of Paracelsus A Description of Mercury p. 132 41. An Objection of reducing Things by Fire into three Principles answered Aristotle's Three Principles likewise answered p. 138 42. Of Elements when distinguish'd from Principles A short Description of the Air the Earth the Water and the Fire That by the Words Heaven and Earth are to be understood the Form and the Matter p. 141 43. That Elements and Principles may be termed Equivocal and that there are but Two p. 147 44. An Answer to S s touching Four Elements wherein 't is shewed that there are but Two Elements that of Water the Passive Matter and the Solar Influx the Form p. 148 45. Some Aristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Democritus That the Elements are not contrary and opposite as Aristotle holds but agreeing and alike in a remiss degree according to Democritus p. 150 46. Of the Primary Qualities in Bodies according to Aristotle whence proceed their Effects and of the Atomical Physiology of Leucippus Epicurus and Democritus Both Opinions examined p. 152 47. Reasons against both and for a middle Opinion p. 157 48. Of the Original of Qualities Herein the Creation is considered and that according to Moses p. 164 49. That these Words The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters are not to be understood of the Holy Ghost p. 167 50. Of the First Day 's Work The Creation of Matter and Form and dividing the Light or Form from the grosser Matter p. 168 51. Of the Second Day 's Work or the Expansion and Division of the Waters above from those below p. 169 52. Of the Third Day 's Work The Generation of Plants p. 171 53. Of the Fourth Day 's Work The Collecting of the Light or Form into the Body of the Sun ibid 54. Of the Fifth Day 's Work The Generation of Fish and Fowl by the Union of Water and the Form p. 172 55. Of the Sixth Day 's Work The Creation of Beasts and Reptiles and lastly Man ibid. 56. How the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities p. 173 57. That the various Accidents and Qualities of Bodies proceed from the various Intension and Remission of the Form not according to Des Cartes from the different Magnitude and Figure of their Principles This illustrated by several Instances p. 176 58. The Conclusion p. 184 LICENSED January 2d 1691 2. Ja. Fraser OF Transmigration c. THis Opinion of Transmigration of Souls which is father'd upon Pythagoras is mistaken every where but very grosly believed in Pegu Magor and other parts of Asia For believing that the Soul doth pass into some other Creature after its departure from the Humane Body they abstain from no sort of respect to the most contemptible Creatures and superstitiously avoid doing any hurt to that Animal whose Body they think contains the Soul of their deceased Father Now how they could tell or why they should think that this or that Beast is thus animated rather than another I confess is strange and what is more so it seems from the Belief of those in Bengall and other Parts of the East-Indies who imagine that the Souls of Good Men pass into Cows and such useful Creatures and the Souls of Bad Men into Crows and such hurtful Birds or Beasts that these People think it of the Immortal Rational Soul rather than the Sensitive For the Faculties of the Rational Soul are exerted naturally in the kind Offices of Beneficence and Humanity but those of the Sensitive only in Growth and Sense It looks as if Folly begot and Superstitious Fancy propagated this Opinion Though to do Right to Pythagoras who was doubtless a great Man the absurdity of this Opinion is as far remote from his Sentiments as the Manichaean Heresie is different from the Christian Religion But Philosophy and Religion have both suffered alike by Ignorant Expositors For what will not a wild Fancy and little Judgment center'd in a Man fond of his own Thoughts produce What strange Opinions in Religion What barbarous Cruelties by Humane Sacrifices to the Heathen Gods hath the World been filled with Nor is Philosophy it self exempt from very odd Conceits Thus are the best Things corrupted But to return to our Author whose Opinion asserted is That the Soul after its departure from the Body passes into some other Animal This is as strongly put as any thing said of him for we have all by Tradition will bear 〈◊〉 Opinion I propose to defend and free it from the Absurdities Men have put upon it and restore it to its native Sence But let me 〈◊〉 here That I do not intend this Migration of the Rational Soul but of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit which Terms of Soul and Spirit being often used as Synonyma's have given occasion especially to the Ignorant to mistake the meaning of Pythagoras He that considers the Frame of this World the Contexture of Man and the perpetual Vicissitude and Change of Things will easily believe that either God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that Things pass and are changed into one another by a continual Circulation But we all know that the Eternal having made the World by his Wisdom and Power does preserve it now by his Providence and Goodness so that we must be forc'd to acknowledge not a new Creation but a Mutation of Things that begets this Variety Man indeed is endowed with something more than the rest of the Creatures he hath a Rational Soul that should sit President in his Body govern his Passions and direct his Affections How little it does so proceeds from the Vileness of our Wills rather than the Degeneracy of our Nature but we would excuse our selves Besides this he hath a Vegetative or Sensitive Spirit which is perfectly distinct from the Rational Soul as well as Body It seems to be a Medium to unite two Extreams of a Divine Immortal Ray and Gross Matter I am not discoursing now of the Government of the Mind over the Sensitive Part and what Obedience the one ought to pay the other nor how they contend for Dominion like Prerogative and Liberty in a disturb'd State But I am laying the Foundation of the Reasonableness of Pythagoras his Opinion which is the Transmigration of Souls or Spirits for these Terms are used equivocally To go to the bottom of this Question 't is fit to consider Nature in her several Provinces Mineral Vegetable and Animal for all created Beings on this side Heaven may be placed under one of these Heads nor are the meanest of them without a Spirit or Vital Principle which is all one and these like the Sensitive Souls of Animals evaporate on the Dissolution or Destruction of their Bodies To say how these Spirits leave their Habitations before I offer how they enter may be improper I shall speak therefore of this first and then of the other Nor will it be impertinent to the
as Plutarch will have it and then 't will be disputing only about Words But we 'll consider this Elements seem to be but modern in respect of the Ancients Moses speaks only of the Spirit and the Abyss and so for what I perceive it continued even to the Time of Thales who flourished in the 35th Olympiad Principles and Elements being not then distinguished by him for which Plutarch finds fault with him The same Author makes Empedocles to hold Four Elements who 't is said was a Disciple of Pythagoras who was contemporary with Thales Here I will suppose Elements to begin the Reason this They that held four Elements perceiving that besides the moist Vapour and heavenly Influence or Fire and Water in the modern Language there were Earth and Air that Air is the Food and as it were the Companion of Fire and Water of Earth and that things generated in the Earth could not but partake of its Nature as the Foetus in the Womb. That two of these were active and two passive two heavy and two light must of necessity be those Parts of Matter that constitute the Harmony of each Being To speak clearly to this Matter I shall take each Element apart and by that you will see whether these four or two only are self-subsisting Beings Pure Simple Primitive and Unmixt which is the Notion of an Element I will begin with the Air. That the Air we walk in is pure and unmixt no one will pretend for the Sulphurous Steams that are sublimed into the Air and the abundant Moisture fluctuating in this Region shew the contrary The Truth is what we call Air is nothing but Water rarefied attracted by the Heat of the Sun or sublim'd by the Archeus of the Earth and this may be made manifest by many several Experiments as the evaporating of Water into Smoak which is a gross Air or calcin'd Tartar that will attract it and dissolve it into Water The Earth can never be said to be pure simple or unmix'd for it is the common Shop of Nature wherein bodies of all sorts and qualities do reside It is in truth nothing more than the grosser parts of the Waters which condensing into a body became the Settlement of the Waters which God afterwards caused to become dry by the removal of the Waters from it and the Spirit of Light shining on it Though it is said In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth yet this is by a Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usual as the Learned say amongst the Hebrews for the Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit moved upon the Face of the Waters The Chaos therefore or first Matter was plainly an Abyss of Waters and so our Latin Translators and Commentators render it Aquarum Terrae supernatantium say Junius and Tremellius Water I conceive is in its own Nature pure simple and unmix'd without any quality though susceptible of all A Primitive in Nature a middle Substance whose one Extream constituted Earth and its other Air or Heaven This may well be called a Principle for she is the first Matter of all things into which all things may be reduced Fire in its Original is an emanation of a Solar Spirit its Rays darting downwards impregnate and enkindle Passive Matter into Motion and Vegetation It is the Life or Spirit of the World as Water is the Matter To doubt this a Principle or Element for I think it no Blunder under Plutarch's Favour to make them Synonyma's were a mortal Sin in Philosophy Having said this 't is easie to infer That Water is the passive Principle and the Solar Influence the Formal of all created Beings and that properly speaking these two are the only Principles according to the Ancients and the other two only Derivatives But does not the excellent a Learned Magus tell us That the Four Elements by their never ceasing Motion cast forth a Sperm or subtil Portion of Matter into the Earth where meeting and uniting it is digested and brought to perfection according to the purity or impurity of the place The Authority of this Person and the Reverence and Admiration I have for him as it makes me conceal his Name so it does almost make me blush to lift up my Pen against him Sed magis Amica Veritas If Four Elements go to the Constitution of each Being these Elements must be intimately united Now that cannot be unless the purest part of one Element enter per minima the purest part of the other But Earth cannot enter Water per minima unless it be reduced to the Form and Tenuity of Water and then what need is there of Earth if Earth must be first resolved into Water ere it can unite with it Again Water must be rarefied to the dignity of Air or else it cannot unite intimately with Air if so what need is there of Water since Water must become Air before it can assist in the Constitution of a Body It to me therefore seems most plain that all created Beings here below are a Concrete of Water the purest part whereof being rarefied and impregnated with a celestial Heat which is all the Element of Fire I know of is digested into the various works of Nature diversified now according to what Nature has wrought in the Matrix before the Form enters for the Form is as capable of divers effects as the Water is susceptible of qualities Thus much for the Second Viz. Principles and Elements Thirdly I shall compare some Aristotelian Hypotheses with those of Democritus Aristotle and Heraclitus too held the Elements to be contrary to each other as Fire to Water Earth to Air two active and two passive Principles but Democritus denies it alledging that the Agent and Patient must be in some measure alike otherwise they cannot act upon one another Wherein Democritus is certainly in the right for Fire and Water differ not in a remiss but intense degree witness the quiet resting of Iron in which the Fire of Nature dwells plentifully in Water and witness the Generation of Animals in water which cannot be done without heat and witness the Seeds of all Beings whose germinating Virtue is the Fire of Nature involved in Moisture There is in truth no more difference between these two than between Water and Plants of which the one is so far from being repugnant to the other that the Plant is nourished by the water yet when the water is raised to an Acid and the Plant reduced to an Alkali by the union of these two a violent ebullition is caused a controversie even unto Death As for the Cause of the variety of Bodies the difference between Aristotle and his Followers and Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus and their Followers is no less and 't is no wonder that they who differ in the Nature of their Principles should fall out in the effects they produce The Aristotelians impute the effects of Bodies to secret
then their Excellency would be very manifest 〈◊〉 that has seen the perpetual Light to which they have been advanced by Dissolution does know what place 〈◊〉 merit in this Life 〈◊〉 were the operation as easie 〈◊〉 the Reason is evident no ingenious Man would be without it For my part I own myself herein only Un 〈◊〉 yet he that is not able to 〈◊〉 a Bow may yet give 〈◊〉 Wherefore to this I conceive there is need of an homogeneous Agent defecated from all Impurity and impregnated with a Metalline Sulphur the former found in the House of Gemini the latter in that of Aries by the benign Influences of Libra and Aquarius But let none but the Happy pretend to this He that can retire and enjoy the Freedom of Horace his Countryman Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Ut prisca gens mortalium Paterna rura bobus exercet suis Solutus omni foenore c. Happy the Man from toilsome cares set free Who does regain Man's ancient Liberty Ploughing his Ground with Oxen of his own By Parents left 's free from Usurious Loan To this Freedom of Thought there is necessary a Knowledge of all Nature a plentiful Fortune and above all a wise and a Learned Friend Qui publicis 〈◊〉 bus Muneribus funguntur 〈◊〉 privatis necessariis 〈◊〉 cupationibus jugiter incumbunt 〈◊〉 summum hujus Philosophiae 〈◊〉 contendant Totum enim 〈◊〉 illa desiderat 〈◊〉 possedet Possessum ab omni 〈◊〉 longo negotio vendicat 〈◊〉 omnia aliena reputans flocci 〈◊〉 They who are 〈◊〉 tigued with Publick Honours and Employments or have continual Avocations of private domestick Affairs let them not pretend to the Heights of this Philosophy for she requires the whole Mind which obtain'd she keeps and retains him from all tedious Business teaching him to slight all Things else as Trifles This is an Eternal Bar to such as my self who am bow'd down to an Employment of daily Attendance Me Miserum Well may the Qualifications above be thought necessary since besides the Fineness and Acuteness of Mind there is required Herculean Labour Non viribus ullis Vincere nec duro poteris convellere fern This to attain no Steel 〈◊〉 any Force Nor French Dragoons 〈◊〉 Missionary Horse For 't is so difficult that 〈◊〉 tells us Mars being imprisoned by Neptune's Son Thirteen Months in a Dungeon could scarce be set 〈◊〉 by Juno's help though assisted by Hermes himself 〈◊〉 meaning whereof when have told you that Mars the Son of Juno and she the Metallick Nature is too obvious to need an Explanation for a Surcharge is nauseous to the Mind of an Ingenious Man Now to remove all Objections to the Foundation of this Opinion of Pythagoras and what is superadded It may be asked How doth it appear that the Heavenly Bodies bestow an Influence or Universal Spirit on the Earth Why may not the Earth it self be impregnated ab initio with Seed enough to hold out for all Species to the end of the World That the Heavenly Bodies move and transmit Heat we Both see and feel Nay this Heat beyond the Tropicks is so intense and powerful that with us collected by a concave Glass it will melt Silver and that in a more extraordinary manner than a Culinary Fire is able to perform Whence Mechungus affirms that there is no artificial Fire able to give such a heat 〈◊〉 that which comes down from Heaven We see Infects sort of Animals in a feu days are generated by it is waterish places Those 〈◊〉 pass for Animals as Frogs Toads and even Mice whose Generation is aequivocal 〈◊〉 so produced by means whereof we perceive that Vegetables grow and increase Timaeus the Locrian saith That God scatters Souls i. e. Forms some in the Moon others in other Planets and Stars whence they are instilled into Creatures To which Aristotle agrees when he saith That the Universal Efficient Cause of all things is the Sun and the other Stars and that their Access and Recess are the Causes of Generation and Corruption If so what need is there of an Element of Fire above the Region of the Air But I conceive 't was placed there for Order's sake only Now this Virtue that is Ministerial to such Variety of things must be in its own Nature General and Catholick or it could not be subservient to so many several different Individuals The Specification of it naturally proceeds from the Particulars We see a little Salt seasons a great Lump and a Scion transmutes the whole Juice of the Tree into its own Nature Wherein we may observe a twofold Change First Of the general Moisture into an Identity of that of the Tree Secondly A new Specification of it by its passing into the Scion Nay such is the virtue of Fermentation that you may inoculate Scion upon Scion after a little Growth and whatever becomes of Transmutation in the Mineral we daily see it various ways in the Vegetable Province to that degree that in many Trees you may ingraft and inoculate out of species as Cherries on a Laurel Pears on a Hawthorn-Tree nor is it otherwise in the Animal of which no man's Experience is without some Instances Fermentation saith the incomparable Eirenaeus the Great is the Wonder of the World by it Water becomes Herbs Trees Plants Fruit Flesh Blood Stones Minerals and every Thing This Epicurus calls the attracting and intangling adaptable Atoms by their Fellow-Atoms by which they grow up into the same Nature of which hereafter As for the latter part of the Objection touching the Earth's having Seed enough in it self and therefore needs not borrow of the Heavens What I said already to the first part of the Question may be a sufficient Answer But to proceed That the Earth is barren sluggish dead and passive we may easily see by considering how unfruitful all places are that are surrounded with Buildings For if the Earth had Seed enough in it self she might be as fertil in a City-Garden as in a Country But it is plain that the want of a free access of the Air whereby an Universal Spirit or animating Heat is conveyed is the only Cause of Sterility Why do your Country-men after some years plowing leave the Ground fallow Is there not Seed or Virtue enough in the Earth to hold out If there is not whence does she receive it It must proceed either internally from the Centre or externally from the Heavens if from her own Centre why does she wait the accession of the Sun to call forth her Vegetables And why where his Influences are interrupted is she barren But may not the Earth have a Feminine Sperm in it and may not this vital Heat be as a Masculine Principle that may only excite and bring this dormant Seed from Potency into Act to which Opinion Xenocrates seems to be inclined If the Earth were filled with such an
change it wanders through the Air. But do not Animals convey a Sensitive Spirit as 〈◊〉 as Body in Generation How then descends a Form I agree they give a Portion on of Specifick Spirit yet this hinders not but that as the Body is supported by Food in which there is a portion of Spirit and as the Animal Spirits that are continually flowing forth are supplied by the Influx of new and assisted by the Universal so in the Business of Generation as well as afterwards the Specifick Spirit is enlarged and multiplied by the Influx of the General or Universal Now this is more or less according to the activity of the Specifick Spirit which being of the nature of Light doth attract its like with more or less vigor not much unlike an enkindled though not flaming Lamp whose Smoak or Effluviums reaching a neighbouring Light attracts it and becomes enlightned by it at a distance and by how much the Effluviums are more powerful they attract a greater Proportion of Light For Light naturally joyns and unites with Light as Fire with Fire and the Souls of Animals the Rational excepted are a Ray of Heavenly Light Hence it comes to pass that in Men Horses and other Animals you shall have a vast difference the Race of some appearing always full of Life and as it were all Spirit whilst that of others are always heavy and dull and as it were half animated And thus it is in several Plants which every Gardener knows by experience for you shall have in the same kind some produce great increase and others very little in the same Soil Now I see no Reason why the Universal Spirit may not joyn with the Specifick in Generation as well as afterwards And why not in that of Animals as well as in the Production of Vegetables For though it is in the moist Vapour latent in the Earth as I hinted before and imbibed more or less plentifully according to the activity of the Form so is it more intensely in the Air in its proper Sphere for the Universal Spirit lodging principally there permeates through all the Parts of the Universe and is that Nature that is always ready and at hand to vivifie disposed Matter That the Universal Spirit does multiply the animal one after the Birth is obvious to the Understanding of all Men for that portion of animal Spirit that animates an Infant would scarce give motion to a Manly Bulk But I think we may with as much reason deny the Growth and Increase of the Body as that of the Spirit All Men that know the Benefit of good air and the Mischief of bad must acknowledge it How do the weak and languishing in a good air recover Strength and obtain new Spirit and Vigour And how languid and sickly do Men become in a bad And this may well be for the Animal Spirits are of an Aereal Principle which appears from hence whilst they inhabit the Body thro' the intimate Union with the Air the Body is preserved sweet the Air continually flowing in adding new stores of Life and giving Motion as it were to the whole Machine But when the animal Spirit is departed then for want of that Communion the Body putrefies and stinks Hence Anaximenes makes Spirit and Air Synonyma's The Reason of bad Air is occasioned by the grossness of the Watery Humors or Sulphurous Vapors that annoy the Celestial Influences by adhesion to them When the Arsenical Vapors are multiplied it begets a Plague and it 's more or less mortal as they increase or decrease Dismal was the Place that Virgil speaks of Quam super haud ullae poterant impunè volantes Tendere iter pennis talis sese Halitus atris Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat Hnde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Avernum ' O'er which no Fowl can stretch her labouring wings ' Such are the Fumes arising from those Springs ' They mortal are and fill the Atmos-Hall ' Whence do the Greeks that Place Avernus call These Sulphurous Exhalations destroy Plants and Fruit as well as Animals Plants being blighted and Apples being spotted even with blue spots to the Core in the late Sickness-Year where the Plague raged The knowledge of which by the inspection of the Entrails of Animals may be had and foreseen and by removal prevented For when the impurity of the air cannot be discerned by the Sense of Smelling and when the Malignity makes no impression on the outward Skin at least in its first approaches yet the vital parts of Animals which hold the closest and most intimate Communion with the Air will presently discover if there be an Infection in it by the discolouring and putrefying the Parts for they are first tainted then the Blood thence the Sore Hence I conceive it was that Democritus when he was reproached for his Poverty told his Despisers That he could be rich when he pleased For by this Observation being a great Dissector of Bodies he foresaw a Dearth and therefore bought up all the Olives The Dearth happening the Price of Olives rose whereby he might have sold them to great advantage but the Seller repining at his Misfortune Democritus like himself return'd the Olives at the Price he bought them Democritus therefore commended the Wisdom of the Ancients for instituting an inspection into the Entrails of Sacrificed Beasts from the general Constitution and Colour whereof may be perceived Signs of Health or Pestilence and sometimes what Dearth or Plenty will follow Augury thus stinted by wise Observation and having regard to due Circumstances may be useful but the Practice of it amongst the Romans as in foretelling particular Events to Men and the like was justly enough derided by Cicero But all Arts have suffered by the additions of foolish Impostors whence the unwary reject the Truth for the sake of Error intermixt Hence Arts and Sciences have their Death as well as Birth Hence the Tinging of Glass is lost Yet I conceive that they who have Leisure and Knowledge in the Mineral Province may extract a Sulphur from Metals that will tinge and penetrate harder Bodies than that of Glass But to return to the Subject of Air whence I digressed The good Air and the Life and Spirit it brings proceeds from the sublimation of a light Water acuated with a volatil Nitre which being rarefi'd and impregnated with the Heavenly Influences conveys down Life new Recruits to the Spirits of Animals as well as to Plants and Minerals This if you can receive it is Homer's Juno whom Jupiter let down into the Air with a weight at her Feet her Hands being tied with a Gold Chain to Jupiter's Chair The Meaning whereof is this That the Spiritual Influences flowing from the Heavenly Bodies are too subtil for a Descent without a Body that the Air is the Body or Medium that conveys them down to the Earth And though these Forms flow thus
continually from the AEther yet the Eternal God has the ordering and disposing thereof and that it is not done without his Providence and Direction Thus according to Socrates and Plato there are Three Principles of Things God Idaea and Matter God the Efficient Cause Idaea and Matter the Formal and Material I have now described Nature in General the Commerce between Heaven and Earth and the mutual assistance they give each other The Waters giving forth a subtil Vapour to dilute the scorching Influences and the Heavens endowing it with a Vital Principle sending it back into its Native Country enrich'd with the Priviledge of Life The incomparable Encheiridion Physicae restitutae speaking of these Things has thus ingeniously express'd them Haec est Naturae Universae Scala Jacobo Patriarchae in Visione revelata illae sunt Mercurii Pennae quarum ope Ipse Deorum Nuncius antiquis mysticè dictus Superûm Inferorumque Limina 〈◊〉 adire credebatur i. e. This is the Scale of Nature in general presented to the Patriarch Jacob in a Vision These are the Wings of Mercury mystically 〈◊〉 by the Ancients the Messenger of the Gods by whose help he was believed frequently to visit the Courts of Heaven and Earth Thus do Superior govern and influence Inferior Natures the former of which that is the seven Planets for their Excellency and Beneficence to this lower World the ancient Philosophers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Gods from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their perpectual Motion So the Eternal by his Providence vouchsa fing to be always at work they thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fitting Name for the Almighty Not that God has properly any Name though Kircherus gives us Seventy two all in different Languages yet we may invoke the Divine Majesty by any of his Attributes So that the Philosophers themselves I mean those who were worthy of that Title neither believed nor adored a Multitude of Gods nor intended them for Worship but propter excellentiam called both Things and Persons so Thus Homer calls Sleep a God when it hinders Jupiter from assisting the Trojans and Hesiod in his Theogonia has infinite Deities Whatever is productive of something else with him is a God thus Contention is 〈◊〉 fruitful Deity because it produces Trouble Grief Quarrels Fightings c. So the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might be given by the Greeks to some of their Hero's and great Persons 〈◊〉 to Antiochus who was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without adoring them as the Title Majesty is now given to Kings which being great in the abstract is not an Attribute too low even for the Almighty and yet we do not adore them when we call them so Thus God himself is pleased in Holy Writ to call Great Men Gods and thus the Appellative Good whence the Name God is derived is applied by us to all excellent Things as well as Persons For Aristotle could prove by an Argument from Motion the Being of one Infinite God by shewing that there must be a first Mover who is the Cause and Origin of all Motion who is Immoveable One Eternal and Indivisible Which several Attributes he has proved by irrefragable Arguments But this Subject merits a particular Discourse I shall only therefore add here That Philosophy coming originally from the Poets they treated of Things in a sublime and lofty Stile With whom every Hill was Olympus and this Olympus Heaven every Valley Erebus and every Prince a God And when they treated of Nature they represented her as the most Beautiful Diana no less than a Goddess whom to behold with unclean eyes was Death and to unveil whom indecently to suffer the Punishment of Tantalus The admirable Things spoke of her which the People always mistake made Asia fond to adore her The Philosophers therefore when they spoke of the First Principles of Nature or of her excellent Operations could call them no less than Gods after the Laws of Poesie And this I observe was an universal Custom in all Countries the Names only differing according to the Language of the Country but the Thing was still the same Hence are the Deities of Homer's Oceanus and Tethys Orpheus his Ouranos and Vesta the Romans Coelus and Terra the Father and Mother of the Gods i. e. the Formal and Material Principle of all Things And for the Operations of Nature they tell us of Rhea whence Neptume Pluto and even Jove himself was descended For the universal Spirit falling on the Water they cal'd Neptune à nando says Cicero penetrating the Earth where Treasures are found Pluto from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Riches and whilst floating in the 〈◊〉 Air Juno à Juvando for all things live by Air and because it included a Fiery Sperit which digesting apt Matter became Metal the Metallick Nature and by 〈◊〉 if you take it not as an 〈◊〉 which here is not Jupiter ter Opt. Max. not a Person but Place is meant the Empyraeum for that being 〈◊〉 to the Throne of the 〈◊〉 Majesty was by a Metonymy not unfitly called by his name who sits there To imagine these Persons according to the Letter of the Poets is beneath the Thought of a Man of Sence to confute it were to write to the Crowd 't is not worth lifting up ones Pen against it These are all said to flow from Rhea meaning the Chaos of Hesiod and that dark Abyss the holy Genesis calls void and without form because of this Matter all things were made which were afterwards divided and distinguished by an informing created Spirit of Light raising the most subtil part into the highest Region whither corruptible Matter cannot ascend This Region the Philosophers call'd Empyraeum Jove or the Super-celestial Heaven And as a further Description of Nature's operations they tell us the Story of Thet ys 〈◊〉 going to Vulcan's House of shining Brass his falling into her Lap when he was thrown down from Heaven her mounting the Sky in a 〈◊〉 Dress to visit Jupiter who receiv'd her kindly and placed her near himself Hence is the Adad and Atargates of the Assyrians the first representing the Sun with his Beams bending downwards the latter the Earth ready to receive them Then again for their Principles this is the Mind and Water of Anaxagoras and Thales the Soul of the World that animated all the Parts thereof mentioned by Zoroaster Pythagoras Heraclitus Plato and Zeno. The Vesta and Jove related by Herodotus of the Scythians the Ur i. e. Light or Fire of the Chaldeans and Water of the Persians which the common People through Mistake worshipp'd the Fire and Water of Hippocrates which could do all things the Aetes of Hesiod that married the Daughter of Oceanus that Fire which some made synonymous with Sol the Air which they called Venus the Virgin because not specificated and in a word that Mystery which the Ancients with great Industry and Art endeavour'd to conceal from the Vulgar