refraction 6. An answer to the arguments brought in favour of Monsieur des Cartes his opinion 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the refleing body 8. A general rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sorts of surface 9. A body of greater parts and greater pores makes a greater refraction than one of lesser parts and lesser pores 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities Generation of mixed Bodies 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authours intent in it 2. That there is a least sise of bodies and that this least sise is found in fire 3. The first conjunction of parts is in bodies of least sise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4. The second sort of conjunction is compactedness in simple Elements and it proceeds from density 5. The third conjunction is of parts of different Elements and it proceeds from quantity and density together 6. The reason why liquid bodies do easily joyn together and dry ones difficultly 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one another immediately 8. How mixed bodies are framed in general 9. The cause of the several degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10. The Rule whereto are reduced all the several combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11. Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element over the other two 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis air is the predominant Element 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15. Of those bodies where water is in excess it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16. Of those bodies where earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excess over the other three Elements 17. Of those bodies where earth is the basis water is the predominant element over the other two 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis air is the predominant 19. Of those bodies where earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20. All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from several combinations of the first qualities and are at last resolv'd into several degrees of rarity density 21. That in the Planets Stars there is a like variety of mixed bodies caused by light as here on earth 22. In what manner the Elements work on one another in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most active 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of Metals CHAP. XV. Of the Dissolution of Mixed Bodies 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolve mixed bodies 2. How outward violence doth work on the most compacted bodies 3. The several effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolve all compounded bodies 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolved by fire 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but cannot consume it 6. Why Lead is easily consumed and calcinted by fire 7. Why and how some bodies are divided by fire into Spirits Waters Oyls Salts and Earth And what those parts are 8. How water the third instrument to dissolve bodies dissolvs calx into salt and so into terra damnata 9. How water mingled with salt becomes a most powerful Agent to dissolve other bodies 10. How putrefaction is caused CHAP. XVI An Explication of certain Maxims touching the operations and qualies of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world 1. What is the Sphere of activity in corporeal agents 2. The reason why no body can work in distance 3. An objection answer'd against the manner of explicating the former axiome 4. Of re-action and first in pure local motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and act in suffering 5. The former Doctrine applyed to other local motions design'd by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6. Why some notions do admit of intension and remission and others not 7. That in every part of our habitable world all the four elements are found pure in small atoms but not in any great bulk CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of Particular bodies 1. The Authours intent in this and the following chapters 2. That bodies may be rarified both by outward and inward heart and how this is perform'd 3. Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4. The first manner of condensation by heat 5. The second manner of condensation by cold 6. That Ice is not water rarified but condensed 7. How Wind Snow and Hail are made and wind by rain allaid 8. How parts of the same or divers bodies are joyn'd more strongly together by condensation 9. Vacuities cannot be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receive more of another 10. The true reason of the former effect 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do joyn more easily together than others CHAP. XVIII Of another motion belonging to Particular bodies called Attraction and of certain operations term'd Magical 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceeds 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhors from vacuitys 3. The true reason of attraction 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soever 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in Syphons 6. That the Syphon doth not prove water to weigh in its own orb 7. Concerning attraction caus'd by fire 8. Concerning attraction made by virture of hot bodies amulets c 9. The natural reason given for divers operations esteem'd by some to be magical CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electrical attraction 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected 2. What causes the water in Filtration to ascend 3. Why the filter will not drop unless the label hang lower than the water 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5. Why some bodies return only in part to their natural figure others entirely 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which shrink aand stretch 7. How great and wonderful effects proceed from small plain and simple principles 8. Concerning Electrical attratâ—on and the causes of it 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electrical motions CHAP. XX. Of the Loadstones generation and its particulas motions 1. The extreme heat of the Sun under the Zodiack draws a stream of air from each Pole into the torrid Zone 2. The atomes of these two streams coming together are apt to incorporate with one another 3. By the meeting and mingling together
bodies are framed Out of which discourse we may ballance the degrees of solidity in bodies For all bodies being composed of humide and dry parts we may conceive either kind of those parts to be bigger or lesser or to be more rare or more dense Now if the dry parts of any body be extreme little and dense and the moist parts that joyn the dry ones together be very great and rare then that body will be very easie to be dissolv'd But if the moist parts which glew together such extreme little and dense dry parts be either lesser in bulk or not so rare then the body composed of them will be in a stronger degree of consistence And if the moist parts which serve for this effect be in an excess of littleness and withal dense then the body they compose will be in the highest degree of consistence that nature can frame On the other side if you glew together great dry parts which are moderately dense great by the admixtion of humid parts that are of the least size in bulk and dense withal then the consistence will decrease from its height by how much the parts are greater and the density less But if to dry parts of the greatest size and in the greatest remisness of density you add humid parts both very great and very rare then the composed body will prove the most easily dissolveable of all that nature affords After this casting our eyes a little further towards the composition of particular bodies we shall find still greater mixtures the further we go for as the first and simplest compounded bodies are made of the four Elements so others are made of these and again a third sort of them and so on-wards according as by motion the parts of every one are broken in sunder and mingled with others Those of the first order must be of various tempers according to the proportions of the Elements whereof they are immediatly made As for example such a proportion of Fire to the other three Elements will make one kind of simple body and another proportion will make another kind and so throughout by various combinations and proportions among all the Elements In the effecting of which work it will not be amiss to look a little upon nature and observe how she mingles and tempers different bodies one with another wherby she begets that great variety of creatures we see in the World But because the degrees of composition are infinite according to the encrease of number we will contain our selves within the common notions of excess in the four primary components for if we should descend once to specifie any determinate proportions we should endanger losing our selvs in a wood of particular natures which belong not to us at present to examin Then taking the four Elements as materials to work upon let us first consider how they may be varied that differing compositions may result out of their mixtures I conceive that all the ways of varying the Elements in this regard may be reduced to the several sizes of Bigness of the Parts of each Element that enter into the composition of any body and to the Number of those Parts for certainly no other can be imagin'd unless it were variety of Figure But that cannot be admited to belong in any constant manner to those least particulars wherof bodies are framed as if determinate figures were in every degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therfore the Elements would conserve themselves in those figures as well in their least atoms as massie bulk For seeing how these little parts are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily joyn and take the figures which the dense ones give them and that they again justling one another crush themselves into new shapes to which their mixture with the liquid ones makes them yield the more easily t is impossible the elements should have any other natural figure in these their least parts then such as chance gives them But that one part must be bigger then another is evident for the nature of rarity and density gives it the first of them causing divisibility into little parts and the latter hindring it Having then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies let us now begin our mixture In which our ground to work upon must be Earth and Water For only these two are the Basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and submit themselvs to trial Wheras if we should make the predominant Element to be Air or Fire and bring in the other two solid ones under their jurisdiction only to make up the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be either in continual consumption as ordinary fire is or else through too much subtlety imperceptible to our eyes or touch therfore not a fit subject for us to discourse of especially since the other two Elements afford us enough to speculate on Peradventure our Smel might take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it self upon our health but it concerns not us now to look so far our design requires more maniable substances Of these then let Water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three elements in excess over one another by turns but stil all of them oversway'd by a predominant quantity of water and then let us see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth prevail above fire and air and arrive next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needs prove hardly liquid and not easie to let its parts run a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holds it together Yet some inclination it will have to fluidness by reason the water is predominant over all which also will make it be easily divisible and give every little resistance to any hard thing that shall be apply'd to make way through it In a word this mixture makes the constitution of Mud Dirt Honey Butter and such like things where the main parts are great ones And such are the parts of earth and water in themselvs Let the next proportion of excess in a watry compound be of air which when it prevails incorporates it self chiefly with earth for the other Elements would not so well retain it Now because its parts are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it drives the earth and water likewise into lesser parts The result of such a mixture is that the parts of a body compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibb and generally it will burn and be easily converted into flame Of this kind are those we call Oyly or unctuous bodies whose great parts are easily separated that is easily divisible
touching Gravity 6. Gravity and levity do not signifie an intrinsecal inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselvs which are term'd heavy and light 7. The more dense a body is the more swiftly it descends 8. The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be between their several densities 9. More or less gravity produces a swister or a slower descending a heavy body Aristotles argument to disprove motion in 〈◊〉 is made good 10. The reason why at the inferior quarter of a circle a body descends faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord of it 1. The first objection answered why a hollow body descends flower then a solid one 2 The second objection answer'd and the reasons shown why atoms continually overtake the descending dense body 3. A curious queston left undecided 4. The fourth objection answer'd Why the descent of the same heavy bodies is equal in so great inequality of the atoms which cause it 5. The reason why the shelter of a thick-body doth not hinder the descent of that which is under it 6. The reason why some bodies sink others swims 7. The fifth objection answer'd concerning the descending of heavy bodies in streams 8. The sixth objection answered and that all heavy Elements do weigh in their own Spheres 9 The seventh objection answer'd and the reason why we do not feel the course of the air and atoms that beat continually upon us 10. How in the some body gravity may be greater than density and density than gravity though they be the same thing 11. The opinion of gravities being an intrinsecal inclination of a body to the centre refuted by reason â—2 The same opinion refuted by several experiences 1. The State of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2 That the medium is the only cause which continues violent motion 3. A further explication of the former Doctrine 4. That the air has strength enough to continue violent motion in a moveable Dial. 1. of motion pag. 98. 5. An answer to the first objection that air is not apt to conserve motion And how violent motion comes to cease 6. An answer to the second objection that the air has no power over heavy bodies 7. An answer to the third objection that an arrow should fly faster broadways than long ways 1. That reflection is a kind of violent motion 2. Reflection is made at equal angles 3. The causes and properties of Undulation 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towà rds the perpendicular at the going out is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first 6. An answer to the arguments brought in favovr of Monsir des Cartes his opinion 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body 8. A general rule to know the nature of reflections and refractions in all sorts of surfaces 9. A body of greater parts and greater pores makes a greater refraction than one of lesser parts and lesser pores 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1. The connexion of this Chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2. That there is a least size of bodies And that this least size is found in fire 3. The first conjunction of parts is in bodies of least size and it is made by the force of Quantity 4. The second sort of conjunction â—s compactedness in simple Elements and it proceeds from Density 5. The third conjunction is of parts of different Elements and it proceeds from quantity and density together 6. The reason why liquid bodies easily joyn together and dry ones difficultly 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one another immediately 8. How mixed bodies are framed in general 9. The cause of the several degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10. The rule whereto are reduced all the several combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11. Earth and water are the Basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the Basis and earth the pedominant element over the other two 13. Of these bodies where water bing the B sis air is the predominant Element 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the Basis and fire the predominant Element 15. Of those bodies where water is in excess it alone being both the Basis and the predominant Element 16. Of those bodies were Earth alone is the Basis and also the predominant in excess over the other three Elements 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and Water the predominant Element over the other two 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis air is the predominant 19. Of those bodies where earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20. All the Second Qualities of mixed bodies arise from several combinations of the First Qualities and are at last resolv'd into several degrees of rarity and density 21. That in the Planets and Stars there is a like variety of mixed bodies caused by light as here upon Earth 22. In what manner the Elements work upon one another in the position of mixed bodies and in particular fire is the most active 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of Metals 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolve mixed bodies 2. How outward violence work upon the most compacted bodies 3. The several effects of fiâ—e the second and chiefest instrument to dissolve compounded bodies 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolv'd by fire 5. The reason why fire melts gold but cannot consume it 6. Why Lead is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7. Why and how some bodies are divided by fire into spirits waters oyls salts and earth what those parts are 〈◊〉 How water the third instrument to dissolve bodies dissolves Calx into Salt and so into Terra damnata 9. How water mingled with salt becomes almost powerfull Agent to dissolve other bodies 20. How putrefaction is caused 1. What is the Sphere of Activity in corporeal Agents 2. The reason why no body can work in distance 3. An objection answer'd against the manner of explicating the former Axiome 4 Of reaction and first in pure local motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and act in suffering 5. The former doctrine applyed to other local motions design'd by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6. Why some notions admit of intension and remission and others not 7. That in every part of our habitable world all the four Elements are found pure in smal atoms but not in any great bulk 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2. That bodies may be rarified both by outward and inward heat and how this is perform'd 3.
in bulk but the small ones very hardly Next the smalness and well-working of the parts by means of the airs penetrating every dense one and sticking close to every one of them and consequently joyning them without any unevenness causes that there can be no ruggedness in it and therfore 't is glibb in like manner as we see plaister or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causes it to be catching and the shortness of every part makes that where it sticks it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of air next to fire admits it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire upon it And therfore oyls are the proper food of that Element And accordingly we see if a drop of oyl be spill'd upon a sheet of paper and the paper set on fire at a corner as the fire comes near the oyl the oyl will disperse and spread it self upon the paper to a broader compass then it had because the heat rarifies it and so in Oyl it self the fire rarifying the air makes it penetrate the earthy parts adjoynd to it more then it did and so subtilizes them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate its own nature to them and thus it turns them into fire and carries them up in its flame But if fire be predominant over earth and air in a watry compound it makes the body so proportion'd to be subtile rare penetrative hot in operation light in weight and subject to burn Of this kind are all sorts of wines and distil'd Spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquavites in Latine Aquaeardentes These will lose their virtues meerly by remaining uncover'd in the air for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find means raises it self into the air As we see in the smoke of boyling water which is nothing else but little bodies of fire that entring into the water rarifie some parts of it but have no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can get out fly away but the humide parts of the water which they have rarified being of a sticking nature joyn themselves to them and ascend in the air as high as the fiery atomes have strength to carry them which when it fails them that smoke falls down in a dew and so becomes water again as it was All which one may easily discern in a glasse-vessel of water set over the fire in which one may observe the fire come in at the bottome and presently swim up to the top like a little bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoke and that will at last convert it self into drops and settle upon some solid substance thereabouts Of these fiery spirits some are so subtile as of themselves they will vanish and leave no residue of a body behind them and Alchymists profess to make them so etherial and volatile that being pour'd out of a glass from some reasonable height they shall never reach the ground but before they come thither be so rarified by that little motion as they shall grow invisible like the air and dispersing themselves all about in it fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seen The last excess in watery bodies must be of water it self which is when so little a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible Out of this composition arise all those several sorts of juices or liquors we commonly call Waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements have peculiar properties beyond simple Elemental water The general quality whereof we shall not need any further to express because by what we have already said of water in common they are sufficiently known In our next survey we will take Earth for our ground to work upon as hitherto we have done water which if in any body it be in the utmost excess beyond all the other three then rocks and stones will grow out of it whose driness and hardness may assure us that Earth sways in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightness in respect of some other earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceeds from the greatness and multiplicity of pores wherwith their driness causes them to aboundâ— and hinders not but that their real solid parts may be very heavy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceed the fire and air but still inferiour to the earth we shall poduce metals whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainly tells us that the smallest of waters gross parts are the glew that holds the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easie changing of parts being most proper to water Quick-silver that is the general matter wherof all the metals are immediately composed gives us evidence hereof for fire works upon it with the same effect as upon water And the calcination of most of the metals proves that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therfore must be rather of a watry then of an aiery substance Likewise the glibness of Mercury and of melted metals without catching or sticking to other substances gives us to understand that this great temper of a moist Element with earth is water and not air and that the watry parts are comprised and as it were shut up within the earthy ones for air catches and sticks notably to all things it touches and will not be imprisoned the divisibility of it being excceeding great though in never so short parts Now if air mingles it self with earth and be prodominant over water and fire it makes such an oily and fat soil as Husbandmen account their best mould which receiving a betterment from the Sun temperate heat assures us of the concourse of the aire for wherever such heat is air cannot fail of accompanying or being effected by it and the richest of such earth as pot-earth and marl will with much fire grow more compacted and stick closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pots or fine bricks Whereas if water were the glew between the dense parts fire would consume it and crumble them asunder as it doth in those bodies it calcines And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirms that air abounds in them for it is the nature of air to stick so close where once it is kneaded in as it cannot be separated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscuous holding together of the parts of glass when it is melted shews evidently that air abounds in vitrified bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an over-ruling