estimate of their Figures or take their Dimensions to be yet divisible into less parts whose figure as not necessary to the constituting so not needful to be reckon'd upon in our Calculation of the Nativity of Bodys And Secondly We suppose the natural or physical division of parts to transcend by many degrees that of Mechanism how acutely and artificially soever perform'd which physical sub-division we in our Discourse of Fermentation and in our Tentamen Physiolog ascribe wholly to the Energie of Ferments viz. to the subtile Collisions of our Principles mutually acting which is able to knock off every Angle to perforate every Solid and to split in pieces every Globula of Matter that upon such Figures fall under our cognizance Hydroph But pray Pyroph first Why are your Principles call'd Mechanical Secondly Why do not your Principles as reducible at the long run into Water forfeit their Natures or Essences of Principles Pyroph I answer Hydroph as to the first they are call'd Mechanical because material and next because being as such and set into their peculiar motions are sufficient for the physical Mechanism and structure of all bodys or such as Nature imploys as we suppose in the Mechanism of all specific Concretes throughout its threefold Kingdom so that to the building of all bodys from intrinsic Agents these are according to our Hypothesis necessarily and essentially requisite And as to the second I answer Hydroph that although these Principles be the proximate Agents and primarily to be considered in order to the hewing forth of Bodys from their material original water determining water into this or the other specifical Concrete yet we do not esteem of these active Principles to be otherwise than material only spiritualiz'd or subtiliz'd Matter for Spirit in our Physical sense we only look upon as subtiliz'd matter and therefore as such at the long winding off are reducible into water or convene in such a fluid texture of parts ascribable to water SECT IX Hydroph BUt do not the Atomical Philosophers and you agree in the main in the Principles and general affections of bodys afore-named Pyroph Yes But besides what I have already said wherein ours chiefly differ from theirs we must also crave leave to tell you Hydroph that we dissent from them in those extravagancies which renders it justly to be reputed heathenish or vain Philosophy especially as they sprang from the old Fountain witness the roving fancies of the first starters of the Corpuscularian Doctrine I mean of Epicurus Democritus Leucippus Lucretius and the rest of that Classis whose opinion was that matter and motion was Eternal and that innumerable worlds were generated by the fortuitous Coalition of Atoms as Magnenus tells us out of Diogenes Laert. Seneca c. Witness what Claudianus Pau. elegantly describes in these lines speaking of Democritus Ille ferox unoque tegi haud passus Olympo Immensum per inane volat finemque perosus Parturit innumeros angusto pectore mundos So that according to their opinion the World all the mixt Bodies therein were huddled together by the Justlings Counter Scuffles and Duellings of Atoms which by accidental jumpings into such and such postures and figures produc'd such and such figurative sensible Bodies as make up the whole pompage thereof whence Virgil in his Eclogues gives a hint of that Doctrine Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacla Semina terrarum animaeque marisque fuissent Et liquidi simul ignis ut his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis For they suppose matter out of which the World is made Eternal and by their inane an infinite space wherein infinite small Particles or Atoms of that matter are contained which Atoms we might think being gamesome and frolick might make infinite congresses running a tilt upon each other and that without any designation or appointment of any Divine Supreme intelligent power twist upon each other and by a blind I know not what impetus by chance strike the figure of so many Worlds and amongst the rest form the beautiful regular compage of that World we see and that the Earth while in its vigour and fertility brought forth Men and other Animals as now it doth Plants So that they suppose the generation of mixt Bodies to be nothing else but a congregation and corruption to be a segregation of Atoms and all this sine numine divine without any Divine Fiat and therefore may well be called heathenish or vain Philosophy Hydroph But pray Pyroph is not that Philosophy or knowledg of natural things the best whose Principles doth best agree with and come nearest to the Mosaic and consequently Christian Philosophy Pyroph Yes Hydroph without doubt Hydroph Well then surely ours I mean the Aristotelic Doctrine of natural Bodies must be the best for we own a Divine power that has not only created but by the same upholds all things in the World Pyroph So far Hydroph is very well and that which every solid Hypothesis should suppose But to lay such a foundation of fruitful Principles as to make the Doctrine of natural Bodies the most intelligible and thereby to solve the various Phaenomena most demonstrably is the main matter Hydroph Why is not our Doctrine of the four Elements Principles large enough to erect a true Hypothesis thereby of natural Bodies Are not all mixts produc'd therefrom and ultimately resolv'd thereinto Pyroph To which I answer that the four Elements as they are by Aristotle and his Commentators laid down as the materia proxima of all Bodies are both too strait and narrow to raise up a Structure of Bodies therefrom as also too many to enter the composition of natural Concretes Hydroph Why How are they too strait Are not all Bodies made up with Fire and Air Water and Earth Are not these Pyroph the beginnings of all Bodies Pyroph These four Elements Hydroph are too strait because all natural Bodies in their genuine Analysis are not resoluble thereinto and such are demonstrably Principles or Elements into which mixts are ultimately reducible Hydroph Are not our Quaternary of Elements such In as much as they are according to our Hypothesis simple Homogenial Bodies from which all Concretes are primarily compounded and into which they are ultimately resolv'd which for instance enter the composition of the Body of Man as well as other mixts For we read Gen. 3. That upon the Curse Man was to return to the ground out of which he was taken So that Earth must be one main ingredient of the Body of Man which Earth unless it be bound up with a Watery moisture as with Glew would fall from together and therefore must needs suppose Water another Element in the Fabrick of the humane Body So that there is Earth and Water and because as we suppose all Generation is made up of contraries therefore Air and Fire as contraries to Earth and Water must also be of necessity there That the immoderate driness
and coldness of Earth and Water may be temper'd with the moisture and heat of Air and Fire and so all be brought to a kind of equality Besides Ex iis constamus ex quibus nutrimur but we are nourished by the four Elements and Bodies thence made Ergo. Pyroph Here indeed you seem to come pretty close to the point Hydroph by an experimental Induction as you suppose of the humane Body in the Fabrick whereof you conjecture the four Elements to become the principia materiata and that not only of man 's but also of all other mixt Bodies in the World and this you do by first taking in the Element of Earth as the Basis of the rest and that you ground from Adam's return to Earth from whence he was taken which was part of the sentence God pronounc'd against Man for his disobedience at the fall I must tell you Hydroph that this is no Argument for Earth as a simple Homogenial Element to enter the composition of the Body of Man for that sentence Thou shalt return to the ground for out of it wast thou taken For dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return seems to me to intimate no more than thus viz. that seeing Man by his transgression had forfeited his right to an Eternal and Immutable Inheritance which upon his obedience had then been confirm'd upon him he had now upon his disobedience a Sentence of the Mortality of Body pass'd upon him and that after the revolution of some years his Body should undergo the same vicissitude and Law of Mutability with other temporary transient mixt Bodies in the World Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return intimates a Reduction of the Body into its primitive minute parts whether in a liquid or dry form whether reduc'd into a Juice or Leffas of the Earth by the fracedo of the Grave or that Juice further coagulated into some Species of Earth For the word in the Original is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which Earth is signified as being the Sublunary part of the World distinguished from the Heavens or Coelestial Bodies but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intimates a red elixerated Earth where an efflorescence of the Panspermion of the Macrocosme becomes concentred in as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which takes its original from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Microcosme or little World which is the Epitome of the great World And although Hydroph we should admit Earth as a constituent Principle or Element of Bodies which yet in our Hydrologia Chymic by several Mechanical Experiments have demonstrated Water not Earth to be the material Principle of all Concrete Bodies and so to take in Water and Earth as two Elements of Bodies I say notwithstanding that Adoption of Earth to be an Element we see no reason for a necessity of taking in the other two of Air and Fire as Principles of Bodies which you ground upon this Supposition that all Generation is made up of contraries which yet in some sense is true as elsewhere in our Doctrine of Fermentation we shew and therefore having Earth and Water granted as two Elements you conclude a necessity of Air and Fire to temper the other and bring them into an equality by their contrary qualities For if we can Hydroph as we may elsewhere solve those primary qualities of heat and cold dryness and moisture without having recourse to their subjects of inhesion as the Elements are reputed to be then those Elements at least as to the quaternary of them must of necessity cease to be primary constituent Principles of Bodies seeing the Elements in order to the Fabric thereof are to do it by their supposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or combination of qualities And altho that of Aristotle be true viz. Ex iis constamus ex quibus nutrimur yet the Assumption or minor which commonly is annexed annexed thereto viz. but we are nourished by the four Elements and their Concrete Bodies is as false which although they further endeavour to prove by the instance of Plants of which we feed these are they say nourished by Earth and Water are cherished by Heat which proceeds from Fire and are preserv'd by Air and therefore we feeding upon them feed upon the four Elements of which they are made Whereas Hydroph we elsewhere acquaint you how Plants have not their original from the Quaternary of Elements but from Seeds and specifical Ferments which determine the motion of matter into such variety of shapes which we usually see them distinguished into and that chiefly upon matter whose parts are so wrought as to become fluid I mean Water which is the proximate material Subject of most if not all Concretes whether in their Genesis or Metastasis Hydroph But I will give you another instance how we understand the four Elements to be the Principles of mixt Bodies and that is by the destruction or reduction of things into those Principles from whence they take their Original as suppose in burning a piece of Wood you may Pyroph view a separation of the four Elements for the fumes go into Air the expressed moisture of the Wood is of the nature of Water the Ashes is of the nature of Earth and lastly the Fire or Flame is obvious enough to the Eye Pyroph This experiment of the burning of Wood evinceth nothing Hydroph of the pre-existency of the Quaternary of Elements by its reduction into Fume Moisture Ashes and Flame For that by which according to the Peripatetie Doctrine you would have Air to be demonstrated to be a constitutive Principle of Wood is the fume which if so then must this Fume be like the Air a simple Homogenial Body which yet how simple so ever you may repute we know Hydroph how to separate by the Pyrotechnic Art five or six several distinguishable things as if done in close Vessels a four Spirit if openly it separates a soot to the sides of the Chimney as of a great receiver from which we have separated a Phlegm Spirit Volatile-Salt Oyl and Caput Mort. enough to make it justly be denied the being a simple Elementary Principle and therefore some do two things at once viz. both char their Wood and at the same condense the Fumes in large receivers or pipes whereby they get the four Spirit For the charing of the Wood is nothing but a fixation of the Sulphur with the Salt which Sulphur before would flame forth but now being smothered it only glows in the Coal So that that whereby you would demonstrate a reduction of Wood into the Element of Air by the Fumes thereof you see Hydro how we find it to be a mixt Body it self consisting of Heterogeneous parts many of which are further reducible into more primary Principles yea even the very acid Spirit made by distillation of Woods as of Guaiacum Box c. Which one would deem if any to be a simple Liquor is yet by addition of Alkalizate Bodies
concrete Bodies say that they were too many to enter the composition of natural Bodies Pyroph Because Hydroph some of them as for instance the Air and Fire the latter of which as considered in its suppos'd Elementary Sphere sub concavo lunae or as culinary concur not as constitutive Principles to the making up of mixt Bodies Hydroph Why is not Air in all or most Bodies Pyroph Yes Hydroph But not as a material Principle of Bodies but with the Aether to fill up vacancies and to do other Offices in part below but more fully illustrated in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph Can either Animals live or Vegetables grow without Air Must it not therefore be an Essential Constitutive Element of Bodies Pyroph I grant Hydroph that neither Animals can live nor Vegetables grow without the confluence of Air impregnate with its Nitro-Hermetick Salt and yet see no necessity why it should thence follow that Air should be an ingressive Principle of Bodies For it may help to promote the vigour of the Ferments in Animals by helping to Volatize the succulent parts and make the blood circulate the better without Stagnation or spurious Coagulations in the Vessels and yet may not at all be an Elemental Principle of Bodies Also it may concur to the promoting Vegetation of Plants partly by impregnating the Nursery of Vegetables the Earth with a Volatile nitrous Salt and partly with its Aether by setting the seminal Principles of Plants at work for Earth as we further enlarge in the Appendix to our Hydrologia Chymica is not fertilized nor brings forth Plants without a concurrence of the foresaid Salt nor are the seminal Ferments of Vegetables awakened without the benevolence of the Air and its congeneal Aether saturated therewith which constantly floats in the Air as in its proper Sea Hydroph But is not Air one parcel of which the Universe is made Pyroph Yes Hydroph And is not that matter a part of that whereof Concretes are made Pyroph No For although it be matter yet is it such a Texture thereof as is only pliable but not convertible into other Bodies that is never loseth the form of Air for notwithstanding its Universal concurrence in the constitution of most Bodies as aforesaid yet doth it never quit its genuine form as we further shew in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph But we define Air to be an Element moderately hot and most moist filling every place that is not already repleat with another Body Pyroph It is Hydroph if I mistake not neither hot nor moist of it self and therefore can be no Element for that which according to the Peripatetick Sense makes it an Element is the supposed combination of the qualities of Heat and Moisture by which it should seem that moisture according to your Philosophy was the Essential quality of Air and by which Moisture with a moderate heat it should enter the composition of Bodies Now if I make it good that there is no moisture but what is Essential to Water then will your Element of Air cease to be such You must know therefore Hydroph that wherever you can find moisture the Pyrotechnick Art will demonstrate it to be actually Water and that either in a fluid Texture of parts whereby it appears even to the Sense to be Water or at least in an extended form floating vapore tenus in the tenuious and easily recessible Body of Air. Whence it 's evident moisture is no quality at all from the aforesaid reason of its being really and essentially Water either in a fluid or extended form as you may further see in our Hydrologia Chymica So that moisture is only and primarily competible to the thin woven Texture of the parts of Water circulating in the Air and to the Air but secundary as the Vehicle of the extended Body of Water Hydroph But is not the moisture which we see wets stone-walls before Rain falls that which properly belongs to the Air yea and the very Air transmuted into Water Pyroph I answer no for that is nothing but simple rarified Water or the Body of Water extended in the perforations of the Air which while interspers'd in the tenuious and pliable Body thereof by the smalness of its rarified parts escapes our Sense and so remains till the parts thereof come nearer together which gliding along the surface of Stones in Buildings while the lower Region of the Air is ponderous therewith becomes gathered into a visible Body of moisture or Water and therefore is not Air transmuted into Water as you may see more at large in our Hydrologia Chymica Hydroph But pray Pyroph seeing you neither admit of Air as the subjectum inhaesionis of moisture nor moisture to be a primary or essential quality of Air and consequently deny Air to be an Element of Bodies and that there is no transmutability of Air into Water I say pray what do you suppose Air to be Pyroph I look upon Air Hydroph to be such a parcel of matter whose parts consist in a tenuious diaphanous pliable and fluid Texture of easie recess susceptible of the impressions of the minutest of Bodies and capable of permitting rarified Waters Vapours and all sorts of Apporrhoea from the terraqueous Globe to pass and repass of all which and many other minute Bodies that fall not under the perception of our senses it is the proper Vehicle also subservient to the motion of all Bodies that tack to and fro within its Orb is the Vehicle of Species the medium of all influences and transactions betwixt the Coelestial and Terrestrial Bodies And as Trismegistus in Asclepio saith Aer est organum vel machina omnium per quam omnia fiunt not as an Element but as a Machine for the motion of all Bodies Its parts I say are tenuious that it may the better give way to the motion of Bodies within its orbit of easie recess that it may the better admit of other rarified Bodies which are in a continual circulation and those perforations to be of no prefixt figure but either round or angular according to the pressure of its parts by the motion of other Bodies Diaphanous that it may the better transmit the Rays of luminous Bodies pliable I said that it may be the more subservient to the justlings of Bodies and may the better recede upon the access of other moveables and lastly fluid that it may thereby prevent any large vacuum and may the better press into the Porosities of Bodies Thus a stone being cast at a distance which by the impulse it has got draws suppose a straigt line in the Air forceing some parts of the Air and those press upon the next adjacent and those the next till by a circulating motion they fall constantly into the rear of the deserted space made by the motion of the stone and so immediately supplies the vacancy thereof and thereby contributes to the perpetuating the first impulse from a hand Sling or Engine For if the Air did not
such as are Coral Crabs-Eyes Pearl fixt Salts of Herbs c. is reducible into a piercing Liquor quite of another sort than before which I have also observ'd from the acid Spirit of Verdigrease dinted or mortified by a fixt Alcali to have by further distillation been reducible into a quick penetrating Spirit not acid at all but very much emulating the Spirit of crude Tartar which will not as Acids usually do change the Syrup of Violets into a red Colour And as to what you say Hydroph that the expressed moisture in burning the Wood is of the nature of Water this very thing I say has an Empyreumatic odour which is further reducible and therefore forfeits its badge of a primary or Elementary Principle As for the remaining Ashes which you suppose to be of the nature of Earth you are mistaken for they are a great part of them separable in the form of a fixt Salt which is quite another thing than that you call Earth And further that this very Earth separable after the Calcination of the Vegetable and Elixiviation of the Salt is not Elementary will be evident from the following experimental Observation for from about 200 weight of Oak-wood first char'd and then burnt to Ashes I had but 3 pound of Ashes which by Lixiviating gave me 5 ounces of fixt Salt and about 2 pound 8 ounces of insipid Earth which very Earth I say was no more to be accounted an Elementary Principle of the aforesaid Wood than fixt Salt thence produc'd by Calcination because the like quantity of Wood being otherwise handled by Fire besides what different products would result from other Agents viz. by a naked firing without any previous charing gives a larger proportion by much of fixt Salt than the former which very fixt Salt may also by frequent Calcination Solution Filtration Evaporation or Distillation may I say be all converted into an Earth the same the Wood char'd was reducible to and Phlegm no Philosopher ever admitted fixt Alcalies such as are produc'd by Fire from a Plant amongst Elementary Principles or if any did yet was easily refutable by the aforesaid experiment so that it s hence clear beyond Ambiguity that Earth in the composition of Bodies is not an Element but a Product of the Fire as we further illustrate by other parallel experiments in our Tentamen Physiologic And lastly that the flaming of the Wood should indicate an Elementary Fire is somewhat strange For this Fire in the Wood which we reckon to be made by our fourth Complication of the Principles as aforesaid consumes or rather reduceth it into more simple Bodies which yet are most what new Products of the Fire and other twistings of the same Principles whereas an Elementary Principle should rather constitute than destroy Bodies So that none of those are at all demonstrative of the Quaternary of Elements SECT X. Hydroph WEll Pyroph but we do not suppose that all mixts are immediately reducible into the four Elements but many bodys first change into other forms by a kind of vicissitude and yet at the last are resolvable into the four Elements of which they consist Thus Herbs and other Food we take for our nourishment undergo various changes in our Bodys into Chyle Blood Flesh Bones c. and after Excretion is converted into a Stercus which at length is resolv'd into Earth Pyroph It 's true Hydroph let us imagin what Hypothesis we please yet are not concrete bodys always immediately reducible into their first constituent Principles but sometimes undergo a transposition of parts whereby they acquire a new form and so a second third and so on in a round of vicissitudes before there happen a total Analysis into its primitive Principles or through-resolution of a Concrete into its Minima But that this ultimate reduction of Concretes should always at the long run prove the four Elements is not me-thinks Hydroph demonstrable by your propounded instance of Herbs or other Aliment taken into our bodys for nourishment For that they admit of various Mutations according to the different digestions they pass through is that we cannot deny but that these should be intermediate changes of our Food before it be ultimately reduc'd into the Quaternary of Elements is that we are not to let slip unexamined And first we are to consider that towards the making of changes amongst bodys out of one form into another where there is the same material Principles substituted and only a Metastasis happens there must I say of necessity concur the super-induction of new Ferments or other sorts of extrinsic Agents as aforesaid which by macerating subjugating and altering the parts may raise up a new Structure of a different form than was before and yet that body no whit the nearer to a reduction into its Elements now than before So that what changes or alterations our Food undergoes in the several digestions of our bodys are to be ascrib'd to no other than the different Ferments it passeth through which altering the texture of the parts subverts the first and bringeth on a new form so from the form of Beef Mutton Bread Beer c. though different amongst themselves yet by the uniform operation of the Spirituous elixerated Ferment of the Blood thither in its circulation transmitted as aforesaid become altered or transmuted into a similar Chyle or Cremor which being refin'd through the strait Colanders of the Venae lacteae by which it is percolated from the dreggy Feces along the Duodenum Colon and Ilion and further purify'd in the Glandules is sent up by the Thoracical Vessels into the Jugulars where it 's let into the ascending Branch of the Vena Cava becomes dasht with blood and by coming to the Heart where by the Air in its circuit through the Lungs it 's volatiz'd and assumes the form of vital blood which being carried along the Aorta and other thence branching Arteries sublimes or distils into pure volatile Spirits for the supply of the genus Nervosum part of which mean while being carried into the whole habit of the body becomes coagulated in the fibrous parts into Sinews Flesh Bones c. according as it is determin'd and arrested by the particular assimilative Ferments of the several parts Next to which Hydroph we are to consider the humane as well as other mixt bodys during the revolution of their specifical Ferments are in a constant perspirability always I mean during the season of the vigour of their genuine Ferments a making up and as often resolving or taking in pieces viz. in a perpetual flux of constituent Elements otherwise what means the continual supply we have from daily nourishment by fresh Food For if there were not a constant flux and wasting by perspiration we need not so constant a supply by Food In as much as when we come to a full maturity of years as to the Vegetation or growth of our bodys which is from 18 or 20 till towards 30 years some sooner others later
the sudden and unexpected alterations of Symptoms in diseased and crasie bodies which so much puzzle Physitians to know whence such sudden changes contrary to their expectation should happen how well do things succeed even according to their desire and sometimes beyond their expectation at some peculiar juncture of time attributed by Astrologers to I know not what configuration of the Planets and on the other hand how cross and thwarting to their hopes things happen at other seasons and all this many times from various excited Ferments in the Air which work differently upon bodies according to variety of constitutions disposition of the Ferments and modification of other parts So also from other alterations in the Air by some winds a verminous ferment is excited as we see in the Spring time when the winds breath long from the East that many Caterpillers and other Insects are produc'd upon Trees and Plants and many times putredinous animated Ferments are brought with winds from cadaverous bodies which floating in the Air prove seminaries to contagious and verminous Diseases whence the great Plague at Milan at which time as Cardan reports the Air was filled yea the very dust of the Earth animated with those contagious Vermicles so that in the Air often lurk secret Ferments which may both produce different symptoms in the same disease as also be the cause of many Epidemical Diseases whose Character I mean of Exotick Ferments may for some time be in the Air before they settle upon Bodies so as to cause a general discomposure And from the same cause very probably it is that Animals which are frequently abroad in the Air have a foresight or presensation of the alterations of Weather whence the ground of Auguration amongst the Ancients for their Bodies being always exposed to change of Air in the variety of weather become thereby in their Texture of parts more capable of being affected with the least changes of Air in which are always the forerunners of certain alterations of weather by the foresaid congress of the minute Particles of Heat Cold Moisture and what else which give being by different Winds from diverse quarters to changes of weather Thus Cranes are observed by some Naturalists that when they fly softly and silently do presage fair weather but when they hasten make a great noise and fly in a disturbed order do predict Storms so likewise Storks and Wild-Geese as Wolfangius tells us in his Historia animalium Sacra and therefore Storks and Cranes before the coming of Winter take wing and fly in Troops in a triangular form into hotter Countries witness from Thracia into Egypt and from Cilicia into Persia not to say what is reported that when they fly near Mount Taurus where store of Eagles are they each take a stone in their Bill to prevent any noise lest the Eagles should seise upon them Not unlike to which the learned Wormius in his Museum relates somewhat wonderful concerning a sort of Bird frequent in Norway upon which change of weather has aforehand strange influence his words are as followeth Museum Norm p. 304. Aliud genus saith he Norvegiae Islandis frequens est è Mergorum vel potius Colymborum genere Nidum prope aquas it a struit ut cum necessitas flagitat in eas se celeriter praecipitare potest sed nidum repetitura infixo terrae rostro se suspendit donec corpus sublevaverit ac petitum obtinuerit nidum ubi imbres largiores imminere peculiari naturae instinctu persentiscit pullis ac nido suo ab inundatione metuens querulo sono aerem verberat è contra cum coeli serenitatem clementiam praesagierit laetis acclamationibus alio gratiori sono pullisapplaudit unde de futura tempestate certi accolae vocem Hui audientes exclamare solent Norvegi SECT XIII Hydroph WHat think you Pyroph of the drying quality which we define qualitas patibilis quae suo facile alieno autem termino difficulter clauditur Is not this competible to the Earth primarily and to the Air secundarily and to other Bodies as they admit of the combination of this with other qualities in the composition thereof Pyroph I think Hydroph and perhaps may make good that what you call a drying quality is no more a quality than its opposite moisture and that as moisture is no quality primarily of the Air nor secondarily of other Bodies in their Composition so neither is driness as a quality either peculiar to the Earth or to Compound Bodies For in that a Body is said to be dry is in as much as the parts which constitute it are of another Texture than liquid and are so woven together as to have few at least as discernable fluid parts And those dry Bodies are either naturally such as for instance some sorts of Stones and some Calces of calcin'd Bodies which by no force of Fire are ever reducible into any liquid form or else such Bodies as while kept from force of Fire are accounted dry of which are all Metals Minerals Metalline and Mineral Ore so me Stones as Peables Flints Sand Ashes of burnt or calcin'd Bodies all which by stress of Fire may be made to melt and become fluid some per se as the Metals and some Minerals others by addition of Salts as some Minerals also Mineral and Metalline Ore Pebbles Flint Sand c. by the addition of Salt of Kelp Tartar or other calcin'd Vegetables melt into transparent Glass Thus the Calx of Metals fretted by Acids and thereby reduc'd after Evaporation in minima viz. into their impapable Alcolizate pouders are seemingly dry yet these very subtile Crocus's of Metals witness that of Copper dissolv'd into and incorporated in that Body we call Verdigreece by the help of the sour Juice of Grapes or in that which remains after the Vintage if that be dry'd and beat to a most subtile pouder which by the motion of a Pestle or the like presently by the minuteness of its parts fly up and doth ferire nares as also that of natural Vitriol do I say both by stress of Fire arise in a considerable white fume and condense into a plenty of liquid Spirits as is evident in the Spirit of Verdigreeee of Vitriol and so most of other Bodies which being divided into their Minima so as to appear in a dry Sapless form may yet by distillation be turn'd mostwhat into liquids or by reduction into their Sulphurs or Mercuries if Metalline Bodies be furtherconvertible into the fluid Texture of parts VVherefore seeing dryness is no other than such a Texture of parts in the construction of Bodies as renders the Concrete not easily fluid nor apt to flow together when the constitutive parts are rather continuous than contiguous therefore must this dry quality as well as the rest of the same fraternity ipso facto forfeit its supposed Essence of a quality and lose its repute of a nothing for so I esteem it or little better while under
but that I pretend not here to give a Body of Philosophy therefore shall designedly contract Hydroph Well but seeing Pyroph we have been discoursing of Colours and that you say light is essential in the Fabric thereof Pray what do you think of Light it self do not we rightly define it to be actus perspicui quatenus est perspicuum and do not we truly distinguish betwixt lux and lumen in that we say lux est lucidi corporis qualitas being a quality of a luminous body as it abides and is fixt in the lucid body as for instance that light which is in the Sun Stars or Fire while it is in those bodies we call it lux but when it is dispers'd in a perspicuous body as the Air then it is properly lumen and that in Fire the lux or quality thereof sendeth forth that we call lumen which illuminates the body of Air and thereby makes it perspicuous Pyroph To which Hydroph I answer That your definition of lumen to be the act of a perspicuous body as it is perspicuous and your distinction of lux and lumen are all too short in my apprehension of the offence of a lucid or luminous body and that because what you call actus perspicui as you define lumen is no more according to your own Hypothesis than a product of a quality or a quality of a quality For it is you say produc'd from that you call lux and this you say is a quality of a lucid body so that lumen must be the product of lux a quality of its quality and by consequence one quality must be the subject of another and why not of a third viz. splendour and so a fourth and so ad infinitum Nay further to suppose light to be a quality of a lucid body as it abides and is fixt in that body and yet that this should produce that you call lumen in another body which it has or can have no essential dependence upon is to admit of qualities without the predicate of a subject which according to your own Doctrine is absurd enough Hydroph But what think you Pyroph of the genus of light is it a substance or body or is it not rather a quality or quid incorporeum That it is not a corporeal substance we have several Arguments to urge as first If it were a body it could not so suddenly be diffus'd through the whole Hemisphere and that by reason of resistence of the medium Next to that it would suppose a penetration of bodies and that because there is no part of a perspicuous body as of Water and Air but is illuminated thereby And lastly if light was a body so would also darkness be because contraries Pyroph These are indeed Hydroph the main Arguments of Aristotle and his followers against the corporealness of Light which we shall easily impugne As to the first therefore we say that it is not so difficult to apprehend that an essential luminous body such I mean whose light springs from the evibrations of the intestine Fermentation of its kind of its intrinsic Principles that is whose light is from it self and not from another should upon its extensive motion immediately reach to the periphery of its Orbs activity then that it should perform that work of illumination by an imaginary quality of a quality by a lumen which has its being from a quality of a lucid body As to the resistency of such mediums the constitution of whose parts by its teniousness and facil recess render them diaphanous upon the access of the Rays of light is no more an obstacle to the speedy diffusion of the body of light than the Air doth resist the explosive motion of Gun-powder or than the Air doth oppose the activity of Fire within its own Orb. And therefore Hydroph we might better and I think more agreeable to its nature define Light to be a quick Evibration or extensive and of its kind fermentative motion of the intrinsic Principles of lucid bodies stretching its nimble corporeal Rays from its self as the center to the periphery of its Orbs activity a quick Vibration and extensive Motion I said because that adds to the quickness of its transmission through a proper medium For we see that one spark of Fire or fired matter mov'd suddenly in a round makes an apparition of a whole circle of Fire which suppose it were a Radius or a Ray of Fire whirl'd suddenly about its own center would immediately appear as a whole sphere of Fire and that meerly from the quickness of its motion which seemingly makes Fire or Light appear much more than really it is So that we can no sooner consider a lucid body in motion that is its Principles or parts in an intestine collision or fermentative extrusion but at the same instant we must apprehend it extended and that extension is terminated by the utmost circle of its activity in so much as supposing a luminous body mov'd and extended as aforesaid is it self but the center to the whole Orb of its light whose Rays probably in their extensive motion are globular bodies whirl'd about their own Axis which very Orb may not improperly be call'd the Luminary unless we take in another notion of the co-existency of firy Particles liquidi simul ignis the liquid Fire as Virgil speaks in his Eglog to Sileno interspers'd in the depth of the great Sphere which becomes enkindled and takes flame upon the access of the Rays of the great Luminary the Sun Whether way we please to take it amounts to the same thing For whether we consider suppose the Sun as the great Luminary in Motion extending its Rays instantaneously to the greatest circle of its lucid Orb reaching from it self round to the supposed Vortices of the otherwise conceiv'd fixt Stars and illuminates the whole Orb save the shades of the opake bodies the Earth Moon and other Planets which in their motion about it have always some parts shaded which is that we call Darkness which I say whether we consider the solar Luminary that great fountain and treasure of light mov'd extended and thereby filling its whole Orb the shades excepted even to the periphery thereof with corporeal Rays through the whole medium of the vast Expansum is the same as to apprehend a liquid Fire or firy Principle interspers'd in the whole depth of the Fabric of the World which upon the access of its Compeer the Rays of light immediately darted from the Sun or mediately reflected from other bodies joyns issue therewith takes Flame and together by the agil Motion of their parts compose one great luminous Orb. So that motion and consequently extension is proper to both making either way light to diffuse it self speedily through our Hemisphere For whether it be darted immediately from the Luminary and so fill up the whole Orb of light or it meeting with congeneal firy or sulphureous Particles floating in the great deep giving flame to one
continually elaborated into a most depurate and refin'd Elixir containing the most defecate Principles of the blood and aliment whence blood is prepar'd is by circulation conveyed from the blood into the Stomach by the Gastric and perhaps other Arteries inserted into the Ventricle where through the congenealness to our every day receiv'd alimental Juyce can by reason of its subtilty of parts penetrate dissolve and unlock the compage of such alimentary bodys and at length put them into a similar motion by striking up their essential Principles into an intestin Collision which is that very thing we call a Ferment and is therefore here according to our Hypothesis the true cause of the stomachical Ferment that great and almost universal Alkahest of nature that can dissolve bodys though of many different sorts of Textures where the same Principles are to be found which essentially more or less constitute all alimentary Concretes and Liquids too For I must tell you Hydroph that the congenealness of Principles of bodys under very different Textures and various Compages give the cause of their more universal solution by Menstruums prepar'd analogically thereto yea and give the reason why the Principles of one are brought into motion by the action of the other that is by the congruousness of the Principles of the solvent to those of the solvend So that how the Ferment of the Stomach consists not in an implanted acid nor any other native Ferment peculiarly inherent in that part But how it chiefly if not solely owes its original to the circulation of the aforesaid highly prepared and much elaborated Elixir of the blood which communicated by the foresaid ducts by its great penetrability and agility easily mixeth with the assum'd aliment and by the assimilation of Principles sets the whole mass into a fermentative motion and thereby taketh in pieces its Compage by a genuine solution For the universal constitution of all alimentary bodys and by which they all agree in somewhat that is common amongst them consists in some texture or other of the two grand Principles Acid and Sulphur which fermentative Motion I say of the Principles by further solution percolation separation and afterwards by yet more intimate commixtion is carried on to the preparing the blood and spirits and thence to the elaborating the aforesaid volatile Elixir which conveyed into the Stomach compleats the whole round of digegestions and performs the whole circulation compatible to Animals in their great work of nourishment and preparation of spirits in order to Sense and Motion and other functions peculiar to animal bodys how I say all this is perform'd by the various collisions and elaborations of the aforesaid Principles what we only hint here we discourse more at large in our Tentamen Physiolog to which we refer you SECT VI. Hydroph WHat mean you Pyroph by those active Principles you spake of before viz. Fire Ferments Salts and Solvents by some of which all concrete bodys are taken in pieces and new textures or neutral Productions are thence made and by which great changes as you say happen amongst Bodies Pyroph I bring those mentioned Hydroph at present under the notion of extrinsic Agents which have a powerful efficacy in order to the effecting great changes amongst Bodies they are applicable to Hydroph What mean you Pyroph by fire according to your Hypothesis for we suppose it to be the most hot dry and lightest Element plac'd sub concavo Lunae Pyroph Your opinion Hydroph of fire will not be worth the while to refute and indeed I think will easily disappear of it self upon the displaying of ours By Fire therefore in this place I mean the vulgar viz. the fourth and sometimes the first complication of our Principles of Acid and Sulphur which consists in the highest collision and intestine rapid motion those Principles sowen or implanted in all combustible Bodies are capable of which although here we put amongst extrinsic yet may also truly be reckoned as the greatest intrinsic Agent in order to the great changes of the same Bodies from their own highly agitated Principles Hydroph Are there not many opinions concerning the nature and essence of Fire Pyroph Yes Hydroph Yours with the rest of your Hypothesis we reduce to six Classes as you may see in our Tentamen Physiologic where we undertake to shew the great extent of Fire enlarged to all its Dimensions not barely confining Fire within the ordinary limits of that which is vulgar and culinary concerning the illustrating of which as considered in it self and as applicable to other Bodies from our Hypothesis we are not sparing But also de industria do propose the consideration of Fire as extended to the solving the more general and universal apparences of Nature in the production of Bodies Hydroph Why how Pyroph Pyroph By supposing the Genesis of all specific concretes compriz'd in the threefold kingdom of Nature to be nothing else but a certain Evolution and Expansion of seminal Principles carried on by a gentle and mutual Collision of the mechanical Agents which are the very ground work of all natural Fire in Bodies or rather if you please to be nothing else which yet amounts to the same thing but certain igniculi or little Fires deposited and hid in so many minute portions or Urns of matter as there are variety of things giving motion and vigour to every Body wherewith it s cloth'd to the compleating thereof in all its numbers so that every thing we converse with in its existency from Creation or Generation represents somwhat miraculous to us viz. an igniculus or little Fire burning after its manner as made up from the very Principles of Fire mutually acting by a soft Collision and yet the thing it self wonderful and like the Bush which miraculously burn'd with Fire and was not consumed Exod. c. 3. v. 7. as the Divine Philosopher in his Pentateuch tells us so this is not consumed Hydroph But why Pyroph so lofty in your discourse and so curious in your so high speculations of Fire these are strange notions such as we read not of in our nor other sort of Philosophy I have yet met with Pyroph Because I find Hydroph by considering Bodies in their Generation or Production and in their reductions or unweavings and the various Metastases and changes amongst themselves I say by laying things well together and by putting them into their due Balance reducing them to their several Classes that there are seven complications or so many modes of Aggressions of the aforesaid Principles Acids and Sulphurs So that by searching into the depth of Bodies and into the various complications of their seminal Principles we cannot but suppose in Nature so many sorts of Fires hid in the bosome of things as there are modifications of the Principles by which they variously combine to the building of Bodies from their Rudiments and to the raising them up from their seminaries or radical beginnings also to the taking them in pieces or reductions
thereof and from which many and those the chief yea perhaps all Phaenomena of natural Bodies or Concretes we converse with may with a great deal of facility and perspicuity be genuinely solv'd concerning which we designedly enlarge in our Tentamen Physiologicum SECT VII Hydroph PRay Pyroph What are those seven Complications of your Principles which you say are found in the great series and chain of the causes of things and from whence you conclude so many Fires contain'd in the orb and shut up in the Centers of those Bodies we are concern'd with How do you reckon them Pyroph The first is when the Principles combine in such a peculiar Collision as that the ethereal matter is interwoven therewith and is fomented by a continual supply from the perpetual circulation of the aforesaid Aether of which sort are those we call Solar Fires because made from the same Principles as the Solar rays are which I say consist of an Eradiation of Solar beams springing from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun and fostered by an unwearied circulation of Aethereal matter as we shew in our discourse of Fermentation This Solar-Fire has a twofold consideration First per se and Secondly as it is transmissive or communicable to other Bodies Hydroph How do you understand that first consideration per se Pyroph That from whose direct or reflexive motion swimming through the vast depth of the Aether called by the Epicureans Inane are produced by an eradiation the grand Phaenomena of Light and Heat in the great Orb of the Macrocosm Hydroph What I pray Pyroph is light as communicable to us from the great Fountain thereof the Sun and as that grand Phaenomenon by which all others are made to appear Pyroph Light we suppose Hydroph to consist in an illumination of Air by a perpetual Emanation of Solar beams issuing as I said before from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun That Light is not a quality of a lucid Body as you define it but a corporeal substance and how it is necessary to the exhibiting variety of colours and answers the rule of Dioptricks we shall afterwards in its place discourse Hydroph What is that we call Heat as issuing from the Body of the Sun Pyroph It is nothing else Hydroph If I rightly understand but the reflexive motion of those Solar-Rays which in their Emanation from their Fountain cause Light Hydroph How are Light and Heat distinguished in their Causes Pyroph They differ in this only viz. That Light is the bare illumination of the medium Air by a direct Progressive motion of the Solar Rays from the aforesaid fermentation as the proper object of the Eye and by which all other things are made to appear while heat is the reflexion or Reverberatory motion as we say in our tract of Fermentation p. 106. of the same Luminous Beams issuing from the said Fermentation from the Earth or other solid Bodies affecting by that Fermentative motion our Sensative Organs of feeling Hydroph You have told us Pyroph how you understand Light and Heat to proceed from the same Fermentative motion of Solar Rays the one in a direct the other in a reverse or reflected line But how are those you call Solar Fires made Pyroph I answer Hydroph that besides what we have already said by Concentration of the aforesaid Rays those Fires are made viz. from which Rays by Glasses contriv'd for the purpose artificially concentred are produced actual Fires which will give Flame to and Burn any Combustible So that Heat is Fire in a remiss degree or the same Rays thinly dispers'd in their vehicle the Air while Fire is Heat in an intense Degree artificially concentred and both are Essentially the same that is are really from the same causes And as to the second consideration of Solar Fires viz. as transmissive or communicable to other bodies we mean such as hitting upon some peculiarly adapted Textures of Bodies do by their congruousness fix themselves and thereby are the causes whence several Phaenomena mentioned in our Tentamen Physiologic are easily solvable Hydroph What is the second complication of your Principles and what Phaenomena in the main are thence solvable Pyroph The second is when the foresaid Principles do mutually accost each other by a gentle Collision which is twofold the one progressive from the Center The other Retrogressive from the Superficies The former respects the Generation and Productiof things as is manifest in every genuine Fermentation both of Vegetables and Animals whence the Vegetation of Plants and the natural Fermentation of Animal Juices conducing to their Generation increase and perfection or maturity The latter eyes Putrefaction whose Ratio formalis is taken from the revers'd motion of the same Principles mutually acting where by a different modification the Acidum sets upon the Sulphur and thence produceth that putredness and fetidness the frequent effects thereof concerning which Principles as considered in their Progressive and Regressive motion in order to the Production and Reduction of things more elsewhere Hydroph What is the third modification of your Principles and the apparences in general referrable thereto Pyroph The third is when the Principles by a stronger and more sensible Collision hit upon each other and that 's twofold viz. Natural and Artificial 1. Natural as amongst Vegetables is manifest in their ripened Juices whose Principles struggle with stronger Collisions also in Hay Lime Straw Corn c. which have got moisture being laid up wet amongst Animals it 's manifest in every spurious and exorbitant morbid Ferment and lastly amongst Minerals as is evident in every strong Collision of the Principles and that either in their Embryonative Juices or in concrete Minerals from whose Principles mutually strugling do all Natural Baths yea all heats which arise from Metals or Minerals Naturally or Artificially perform'd take their Original 2. The artificial is manifest in every effervescence made between factitious Alcalies fixt or volatile and Acids concerning which you may see more at large in our Philosophical discourse of Fermentation and in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph The fourth you have mentioned before which is the most high and rapid motion the Principles are capable of whence you compute the Ratio formalis of vulgar or Culinary Fire and thence also it seems solve the Phaenomena thereto appertaining But pray go on Pyroph to tell what your fifth is and what thence results Pyroph The fifth is when the Principles after they are by the most rapid Collision brought to an ignition are transmitted from their own into other Bodies where penetrating are by a kind of a fixation lock'd up thereby becomeing the Authors of divers Phoenomena as is evident in the Calces of Metals made sicco modo for instance of Lead in the preparation of Minium Iron and Mercury in calx vive in fixt Alcalies lately made c. Hydroph Now proceed on to acquaint us what the sixth complication of your
Then what ever of Food we take in deducting what is separated as Urin Excrements and the like as much I say of real nourishment as is by the digestive Ferments daily made thereof so much do we transpire and loose so that supposing by compute that in most bodys every day I mean while in health and Ferments strong 7 8 or 10 ounces of fresh blood may be produc'd and yet notwithstanding suppose most men to be weighed at 24 26 or at furthest 30 years of age excepting some few that may by the more than ordinary coagulation of that which should transpire after those years grow fat and gross and again at 40 50 or 60 years it will be found that generally there is no increase of weight at all during that time and yet I say so much blood is spent every day in nourishment and so much of the ultimate assimilated aliment is daily transpired and all this without any residence or caput mort of the blood being constantly whilst the Ferments Spirits and Organs are sound and regular volatiz'd by a Ferment from the Air. And yet this Blood is made from various kinds of Flesh Fowl Fish Bread Drink c. all which lose their pristine form by the power of the specifical Ferments through which they pass so that if I should tell you Hydroph that when we come to 20 or 30 years of age and so on we have not the same numerical bodys as we had in our infancy nay perhaps not the same we had 5 year ago you will think it a Paradox if not Heterodox and yet if fairly scan'd what I say will not be found improbable For if we duely consider how that which yesterday appear'd in the form of part of a Sheep Calf Ox Deer Pidgeon Goose Turkey Corn Herbs Beer c. shall to day be transmuted into Chyle Blood Flesh Bones c. of a humane Body yea this to transpire within a few days and assume other forms and all this by the power of Ferments which are as the noble Helmont saith the parents of Transmutation If the nutritive parts of our body was not in a constant flux and always winding off we should in time become Anakites grow to be mighty Gyants But from the vigour of the Ferments of the body together with a perspirability communicated from the Air the succulent yea the solid parts themselves are always upon the wing Thus as new parts are daily by a rotation of Ferments added so the old as constantly march off or wear away or rather as the former texture of parts by a perspirability wind off so new parts by fresh supply of Food passing the circle of Ferments are woven on to confirm which viz. that the Ferments wind off the old and wind on the new coming parts of added Nutriment appears by this Observation that old Cows or Oxen after they have done their expected service being put to feed at fresh Grass do by the power of the aforesaid Ferments lay on new flesh which eats as tenderly as if the Goods had been kill'd young so that that which solely determines matter in this grand circulation of bodys out of one shape into another are the seminal and specifical Ferments and during the vigour of these the form of the body is kept intire in its specifical difference from other concrete bodys Wherefore the same specifical Body after the revolution of some years is no more the same numerical Body than the Ship which went from Athens and by frequent repairs return'd at last without one foot of old Timber that it was at first built with may be said to be the same Hydroph But if so Pyroph why do not we live always Seeing as you say our Bodies are in a constant fluor and as the old parts wear off new ones come on what should hinder but they should always do so and we live longer than Mathusalem Pyroph To which I return Hydroph that although our Bodies consist in a constant flux of Parts and that nutrition is an apposition of new in the place of the old or transpiring Particles yet as the form of this circulating matter is determin'd by the seminal and therefore specifical Ferments so the decaying of our Bodies both by sickness and old Age depend Essentially upon the intenseness and remisness of the vigour of those Ferments so that when these grow languid by diseases the Body wasts by a Marasmus or when they at the long run of old Age become infeebled and draw towards their limit according to the great and irrevocable decree of the Almighty Statutum est omnibus semel mori then do they come to their period as to their Progressive motion I mean in order to nourishment and support of the Body thereby and leaves the Body to be taken in pieces either by a Putredinous Ferment promoted by access of Air or by the Fracedinous odour of the Grave whereby it 's either transmitted into other Animals by the power of their Ferments or reduced into its primitive Juice or Leffas of the Earth For the strength floridness activity and that which is commonly called the constitution of the Body depends mostwhat if not solely upon the vigour of the Ferments as you may see further in our Hydrologia Chymica and Zymologia Physica Hydroph Well Pyroph I have this yet to add against what you say and that is to query why we should be troubled at any time with those sorts of diseases we call Chronical For it should seem to me if what you say concerning our bodies being in a perpetual flux of parts be true that few diseases would be of any continuance so as to acquire the name of Chronical because as the Body so they also would wear off in time Pyroph To which I answer Hydroph that as the Ferments are the primary active and transmutative Principles to which the most incident Phaenomena of diseases are chiefly reducible so what alterations are made in the Body by the Ataxy of Diseases are mostwhat referrable thereto so that Diseases happen not to the Body as it falls under our consideration in the notion of a constant flux and vicissitude of parts but as it is compos'd of a round of Ferments whose exorbitances prevarications and frequent errours become Essential to the begetting Diseases And therefore although the Body as to its material constitutive Principles may admit of a constant alteration of parts in an Agil fluor yet doth it not follow that Diseases are also as constantly worn off because they belong to the Body as considered under its Classis of Ferments so that as the Ferments in their vigour are the Authors of the Eutaxy or due temperament of humors and consequently of Health in like manner their spurious exorbitances are the essential causes of those disorders and discomposures in the Body we call Diseases SECT XI Hydroph BUt pray Pyroph why did you in your discourse about the four Elements being our suppos'd Original of all