them both those sixteen months that we remain'd Maâ—ter of those Seas therefore it concern'd us to make towards some safe Port where we might both refresh our Men and repair our batter'd Vessels My opinion was clean contrary to theirs for I believ'd our best Course were to steer our Course Westward and to sail along the Coasts of Cilicia Pamphylia Lydia Natolia or Asia the Less and to traverse the mouth of the Archipelago leave the Adriatick on the right hand and pass by Sicily Italy Sardinia Corsica the Gulph of Lion and so coast all Spain Telling them that it would be a great dishonour to us to forsake our best Road for fear of the Enemy since our chief business thither was to find them out and the protection which it pleased God to afford us all along in so many Combats in going ought to make us hope the same providence would vouchsafe to guide us in returning That there was no doubt but the road which I proposed to them consider'd simply in it self was without comparison the better and the more expedite to sail out of the Mediterranean Sea and gain the Ocean because said I although we have the briezes from the Land as long as we are upon the Coasts of Syria and Egypt we shall not have them at all while we sail upon the coasts of Lybia where there are those fearful Sands the Syrtes which are of a great extent the said coast having no humidity for there is neither tree nor herb grows there nor ought else but moving Sands which cover'd and interred heretofore at one glut the puissant Army of Kâ—ng Cambyses Now where there is no humidity the Sun cannot attract to make a wind so that we shall never find there specially in Summer time any other wind but that Regular one which blows from East to West according to the course of the Sun who is the Father of Winds unless some extraordinary happen either from the coast of Italy which lies Northward or from the bottom of Ethiopia where the Mountains of the Moon are and the source of the Cataracts of Nile Therfore if we were near the Syrtes the winds of Italy would be most dangerous to us and expose us to shipwrack I reason'd so according to natural Causes while they of my Councel of war kept themselvs firm to their Exâ—eâ—â—ence and I would do nothing against the unanimous sense of all for though the disposing and resolution of all things depended absolutely upon my self yet I thought I might be justly accused of rashness or wilfulness if I should prefer my own advice before that of all the rest So we took that course and went happilâ— as far as the Syrtes of Lybia but there our land briâ—zes fail'd us and for seven and thirty days we had no other but a few gentle Zephirs which came from the West whither we were steering our course We were constrain'd to keep at anchor all that time with a great deal of apprehension that the wind might come from the North accompanied with a Tempest for if that had hapned we had been all lost because our anchors had not been able to hold among those moving Sands for under water they are of the same nature as they are upon dry land and so we must have been shipwrackt upon that coast But God Almighty who hath been pleas'd I should have the honour to wait on you this day deliver'd me from that danger And at the end of seven and thirty days we observ'd the course of the clouds very high which came from Soâ—â—h-â—ast at first but slowly but by degrees faster and faster insomâ—ch that in two days the wind which was forming it self a great way off in Ethiopia came in a tempest to the place where we rid at anchor and carried us whither we intended to go but the force of it was broken before coming so far Out of this Discourse we may infer and conclude that wherever there is any wind there are also some small Bâ—dies or Atomes which are drawn from the Bodies whence they come by the virtue of the Sun and Light and that in effect this Wind is nothing else but the said Aâ—omes agitated and thrust on by a kind of impetuosity And so the winds partake of the qualities whence they come as if they come from the South they are hot if from the Noâ—th they are cold if from the Earth alone they are dry if from the Mâ—rine or Sea-side they are humid and moâ—st if from places which produce aromatical substances they are odoriferous wholsom and pleasing As those from Arabia Faelix which produces Spices Perfumes and Gums of sweet savour or that â—rom Fontenâ—y and Vaugirard at Paris in the season of Roses which is all perfumed on the contrary those winds that come from stinking places viz. from the sulphureous soâ—l of Pozzuolo smell ill as also those that come from infected places bring the contagion along with them My Third Principle shall be that The Air is full throughout of small Bodies or Atomes or rather that which we call ouâ— air is no other than a mixture or confusion of such Atomes wherin the aereal parts predominate 'T is well known that in nature there cannot be actually found any pure Element unblended with others for the exteriour Fire and the Light acting one way and the internal Fire of every Body pushing on another way causes this marvailous mixture of all things in all things Within that huge extent where we place the Air there is â—â—fficienâ— space and liberty enough to make such a mixture which Experience as well as Reason confirmâ— I have seen little Vipers as soon as they came from the egs where they were ingendred being not yet an inch long which conserv'd in a large Gourd cover'd with paper tyed round about that they might not get out but leaving little pin-holes made in it that the Air might enter encreased in substance and bigness so prodigiously in six eight or ten months that it is incredible and more sensibly during the season of the Equinoxes when the air is fuller of those aethereal and balsamical atomes which they drew for their nouriture Hence it came that the Cosmopolites had reason to say Est in â—â—re occultus vitae cibus there is a hidden food of life in the air These smal Vipers had but the air only for their sustenance nevertheless by this thin viand they grew in less than a year to a foot long and proportionably big and heavy Vitriol Salt-peter and some other substances augment in the same manner only by attraction of air I remember that upon some occasion seventeen or eighteen years ago I had use of a pound of Oil of Tartar it was at Paris where I had then no Operatory Wherfore I desired Monsir Ferrier a man universally known by all such as are curious to make me some for he had none then ready made but did it expressely for me And because for the calcination
great transpiration or evaporation of Spirits use to be killed because through attraction the Air taking the room of the Spirits which issue forth by the evaporation the pestiferous atomes which are scatter'd in the air and accompany it use to stick to their feathers skins or furs And for the same reason we see that Bread coming hot out of the Oven put upon the Bung draws to it the Must of the Cask which would spoil the Wine and that Onions and such hot bodies which perpetually exhale fiery parts as appears by the strength of their smel are quickly poison'd with infectious airs if they be exposed to them and 't is one of the signs to know whether the whole mass of the air be universally infected And one might reduce to this head the great attraction of air by calcin'd bodies and particularly by Tartar all ignited by the violent action of the fire which is crowded and encorporated among it's Salt I have observed that it attracts to it nine times more air than it self weighs For if one expose to the air a pound of Salt of Tartar well calcin'd and bâ—rnt it will â—ffâ—rd ten pound of good Oil of Tartar drawâ—â—g to it and so incorporating the circumjacent air and that is mingled with it as it befell that Oâ—l of Tartar which Monâ—ir Fâ—rrier made me wherof I spake before But methâ—nks all this is but little compared to the attraction of air by the body of a certain Nâ—n at Rome wherof Peâ—rus Servius â—râ—aâ— the Eâ—ght's Physician makes mention in a Book which he hath published touching the marvailous accidents which he observ'd in his time Had I not such a vouchy I durst not produce this History although the Nun her self confirm'd it to me and a good number of Physicians assured me of the truth thereof There was a Nun that by excesse of fasting watching and mental orisons was so â—eaâ—ed in her body that she seem'd to be all on fire and her bones dryed up and calcin'd This heat then this inâ—ernal fire drawing the air powerfully this air incorporated within her body as it uses to do in Salt of Tartar and the passages being all open it got to those parts where there is most serosity which is the bladder and thence she rendred it in water among her Urine and that in an incredible quantity for she voided during some Weeks more than two hundred pounds of Water every four and twenty hours With this notable example I will put an end to the experiments I have urged to prove and explicate the attrâ—ction made of air by hot and igâ—ited bodies which are of the nature of fire My Sixth Principle shall be that When fire or some hot body attracts the Air and that which is within the Air if it happens that within that air there be found some dispersed aâ—oms of the same nature with the body that draws them such atoms are more powerfully attracted than if they were Bodies of a different nature and they stay stick and mingle more willingly with the body which draws them The Reason hereof is the Resemblance and Sympathy they have one with the other If I should not explicate wherein this Resemblance consisted I should expose my self to the same censure and blame as that which I taxed at the beginning of my discourse in those who spake but lightly and vulgarly of the Powder of Sympathy and such marvels of Nature But when I shall have cleared that which I contend for by such a resemblance and conveniency I hope then you will rest satisfied I could make you see that there are many sorts of Resemblances which cause an Union between bodies but I will content my self to speak here only of three signal ones The first Resemblance shall be in Weight whereby bodies of the same degree of heaviness assemble together The reason wherof is evidenâ— For if one body were lighter it would occupy a higher situation than the heavier body as on the contrary if a body were more weighty it would descend lower than that which is less heavy but both having the same degree of heavâ—ness they keep company together in equilibrio As one may see by experience in this gentile example which some curious spirits use to Produce to make us understand how the Four Elements are situated one above the other according to their weight They put in a vial the spâ—rit of Wine tinctur'd with red to represent the Fire the spirit of Turpentine tinctur'd with blew for the Air the spirit of Water tinctur'd with green and represent the element of Water And to represent the Earth the Powder of some solid Metal enamell'd you see them one upon the other wâ—thout mixâ—ng and if you shake them together by a violent◠〈◊〉 you shal see a Chaos such a confusion that it wil seem there 's no particular atoms that belong to any of those bodies they are so hudled pel mel altogether But cease this agitation and you shall see presently every one of these four substances go to its natural place calling again labouring to unite all their atoms in one distinct mass that you shall see no mixture at all The second Resemblance of bodies which draw one another and unite is among them which are of the same degree of Rarity and Density The nature and effect of Quantity is to reduce to unity all things which it finds if some other stronger power as the differing substantial Form which multiplies it do not hinder And the reason is evident For the â—ssence of Quantity is Divisibility or a Capacity to be divided that is to be made Many whence may be inferr'd that Quantity it self is not-many 't is therfore of it self and in its own nature one continued extension Seeing then that the nature of Qâ—antity in general tends to Unity and Continuity the first differences of Quantity which are Rarity and Density must produce the same effect of Unity and Continuity in those bodies which participate in the same degree of them For proof whereof we find that water unites and incorporates it self strongly and easily with water oil with oil spirit of wine with spirit of wine but water and oil will hardly unite nor mercury with the spirit of wine and so other bodies of differing density and tenuity The third Resemblance of bodies which unites and keeps them strongly together is that of Figure I will not serve my self here with the ingenious conceit of a Great Personage who holds that the continuity of Bodies results from some smal hooks or clasps which keep them together and are different in bodies of a differing nature But not to extend my self too diffusively in every particularity I will say in gross as an apparent thing that every kind of body affects a particular Figure We see it plainly in the several sorts of Salt peel and stamp them separately dissolve coagulate and change them as long as you please they come again alwayes to their own natural figure
not to be feared that the continuity of the Water will break ascending this scale of chords or that it will recoil backwards for those little ladders so easy to be mounted render the ascent facile and the woolly fibres of every thrid seem to reach their hands to help them up at every step and so the facility of geting up joyn'd with the fluidness of the water and the nature of quantity which tends always to the uniting of substances and bodies which it clothes when there occurs no other predominant cause to break and divide it causes that the water keeps it self in one piece and passes above the brink of the pot After that its voâ—age is made more easie for it follows its natural tendence always downwards And if the end of the cloth hangs lower without the pot than the surface of the water within the water drops into the ground or some Vessel placed underneath as we see a chord being hung upon a pully the longest and heaviest end falls upon the ground and carries away the shortest and lightest drawing it over the pully But if the end of the cloth without the pot were horizontal with the surface of the water and hung no lower than it the water would be immoveable as the two sides of a Ballance when there 's equal weight in both the scales And if one should pour out part of the water that is in the pot so that the superficies grow lower than the end of the cloth without in that case the ascending water becoming more heavy than the descendant on the other side without the pot it would call back that which was gone out before and ready to fall and would make it thrust on and return to its former pace and enter again into the pot to mingle with the water there You see then this mystery which at first was surprizing displaid and made as familiar and natural as to see a stone fall down from the air 'T is true that to make a demonstration thereof exact and compleatly rigorous we must add other circumstances which I have done in another Discourse wherein I expressly treated of this subject But that which I now say is sufficient to give a taste how this so notable Attraction is performed The other Attraction by Fire which draws to it the ambient air with the small bodies therein is wrought thus The Fire acting according to its own nature which it to push on a continual river or exhalation of its parts from the center to the circumference carries away with it the air adjoyned and sticking to it on all sides as the water of a river trains along with it the earth of that channel or bed through which it glides For the air being humid and the fire dry they cannot do less than embrace and hug one another But there must new air come from the places circumjacent to fill the room of that which is carried away by the fire otherwise there would a vacuity happen which nature abhors This new air remains not long in the place it comes to fill but the fire which is in a continual carreer and emanation of its parts carries it presently away and draws other and so there is a peâ—petual and constant current of the air as long as the action of fire continues We daily see the experience hereof For if one makes a good fire in ones Chamber it draws the air from the door and windows which though one would shut yet there be crevices and holes for the air to enter and coming near them one shall hear a kind of whistling noise which the air makes in pressing to enter 'T is the same cause that produces the sound of the Organ and Flute And he who would stand between the crevices and the fire should find such an impetuosity of that artificial wind that he would be ready to freeze while he is ready to burn the other side next the fire And a Wax-candle held in this current of wind would melt by the flame blown against the wax and waste away in a very short time wheras if that Candle stood in a calm place that the flame might burn upward it would last much longer But if there be no passage wherby the air may enter into the Chamber one part then of the vapor of the wood which should have converted to flame and so mounted up the funnel of the Chimney descends downward against its nature to supply the defect of air within the said Chamber and fills it with smoke but at last the fire choaks and extinguishes for want of air Whence it comes to pass that the Chymists have reason to say that the air is the life of fire as well as of animals But if one puts a Bason or Vessel of water before the fire upon the hearth there will be no smoke in the Chamber although it be so close shut that the air cannot enter for the fire attracts part of the water which is a liquid substance and easie to move out of its place which aquatic parts rarifie themselves into air and therby perform the functions of the air This is more evidently seen if the Chamber be little for then the air which is there pen'd in is sooner rais'd up and carried away And by reason of this attraction they use to make great fires where there is houshold-stuff of persons that dyed of the Pestilence to dis-infect it For by this inundation of attracted air the fire as it were sweeps the walls floor and other places of the Chamber and takes away those little putrified sharp corrosive and venomous bodies which were the infection that adhered to it drawing them into the fire where they are partly burnt and partly sent up into the Chimney accompanied with the atomes of the fire and the smoke 'T is for this reason that the great Hippocrates who groped so far into the secrets of Nature dis-infected and freed from the Plague a whole Province or entire Region by causing them to make great fires every where Now this manner of attraction is made not only by simple fire but by that which partakes of it viz. by hot substances and that which is the reason and cause of the one is also the cause of the other For the Spirits or ignited parts evaporating from such a substance or hot body carry away with them the adjacent air which must necessarily be supplied by other air or some matter easily rariâ—iable into air as we have spoken of the bason and tub of water put before the fire to hnder smoke 'T is upon this foundation that Physicians ordain the application of Pigeons or Puppy's or some other hot Animals to the soles of the feet or the hand-wrists or the stomachs or navils of their Patients to extract out of their bodies the wind or ill vapours which infect them And in time of contagion or universal infection of the air Pigeons Cats Dogs with other hot Animals which have continually a
For mine own part I have seen as great and admirable effects of simple Vitriol of eighteen pence the pound as of that Powder which is us'd to be prepared now at a greater price yet I blame not the present practice on the contrary I commend it for it is founded upon reason For First it seems that the purest and best sort of Vitriol operates the best Secondly it seems also that the moderate calcining therof at the rays of the Sun takes away the superfluous humidity of the Vitriol and operates on no part therof but that which is good as if one should boil broth so clear that it would come to be gelly which certainly would render it more nourishing Thirdly it seems that the exposing of the Vitriol to the Sun to receive calcination renders its spirits more fitly disposed to be transported through the air by the Sun when need requires For it cannot be doubted but some paâ—â— of the aethereal fire or Solar rays incorporates with the Vitriol as is plainly discover'd in calcining Antimony by a Burning-glass for it much augments the weight of it almost half in half both are near-a-kin those therefore easily obeying the Motion of their brother-beams must needs make the grosser matter they are united with less refractory Fourthly these Solar rays being embodied with the Vitriol are in a posture to communicate to it a more excellent virtue than it hath of it self as we find that Antimony calcin'd in the Sun becomes of rank poison that it was before a most sovereign and balsamical medicament and a most excellent Corroborative of Nature Fifthly the Gum of Tragagantha having a glutinous faculty and being in other respects very innocent may contribute somthing towards the consolidation of the wound My Lords I could add many most important considerations touching the Form and essence of Vitriol wherof the substance is so noble and the origin is so admirable that one may avouch it with good reason one of the most excellent bodies which Nature hath produced The Chymists assure us that it is no other than a corporification of the Vniversal Spirit which animates and perfects all that hath existence in this sublunary World which it draws in that abundance to it that I my self have in a short time by exposing some only to the open air made an attraction of a celestial Vitriol ten times more in weight of a marvailous pureness and virtue a priviledge given to none but It and pure virgin Salt-peter But to anatomise as we ought the nature of this transcendent Individual which nevertheless in some respect may be said to be Vniversal and fundamental to all bodies would require a Discourse far more ample than I have yet made And I have already entertain'd you so long that it would be a very great indiscretion to entrench further upon your goodness who have hitherto listned to me with so much attention and patience if I should go about to enter into any new matter and embark my self for a further voyage Wherefore remiting several things to some other time when you shall please to command me and returning to the general consideration of this Sympathetical cure I will put a Period to this Discourse after I shall have said two or three words which will not be of smal importance for the confirmation of all that hath been alledg'd by me hitherto I have deduced to you the admirable causes of the operations and strange effects of the Powder of Sympathy from their first root These fundamental causes are so linked one within the other that it seems there can be no default stop or interruption in their proceedings But we shall be the better fortified in the belief of their virtue and efficacy and how they come to produce the effects of so many rare Cures if we consider that when any jugling is practiced in some one of these causes or in all of them together we may perceive immediately an effect altogether differing from the former If I had not formerly seen a Watch or Clock I should be justly surprized and remain astonish'd to see the hand or needle so regularly mark the journal hours and motion of the Sun upon the flat of a Quadrant and that it should turn and make its round every four and twenty hours there being nothing seen that should push on the said needle But if I look on the other side I see wheels ressorts and counterpoises in perpetual movement which having well considered I presently suspect that those Wheels are the cause of the movement and turnings of the said Needle though I cannot presently discern or know how they effect it because of the plate that lies interposed betwixt them Therupon I reason thus with my â—elf Every effect whatever must of necessity have some cause therfore the body moved there must necessarily receive its movement from some other body contiguous to it Now I see no other body to make the needle of the quadrant move and turn but the said wheels Therefore I must of force be perswaded to attribute the movement to them But afterwards when I 〈◊〉 have stop'd the motion of those wheels and taken away the Counterpoise and observed that suddenly the needle ceases to move and that applying again the Counterpoise and giving liberty for the wheels to turn the needle reâ—urns to her ordinary course and that I make one wheel go faster by putting my finger to it or by adding more weight to the counterpoise the needle hastens and advances its motions proportionâ—bly then I grow to be convinced and entirely satisfied and so absolutely conclude that these Wheels and Counterpoises are the true cause of the motion of the Needle In the same manner if interrupting the action of any of those causes which I have established for the true foundation of the Sympathetical Powders virtue I alter retard or hinder the Cure of the Wound I may boldly conclude that they are the legitimate and genuine true causes of the Cure and that we need not amuse our selvs to search after any other Let us then examine the matter by this rule I have affirm'd that the Light transporting the atoms of the Vitriol and Blood and dilating them to a great extent in the air the wound or place hurt attracts them and therby is immediately refresht and eas'd and consequently comes to be heal'd by the Spirits of the Vitriol which is of a balsamical virtue But if you put the Bason or Powder with the cloth-imbrued with blood into a Cup-boord or a corner of some cold room or into a Cellar where the Light or fresh Air never comes whence the place is corrupted and full of ill smellâ— in that case the wound can receive no amendment nor any good effect from the said Powder And it will fall out in the same manner if having put the bason or Powder in some By-corner you cover them with some thick cloth stuffing and spongie which may imbibe the atoms coming forth and