed and put it into the earth and let water fall upon it can it be but the bean must swell The bean swelling can it chuse but break the skin The skin broken can it chuse by reason of the heat that is in it but push out more matter and do that action which we may call germinating Can these germs chuse but pierce the earth in small strings as they are able to make their way Can these strings chuse but be harden'd by the compression of the earth and by their own nature they being the heaviest parts of the fermented bean And can all this be any thing else but a root Afterwards the heat that is in the root mingling it self with more moisture and according to its nature springing upwards will it not follow
necessarily that a tender green substance which we call a bud or leaf must appear a little above the earth since tenderness greenness and ascent are the effects of those two principles heat moisture And must not this green substance change from what it was at first by the Sun and Air working upon it as it grows higher till at length it hardens into a stalk All this while the heat in the root sublimes up more moisture which makes the stalk at first grow rank and encrease in length But when the more volatile part of that warm juice is sufficiently depured and sublimed will it not attempt to thrust it self out beyond the stalk with much vigour and smartness And as soon as it meets with the cold air in its eruption will it not be stop'd and thick'ned And new parts flocking still from the root must they not clog that issue and grow into a button which will be a bud This bud being hard'ned at the sides by the same causes which hard'ned the stalk and all the while the inward heat still streaming up not enduring to be long enclosed especially when by its being stop'd it multiplyes it self will it not follow necessarily that the tender bud must cleave and give way to that spiritual juice which being purer then the rest through its great sublimation shews it self in a purer and nobler substance than any that is yet made and so becomes a flower From hence if we proceed as we have begun and weigh all circumstances we shall see evidently that another substance must needs succeed the flower which must be hollow and contain a fruit in it and that this fruit must grow bigger and harder And so to the last period of the generation of new beans Thus by drawing the thrid carefully along through your fingers and staying at every knot to examine how it is tyed you see that this difficult progress of the generation of living creatures is obvious enough to be comprehended and that the steps of it are possible to be set down if one would but take the pains and afford the time that is necessary less then that Philosopher who for so many years gave himself wholy up to the single observing of the nature of Bees to note diligently all the circumstances in every change of it In every one of which the thing that was becoms absolutely a new thing and is endew'd with new properties and qualities different from those it had before as Physicians from their certain experience assure us And yet every change is such as in the ordinary and general course of nature wherin nothing is to be consider'd but the necessary effects following out such Agents working upon such patients in such circumstances 't is impossible that any other thing should be made of the precedent but that which is immediately subsequent to it Now if all this orderly succession of mutations be necessarily made in a Bean by force of sundry circumstances and external accidents why may it not be conceiv'd that the like is also done in sensible creatures but in a more perfect manner they being perfecter substances Surely the progress we have set down is much more reasonable then to conceive that in the meal of the Bean are contain'd in little several similar substances as of a root of a leaf a stalk a flower a cod fruit and the rest and that every one of these being from the first still the same that they shall be afterwards do but suck in more moisture from the earth to swel and enlarge themselvs in quantity Or that in the seed of the male there is already in act the substance of flesh of bone of sinews of veins the rest of those several similar parts which are found in the body of an Animal and that they are but extended to their due magnitude by the humidity drawn from the mother without receiving any substantial mutation from what they were originally in the seed Let us then confidently conclude that all generation is made of a fitting but remote homogenial compounded substance upon which outward Agents working in the due course of nature change it into another substance quite different from the first and make it less homogenal then the first was And other circumstances and agents change this second into a third that third into a fourth and so onwards by successive mutations that still make every new thing become less homogeneal then the former was according to the nature of heat mingling more and more different bodies together till that substance be produced which we consider in the period of all these mutations And this is evident out of many experiences As for example in Trees the bark which is opposed to the North wind is harder thicker then the contrary side which is opposed to the south and a great difference will appear in the grain of the wood even so much that skilful people will by feeling and seeing a round piece of the wood after the Tree is fell'd tell you in what situation it grew and which way each side of that piece look'd And Josephus Acosta writes of a Tree in America that on the one side being situated towards great hills and on the other exposed to the hot Sun the one half of it flourishes at one time of the year and the other half at the opposite season and some such like may be the cause of the strange effects we somtimes see of trees flourishing or bearing leaves at an unseasonable time of the year as in particular in the famous Oak in the New Forrest and in some others in our Island in which peradventure the Soil they grow in may do the same effect as the winds and Sun did in the Tree that Acosta mentions For we daily see how some soiles are so powerful over some kind of corn that they will change the very nature of it so that you shall reap Oats or Rie after you have sown Wheat there Which shews evidently that since the outward circumstances can make the parts or the whole of any substance become different from what they were at first generation is not made by aggregation of like parts to presupposed like ones nor by a specifical worker within but by the compounding of a seminary matter with the juice which accrues to it from without and with the streams of circumstant bodies which by an ordinary course of nature are regularly imbibed in it by degrees and at every degree change it into a different thing such as is capable to result out of the present compound as we have said before till it arrive to its full perfection Which yet is not the utmost period of natures changes for from that for example from corn or an Animal it carries it on still changing it to be meal or a Cadaver from thence to be bread or durt after that to be blood or grass And so still turning about her wheel which suffers nothing to remain