as the four first qualities Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and the second qualities which proceed from their intervention Those that proceed from Heat are the qualities of opening rarifying attenuating separation c. Those that proceed from Cold are thickning repelling condensing c. Those that proceed from Moisture softning and relaxation and from Dryness hardning c. 7. Accidents that are produced from the Form as it is living are the Faculties that operate under some determinate degree of life either vegetative sensitive or rational 8. Those that follow and are produced from the Form neither as it is mixt or living but as it is specifically such are neither the first qualities nor those that proceed from their intervention nor Powers contained under any determinate degree of life otherwise every mixt and living thing would possess them as the Anti-epileptick power in the Piony the attraction of Iron in the Magnet c. But from the force and power of the Form as it is precisely such for the particular Mode of a Substance is specifically determined by the Form to its due and fit qualities so that although the Form doth give Form to the Matter according to other Modes of Substance it does not produce in it such a quality as is evident in Rhubarb whose smaller parts have a laxative virtue and the thicker are restringent Mastick in one part is solutive so some Animals in one part carry Poison in another an Antidote It is to be observed that the affections that proceed from a faculty that arises from the Form of a thing as it is specifically such are accounted wonderful because their cause is not evident as others are and likewise because they work no change on any external sense as other affections are determined by the whole Substance because they proceed from a Form totally determined by the Matter as the Power of the Magnet c. are not called occult as if we were wholly ignorant of their nature but because they are not perceived by the external sence These are indeed fine and specious words but stand upon a weak foundation fabulous Peripateticism and if a storm should attack them they would without doubt perish under their own Rubbish And sirst supposing all Bodies to be mixt and to be composed of a collection of the Elements they offer the greatest violence to experience and right reason in regard Bodies which are supposed to be mixt are only the product of water impregnated with ferment as I have plainly demonstrated before in the beginning of this Treatise by evident Examples And in regard a Non-entity can have no passions how can qualities arise from the Form of a mixt that no where exists but admitting this how will those qualities which they call the first come by their original to wit Heat Cold Moisture Dryness which they produced immediately as it were out of the bosom of a mixt for those qualities equally belong to all things and not only to the first Elements as they pretend because all Bodies and all Air Water and Earth are capable of receiving heat or cold c. their Substance remaining unchanged nay even Fire itself may have greater or lesser degrees of Heat and the beams of the Sun are in themselves wet and dry and receive it not from Fire But the reason of that consequence is say they because mixts have those qualities as they contain the Elements either formally as some assert or virtually and eminently as others which in mixts are reduced into act by the advention of the form of the mixt and moreover if those qualities were called the first because they exist in the first Bodies the Elements then also gravity and levity which are called moving qualities would also be first qualities because they are also in the Elements For gravity and levity are equally indifferent with respect to heat or cold and many things are light or heavy in which not even potential heat or cold can be perceived but if gravlty and levity did proceed from heat or cold c. then those things would be lightest that participated most of Fire the contrary whereof is manifested in red hot Iron heated Stones c. because the fire doth not make them in the least lighter and so the Earth should be heavier than Gold Tin Copper c. which according to their suppositions being mixt bodies have more fire in them as was said before Neither do gravity and levity proceed from them mediately to wit by the mediation of rarity and density for then Oyl being thicker would not be lighter than Water and oyly substances would not swim upon the Water c. And if those first qualities as they call them do not rise from those things which are commonly called the Elements from whence will this suppositious Off-spring of theirs deduce its pedigree that is these second qualities which they will have to proceed from the intervention of the first which is impossible to prove although we should grant that heat and cold c. were the first qualities and do primarily exist in the first bodies For if they proceeded from the first qualities we could by them give an exact judgment of those first qualities which I will shew to be simply impossible by an example We can give no judgment concerning the first qualities from colours for almost all Herbs tho very different in their own natures are of a green colour Whiteness is in the cold Snow and hot Arsenick also in the Flower of a white Poppy and the Flower of Galangals and there is a milky juice in hot Wood-spurge and in cold Succory and Lettice 2. Neither can we make any judgment of the qualities from taste for bitter Opium cools and Camphire has a taste like hot Pepper the juice of Poppies refrigerates Acids as Vinegar Oyl of Sulphur of Vitriol juice of Barberies c. heat for they dissolve Coral Stones Pearls and Shells and dissolution and penetration are the Actions of Heat 3. Nor can we make any better judgment of these first qualities from Scents For first man of all Animals has the worst smell and many things that smell strong are cold as Camphire Opium Hemlock c. and many things that have scent are hot as Arsenick Mercury Verdigrease Cantharides c. Lastly no judgment can be given of the first qualities from thickness softness hardness subtilty dryness lubricity friability and roughness for there is none of them that proceed more from cold than heat as is evident from experience for many thick things are hot and many cold and so of the rest But also the qualities of the third rank which they call occult cannot proceed from the figuration of Matter by the form from the mixture of the Elements altho we should grant mixture the figure of the form of fire would only produce heat of water moisture c. and so they cannot any way produce occult qualities for they themselves grant they do not proceed from the first
qualities for example The Anti-epileptical virtue is in the Piony because its form is pre-determined from the precise form of the Elements that is either from the form of the Earth Water or Fire c. or from the mixture of two three c. But this cannot by no means be from the reason before laid down to wit the power of opening in the thinner parts of Rhubarb as it consists̄ of such parts nor of binding in the thicker parts and in Mastick for then all close and thick things would lay just claim to this propriety and on the other side the thinner which is contrary to experience And forasmuch as they say that qualities are not called occult because they not sufficiently are known to us but because they are not perceived by the external sences as others are either Sight is not an external sence as well as Taste or if it be the curve attraction of the Iron by the Magnet which the sight clearly discerns is more occult than moisture in the Water or heat in the Fire and Sun which is perceived by the feeling And in regard no body yet was ever capable to demonstrate why Fire is hot or Water moist any more than why the Magnet draws Iron c. then either all those qualities are occult or none For if the first qualities that are more intermediately subject to our sences are not more known than the occult much less the second that arise from them besides what things soever flow from one and the same principle one of them cannot be said to he more occult and the other less but all those qualities proceed from one and the same principle therefore c. There is nothing in what is compounded but Matter Form and Ferment but form is one and the same in all things Man only excepted therefore different qualities cannot proceed from it Matter is one and the same in all to wit Water and for the same reason cannot be the root and fountain of so many diverse qualities therefore smells tastes colours proportions and different figures proceed from ferment as from their original so also attractive repulsive sympathetical and antipathetical power proceed from it or from nothing for Water before it was fermented had neither taste smell or colour nor endued with so many different proportions nor purgative deleterious or antidotal cephalick splenetick hepatick or arthritical c. but according to the diversity of the ferments to which it is united it is capable of receiving myriads of signatures by this it becomes a Metal in Gold yellow in Silver white in Vermilion it is red in Vitriol green or blue elsewhere it becomes a Plant in Rue of a green colour with a sad coloured Flower it is bitter with a nauseous scent and has a quality of expelling poison with an antipathy to Coleworts Then it is an animal in the Tarantula of a dusky colour like a Spider of an hurtful quality to man c. but particularly to trace out how ferment by sporting is capable of producing so many signatures and proprieties is not my present design These things therefore being premised let us proceed to the original of forms which is so obscure and unknown that the whole doctrine of Sympathy and Antipathy hath hitherto remained quite uncultivated but that truth may if it be possible shine in these abstruse mysteries I have thought convenient to examine all the most celebrated opinions and see which of them will best explain the Phoenomena's of Nature and at last to lay down my own opinion concerning Forms The first then is the opinion of the Peripateticks asserting that there is a substantial form in sensitives and vegetables which with Matter doth make up the Compound These Forms they say are immaterial and incorporeal and are not composed of Matter as an essential part yet that they are material in as much as they depend on Matter in esse fieri operari but they do not understand what they say for if they are material they cannot either be subject to generation or corruption for Matter is neither generated c. neither can they inform Matter for then the same thing would inform itself if immaterial then they will not be subject to corruption and consequently not to generation Nothing can be produced from nothing but Forms have nothing but Matter or its accidents to arise from but according to their own confession they do not proceed from Matter a from an essential part therefore they must proceed from its accidents or from nothing but it cannot be from its accidents for then accidents would not only produce a form but create it Moreover form would not be a principle in regard it was produc'd from something else They say the form is produc'd from nothing of its own not nothing of its subject but this distinction will not remove the difficulty in regard they will not allow it to be made from a subject that is from Matter as an essential part therefore it is yet essentially produced from nothing If the form were produced out of the power of the matter it either would exist Matter or not not the latter because as was said before it is produced of nothing if the former its existence will be either physical or metaphysical not physical because Matter is pure power and a physical existence is act if it be only metaphysical as they distinguish how would Form receive a physical existence from Matter when no body doubts that it itself hath none Another opinion is that of the Epicureans who in regard they saw that Aristotle's opinion could not well be defended and substantial Forms seeming unaccountable to them denied that there were any such thing and had recourse to Atoms for the constitution and generation of a Natural Body saying that there were two principles of concrete Bodies Atoms and Vacuum the existence of Atoms and the things composed of them considering how much was added every hour to those things which grow slowly and how much those things diminished which were in a decaying state as in the nourishment of Vegetables and Animals and in insensible decreasings in the mean while not observing that Branches Leaves Flowers Fruits and Seeds every year become Trees that if every thing were exactly weighed we must allow that every hour they require several ounces of nutriment The same thing also happens in the nourishment of Animals if the quantity of the meat and drink that is received in be compared with the excrement and besides the trunk of Trees every year grows larger besides what leaves c. grow those that are of opinion that they require indivisible Atoms and that the matter cannot be performed any other way are confuted by the testimony of the sences in regard nothing as was proved before is required to the nutrition of Vegetables besides water Besides they say those Atoms are indivisible and altogether of the same nature on account of the identity of their matter whence there
can be no disparity Besides they say they are endued with magnitude figure gravity c. and that one is greater and heavier than another and that they have different figures to wit spherical cubical c. this is a very difficult matter to be believed But if it be enquired how this can be demonstrated that they have different figures in regard Atoms cannot be felt and that concrete bodies do receive figures and proportions from the forms by ferment as was said before and not from those Atoms that have no Existence Lastly they assert that Atoms which cannot be divided have no Vacuum in them but that all concrete Bodies as they are harder or softer have more or less of Vacuity For they say that Fire Forms Spirit the Souls of Brutes the effluviums of the Magnet of Amber c. are made of the flower of Matter of more subtil Atoms than other Bodies are compos'd of Hence it follows that Bodies by how much the more compact and hard they are and have more matter by so much the more active they are Spirits forms c. because they have much Vacuum are less active because a Vacuum is nothing and nothing cannot be attractive besides the same thing would give a form to itself for rarity and density do make no specifical difference and if the animal spirits in Brutes should perceive all things for they do not distinguish them from the soul and that from temperament the like would be perceived by it self that is the more subtile Atoms which are the Soul would perceive other sensibles and less subtile Atoms Lastly they say that all things are generated by the conjunction of Atoms and to be destroyed and ruined by their separation and that all the propreties of Nature have their original and are explained by the various ways of their agitation conjunction separation and disposition and are moved by their own innate gravity adscribing general proprieties to them to wit magnitude figure identity of substance gravity and also specifical proprieties as are the different species of Figures smoothness sharpness angularity roughness bluntness rotundity and these they say are congenite proprieties and exist in their subjects as they are such Then they adscribe to 'em proprieties that inhere or may be separated from their subjects and only inhere in 'em as they concur to the generation or corruption of concrets as concursion position connexion order and number In the first place I ask if magnitude figure and general and specifical proprieties as are the species of Figures round oblong orbicular c. if they concur and are joyned together will ever generate any other qualities different from themselves For Magnitude Gravity different Figures as plainness Angularity c. do produce different dimensions according to longitude and latitude and profoundity but will never produce Smells Tastes Colours or other qualities either manifest or occult For qualities generate other qualities like themselves and no other as heat in its own nature can only produce heat so different pieces of Figures joyned or separated produce diversity of Figures and nothing else beside This is the Opinion of some Physicians that in every Compound there is a Form and that it is distinguished according to the different degrees of things In such thick mists as this is I ought Candid Reader to use philosophical liberty and deliver my opinion amongst the rest for the confirmation of sympathetical Cure I must beg leave to repeat some things about Ferment namely that there is something always coevous and concreated that prepares Matter to receive its last perfection by its union to the Form and is not produced out of the power or dispositions of the Matter and is neither created anew or can be annihilated of its own accord That I may not be without witness I will produce some Examples The Spittle of a Mad Dog being forced into the Flesh by biting makes Men Oxen Sheep Dogs Horses c. run mad and use the actions and have the qualities of Dogs as biting and fearing the Water So those that drink the Blood or eat the Brains of a Cat will have their qualities The sting of the Tarantula will make both Men and Brutes like Tarantula's restless and in constant motion Those that drink the blood of wild Beasts will be of a savage temper The biting of an Asp besides other bad symptoms will cause the aâ—sticulations of that creature as frequent gaping the turning of the body and members c. The flesh of lascivious animals as Sparrows Sthinci c. create letchery in those that eat them These things being laid down I say first When the sensitive soul of man for this venom doth not affect the immortal and rational soul at least not immediately or a brute that happens to be bit wounded or to eat as is said before has the same operations as the mad Dog Tarantula Cat Asp Wolf c. and the vital operations are not only changed but the natural also as may be seen in the urine of those that are afraid of water we must either own that they have two forms to wit the form of a Dog an Ox c. or else that it is the soul of a Dog c. from whence these operations proceed and so we must judge of the rest or else we must allow the operations of the mad Dog do not proceed from his form but may equally proceed from the form of the Ox the Horse the Sheep c. We must also allow that the form of the mad Dog is not in his spittle nor by that can be transplanted We must own also that Oxen Horses c. that are bitten have their own form and as the soul of the Dog is not in his spittle so neither is that of the Tarantula in its poison c. otherwise there would be no need of seed or diversity of sexes for generation which is absurd although all things were Ex Traduce the natural consequence then is in regard the operations that are in the Ox Horse c. bit by the mad Dog are altogether the same operations of the mad Dog himself and so of the other examples that the soul of the mad Dog Tarantula c. is not capable of being transplanted by biting or wounding for if that were possible then there would be two souls together at once in every part of the body and other absurdities that the souls of brutes are altogether the same neither are they to be distinguished specifically of themselves and in their own nature but all the difference arises from the accession of different ferments This is very evident in Vegetatives for wholsom herbs if they grow near the holes of Serpents have the same power as the Serpents poison so Wine will have a laxative power from Mercury and their forms shall remain entire and unchanged There may innumerable examples be produced for the distinction of ferments Therefore ferments make the form of things very ductile and
it has the same life with the Animal to wit that of a man endued with a rational Soul To demonstrate these effluviums they say that Onions and Garlick will force tears from the Eyes at a good distance Helebore Pepper c. make sneezing Powder Saffron Henbane and Opium will cause sleep at a distance and that a man himself becomes much lighter by the effluviums that proceed from him in one night and a great many instances of this kind but this is not general for all these effluviums proceed in a violent manner from Bodies that have actual heat and those that abound with watry moisture caused by the heat of the Sun or Fire c. And as they endeavour to prove from Mercury and Antimony by infusion always impregnate their Menstruums and losing nothing of their weight for many years so likewise Musk Civet Benzoin the Magnet and others send forth effluviums and smells but lose nothing of their weight But if this were so they would certainly be lighter by the emission of these corpuscles which is contrary to experience for by the accession of other Ferments their virtue is weakned or it decays by time but because they lose nothing of their former quantities and weight it naturally follows that those effluviums are not corporeal unless they are violently forced from them by internal or external heat But that ferments in their own places or in whatsoever places they are by their rays do constitute a certain sphere which sphere is as extensive as any of their power can be perceived which rays are cloathed either with vapours violently excited from them by the internal heat in Animals and in other things that want heat by an external one or with others vapours raised from the earth but in regard these rays proceed from other which from what hath been said before do not in the least send forth any corporeal effluviums as the Load-stone Amber Garlick c. when they operate at a remote distance it is not in the least to be conceived to be by the emission of corpuscles because they are not diminished c. but only by the fermentation of watry vapours raised in the air and so of others of this nature now in regard the emission of vapours is a violent act especially in those things which are without heat those that practice by Sympathy and Antipathy do observe that those effects do not constantly proceed from them Such effluviums cannot be raised from the excrements that are already separated from the bodies of Animals but by external heat therefore such a concatenation cannot be in the Winter And yet the Winter doth not in the least hinder the operation of Sympatheticks The opinion of the Atomists ought to be considered but in regard we have before largely examined their principles in our precedent discourse of forms it will not be needful to repeat it We have also refuted their opinion who hold that this sympathetical power proceeds from the Stars and Sun in the beginning of our Book where we have shewn that the matter doth not in the least depend on them as they are endued with such and such virtues for the Earth before the creation of the Sun contained in it self the ferment of all Vegetables and consequently all powers Seeing then that Sympathy is not caused in remote places from the fancy of things extatically raised nor from Atoms nor from the concatenation of corporeal effluviums or from a soul operating out of its own proper body nor from that infinite spirit that lay over the waters c. Therefore with deference to others judgments to find out a way how that Sympathy or Compassion comes to pass seeing by innumerable examples it is evident that it really exists From what has been said before it is very manifest that every compound consists of Matter Form and Ferment from Matter it has its quantity and consistence to form it owes that it lives and is sensible more eminently or obscurely as was proved before and all other actions of what nature soever proceed from ferment and also all mutations for good or bad Hence therefore it appears that the blood and spirits in the veins of a man being affected with a Jaundice or Melancholy ferment the spirits of blood in the Glass hermetically sealed are also affected changing the colour into livid yellow c. and so we must judge of other examples of this nature to wit of Sweat Excrements and Urine that their spirits are in a like manner affected by the blood as the ferment is although at a great distance And in regard that ferment cannot cannot be produced of it self within the Glass so closed it must necessarily be carried thither whence it is manifest that Ferment penetrating the Glass hermetically sealed is not tyed to the laws of dimensions which is also apparent in the Magnets penetrating Marble Stones Mountains c. It is evident by what is said before that the forms of things in themselves do not differ in specie but in numero but that all difference of things proceed from Ferments and that they are as it were the beams of the universal Form which we have demonstrated And those beams do meet and are united in the center of the universal Form From hence it is manifest that the beams of Forms both of the whole and part that do sympathize do meet together and are both alike affected whether it be whole or part for the Form of the one of itself can thus change the beams of the other in regard things do not alter themselves by a Soul but only by it live and are sensible When the Ferment of one Form it being spiritual is carried with the beams of another affected at a distance that they may have private and reciprocal intercourse the one affects the other either with good or evil the whole drawing to itself the sickness of the part or the part that of the whole or communicating to it strength and health that was before communicated to the other by another friend present altho both be not present it is sufficient if it be applied either to the whole or part The same must be said of Diseases conveyed by one Enemy to another but in regard nature herself may be immediately cured of all Diseases the Physician her Servant as Hippocrates calls him ought especially to be sollicitous to preserve her whole in all respects that is he ought to have diligent regard that those three things which constitute innate Nature to wit that the Humidum radicali Spiritus insitus and calor innatus should agree together in a just union and proportion lest the fat moisture should grow desicient thro heat and the heat should extravagantly waste its Pabulum and so wrong the Spirits Upon this account the Egyptians Arabian Philosophers and all the Tribe of Caballists made such diligent search after and so extolled that universal Medicine which by preserving the strength of Nature drives away all