and be contained many times in the bignesse of the sight of a mans eye Out of which we may gather what an infinity of obiects may seeme vnto us to crosse themselues in the same indiuisible place and yet may haue roome sufficient for euery one to passe his way without hindering his fellow Wherefore seeing that one single light could not send rayes enough to fill euery litle space of ayre that is capable of light and the lesse the further it is from the flame it is obuious enough to conceiue how in the space where the ayre is there is capacity for the rayes of many candles Which being well summed vp will take away the great admiration how the beames of light though they be corporeall can in such great multitudes without hindering one an other enter into bodies and come to our eye and will shew that it is the narrownesse of our capacities and not the defect of nature which maketh these difficulties seeme so great for she hath sufficiently prouided for all these subtile operations of fire as also for the entrance of it into glasse and into all other solide bodies that are diaphanous vpon which was grounded the last instance the second obiection pressed for all such bodies being constituted by the operation of fire which is alwayes in motion there must needes be wayes left for it both to enter in and to euaporate out And this is most euident in glasse which being wrought by an extreme violent fire and swelling with it as water and other thinges do by the mixture of fire must necessarily haue great store of fire in it selfe whiles it is boyling as we see by its being red hoat And hence it is that the workemen are forced to lett it coole by degrees in such relentinges of fire as they call their nealing heates least it should shiuer in pieces by a violent succeeding of ayre in the roome of the fire for that being of greater partes then the fire would straine the pores of the glasse too soddainly and breake it all in pieces to gett ingression whereas in those nealing heates the ayre being rarer lesser partes of it succeede to the fire and leisurely stretch the pores without hurt And therefore we neede not wonder that light passeth so easily through glasse and much lesse that it getteth through other bodies seeing the experience of Alchymistes doth assure vs that it is hard to find any other body so impenetrable as glasse But now to come to the answere of the first and in appearance most powerfull obiection against the corporeity of light which vrgeth that his motion is performed in an instant and therefore can not belong to what is materiall and clothed with quantity Wee will endeauour to shew how vnable the sense is to iudge of sundry sortes of motions of Bodies and how grossely it is mistaken in them And then when it shall appeare that the motion of light must necessarily be harder to be obserued then those others I conceiue all that is raised against our opinion by so incompetent a iudge will fall flatt to the ground First then lett mee putt the reader in minde how if euer he marked children when they play with firestickes they mooue and whirle them round so fast that the motion will cosen their eyes and represent an entire circle of fire vnto them and were it somewhat distant in a darke night that one played so with a lighted torch it would appeare a constant wheele of fire without any discerning of motion in it And then lett him consider how slow a motion that is in respect of what it is possible a body may participate of and he may safely conclude that it is no wonder though the motion of light be not descryed and that indeede no argument can be made from thence to prooue that light is not a body But lett vs examine this consideration a litle further and compare it to the motion of the earth or heauens lett the appearing circle of the fire be some three foote diameter and the time of one entire circulation of it be the sixtieth part of a minute of which minutes there are 60. in an houre so that in a whole day there will be but 86400. of these partes of time Now the diameter of the wheele of fire being but of three foote the whole quantity of space that it mooueth in that atome of time will be att the most 10. foote which is three paces and a foote of which partes there are neere eleuen millions in the compasse of the earth so that if the earth be mooued round in 24. houres it must go neere 130. times as fast as the boyes sticke doth which by its swift motion deceiueth our eye But if we allow the sunne the moone and the fixed starrs to moue how extreme swift must their flight be and how imperceptible would their motion be in such a compasse as our sight would reach vnto And this being certaine that whether the earth or they do moue the appearances to vs are the same it is euident that as now they can not be perceiued to moue as peraduenture they do not so it would be the very same in shew to vs although they did moue If the sunne were neere vs and galloped att that rate surely we could not distinguish betweene the beginning and ending of his race but there would appeare one permanent line of light from East to West without any motion att all as the torch seemeth to make with so much a slower motion one permanent immooueable wheele of fire But contrary to this effect we see that the sunne and starrs by onely being remooued further from our eyes do cosen our sight so grossely that we can not discerne them to be mooued att all One would imagine that so rapide and swift a motion should be perceiued in some sort or other which whether it be in the earth or in them is all one to this purpose Eyther we should see them change their places whiles we looke vpon them as arrowes and birdes do when they fly in the ayre or else they should make a streame of light bigger then themselues as the torch doth But none of all this happeneth lett vs gaze vpon them so long and so attentiuely that our eyes be dazeled with looking and all that while they seeme to stand immooueable and our eyes can giue vs no account of their iourney till it be ended They discerne it not whiles it is in doing so that if we consult with no better cownsailour then them we may wonder to see that body at night setting in the West which in the morning we beheld rising in the East But that which seemeth to be yett more strange is that these bodies mooue crosse vs and neuerthelesse are not perceiued to haue any motion att all Consider then how much easier it is for a thing that mooueth towardes vs to be with vs before we are aware A nimble fencer will put in
it findeth within its power to master be they light or heauy or of what contrary natures soeuer it compresseth them as much as it can and draweth them into a lesse compasse and holdeth them strongly together making them sticke fast to one an other Which effect Aristotle tooke for the proper notion of cold and therefore gaue for definition of the nature of it that it gathereth thinges of diuers natures and experience sheweth vs in freesing and all great coolinges that this effect proceedeth from cold But if wee examine which of the two sortes of dense bodies the fluide or the consistent is most efficacious in this operation wee shall find that the lesse dense one is more capable of being applyed round about the body it shall besiege and therefore will stoppe closer euery litle hole of it and will more easily send subtile partes into euery litle veine of it and by consequence shrinke it vp together and coagulate and constringe it more strongly then a body can that is extremely dense which by reason of its great density and the stubbornesse of its partes can not so easily bend and plye them to worke this effect And therefore a body that is moderately dense is colder then an other that is so in excesse seeing that cold is an actiue or working power and that which is lesse dense doth excell in working On the contrary side rare bodies being hoat because theire subtile partes enuironing a compounded body will sinke into the pores of it and to theire power seperate its partes it followeth that those wherein the grauity ouercometh the rarity are lesse hoat then such others as are in the extremity and highest excesse of rarity both because the former are not able to pierce so litle partes of the resisting dense body as extreme rare ones are and likewise because they more easily take plye by the obstacle of the solide ones they meete with then these doe So that out of this discourse wee gather that of such bodies that differ precisely by the proportion of Rarity and Density those which are extremely rare are in the excesse of heate and are dry withall that weighty rare bodies are extremely humide and meanely hoat that fluide dense bodies are moist though not in such excesse as rare ones that are so but are coldest of any and lastly that extreme dense bodies are lesse cold then fluide dense ones and that they are dry But whether the extreme dense bodies be more or lesse dry then such as are extremely rare remaineth yet to be decided Which wee shall easily doe if wee but reflect that it is density which maketh a thing hard to be diuided and that rarity maketh it easie for a facility to yield vnto diuision is nothing else but a plyablenesse in the thing that is to be diuided whereby it easily receiueth the figure which the thing that diuideth it doth cast it into Now this plyablenesse belongeth more to rare then to dense thinges and accordingly wee see fire bend more easily by the concameration of an ouen then a stone can be reduced into due figure by hewing And therefore since drynesse is a quality that maketh those bodies wherein it raigneth to conserue themselues in theire owne figure and limits and to resist the receiuing of any from an other body it is manifest that those are dryest wherein these effects are most seene which is in dense bodies and consequently excesse of drynesse must be allotted vnto them to keepe company with theire moderate coldnesse Thus wee see that the number of Elements assigned by Aristotle is truly and exactly determined by him and that there can be neither more nor lesse of them and that theire qualities are rightly allotted to them which to settle more firmely in our mindes it will not be misse-spent time to summe vp in short the effect of what wee haue hitherto said to bring vs vnto this conclusion First wee shewed that a body is made and constituted a body by quantity Next that the first diuision of bodies is into rare and dense ones as differing onely by hauing more and lesse quantity And lastly that the coniunction of grauity with these two breedeth two other sortes of combinations each of which is also twofold the first sort concerning rarity out of which ariseth one extremely hoat and moderately dry and an other extremely humide and moderately hoat the second sort concerning density out of which is produced one that is extremely cold and moderatly wett and an other extremely dry and moderatly cold And these are the combinations whereby are constituted fire ayre water and earth So that wee haue thus the proper notions of the foure Elements and haue both them and theire qualities driuen vp and resolued into theire most simple principles which are the notions of Quantity and of the two most simple differences of quantatiue thinges Rarity and Density Beyond which mans witt can not penetrate nor can his wishes ayme att more in this particular seeing he hath attained to the knowledge af what they are and of what maketh them be so and that it is impossible they should be otherwise and this by the most simple and first principles which enter into the composition of theire nature Out of which it is euident that these foure bodies are Elements since they can not be resolued into any others by way of physicall composition themselues being constituted by the most simple differences of a body And againe all other bodies whatsoeuer must of necessity be resolued into them for the same reason because no bodies can be exempt from the first differencies of abody Since then wee meane by the name of an Element a body not composed of any former bodies and of which all other bodies are composed wee may rest satisfyed that these are rightly so named But whether euery one of these foure elements do comprehend vnder its name one onely lowest species or many as whether there be one onely species of fire or seuerall and the like of the rest wee intend not here to determine Yet wee note that there is a greate latitude in euery kind seeing that Rarity and Density as wee haue said before are as diuisible as quantity Which latitudes in the bodies wee conuerse withall are so limited that what maketh it selfe and other thinges be seene as being accompanied by light is called fire What admitteth the illuminatiue action of fire and is not seene is called ayre What admitteh the same action and is seene in the ranke of Elements is called water And what through the density of it admitteth not that action but absolutely reflecteth it is called earth And out of all we said of these foure Elements it is manifest there can not be a fifth as is to be seene att large in euery Aristotelian Philosopher that writeth of this matter I am not ignorant that there are sundry obiections vsed to be made both against these notions of the first qualities and against
this diuision of the Elements but because they and theire solutions are to be found in euery ordinary Philosopher and that they be not of any greate difficulty and that the handling them is too particular for the designe of this discourse and would make it too prolixe I referre the Reader to seeke them for his satisfaction it those authors that treate physickes professedly and haue deliuered a compleate body of Philosophy And I will end this Chapter with aduertising him least I should be misvnderstood that though my disquisition here hath pitched vpon the foure bodies of fire ayre water and earth yet it is not my intention to affirme that those which wee ordinarily call so and do fall dayly within our vse are such as I haue here expressed them or that these Philosophicall ones which arise purely out of the combination of the first qualities haue theire residence or consistence in great bulkes in any places of the world be they neuer fo remote as fire in the hollow of the moones orbe water in the bottome of the sea ayre aboue the cloudes and earth below the mines But these notions are onely to serue for certaine Idaeas of Elements by which the foure named bodies and the compoundes of them may be tryed and receiue theire doome of more or lesse pure and approaching to the nature from whence they haue theire denomination And yet I will not deny but that such perfect Elements may be found in some very litle quantities in mixed bodies and the greatest aboundance of them in these foure knowne bodies that we call in ordinary practise by the names of the pure ones for they are least compounded and approach most to the simplenesse of the Elements But to determine absolutely theire existence or not existence eyther in bulke or in litle partes dependeth of the manner of action among bodies which as yet we haue not meddled with THE FIFTH CHAPTER Of the Operations of the Elements in generall And of their Actiuities compared with one another HAVING by our former discourse inquired out what degrees and proportions of rarity and density compounded with grauity are necessary for the production of the Elements and first qualities whose combinations frame the Elements our next consideration in that orderly progresse we haue proposed vnto our selues in this treatise wherein our ayme is to follow successiuely the steppes which nature hath printed out vnto vs will be to examine the operations of the Elements by which they worke vpon one an other To which end lett vs propose to our selues a rare and a dense body encountring one an other by the impulse of some exterior agent In this case it is euident that since rarity implyeth a greater proportion of Quantity and quantity is nothing but diuisibility rare bodies must needes be more diuisible then dense ones and consequently when two such bodies are pressed one against an other the rare body not being able to resist diuision so strongly as the dense one is and being not permitted to retire backe by reason of the externe violence impelling it against the dense body it followeth that the partes of the rare body must be seuered to lett the dense one come betweene them and so the rare body becometh diuided and the dense body the diuider And by this we see that the notions of diuider and diuisible do immediately follow rare and dense bodies and do so much the more properly agree vnto them as they exceede in the qualities of Rarity and Density Likewise we are to obserue in our case that the dense or diuiding body must necessarily cutt and enter further and further into the rare or diuided body and so the sides of it be ioyned successiuely to new and new partes of the rare body that giueth way vnto it and forsake others it parteth from Now the rare body being in a determinate situation of the vniuerse which we call being in a place and is a necessary condition belonging to all particular bodies and the dense body coming to be within the rare body whereas formerly it was not so it followeth that it looseth the place it had and gaineth an other This effect is that which we call locall motion And thus we see by explicating the manner of this action that locall motion is nothing else but the change of that respect or relation which the body mooued hath to the rest of the vniuerse following out of Diuision and the name of locall motion formally signifyeth onely the mutation of a respect to other extrinsecall bodies subsequent to that diuision And this is so euident and agreeable to the notions that all mankinde who as we haue said is iudge and master of language naturally frameth of place as I wonder much why any will labour to giue other artificiall and intricate doctrine of this that in it selfe is so plaine and cleare What neede is there to introduce an imaginary space or with Ioannes Grammaticus a subsistent quantity that must runne through all the world and then entayle to euery body an ayery entity an vnconceiuable moode an vnintelligible Vbi that by an intrinsecall relation to such a part of the imaginary space must thereunto pinne and fasten the body it is in It must needes be a ruinous Philosophy that is grounded vpon such a contradiction as is the allotting of partes vnto that which the authors themselues vpon the matter acknowledge to be meerely nothing and vpon so weake a shift to deliuer them from the inconueniencies that in theire course of doctrine other circumstances bring them vnto as is the voluntary creating of new imaginary Entities in thinges without any ground in nature for them Learned men should expresse the aduantage and subtility of theire wittes by penetrating further into nature then the vulgar not by vexing and wresting it from its owne course They should refine and carry higher not contradict and destroy the notions of mankind in those thinges that it is the competent Iudge of as it vndoubtedly is of those primary notions which Aristotle hath ranked vnder ten heades which as we haue touched before euery body can conceiue in grosse and the worke of schollers is to explicate them in particular and not to make the vulgar beleeue they are mistaken in framing those apprehensions that nature taught them Out of that which hath been hitherto resolued it is manifest that place really and abstracting from the operation of the vnderstanding is nothing else but the inward superficies of a body that compasseth and immediately containeth an other Which ordinarily being of a rare body that doth not shew it selfe vnto vs namely the ayre is for the most part vnknowne by vs. But because nothing can make impression vpon our mind and cause vs to giue it a name otherwise then by being knowne therefore our vnderstanding to make a compleate notion must adde something else to this fleeting and vnremarkable superficies that may bring it vnto our acquaintance And for this end we may
effect Yet dilated water will in proportion moisten more then dilated fire will burne for the rarefaction of water bringeth it neerer to the nature of ayre whose chief propriety is moisture and the fire that accompanieth it when it raiseth it into steame giueth it more powerfull ingression into what body it meeteth withall whereas fire when it is very pure and att entire liberty to stretch and spread it selfe as wyde as the nature of it will carry it getteth no aduantage of burning by its mixture with ayre and allthough it gaineth force by its purity yet by reason of its extreme rarefaction it must needes be extremely fainte But if by the helpe of glasses you will gather into lesse roome that which is diffused into a great one and so condense it as much as it is for example in the flame of a candle then that fire or compacted light will burne much more forcibly then so much flame for there is as much of it in quantity excepting what is lost in the carriage of it and it is held in together in as litle roome and it hath this aduantage besides that it is clogged with no grosse body to hinder the actiuity of it It seemeth to me now that the very answering this obiection doth besides repelling the force of it euidently prooue that light is nothing but fire in his owne nature and exceedingly dilated for if you suppose fire for example the flame of a candle to be stretched out to the vtmost expansion that you may well imagine such a grosse body is capable of it is impossible it should appeare and worke otherwise then it doth in light as I haue shewed aboue And againe we see plainely that light gathered together burneth more forcibly then any other fire whatsoeuer and therefore must needes be fire Why then shall we not confidently conclude that what is fire before it getteth abroade and is fire againe when it cometh together doth likewise remaine fire during all its iourney Nay euen in the iourney it selfe we haue particular testimony that it is fire for light returning backe from the earth charged with litle atomes as it doth in soultry gloomy weather heateth much more then before iust as fire doth when it is imprisoned in a dense body Philosophers ought not to iudge by the same rules that the common people doth Their grosse sense is all their guide and therefore they can not apprehend any thing to be fire that doth not make it selfe be knowne for such by burning them But he that iudiciously examineth the matter and traceth the pedigree and periode of it and seeth the reason why in some circumstances it burneth and in others it doth not is too blame if he suffer himselfe to be led by others ignorance contrary to his owne reason When they that are curious in perfumes will haue their chamber filled with a good sent in a hoat season that agreeth not with burning perfumes and therefore make some odoriferous water be blowne about it by their seruants mouthes that are dexterous in that Ministery as is vsed in Spaine in the summer time euery one that seeth it done though on a suddaine the water be lost to his eyes and touch and is onely discernable by his nose yet he is well satisfyed that the sent which recreateth him is the very water he saw in the glasse extremely dilated by the forcible sprouting of it out from the seruants mouth and will by litle and litle fall downe and become againe palpable water as it was before and therefore doubteth not but it is still water whiles it hangeth in the ayre diuided into litle atomes Whereas one that saw not the beginning of this operation by water nor obserued how in the end it sheweth it selfe againe in water might the better be excused if he should not thinke that what he smelled were water blowne about the ayre nor any substance of it selfe because he neither seeth nor handleth it but some aduentitious quality he knoweth not how adhering to the ayre The like difference is betweene Philosophers that proceede orderly in their discourses and others that pay themselues with termes which they vnderstand not The one see euidence in what they conclude whiles the others guesse wildely att randome I hope the Reader will not deeme it time lost from our maine drift which we take vp thus in examples and digressions for if I be not much deceiued they serue exceedingly to illustrate the matter which I hope I haue now rendred so plaine as no man that shall haue well weighed it will expect that fire dilated into that rarifyed substance which mankind who according to the different appearance of thinges to their sense giueth different names vnto them calleth light should burne like that grosser substance which from doing so they call fire nor doubt but that they may be the same thing more or lesse attenuated as leafe gold that flyeth in the ayre as light as downe is as truly gold as that in an ingott which being heauier then any other substance falleth most forcibly vnto the ground What we haue said of the vnburning fire which we call light streaming from the flame of a candle may easily be applyed to all other lights depriued of sensible heat whereof some appeare with flame others without it of the first sort of which are the innoxious flames that are often seene on the haire of mens heads and horses manes on the mastes of shippes ouer graues and fatt marish groundes and the like and of the latter sort are glow wormes and the light conseruing stones rotten wood some kindes of fish and of flesh when they begin to putrify and some other thinges of the like nature Now to answere the second part of this obiection that we dayly see great heates without any light as well as much light without any heat and therefore light and fire can not be the same thing you may call to mind how dense bodies are capable of great quantities of rare ones and thereby it cometh to passe that bodies which repugne to the dilatation of flame may neuerthelesse haue much fire enclosed in them As in a stoue let the fire be neuer so great yet it appeareth not outwardes to the sight although that stoue warme all the roomes neere it So when many litle partes of heate are imprisoned in as many litle celles of grosse earthy substance which are like so many litle stoues to them that imprisonement will not hinder them from being very hoat to the sense of feeling which is most perceptible of dense thinges But because they are choaked with the closenesse of the grosse matter wherein they are enclosed they can not breake out into a body of flame or light so to discouer their nature which as we haue said before is the most vnfitt way for burning for we see that light must be condensed to produce flame and fire as flame must be to burne violently Hauing thus
a thrust so quicke that the foile will be in your bosome when you thought it a yard off because in the same moment you saw his point so farre distant and could not discerne it to mooue towards you till you felt the rude salutation it gaue you If then you will compare the body of light with these others that thus deceiue vs in regard of motion you must needes agree it is much rashnesse to conclude it hath no motion because we can not discerne the succession of it Consider that it is the subtilest of all the bodies that God hath made Examine the paths of it which for the smallnesse of their thriddes and the extreme diuisibility of them and their pliant application of themselues to whatsoeuer hath pores are almost without resistance Calculate the strange multiplication of it by a perpetuall momentary renouation of its streames And cast with your selfe with what extreme force it springeth out and flyeth abroad And on the other side reflect how all these thinges are directly opposite and contrary in those other great bodies whose motion neuerthelesse appeareth not vnto us till it be done and past And when you haue well weighed all this you must needes grant that they who in this case guide themselues meerely by what appeareth vnto their eyes are ill iudgers of what they haue not well examined But peraduenture some who can not all of a soddaine be weaned from what their sense hath so long fed them with may aske yet further how it chanceth that we haue no effects of this motion It sheweth not it selfe in the ayre coming to us a farre of It stayeth not a thought or slackneth his speed in flying so vast a space as is from the sunne to vs. In fine there is no discouery of it But if Galileus his conception be well grounded that lightning giueth vs an incling of its motion beginning from a litle and encreasing to a greater or if Monsieur des Cartes his opinion that it goeth slower in refraction be true we shall not neede to study long for an answere But in Galileus his experience it may be the breaking of the cloude which receiueth that succession of motion which we see and no slownesse that light can acquire by the resistance of the refracting body can be so greate as to make that difference of lines which Monsieur Des Cartes most ingeniously though I much doubt not truly hath applyed to yield the reason of refraction as will appeare in our further discourse Therefore these being vncertaine we will to shew the vnreasonablenesse of this question suppose there may be some obseruable tardity in the motion of light and then aske of them how we should arriue to perceiue it What sense should we employ in this discouery It is true we are satisfyed that sound taketh vp time in coming to our eares but it is because our eyes are nimbler then they and can perceiue a good way distant the carpenters axe falling vpon the timber that he heweth or the fire flashing out of the canon before they heare any newes of them but shutt your eyes or enquire of a blind man and then neither you nor he can tell whether those soundes fill your eares att the very instant they were begotten or haue spent some time in their iourney to you Thus then our eyes instruct our eares But is there any sense quicker then the sight or meanes to know speedier then by our eyes Or can they see light or any thing else vntill it be with them We may then assuredly conclude that its motion is not to be discerned as it cometh vpon vs nor it selfe to be perceiued till its beames are in our eyes But if there were any meanes to discouer its motion surely it must be in some medium through which it must struggle to gett as fire doth through iron which encreasing there by degrees att last when it is red hoat sendeth beames of light quite through the plate that att the first refused them passage And it maketh to this purpose that the lightconseruing stones which are gathered in Italy must bee sett in the sunne for some while before they retaine light and the light will appeare in them when they are brought backe into the darke greater or lesser vntill they come to their vtmost periode according as they haue beene longer or a lesser while in the sunne And our eyes the longer they remaine in the light the more dazeled they are if they be suddainely passed into the darke And a curious experiencer did affirme that the likenesse of any obiect but particularly he had often obserued it of an iron grate if it be strongly enlightened will appeare to an other in the eye of him that looketh strongly and steadily vpon it till he be dazeled by it euen after he shall haue turned his eyes from it And the wheele of fire could neuer be made appeare vnto our eye by the whirling of the firesticke we euen now spoke of vnlesse the impression made by the fire from one place did remaine in the eye a while after the fire was gone from the place whence it sent that ray Whence it is euident that light and the pictures of obiects do require time to settle and to vnsettle in a subiect If then light maketh a greater impression with time why should we doubt but the first cometh also in time were our sense so nimble as to perceiue it But then it may be obiected that the sunne would neuer be truly in that place in which vnto our eyes it appeareth to be because that it being seene by meanes of the light which issueth from it if that light required time to moue in the sunne whose motion is so swift would be remooued from the place where the light left it before it could be with vs to giue tidinges of him To this I answere allowing that peraduenture it may be so Who knoweth the contrary Or what inconuenience would follow if it be admitted Indeed how can it be otherwise In refraction we are sure it is so and therefore att no time but when the sunne is perpendicularly ouer our heades we can be certaine of the contrary allthough it should send its light to vs in an instant Vnlesse happily the truth of the case should be that the sunne doth not mooue about vs but we turne to his light and then the obiection also looseth its ayme But the more we presse the quicknesse of light the more we engage our selues in the difficulty why light doth not shatter the ayre in pieces as likewise all solide bodies whatsoeuer for the masters of naturall Philosophy do tell vs that a softer thing with a great velocity is as powerfull in effect when it giueth a blow as a harder thing going slowly And accordingly experience teacheth vs that a tallow candle shott in a gunne will goe through a brod or kill a man Wherefore light hauing such an infinite celerity should also haue an
directed and impelled by extrinsecall AgeÌ„ts lett vs suppose that a body were placed att liberty in the opeÌ„ ayre And then casting whether it would be mooued from the place we suppose it in and which way it would be mooued we shall find that it must of necessity happen that it shall descend and fall downe till it meete with some other grosse body to stay and support it For although of it selfe it would mooue no way yet if we find that any other body striketh efficaciously enough vpon it we can not doubt but that it will mooue that way which the striking body impelleth it Now it is strucken vpon on both sides aboue and below by the ascending and the descending atomes the rare ones striking vpon the bottome of it and driuing it vpwardes and the denser ones pressing vpon the toppe of it and bearing it downewardes But if you compare the impressions that the denser atomes make with those that proceede from the rare ones it is euident that the dense ones must be the more powerfull and therefore will assuredly determine the motion of the body in the ayre that way they goe which is downewardes Nor neede we feare least the litlenesse of the agents or the feeblenesse of their stroakes should not be sufficient to worke this effect since there is no resistance in the body it selfe and the ayre is continually cutt in pieces by the sunne beames and by the motions of litle bodies so that the adhesion vnto ayre of the body to be mooued will be no hinderance to this motion especially considering the perpetuall new percussions and the multitude of them and how no force is so litle but that with time and multiplication it will ouercome any resistance But if any man desireth to looke vpon as it were att one view the whole chaine of this doctrine of grauity lett him turne the first cast of his eyes vpon what we haue said of fire when we explicated the nature of it To witt that it beginneth from a litle source and by extreme multiplication and rarefaction it extendeth it selfe into a great sphere And then he will perceiue the reason why light is darted from the body of the sunne with that incredible celerity wherewith its beames flye to visite the remotest partes of the world and how of necessity it giueth motion to all circumstant bodies since it is violently thrust forward by so extreme a rarefaction and the further it goeth is still the more rarifyed and dilated Next lett him reflect how infinitely the quickenesse of lights motion doth preuent the motion of a moist body such an one as ayre is and then he will plainely see that the first motion which light is able to giue vnto the ayre must needes be a swelling of that moist element perpendicularly round about the earth for the ray descendent and the ray reflectent flying with so great a speede that the ayre betweene them can not take a formall plye any way before the beames of light be on both sides of it it followeth that according to the nature of humide thinges it must first onely swell for that is the beginning of motion in them when heate entereth into them and worketh vpon them And thus he may confidently resolue himselfe that the first motion which light causeth in the ayre will be a swelling of it betweene the two rayes towardes the middle of them That is perpendicularly from the surface of the earth And out of this he will likewise plainely see that if there be any other litle dense bodies floating in the ayre they must likewise mount a litle through this swelling and rising of the ayre But that mounting will be no more then the immediate partes of the ayre themselues do moue Because this motion is not by way of impulse or stroake that the ayre giueth those denser bodies but by way of containing them in it and carrying them with it â—o that it giueth them no more celerity then to make them go with it selfe and as partes of it selfe Then lett him consider that light or fire by much beating vpon the earth diuideth some litle partes of it from others whereof if any do become so small and tractable as not to exceede the strength which the rayes haue to manage them the returning rayes will att their going backe carry away with them or driue before them such litle atomes as they haue made or meete with and so fill the ayre with litle bodies cutt out of the earth After this lett him consider that when light carrieth vp an atome with it the light and the atome do sticke together and do make one ascending body in such sort as when an empty dish lyeth vpon the water the ayre in the dish maketh one descendent body together with the dish it selfe so that the density of the whole body of ayre and dish which in this case are but as one body is to be esteemed according to the density of the two partes one of them being allayed by the other as if the whole were throughout of such a proportion of density as would arise out of the composition and kneading together the seuerall densities of those two partes Now then when these litle compounded bodies of light and earth are carried vp to a determinate height the partes of fire or light do by litle and litle breake away from them and thereby the bulke of the part which is left becometh of a different degree of density quantity for quantity from the bulke of the entire atome when light was part of it and consequently it is denser then it was Besides lett him consider that when these bodies ascend they do goe from a narrow roome to a large one that is from the centerwardes to the circumference but when they come downe againe they goe from a larger part to a narrower Whence it followeth that as they descend they draw closer and closer together and by consequence are subiect to meete and to fall in one with an other and thereby to encrease their bulke and to become more powerfull in density not onely by the losse of their fire but also by the encrease of their quantity And so it is euident that they are denser coming downe then going vp Lastly lett him consider that those atomes which went vp first and are parted from their volatile companions of fire or light must begin to come downe apace when other new atomes which still haue their light incorporated with them do ascend to where they are and do goe beyond them by reason of their greater leuity And as the latter atomes come vp with a violence and a great celerity so must the first goe downe with a smart impulse and by consequence being more dense then the ayre in which they are carryed must of necessity cutt their way through that liquide and rare medium and goe the next way to supply the defect and roome of the atomes which ascend that is perpendicularly to the earth
other can be imagined vnlesse it were variety of figure But that can not be admitted to belong in any constant manner to those least particles where of bodies are framed as though determinate figures were in euery degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therefore the Elements would conserue themselues in those figures as well in their least atomes as in massye bulke for seeing how these litle partes are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily ioyne and take the figures which the dense ones giue them and that they againe iustling one an other do crush themselues into new shapes which their mixture with the liquide ones maketh them yield the more easily vnto it is impossible that the Elements should haue any other naturall figure in these their least partes then such as chance giueth them But that one part must be bigger then an other is euident for the nature of rarity and density giueth it the first of them causing diuisibility into litle partes and the latter hindering it Hauing then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies lett vs now beginne our mixture In which our ground to worke vpon must be earth and water for onely these two are the basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and that submitt themselues to tryall whereas if we should make the predominant Element to be ayre or fire and bring in the other two solide ones vnder their iurisdiction to make vp the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be eyther in continuall consumption as ordinary fire is or else imperceptible to our eyes or touch and therefore not a fitt subiect for vs to discourse of since the other two afford vs enough to speculate vpon Peraduenture our smell migh take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it selfe vpon our health but it concerneth not vs now to look so farre our designe requireth more maniable substances Of which lett water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three Elements in excesse ouer one an other by turnes but still all of them ouerswayed by a predominant quantity of water and then lett vs see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth preuayle aboue fire and ayre and arriue next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needes prooue hardly liquide and not easy to lett its partes runne a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holdeth it together Yet some inclination it will haue to fluidnesse by reason the water is predominant ouer all which also will make it be easily diuisible and giue very litle resistance to any hard thing that shall be applyed to make way through it In a word this mixture maketh the constitution of mudde durt honey butter and such like thinges where the maine partes are great ones And such are the partes of earth and water in themselues Lett the next proportion of excesse in a watry compound be of ayre which when it preuayleth it incorporateth it selfe chiefely with Earth for the other Elements would not so well retaine it Now because its partes are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it driueth the Earth and water likewise into lesser partes The result of such a mixture is that the partes of a boby compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibbe and generally it will burne and be easily conuerted into flame Of this kind are those which we call oyly or vnctuous bodies whose great partes are easily separated that is they are easily diuisible in bulke but the small ones very hardly Next the smallnesse and well working of the partes by meanes of the ayres penetrating euery dense one and sticking close to euery one of them and consequently ioyning them without any vneuennesse causeth that there can be no ruggednesse in it and therefore it is glibbe in like manner as we see plaster or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causeth it to be catcking and the shortenesse of euery part maketh that where it sticketh it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of ayre next vnto fire admitteth it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire vpon it And therefore oyles are the proper foode of that Element And accordingly we see that if a droppe of oyle be spilled vpon a sheete of paper and the paper be sett on fire att a corner as the fire cometh neere the oyle the oyle will disperse and spread it selfe vpon the paper to a broader compasse then it had which is because the heat rarifyeth it and so in oyle it selfe the fire rarifying the ayre maketh it penetrate the earthy partes adioyned vnto it more then it did and so subtiliseth them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate his owne nature vnto them and thus he turneth them into fire and carrieth them vp in his flame But if fire be predominant ouer earth and ayre in a watry compound it maketh the body so proportioned to be subtile rare penetratiue hoat in operation light in weight and subiect to burne Of this kind are all sortes of wines and distilled spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquauites in latine Aquae ardentes These will loose their vertues meerely by remaining vncouered in the ayre for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find meanes rayseth it selfe into the ayre as we see in the smoake of boyling water which is nothing else but litle bodies of fire that entring into the water do rarify some partes of it but haue no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can gett out they fly away but the humide partes of the water which they haue rarifyed being of a sticking nature do ioyne themselues vnto them and ascend in the ayre as high as the fiery atomes haue strength to carry them which when it faileth them that smoake falleth downe in a dew and so becometh water againe as it was All which one may easily discerne in a glasse vessell of water sett ouer the fire in which one may obserue the fire come in att the bottome and presently swimme vp to the toppe like a litle bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoake and that will att last conuert it selfe into droppes and settle vpon some solide substance thereabouts Of these fyry spirits some are so subtile as of themselues they will vanish and leaue no residue of a body behind them and Alchymistes profâ—sse to make them so etheriall and volatile that being poured out of a glasse from some reasonable height they shall neuer reach the ground but
those partes they touch cutt the others that they are forced vpon In such sort as I remember happened to a gentleman that stood by me in a sea fight I was in with a coate of maile vpon his body when a bullett coming against a bony part in him made a great wound and shattered all the bones neere where it strucke and yet the coate of maile was whole it seemeth the little linkes of the maile yielding to the bullets force made their way into the flesh and to the bone But now it is time to come to the other two instruments of separation of bodies fire and water and to examine how they dissolue compounds Of these two the way of working of fire is the easiest and most apparant to be discerned We may readily obserue how it proceedeth if we but sett a piece of wood on fire in which it maketh little holes as if with bodkins it pierced it So that the manner of its operation in common being plaine wee neede but reflect a little vpon the seuerall particular degrees of it Some bodies it seemeth not to touch as clothes made of Asbestus which are onely purifyed by it Others it melteth but consumeth not as gold Others it turneth into pouder suddainely dissoluing their body as lead and such mettalls as are calcined by pure fire Others againe it seperateth into a greater number of differing partes as into spirits waters oyles salts earth and glasse of which ranke are all vegetables And lastly others it conuerteth into pure fire as strong waters or Aquauites called aquae ardentes and some pure oyles for the smoake that is made by their setting on fire and peraduenture their salt is so little as is scarce discernable These are in summe the diuisions which fire maketh vpon bodies according to the nature of them and to the due application of it vnto them for by the helppe and mediation of other thinges it may peraduenture worke other effects Now to examine a little in particular how the same fire in differing subiects produceth such defferent effects Limus vt hic durescit haec vt cera liquescit Vno eodemque igni We will consider the nature of euery one of the subiects apart by it selfe First for the Asbestus it is cleare that it is of a very dry substance so that to looke vpon it when it is broken into very little pieces they seeme to be little bundles of short haires the liquidity within being so little as it affordeth the partes neyther length nor breadth and therefore fire meeteth with litle there that it can dilate But what it can not dilate it can not separate nor carry away any thing of it but what is accidentally adhereÌ„t vnto the outsides of it And so it seemeth onely to passe through the pores and to cleaÌ„se the litle thriddes of it but bringeth no detriment att all to the substance of it In this I speake onely of an ordinary fire for I doubt not but such a one it might be as would perfectly calcine it The next body we spoke of is gold This aboundeth so much in liquidity that it sticketh to the fire if duely applyed but its humidity is so well vnited to its earthy partes and is so perfectly incorporated with theÌ„ as it can not carry away one without likewise carrying away both but both are too heauy a weight for the litle agile partes of fire to remoue Thus it is able to make gold swell as we see in melting it in which the gold receiueth the fire into its bowels and retaineth it a loÌ„g time with it but at its departure it permitteth the fire to carry nothing away vpon its winges as is apparant by the goldes no whitt decay of weight after neuer so long fusion And therefore to haue fire make any separation in gold requireth the assistance of some other moyst body that an the one side may sticke closely to the gold when the fire driueth it into it and on the other side may be capable of dilatation by the action of the fire vpon it As in some sort we see in strong waters made of saltes which are a proper subiect for the fire to dilate who by the assistance of fire mingling themselues closely with litle partes of the gold do pull them away from their whole substaÌ„ce and do force them to beare them coÌ„pany in their iourny vpwardes in which multitudes of litle partes of fire do concurre to presse theÌ„ on and hasteÌ„ theÌ„ and so the weight of gold being att leÌ„gth ouercome by these two powerfull Agents whereof one supplyeth what the other wanteth the whole substance of the metall is in litle atomes diffused through the whole body of the water But this is not truly a dissolution or a separation of the substantiall partes of gold one from an other it is onely a corrosion which bringeth it into a subtile pouder when the water and saltes are seperated from it much like what filing though farre smaller or grinding of leafe gold vpon a porphyre stone may reduce it into for neyther the partes of the water nor of the fire that make themselues a way into the body of the gold are small and subtile enough to gett betweene the partes that compose the essence of it and therefore all they can attaine vnto is to diuide it onely in his quantity or bulke not in the composition of its nature Yet I intend not to deny but that this is possible to be arriued vnto eyther by pure fire duly applyed or by some other assistance as peraduenture by some kind of Mercury which being of a neerer cognation vnto mettalls then any other liquor is may happily haue a more powerfull ingression into gold then any other body whatsoeuer and being withall very subiect to rarefaction it may after it is entered so perfectly penetrate the gold as it may seperate euery least part of it and so reduce it into an absolute calx But in this place I explicate no more then what ordinarily passeth leauing the mysteries of this art to those who professe it To goe on then with what we haue in hand lead hath aboundance of water ouermingled with its earth as appeareth by its easy yielding to be bend any wâ—y and by its quiet standing bent in the same position that the force which bowed it leaueth it in And therefore the liquide partes of lead are easily separated from its dry and earthy ones and when it is melted the very shaking of it causeth the grosse partes to descend and many liquid ones to fly away with the fire so that suddainely it is thus conuerted into pouder But this pouder is grosse in respect of other mettalls vnlesse this operation be often reiterated or the fire more powerfully applyed then what is iust enough to bring the body of the lead into pouder The next consideration of bodies that fire worketh vpon is of such as it diuideth into spirits saltes oyles waters or
phlegmes and earth Now these are not pure and simple partes of the dissolued body but new coÌ„pounded bodies made of the first by the operation of heat As smoake is not pure water but water and fire together and therefore becometh not water but by cooling that is by the fire flying away from it So likewise those spirits salts oyles and the rest are but degrees of thinges which fire maketh of diuers partes of the dissolued body by seperating them one from an other and incorporating it selfe with them And so they are all of them compounded of the foure Elements and are further resoluable into them Yet I intend not to say that there are not originally in the body before its dissolution some loose partes which haue the properties of these bodies that are made by the fire in the dissoluing of it for seeing that nature worketh by the like instruments as art vseth she must needes in her excesses and defects produce like bodies to what art doth in dissolution which operation of art is but a kind of excesse in the progresse of nature but my meaning is that in such dissolution there are more of these partes made by the working of fire then were in the body before Now because this is the naturall and most ordinary dissolution of thinges lett vs see in particular how it is done suppose then that fire were in a conuenient manner applyed to a body that hath all sortes of partes in it and our owne discourse will tell vs that the first effect it worketh will be that as the subtile partes of fire do diuide and passe through that body they will adhere to the most subtile partes in it which being most agile and least bound and incorporated to the bowels of the body and lying as it were loosely scattered in it the fire will carry them away with it Thâ—se will be the first that are seperated from the maine body which being retained in a fitt receiuer will by the coldenesse of the circumdant ayre grow outwardly coole themselues and become first a dew vpon the sides of the glasse and then still as they grow cooler condense more and more till att the length they fall downe congealed into a palpable liquor which is composed as you see of the hoatest partes of the body mingled with the fire that carried them out and therefore this liquor is very inflammable and easily turned into actuall fire as you see all spirits and Aquae ardentes of vegetables are The hoat and loose partes being extracted and the fire continuing and encreasing those that will follow next are such as though they be not of themselues loose yet are easyest to be made so and are therefore most separable These must be humide and those little dry partes which are incorporated with the ouerflowing humide ones in them for no partes that we can arriue vnto are of one pure simple nature but all are mixed and composed of the 4 Elements in some proportion must be held together with such grosse glew as the fire may easily penetrate and separate them And then the humide partes diuided into little atomes do sticke to the lesser ones of the fire which by their multitude of number and velocity of motion supplying what they want of them in bulke do carry them away with them And thus these phlegmaticke partes fly vp with the fire and are afterwardes congealed into an insipide water which if it haue any sauour is because the first ardent spirits are not totally separated from it but some few of them remaine in it and giue some little life to the whole body of that otherwise flatt liquor Now those partes which the fire separateth next from the remaining body after the firy and watry ones are carryed away must be such as it can worke vpon and therefore must abound in humidity But since they stirre not till the watry ones are gone it is euident that they are composed of many dry partes strongly incorporated and very subtilely mixed with the moist ones and that both of them are exceeding small and are so closely and finely knitt together that the fire hath much adoe to gett betweene them and cutt the thriddes that tye them together and therefore they require a very great force of fire to cary them vp Now the composition of these sheweth them to be aeriall and together with the fire that is mingled with them they congeale into that consistence which we call oyle Lastly it can not be otherwise but that the fire in all this while of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiseth hath hardned and as it were rosted some partes into such greatnesse and drynesse as they will not fly nor can be carried vp with any moderate heate But greate quantity of fire being mingled with the subtiler partes of his baked earth maketh them very pungent and acrimonious in tast so that they are of the nature of ordinary salt and are so called and by the helpe of water may easily be separated from the more grosse partes which then remaine a dead and vselesse earth By this discourse it is apparant that fire hath been the instrument which hath wrought all these partes of an entire body into the formes they are in for whiles it carryed away the fiery partes it swelled the watry ones and whiles it lifted vp them it digested the aeriall partes and whiles it droue vp the oyles it baked the earth and salt Againe all these retaining for the most part the proper nature of the substance from whence they are extracted it is euident that the substance is not dissolued for so the nature of the whole would be dissolued and quite destroyed and extinguished in euery part but that onely some partes containing the whole substance or rather the nature of the whole substance in them are separated from other partes that haue likewise the same nature in them The third instrument for the separation and dissolution of bodies is water Whose proper matter to worke vpon is salt And it serueth to supply what the fire could not performe which is the separation of the salt from the earth in calcined bodies All the other partes fire was able to seuer But in these he hath so baked the little humidity he hath left in them with their much earth as he can not diuide them any further And so though he incorporateth him selfe with them yet he can carry nothing away with him If then pure water be putt vpon that chalke the subtilest dry partes of it do easily ioyne to the superuenient moysture and sticking close to it do draw it downe to them but because they are the lighter it happeneth to them as when a man in a boate pulleth the land to him that cometh not to him but he remoueth himselfe and his boate to it so these ascend in the water as they dissolue And the water more and more penetrating them and by addition of its partes making the humidity which