being spent most upon Invectives against Hippocrates and Galen persons above the biting of his venemous tooth and the first as to his Cavils against his Aphorisms Prognosticks c. so fully and learnedly vindicated by Doctor Sprackling that when he or any of his Tribe shall give a solid Answer thereunto he shall then see what more may be added upon that subject onely let me adde this to the much materially said by Doctor Sprackling that he condemns some of them for their Plainness in which he discovers his own Ignorance not knowing that Aphorisms are short Determinations and therefore ought to be plain But pray Sir is it not as plain that totum est majus parte that the whole is greater than a part that if from equal you take away equal the residue shall be equal which may as well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these were thought fit to be laid down by Euclide as previous to his Elements and yet was never blamed for their plainness nay without them we should have been at a loss for many Demonstrations both by Euclide Archimedes and others made good onely per deductionem ad impossibile But because in his next Chapter he is so bitter against the frigid notion of Four Elements that we must away with them root and branch without being heard what they can plead for themselves I shall enter into consideration of the Compofition of Mixt bodies and though I would not be understood to defend that Doctrine in every thing but onely that those that make the principia corporum to be Atomi and those that make them Salt Sulphur Spirit Water and Earth either are the same with the four Elements or where they differ are subject to as inextricable difficulties as can be urged in allowing their composition to be from four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth An Examination of the Doctrin of the Elements and the Composition of Mixt Bodies TO him that considers under what great obscurities the ancient Philosophers laboured to find out the causes and beginning of things who being either wholly deprived of the knowledge of the Creation or but darkly comprehending the History of it delivered indeed very anciently by Moses but by most of them either not seen or not believed to wit that there was an Omnipotent Power who was able of nothing to create all things by the effectual operation of his Word concurring with his Spirit He commanded and they were made Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they were created To him I say that considers these things it will not at all seem strange to find them sometimes run into errors which we see those that come after them in this fertile Age of Learning and deep search into Natural Causes cannot fully excuse themselves of Insomuch that had we that ingenuity which might deservedly have been expected from us by our dead Predecessors we should rather render them their due honour for many great Truths delivered by them to us when like our M. N. with too great presumption and boldness rail upon their persons with invectives calling the Philosophy of Aristotle dull the notion of four Elements frigid Galen the great corrupter Hippocrates his learned Book De Principiis slighted his Doctrine of Critical Days called as childish a conceit as was ever owned by any long beards called the children of men Without returning invectives against this Writer who lies open enough to him that hath a mind I shall onely with as much brevity as may be propound the several opinions as well of the ancient as modern Authors touching this matter and with as much candor as I can lay them down and then leave the Reader to judge where the most reason is I shall not enter into the subtil speculation de Materiâ primâ an Abyss fathomless and in which all that have endeavoured to penetrate have rather lost themselves then found that out and 't is no wonder for how can Man who is not able to judge of any thing but under the Idea of somewhat hath fallen under some of his senses tell what that is that cannot possibly fall under any one of them Plato Pythagoras and those of their Sect made the beginning of things to be what could not be comprehended either by sense or imagination but made it consist in certain eternal and unchangeable Ideas or Numbers Aristotle makes Privation to have the nature of a Principium for having disputed upon that subject Ex nihilo nihil fit he tells you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That according to his opinion nothing could be simply made ex non ente yet per accidens it might for out of Privation which in it self was nothing having no existence something is made Phys lib. 1. cap. 8. Then after saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here he tells you That Hyle or Materia prima and Privation are different and of these that Hyle is a Non ens by accident but Privation properly that Hyle is near and as it were a substance or existence but Privation by no means Last of all saith Phy. lib. 1 cap. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is That Hyle is the first subject of every thing out of which what ever hath being not by accident is begotten By all which you may see how Aristotle was streightned to extricate himself in the business of the first beginning of things He found there was a necessity to admit in a manner something to be made out of nothing and yet not seeing how that could be tells you it could not be simply true but true by accident explains his meaning by Privation which though it were in a manner non ens yet gave beginning to something that was as the privation of one thing is the generation of another where Privation is but accidentally the beginning of an Entitie Then after tells you that Hyle is a Non ens per accidens but Privation properly so Why is Hyle a Non ens per accidens Because he could not comprehend how if it were admitted to be an Entitie and have existence there must not be something precedent which must be the matter of that matter and so there would be a climbing in insinitum All this I conceive proceeded from his not knowing the power of God to create all things of nothing and that Maxim Ex nihilo nihil fit was onely true à parte post not à parte ante 'T is true since the Creation nothing can be made by it self but must come from a seminal vertue by God's blessing given to the Creation that various things might be produced according to their several kinds but before the Creation it was not so But the speculation of these things being wholly Metaphysical I shall so leave them and refer those that have a mind to wade beyond their depths in them to what Vasques Scotus Suarez and all the Thomists have written upon this subject Yet withall let me adde this Observation
the matter they called Mercury sometime the whole matter crude and undigested without any previous preparation was called Mercury and this on purpose that they might conceal their Art from such as they held unworthy to know it The nexus utriusque to wit of Sulphur and Mercury they called Salt which by many Philosophers is left out and indeed in the Philosophical work appears not but as a vehiculum to set the other two at work that so superius haberet naturam inferioris inferius naturam superioris But there is nothing more clear from all their Writings that they admitted the four Elements of Fire Air Water and Earth this is very plain by Raimund Lully in codicillo cap. 33 34 c. among the later Writers Sendivogius throughout his Book In tract de Sulph he hath these words Sunt autem principia rerum praesertim metallorum secundum antiquos Philosophos due Sulphur Mercurius secundum Neotericos vere tria Sal Sulphur Mercurius Origo autem horum principiorum sunt quatuor Elementa Sciunt ergo studio si hujus scientiae quatuor esse elementa c. And in another place of the same Author Duplex est materia metallorum note he saith not rerum omnium but metallorum proxima remota proxima est Sulphur Mercurius remota sunt quatuor Elementa c. By which it is manifest these ancient Philosophers did not intend that these Principia of Sulphur and Mercury should justle out the Doctrine of the four Elements but held that of Sulphur and Mercury distinct from them and in the same Treatise handles the natures of them all distinctly and apart The Author of that little Tractate called Physica restituta Can. 58. tells you That all mixt bodies are made of two Elements which answer to Earth and Water in the which the other of Air and Fire are virtually included In Arâ—an Hermet Philosoph Can. 76. â—e tells you That the other Elements are circulated in the form of Water He tells you of Ignis â—â—aturae in mixtis and a Humor raâ—â—calis which are both immortal and inseparable from any subject explains his meaning by the example of glass made out of ashes which could not be made fluxile except there were in those ashes a radical moisture so of Salts In summe I know not one of them but admit that in all bodies there is something answerable to the four Elements of Fire Air Water and Earth which we feel and handle and by the mixture of which they are all or at least some of them composed For by the way I would not be understood to say that necessarily every body whatsoever must be composed of all the four Elements for a mixture may be made and some body for ought I know framed out of the conjunction of two or three of them and 't is enough for the support of that Doctrine that there are four to deducâ— rationally that any one body is composed of them By what hath been already said it is evident that the ancient Philosophers did conceive and hold that their Sulphur and Mercury is something that lies hid in the heart of that matter which is compounded of the four Elements See Phys restitut Can. 224. That Sulphur answers to the Calidum innatum which is the spiritual fire and Mercury to the humidum radicale So that by those names sometimes they understand what â—n mixt bodies hath some analogy with the Elements of Fire Air and Water for under humidum radicale both Air and Water in their sense are comprehended At other times by Sulphur they understand the fixed matter after the circulation of the Elements through eveâ—y degree of their Zodiack and by Mercury the volatil part which â—auses that circulation to be made informa aquae and in ventre aëris till at last all ends in rupem illumiâ—â—tam as they are pleased to phrase it which of it self is a powerful remedy for all diseases and hath an ingress to the solution of all imperfect Metalls and as they say after some succedaneous preparations and repetition of the same work will cause a transmutation of them But they never understood that any of these Principles should destroy and put out of doors the four Elements which themselves always maintained Some of the Chymists I confess as Monsieur de Clave and others have denied an Elementary Fire not distinguishing between the material Fire we see in its effects and that central we see not So by their laborious operations of the ancient Philosophers they have corrupted their sense and merited what Sendivogius saith of them Si hodie revivisceret ipse Philosophorum pater Hermes subtilis ingenii Geber cum profundissimo Raimundo Lullio non pro Philosophis sed potius pro discipulis à nostris Chemistis haberentur Nescirent tot hodie usitatas distillationes tot circulationes tot calcinationes tot alia innumerabilia artistarum opera quae hujus saeculi homines ex illorum scriptis invenerunt excogitarunt That is to say If those ancient and profound Philosophers Hermes Geber and Lullius were alive they would rather be accounted Disciples then Philosophers who would not understand the meaning of those many Distillations Circulations Calcinations and innumerable other laborious operations found by these Artists out of their Writings contrary to the meaning of them What reason therefore have we to believe that these men have by their fiery and destructive trials found out the Principles or Elements from which mixt bodies have their composition when they have so much mistaken the sense of those Authors from whom they first took their names and notions of Sulphur Salt and Mercury I shall onely touch at many unreasonable deductions which in my judgment will follow out of this Doctrine First Entia non sunt multiplicanda nisi propter necessitatem So that all those parts in which humidity is prevalent may be well comprehended under the Element of Water such are insipid Phlegm perhaps Spirit and Oyl except you had rather reckon them of the Element of Fire because of their inflammability The drier parts under that of Earth in which Air and Fire are included which two likewise insinuate themselves into all other compounded bodies for I believe Air is in the most rectifi'd Spirit and natural heat in all water whatsoever which causes first a fermentation and then a corruption The different savours and viscosity may well be believed to proceed from the different wombs of the Earth in which the elemental mixture or matter produceth various off-springs to wit of Metalls Marcasites Stones Plants and the like endued with those several qualities and tastes we find in them participating in their nature of that part of the Earth whence they had their beginnings Beside if this opinion should be admitted we must fancie as many Sulphurs as there are different sorts of Oyls produced out of any body so of the rest Neither do I see what more reason they have to say
material but this is certain it remained all in the form of a liquor for many years I might adde that many of these substances will in time corrupt and stink others nourish which cannot well be conceived from what is simple and hath nothing in it heterogeneous Thus I have done with the examination of the several opinions and come now to the last Aristotelian way of the composition of mixt bodies out of the four Elements in which we have after all this clamour of our M. N. and those of his party this advantage that two of them are granted to our hand viz. Water and Earth as for the other two the parties are divided some denying an elementary fire others admitting fire and denying Air perhaps their mistake may proceed from not being able to form to themselves any Idea of Fire and Air except what they see and feel in their effects whereas undoubtedly the elementary Earth and Water are as different in their natures from that Earth and Water we see as the Fire and Air in their elements are different from those we see and feel But the Ancients with Aristotle and his followers finding by experience that there were four contrary qualities to wit Heat Coldness Drought Moisture and that these being accidents must needs inhere in some subject did from hence rationally enough deduce that that subject in which heat was without any mixture might be well called the element of Fire and so of the rest Finding secondly that most bodies as well animate as other were endued with a certain temperament that is to say some in which heat prevailed yet so alloied with coldness that the heat did not utterly consume and destroy the compositum others in which Drought was most intense yet attempered in some measure with moisture deduced that this temperament could not well be introduced in nature without a mixture of those qualities which resided purely in their elements hence came first the notion of the four Elements found out primarily by the consideration of the four qualities the mixture of the Elements in the composition of bodies by the temperament of them so that the qualities and temperament the one introduced the Elements the other the mixture of them in which they were careful to distinguish between apposition confusion and mixture apposition where two different things were put together so as again they might be seperated as for the purpose different seeds or grains Confusion where different things were put together which could not be separated yet introduced not a new form such is the putting of wine and water together which retains still the same form it had of liquor Lastly Mixture properly so called in which by most Authors these four conditions are required First that the Miscibilia must be endued with contrary qualities that they may mutually act and suffer one from the other for otherwise they would remain in the same state without any mixtion at all Secondly there must be a certain proportion both in quantity and quality otherwise one would destroy the other and there could be no temperament Now this proportion and contrariety in the Miscibles if it be of equality produceth a temperament ad Pondus which so long as it remains in any body that as it seems to me cannot receive any change or alteration But where there is not that equality both in quantity and quality but that one prevails over the other in some measure yet not so to destroy hastily the Compositum this is called Temperament ad Justitiam by which the Compositum may be preserved for many years in a good estate yet at last from the constant fight of these contrary qualities alteration death and corruption at last let in Thirdly the Elements must be so put together that every part of the Compositum must retain them all four And lastly that they must remain formally in Mixto I know this last is controverted by some Writers yet I believe will upon examination be found a truth but the disputation thereof is not for this place Avicenna lib. 1. d. 2. proves the Elements from the necessary things that must concur to the generation of every natural body he tells you no generation can be without a fixion of the matter and extension a dilution and permeation of the parts a subtiliation and mixture with motion he tells you fixion comes from the Earth extension and dilution from the Water permeation and subtiliation from the Air the motion of the mixed from the Fire and then concludes that since those things are necessary to all generations and are supplied by those four Elements those Elements must needs have existence to supply that office This argumentation from this learned Arabian will upon good consideration be found to have more weight then at first sight doth perhaps appear Of this I am sure that this with those before drawn from the combinations of the four qualities amongst many others have so far prevailed with the world that they have I think for nigh if not full 2000 years been thought reasonable and therefore not so easily to be exploded and thought dry and jejune notions as our M. N. would have them Let every man however for me safely enjoy his own opinion and the learned judge which carries most weight of reason I should now come to a particular examination of the eighth and ninth Chapters of his book which are very long but contain in them nothing or little more then a repetition of what hath been several times inculcated in other parts of his Book and already taken notice of What he speaks touching Digestion Fermentation and the mistake of the Schools in the notion of Diseases whether a disease be onely a distemper in the excess of qualities as the Galenists or a real substantial thing inherent in the Archeus as Helmont may admit of an endless dispute but he should do well to explain what they mean by Archeus and how a disease can be inherent in it or how any Medicine can work upon a Spirit and incorporeal thing or disease cured except it can be done by means of the qualities in correcting their excess I am sure none of them have hitherto delivered us any such Medicine or method and till then for ought I see we must be content with our old ones No more to the purpose is what he saith in the same Chapter touching the distribution of the Chyle in which the new discoveries have not at all altered the old method which stands firm upon its ancient base of long experience and practise Neither doth he or any other make it appear that Chymical preparations which he onely contends for do otherwise operate then the other Galenick ones do viz. by Purging Vomit Sweat Urine Digestion or Transpiration which effect they had long before the new discoveries in Anatomy were at all made known to the world and therefore from that Topick no casting off the old Medicines and erecting a new method can be