they gave according to their observation this following reason There is said they a certain heat within the bowels of the Earth proceeding from its swift circular motion upon its own axe which heat distills the rarest parts of the Earth into a fresh and insipid water which water being through the pores of the Earth conveighed into a place where it may break forth without resistance or obstruction causes Springs and Fountains and these distilled waters within the Earth do nourish and refresh the grosser and dryer parts thereof This Relation confirmed the Emperess in the opinion concerning the motion of the Earth and the fixedness of the Sun as the Bird-men had informed her and then she asked the Worm-men whether Minerals and Vegetables were generated by the same heat that is within the bowels of the Earth To which they could give her no positive answer onely this they affirmed That heat and cold were not the primary producing causes of either Vegetables or Minerals or other sorts of Creatures but onely effects and to prove this our assertion said they we have observed that by change of some sorts of corporeal motions that which is now hot will become cold and what is now cold will grow hot but the hottest place of all we find to be the Center of the Earth Neither do we observe that the torrid Zone does contain so much Gold and Silver as the Temperate nor is there great store of Iron and Lead wheresoever there is Gold for these metals are most found in colder climates towards either of the Poles This observation the Emperess commanded them to confer with her Chymists the Ape-men to let them know that Gold was not produced by a violent but a temperate degree of heat She asked further Whether Gold could not be made by Art They answered That they could not certainly tell her Majesty but if it was possible to be done they thought Tin Lead Brass Iron and Silver to be the fittest metals for such an Artificial transmutation Then she asked them Whether Art could produce Iron Tin Lead or Silver They answered not in their opinion Then I perceive replied the Emperess that your judgments are very irregular since you believe that Gold which is so fixt a metal that nothing has been found as yet which could occasion a dissolution of its interior figure may be made by Art and not Tin Lead Iron Copper or Silver which yet are so far weaker and meaner metals then Gold is But the Worm-men excused themselves that they were ignorant in that Art and that such questions belonged more properly to the Ape-men which were Her Majesties Chymists Then the Emperess asked them Whether by their sensitive perceptions they could observe the interior corporeal figurative motions both of Vegetables and Minerals They answer'd That their senses could perceive them after they were produced but not before Nevertheless said they although the interior figurative motions of natural Creatures are not subject to the exterior animal sensitive perceptions yet by their rational perception they may judg of them and of their productions if they be regular Whereupon the Emperess commanded the Bear-men to lend them some of their best Microscopes at which the Bear-men smilingly answered her Majesty that their Glasses would do them but little service in the bowels of the Earth because there was no light for said they our Glasses do onely represent exterior objects according to the various reflections and positions of light and wheresoever light is wanting the glasses wil do no good To which the Worm-men replied that although they could not say much of refractions reflections inflections and the like yet were they not blind even in the bowels of the Earth for they could see the several sorts of Minerals as also minute Animals that lived there which minute animal Creatures were not blind neither but had some kind of sensitive perception that was as serviceable to them as sight taste smell touch hearing c. was to other animal Creatures By which it is evident That Nature has been as bountiful to those Creatures that live under ground or in the bowels of the Earth as to those that live upon the surface of the Earth or in the Air or in Water But howsoever proceeded the Worm-men although there is light in the bowels of the Earth yet your Microscopes will do but little good there by reason those Creatures that live under ground have not such an optick sense as those that live on the surface of the Earth wherefore unless you had such glasses as are proper for their perception your Microscopes will not be any ways advantagious to them The Emperess seem'd well pleased with this answer of the Worm-men and asked them further whether Minerals and all other Creatures within the Earth were colourless At which question they could not forbear laughing and when the Emperess asked the reason why they laught We most humbly beg your Majesties pardon replied they for we could not chuse but laugh when we heard of a colourless body Why said the Emperess colour is onely an accident which is an immaterial thing and has no being of it self but in an other body Those replied they that informed your Majesty thus surely their rational motions were very irregular For how is it possible that a natural nothing can have a being in Nature If it be no substance it cannot have a being and if no being it is nothing Wherefore the distinction between subsisting of it self and subsisting in another body is a meer nicety and non-sense for there is nothing in Nature that can subsist of or by it self I mean singly by reason all parts of Nature are composed in one body and though they may be infinitely divided commixed and changed in their particulars yet in general parts cannot be separated from parts as long as Nature lasts nay we might as probably affirm that Infinite Nature would be as soon destroyed as that one Atome could perish and therefore your Majesty may firmly believe that there is no body without colour nor no colour without body for colour figure place magnitude and body are all but one thing without any separation or abstraction from each other The Emperess was so wonderfully taken with this discourse of the Worm-men that she not onely pardoned the rudeness they committed in laughing at first at her question but yielded a full assent to their opinion which she thought the most rational that ever she had heard yet and then proceeding in her questions enquired further whether they had observed any seminal principles within the Earth free from all dimensions and qualities which produced Vegetables Minerals and the like To which they answered That concerning the seeds of Minerals their sensitive perceptions had never observed any but Vegetables had certain seeds out of which they were produced Then she asked whether those seeds of Vegetables lost their species that is were annihilated in the production of their off-spring To which they
can neither be always assured of knowing the Truth for particular Reason may sometimes be deceived as well as sense but when the Perceptions both of sense and reason agree then the information is more true I mean regular sense and reason not irregular which causes mistakes and gives false informations also the Presentation of the objects ought to be true and without delusion 19. Of preserving the Figures of Animal Creatures I Am absolutely of the opinion of those who believe Natural Philosophy may promote not onely Anatomy but all other Arts for else they would not be worth the taking of pains to learn them by reason the rational perceptions are beyond the sensitive I am also of opinion that there may be an Art to preserve the exterior shapes of some animal bodies but not their interior forms for although their exterior shapes even after the dissolution of the animal figure may be some what like the shapes and figures of their bodies when they had the life of an animal yet they being transformed into some other Creatures by the alteration of their interior figurative motions can no ways keep the same interior figure which they had when they were living animals Concerning the preserving of blood by the means of spirit of Wine as some do probably believe my opinion is That spirit of Wine otherwise call'd Hot-water if taken in great quantity will rather dry up or putrifie the blood then preserve it nay not onely the blood but also the more solid parts of an animal body insomuch as it will cause a total dissolution of the animal figure and some animal Creatures that have blood will be dissolved in Wine which yet is not so strong as extracts or spirit of Wine But blood mingled with spirit of Wine may perhaps retain somewhat of the colour of blood although the nature and propriety of blood be quite altered As for the instance of preserving dead fish or flesh from putrifying and stinking alledged by some we see that ordinary salt will do the same with less cost and as spirits of Wine or hot Waters may like salt preserve some dead bodies from corruption so may they by making too much or frequent use of them also cause living bodies to corrupt and dissolve sooner then otherwise they would do But Chymists are so much for extracts that by their frequent use and application they often extract humane life out of humane bodies instead of preserving it 20. Of Chymistry and Chymical Principles IT is sufficiently known and I have partly made mention above what a stir Natural Philosophers do keep concerning the principles of Nature and natural Beings and how different their opinions are The Schools following Aristotle are for the Four Elements which they believe to be simple bodies as having no mixture in themselves and therefore fittest to be principles of all other mixt or compounded bodies But my Reason cannot apprehend what they mean by simple bodies I confess that some bodies are more mixt then others that is they consist of more differing parts such as the learned call Heterogeneous as for example Animals consist of flesh blood skin bones muscles nerves tendons gristles and the like all which are parts of different figures Other bodies again are composed of such parts as are of the same nature which the learned call Homogeneous as for example Water Air c. whose parts have no different figures but are all alike each other at least to our perception besides there are bodies which are more rare and subtile than others according to the degrees of their natural figurative motions and the composion of their parts Nevertheless I see no reason why those Homogeneous bodies should be called simple and all others mixt or composed of them much less why they should be principles of all other natural bodies for they derive their origine from matter as well as the rest so that it is onely the different composure of their parts that makes a difference between them proceeding from the variety of self-motion which is the cause of all different figures in nature for as several work-men join in the building of one house and several men in the framing of one Government so do several parts in the making or forming of one composed figure But they 'l say it is not the likeness of parts that makes the Four Elements to be principles of natural things but because there are no natural bodies besides the mentioned Elements that are not composed of them as is evident in the dissolution of their parts for example A piece of Green wood that is burning in a Chimney we may readily discern the Four Elements in its dissolution out of which it is composed for the fire discovers it self in the flame the smoak turns into air the water hisses and boils at the ends of the wood and the ashes are nothing but the Element of earth But if they have no better arguments to prove their principles they shall not readily gain my consent for I see no reason why wood should be composed of the Four Elements because it burns smoaks hisses and turns into ashes Fire is none of its natural ingredients but a different figure which being mixt with the parts of the wood is an occasion that the Wood turns into ashes neither is Water a principle of Wood for Water is as much a figure by it self as Wood or Fire is which being got into the parts of the wood and mixt with the same is expelled by the fire as by its opposite but if it be a piece of dry and not of green wood where is then the water that boils out Surely dry wood hath no less principles then green wood and as for smoak it proves no more that it is the Element of Air in Wood then that Wood is the Element of Fire for Wood as experience witnesses may last in water where it is kept from the air and smoak is rather an effect of moisture occasioned into such a figure by the commixture of fire Others as Helmont who derives his opinion from Thales and others of the ancient Philosophers are only for the Element of Water affirming that that is the sole principle out of which all natural things consist for say they the Chaos where of all things were made was nothing else but water which first setled into slime and then condensed into solid earth nay some endeavour to prove by Chymical Experiments that they have disposed water according to their Chymical way so that it visibly turn'd into earth which earth produced animals vegetables and minerals But put the case it were so yet this doth not prove water to be the onely principle of all natural beings for first we cannot think that animals vegetables and minerals are the onely kinds of creatures in Nature and that there are no more but them for nature being infinitely various may have infinite Worlds and so infinite sorts of Creatures Next I say that the change of water
motion but all agreed it was fixt and firm like a centre and therefore they generally called it the Sun-stone Then the Emperess asked them the reason Why the Sun and Moon did often appear in different postures or shapes as sometimes magnified sometimes diminished sometimes elevated otherwhiles depressed now thrown to the right and then to the left To which some of the Bird-men answered That it proceeded from the various degrees of heat and cold which are found in the air from whence did follow a differing density and rarity and likewise from the vapours that are interposed whereof those that ascend are higher and less dense then the ambient air but those which descend are heavier and more dense But others did with more probability affirm that it was nothing else but the various patterns of the Air for like as Painters do not copy out one and the same original just alike at all times so said they do several parts of the Air make different patterns of the luminous bodies of the Sun and Moon which patterns as several copies the sensitive motions do figure out in the substance of our eyes This answer the Emperess liked much better then the former and enquired further what opinion they had of those Creatures that are called the motes of the Sun To which they answered That they were nothing else but streams of very small rare and transparent particles through which the Sun was represented as through a glass for if they were not transparent said they they would eclipse the light of the Sun and if not rare and of an airy substance they would hinder Flies from flying in the air at least retard their flying motion Nevertheless although they were thinner then the thinnest vapour yet were they not so thin as the body of air or else they would not be perceptible by animal sight Then the Emperess asked Whether they were living Creatures They answered Yes Because they did encrease and decrease and were nourished by the presence and starved by the absence of the Sun Having thus finished their discourse of the Sun and Moon the Emperess desired to know what Stars there were besides But they answer'd that they could perceive in that World none other but Blazing-stars and from thence it had the name that it was called the Blazing-world and these Blazing-stars said they were such solid firm and shining bodies as the Sun and Moon not of a Globular but of several sorts of figures some had tails and some other kinds of shapes After this The Emperess asked them What kind of substance or creature the Air was The Bird-men answered That they could have no other perception of the air but by their own respiration For said they some bodies are onely subject to touch others onely to sight and others onely to smell but some are subject to none of our exterior senses For Nature is so full of variety that our weak senses cannot perceive all the various sorts of her Creatures neither is there any one object perceptible by all our senses no more then several objects are by one sense I believe you replied the Empress but if you can give no account of the Air said she you will hardly be able to inform me how Wind is made for they say that Wind is nothing but motion of the Air. The Bird-men answer'd That they observed Wind to be more dense then Air and therefore subject to the sense of Touch but what properly Wind was and the manner how it was made they could not exactly tell some said it was caused by the Clouds falling on each other and others that it was produced of a hot and dry exhalation which ascending was driven down again by the coldness of the air that is in the middle Region and by reason of its lightness could not go directly to the bottom but was carried by the Air up and down Some would have it a flowing water of the Air and others again a flowing Air moved by the blas of the Stars But the Emperess seeing they could not agree concerning the cause of Wind asked whether they could tell how Snow was made To which they answered That according to their observation Snow was made by a commixture of Water and some certain extract of the element of Fire that is under the Moon a small portion of which extract being mixed with Water and beaten by Air or Wind made a white froth called Snow which being after some while dissolved by the heat of the same spirit turned to Water again This observation amazed the Emperess very much for she had hitherto believed That Snow was made by cold motions and not by such an agitation or beating of a fiery extract upon water Nor could she be perswaded to believe it until the Fish-or Mear-men had delivered their observation upon the making of Ice which they said was not produced as some had hitherto conceived by the motion of the Air raking the Superficies of the Earth but by some strong saline vapour arising out of the Seas which condensed Water into Ice and the more quantity there was of that vapour the greater were the Mountains or Precipices of Ice but the reason that it did not so much freeze in the Torrid Zone or under the Ecliptick as near or under the Poles was that this vapour in those places being drawn up by the Sun-beams into the middle Region of the Air was onely condensed into water and fell down in showres of rain when as under the Poles the heat of the Sun being not so vehement the same vapour had no force or power to rise so high and therefore caused so much Ice by ascending and acting onely upon the surface of water This Relation confirmed partly the observation of the Bird-men concerning the cause of Snow but since they had made mention that that same extract which by its commixture with Water made Snow proceeded from the Element of Fire that is under the Moon The Emperess asked them of what nature that Elementary Fire was whether it was like ordinary fire here upon Earth or such a fire as is within the bowels of the Earth and as the famous mountains Vesuvius and AEtna do burn withal or whether it was such a sort of fire as is found in flints c. They answered That the Elementary Fire which is underneath the Sun was not so solid as any of those mentioned fires because it had no solid fuel to feed on but yet it was much like the flame of ordinary fire onely somewhat more thin and fluid for flame said they is nothing else but the airy part of a fired body Lastly the Emperess asked the Bird-men of the nature of Thunder and Lightning and whether it was not caused by roves of Ice falling upon each other To which they answered That it was not made that way but by an encounter of cold and heat so that an exhalation being kindled in the Clouds did dash forth Lightning and that there
of light I cannot certainly tell The Emperess seeing the insufficiency of those Magnifying-glasses that they were not able to enlarge all sorts of objects asked the Bear-men whether they could not make glasses of a contrary nature to those they had shewed her to wit such as instead of enlarging or magnifying the shape or figure of an object could contract it beneath its natural proportion Which in obedience to her Majesties Commands they did and viewing through one of the best of them a huge and mighty Whale appear'd no bigger then a Sprat nay through some no bigger then a Vinegar-Eele and through their ordinary ones an Elephant seemed no bigger then a Flea a Camel no bigger then a Lowse and an Ostrich no bigger then a Mite To relate all their optick observations through the several sorts of their Glasses would be a tedious work and tire even the most patient Reader wherefore I 'le pass them by onely this was very remarkable and worthy to be taken notice of that notwithstanding their great skil industry and ingenuity in Experimental Philosophy they could yet by no means contrive such Glasses by the help of which they could spy out a Vacuum with all its dimensions nor Immaterial substances Non-beings and Mixt-beings or such as are between something and nothing which they were very much troubled at hoping that yet in time by long study and practice they might perhaps attain to it The Bird-and Bear-men being dismissed the Emperess called both the Syrenes or Fish-men and the Worm-men to deliver their observations which they had made both within the Seas and the Earth First she enquired of the Fish-men whence the saltness of the Sea did proceed To which they answered That there was a volatile salt in those parts of the Earth which as a bosom contain the Waters of the Sea which salt being imbibed by the Sea became fixt and this imbibing motion was that they call'd the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea for said they the rising and swelling of the water is caused by those parts of the volatile salt as are not so easily imbibed which striving to ascend above the water bear it up with such a motion as Man or some other animal Creature in a violent certainly those may be said to be of such a mixt nature that is partly flesh and partly fish But how is it possible replied the Emperess that they should live both in Water and on the Earth since those Animals that live by the respiration of air cannot live within Water and those that live in Water cannot live by the respiration of Air as experience doth sufficiently witness They answered her Majesty That as there were different sorts of Creatures so they had also different ways of respirations for respiration said they was nothing else but a composition and division of parts and the motions of nature being infinitely various it was impossible that all Creatures should have the like motions wherefore it was not necessary that all animal Creatures should be bound to live either by the air or by water onely but according as Nature had ordered it convenient to their species The Emperess seem'd very well satisfied with their answer and desired to be further informed Whether all animal Creatures did continue their species by a successive propagation of particulars and whether in every species the off-spring did always resemble their Generator or Producer both in their interior and exterior figures They answered her Majesty That some species or sorts of Creatures were kept up by a successive propagation of an off-spring that was like the producer but some were not of the first rank said they are all those animals that are of different sexes besides several others but of the second rank are for the most part those we call insects whose production proceds from such causes as have no conformity or likeness with their produced effects as for example Maggots bred out of Cheese and several others generated out of Earth Water and the like But said the Emperess there is some likeness between Maggots and Cheese for Cheese has no blood and so neither have Maggots besides they have almost the same taste which Cheese has This proves nothing answered they for Maggots have a visible local progressive motion which Cheese hath not The Emperess replied That when all the Cheese was turned into Maggots it might be said to have local progressive motion They answered That when the Cheese by its own figurative motions was changed into Maggots it was no more Cheese The Emperess confessed that she observed Nature was infinitely various in her works and that though the species of Creatures did continue yet their particulars were subject to infinite changes But since you have informed me said she of the various sorts and productions of animal Creatures I desire you to tell me what you have observed of their sensitive perceptions Truly answered they Your Majesty puts a very hard question to us and we shall hardly be able to give a satisfactory answer to it for there are many different sorts of Creatures which as they have all different perceptions so they have also different organs which our senses are not able to discover onely in an Oyster-shell we have with admiration observed that the common sensorium of the Oyster lies just at the closing of the shells where the pressure and reaction may be perceived by the opening and shutting of the shells every tide After all this the Emperess desired the Worm-men to give her a true Relation how frost was made upon the Earth To which they answered That it was made much after the manner and description of the Fish and Bird-men concerning the Congelation of Water into Ice and Snow by a commixture of saline and acid particles which relation added a great light to the Ape-men who were the Chymists concerning their Chymical principles Salt Sulphur and Mercury But said the Emperess if it be so it will require an infinite multitude of saline particles to produce such a great quantity of Ice Frost and Snow besides said she when Snow Ice and Frost turn again into their former principle I would fain know what becomes of those saline particles But neither the Wor-men nor the Fish-and Bird-men could give her an answer to it Then the Emperess enquired of them the reason Why Springs were not as salt as the Sea is also why Springs did ebb and flow To which some answered That the ebbing and flowing of some Springs was caused by hollow Caverns within the Earth where the Sea-water crowding thorow did thrust forward and draw back-ward the Spring-water according to its own way of ebbing and flowing but others said That it proceeded from a small proportion of saline and acid particles which the Spring-water imbibed from the Earth and although it was not so much as to be perceived by the sense of Taste yet was it enough to cause an ebbing and flowing motion And as for the Spring-water being fresh
answered That by an annihilation nothing could be produced and that the seeds of Vegetables were so far from being annihilated in their productions that they did rather numerously increase and multiply for the division of one seed said they does produce numbers of seeds out of it self But replied the Empress A particular part cannot increase of it self 'T is true answer'd they but they increase not barely of themselves but by joining and commixing with other parts which do assist them in their productions and by way of imitation form or figure their own parts into such or such particulars Then I pray inform me said the Emperess what disguise those seeds put on and how they do conceal themselves in their transmutations They answered That seeds did no ways disguise or conceal but rather divulge themselves in the multiplication of their off-spring onely they did hide and conceal themselves from their sensitive perceptions so that their figurative and productive motions were not perceptible by animal Creatures Again the Emperess asked them whether there were any Non-beings within the Earth To which they answered That they never heard of any such thing and that if her Majesty would know the truth thereof she must ask those Creatures that are called Immaterial Spirits which had a great affinity with Non-beings and perhaps could give her a satisfactory answer to this question Then she desired to be informed what opinion they had of the beginning of forms They told her Majesty That they did not understand what she meant by this expression For said they there is no beginning in Nature no not of Particulars by reason Nature is Eternal and Infinite and her particulars are subject to infinite changes and transmutations by vertue of their own corporeal figurative self-motions so that there 's nothing new in Nature nor properly a beginning of any thing The Emperess seem'd well satisfied with all those answers and inquired further whether there was no Art used by those Creatures that live within the Earth Yes answered they for the several parts of the Earth do join and assist each other in composition or framing of such or such particulars and many times there are factions and divisions which cause productions of mixt species's as for example weeds instead of sweet flowers and useful fruits but Gardeners and Husbandmen use often to decide their quarrels and cause them to agree which though it shews a kindness to the differing parties yet 't is a great prejudice to the Worms and other animal Creatures that live under ground for it most commonly causes their dissolution and ruine at best they are driven out of their habitations What said the Emperess are not Worms produced out of the Earth Their production in general answered they is like the production of all other natural Creatures proceeding from the corporeal figurative motions of Nature but as for their particular productions they are according to the nature of their species some are produced out of flowers some out of roots some out of fruits some out of ordinary Earth Then they are very ungrateful Children replied the Emperess that they feed on their own Parents which gave them life Their life answered they is their own and not their Parents for no part or creature of Nature can either give or take away life but parts do onely assist and join with parts either in the dissolution or production of other parts and Creatures After this and several other Conferences which the Emperess held with the Worm-men she dismissed them and having taken much satisfaction in several of their answers encouraged them in their studies and observations Then she made a convocation of her Chymists the Ape-men and commanded them to give her an account of the several Transmutations which their Art was able to produce They begun first with a long and tedious discourse concerning the Primitive Ingredients of Natural bodies and how by their Art they had found out the principles out of which they consist But they did not all agree in their opinions for some said That the Principles of all natural bodies were the four Elements Fire Air Water Earth out of which they were composed Others rejected this Elementary commixture and said There were many bodies out of which none of the four Elements could be extracted by any degree of Fire whatsoever and that on the other side there were divers bodies whose resolution by fire reduced them into more then four different ingredients and these affirmed that the onely principles of natural bodies were Salt Sulphur and Mercury Others again declared That none of the forementioned could be called the True principles of natural bodies but that by their industry and pains which they had taken in the Art of Chymistry they had discovered that all natural bodies were produced but from one Principle which was Water for all Vegetables Minerals and Animals said they are nothing else but simple water distinguished into various figures by the vertue of their seeds But after a great many debates and contentions about this subject the Emperess being so much tired that she was not able to hear them any longer imposed a general silence upon them and then declared her self in this following discourse I am too sensible of the pains you have taken in the Art of Chymistry to discover the principles of natural bodies and wish they had been more profitably bestowed upon some other then such experiments for both by my own contemplation and the observations which I have made by my rational and sensitive perception upon Nature and her works I find that Nature is but one Infinite self-moving body which by the vertue of its self-motion is divided into infinite parts which parts being restless undergo perpetual changes and transmutations by their infinite compositions and divisions Now if this be so as surely according to regular sense and reason it appears no otherwise it is in vain to look for primary ingredients or constitutive principles of natural bodies since there is no more but one Universal principle of Nature to wit self-moving Matter which is the onely cause of all natural effects Next I desire you to consider that Fire is but a particular Creature or effect of Nature and occasions not onely different effects in several bodies but on some bodies has no power at all witness Gold which never could be brought yet to change its interior figure by the art of Fire and if this be so Why should you be so simple as to believe that fire can shew you the principles of Nature and that either the four Elements or Water onely or Salt Sulphur and Mercury all which are no more but particular effects and Creatures of Nature should be the Primitive ingredients or Principles of all natural bodies Wherefore I will not have you to take more pains and waste your time in such fruitless attempts but be wiser hereafter and busie your selves with such Experiments as may be beneficial to the publick The Emperess having