Sound is produced in any part of the whole intermediate space betwixt CD And the Ground These stand upon is the Experience of Cloth which being violently shook in the aer for the excussion of dust doth only then emit a smart sound or Rapp when attaining the extremity of its Flexion it percusseth the superior aer and is in the manner of Sails swelled up by the inferior aer But in this instance and that consimilar one of Coach-whips it is almost evident even to the eye that the Rapp is made only by the Doubling of the Cloth or Chord at the end of their Flexion and therefore we are not convinced that the Concinnous Sound is then begun as these persuade in either C or D the period of each Flexion especially when the Chord in C and D seems rather to quiesce than move and some quiet must intercede betwixt two contrary motions of the same thing 4 But â—nsomuch as all sounds are caused by the Motion of the Aer and the Sound alwayes is loudest where the Motion of the Aer is most rapid 〈…〉 the whole sonorous line or space betwixt C and E the motion of the Aer intercluded is most swift when the Chord returns from C to E therefore doth Mersennus to whose judgment we most incline in this nicety conclude that the Harmonical sound is begun in the beginning of the first Recurse of the Chord from C to E and that it is then of the same Acuteness as are all the subsequent sounds made by the subsequent Recurses because the reason of the First Recurse seems to be the same with that of all the consequent To this some have objected that the sound of the First Recurse is too Expedite and short to be perceived by the Ear since even the Eye incomparably more prompt in the discernment of visibles cannot behold an object whose Apparence or Praesence exceeds not the Duration of the foresaid Recurse of the Chord from the extreme of its flexion C to E which doth scarce endure the â—600 part of a minute But this objection is soon dissolved by Experience which testifieth that if a quill or other impediment be placed some small space beyond E towards D so that the Chord may complete its first Recurse from C to E without interruption then will a sound be created and such as hath sufficient Acuteness though it be scarce momentany in Duration because the frequency of its Recurses is praevented Many other Problems there are concerning the Reasons of Sounds wherewith the insatiate Curiosity of Naturalists hath entertained it self in all ages but among them all we shall take cognizance of only those more eminent ones which as they seem most irreconcilably repugnant to our Theory when proposed so must they much confirm and illustrate the dignity thereof when clearly Dissolved by us without the least contradiction to or apostacy from our Principles assumed Since the unstrained Solution of the most difficult Phaenomenaes by the vertue of any Hypothesis is the best argument of its Verity and excellency above others that fail in their Deduction to remote Particulars PROBLEM 2. Whether may a Sound be created in a Vacuum if any such be in Nature SOLUT. To solve this by many accounted inexplicable Aenigme we need only to have recurse to our long since antecedent Distinction of a Vacuity Disseminate and Coacervate for that once entered our judgment we cannot indubitate that ingenious Experiment of Gaspar Berthius laureat Mathematician at Rome frequently and alwayes with honourable Attributes mentioned by Father Kircher in sundry of his Physicomathematical discourses which sensibly demonstrateth the actual production of a Sound in a Disseminate Vacuity The Experiment is thus made Having praepared a large Concave and almost sphaerical Glass aemulating the figure of a Cucurbite or Cupping-glass fix a small Bell such as is usual in striking Watches of the largest size on one side of the concave thereof and a moveable Hammer or striker at fit distance on the other so as the Hammer being elevated may fall upon the skirts of the Bell and then lute or coement on the Glass firmly and closely that all sensible insinuation of the ambient aer be praevented to one extreme of a Glass Tube of about an inch diametre in bore and 8 or 10 feet in length Then reversing the Tube pour into it a sufficient quantity of Quicksilver or Water to fill both it and the Head exactly This done stop the other extreme of the Tube with your finger or other stopple accommodate to the orifice and after gentle inversion immerge the same to a foot depth in a Vessel of Water and withdraw your stopple that so much of the Quicksilver contained in the Head and Tube as is superior in Gravity to the Cylindre of Aer from the summity of the Atmosphere incumbent on the surface of the Water in the subjacent Vessel may fall down leaving a considerable void Space in the superior part of the Tube Lastly apply a vigorous Loadstone to the outside of the Glass Head in the part respecting the moveable extreme of the Hammer that so by its Magnetical Effluxions transmitted through the incontiguities or minute pores of the Glass and fastned on to its Ansulae or smal Holds it may elevate the same which upon the subduction of its Attrahent or Elevator will instantly relapse upon the Bell and by that percussion produce a clear and shrill sound not much weaker than that emitted from the same Bell and Hammer in open aer Now that there is a certain Vacuity in that space of the Head and Tube deserted by the delapsed Quicksilver is sufficiently conspicuous even from hence that the ambient Aer seems so excluded on all hands that it cannot by its Periosis to borrow Platoes word or Circumpulsion succeed into the room abandoned by the Quicksilver and so redintegrate the solution of Continuity as in all other motions And that this Vacuity is not Total or Coacervate but only Gradual or Desseminate may be warrantably inferred from hence 1 That Nature is uncapable of so great a wound as a Coacervate Vacuity of such large dimensions as we have argued in our Chapter of a Vacuum Praeternatural in the First Book 2 That a Sound is produced therein for since a Sound is an Affection of the Aer or rather the Aer is the Material Cause of a Sound were there no aer in the Desert space there could be no Sound Wherefore it is most probable that in this so great distress ingenious Nature doth relieve herself by the insensible transmission of the most aethereal or subtile particles of the Circumpulsed Aer through the small and even with a microscope invisible Pores of the Glass into the Desert Space which replenish it to such a degree as to praevent a Total though not a Dispersed Vacuity therein and though the Grosser Parts of the extremly comprest Aer cannot likewise permeate the same slender or narrow Inlets yet is that
of the inside of the Uvea Tunica 6 The Tunica Arachnoides 7 The Ciliary Filaments thereof 8 The Chrystalline 9 The Retina Tunica 10 The six Muscles viz. 1 The Direct as the Atollent Depriment Adducent Abducent 2 And Oblique as the 2 Circumactors or Lovers Muscles 173 to 177 3 Why the Situation of an object is perceived by the sight 177 4 The Reason of the eversion of the Image in the Amphiblestroides 178 5 The same illustrate by an Experiment ibid. 6 Why the Motion and Quiet of objects are discerned by the sight ibid. 7 Why Catoptrical Images imitate the motions of their Antitipes or Originals ibid. 8 Why the right side of a Catoptrical Image respects the Left of its Exemplar And why two Catoptrick Glasses confrontingly posited cause a Restitution of the parts of the Image to the natural Form 180 CHAP. IV. The Nature of Colours p. 182. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Argument duly acknowledged to be superlatively Difficult if not absolutely Acataleptical ibid. 2 The sentence of Aristotle concerning the Nature of Colours and the Commentary of Scaliger thereupon 183 3 The opinion of Plato ibid. 4 Of the Pythagorean and Stoick 184 5 Of the Spagyrical Philosophers ibid. 6 The reason of the Authors desertion of all these and election of Democritus and Epicurus judgement touching the Generation of Colours ibid. 7 The Text of Epicurus fully and faithfully expounded 185 SECT II. ARTIC 1 A PARADOX That there are no Colours in the Dark 186 2 A familiar Experiment attesting the Verity thereof ibid. 3 The Constancy of all Artificial Tinctures dependent on the constancy of Disposition in the superficial Particles of the Bodies that wear them 187 4 That so generally magnified Distinction of Colours into Inhaerent and meerly Apparent redargued of manifest Contradiction ibid. 5 The Emphatical or Evanid Colours created by Prisms no less Real and Inhaerent than the most Durable Tinctures 188 6 COROLLARY The Reasons of Emphatical Colours appinged on Bodies objected by a Prism 189 7 The true Difference of Emphatical and Durable Colours briefly stated ibid. 8 No Colour Formally inhaerent in objects but only Materially or Effectively contrary to the constant Tenent of the Schools ibid 9 The same farther vindicated from Difficulty by the tempestive Recognition of some praecedent Assumptions of the Atomists 190 SECT III. ARTIC 1 THe Nativity of White or the reason of its perception by the sight 191 2 Black a meer Privation of Light ibid. 3 The Genealogy of all Intermediate Colors ibid. 4 The Causes of the Sympathy and Antipathy of some Colours 192 5 The intermisâ—ion of small shadows among the lines of Light absolutely necessary to the Generation of any Intermediate Colour ibid. 6 Two eminent PROBLEMS concerning the Generation and Transposition of the Vermillion and Caerule appinged on Bodies by Prismes 193 7 The Solution of the Former with a rational Conjecture of the Cause of the Blew apparent in the Concave of the Heavens 194 8 The Solution of the Latter 195 9 The Reasons why the Author proceeds not to investigate the Causes of Compound Colours in Particular 196 10 He confesseth the Erection of this whole Discourse on simple Conjecture and enumerates the Difficulties to be subdued by him who hopes to attain an Apodictical Knowledge of the Essence and Causes of Colours ibid. 11 Des Cartes attempt to dissolve the chief of those Difficulties unsuccessful because grounded on an unstable Hypothesis 197 CHAP. V. The Nature of Light p. 198. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Clasp or Ligament of this to the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The Authors Notion of the Rays of Light ibid. 3 A Parallelism betwixt a stream of Water exsilient from the Cock of a Cistern and a Ray of Light emanent from its Lucid Fountain ibid PRAECONSIDERABLES 199 4 Light distinguisht into Primary Secondary c. 199 5 All Light Debilitated by Reflection and why ibid. 6 An Example sensibly demomonstrating the same 200 7 That light is in perpetual Motion according to Aristotle ibid. 8 Light why Corroborated in some cases and Debilitated in others by Refraction 201 COROLLARY Why the Figure of the Sun both rising and setting appears rather Elliptical than Sphaerical ibid. 9 PARADOX That the proportion of Solary Rays reflected by the superior Aer or Aether toward the Earth is so small as not to be sensible 202 10 That every Lucid Body as Lucid doth emit its Rays Sphaerically but as Visible Pyramidally ibid. 11 That Light is invisible in the pure medium 203 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe necessity of the Authors confirmation of the First Praeconsiderable 204 2 The Corporiety of Light demonstrated by its just Attributes viz. 1 Locomotion 2 Resilition 3 Refraction 4 Coition 5 Disgregation 6 Igniety 224 225 3 Aristotles Definition of Light a meer Ambage and incomprehensible 205 4 TheCorporiety of Light imports not the Coexistence of two Bodies in one Place contrary to the Peripatetick 206 5 Nor the motion of a Body to be Instantaneous ibid. 6 The Invisibility of Light in the limpid medium no Argument of its Immateriality as the Peripatetick praesumes ibid. 7 The Corporiety of Light fully consistent with the Duration of the Sun contrary to the Peripatetick 207 8 The insensibility of Heat in many Lucent Bodies no valid Argument against the praesent Thesis that Light is Flame Attenuated ibid. CHAP. VI. The Nature of a Sound p 208. SECT I. ARTIC 1 AN Elogy of the sense of Hearing and the Relation of this and the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The great Affinity betwixt Visible and Audible species in their representation of the superficial Conditions of Objects 209 3 In the Causes and manner of their Destruction ibid. 4 In their Actinobolism or Diffusion both Sphaerical and Pyramidal 210 5 In their certifying the sense of the Magnitude Figure and other Qualities of their Originals ibid. 6 In the obscuration of Less by Greater 211 7 In their offence of the organs when excessive ibid. 8 In their production of Heat by Multiplication ibid. 9 In their Variability according to the various disposition of the Medium ibid. 10 In their chief Attributes of Locomotion Exsilition Impaction Resilition Disgregation Congregation ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Product of the Praemises concerning the points of Consâ—nt and Dissent of Audible and Visible Species viz That Sounds are Corporeal 213 2 An obstruction of praejudice from the generally supposed repugnant Authorities of some of the Ancients expeded ibid. 3 An Argument of the Corporiety of Sounds 214 4 A Second Argument ibid. COROLLARY ibid. 5 The Causes of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is equally almost distant from the Sonant and Repercutient ibid. COROLLARY 2. 215 6 Why Concaves yield the strongest and longest Sounds ibid. COROLLARY 3. ibid 7 The reason of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is neer the 〈◊〉 and remote from the sonant ibid. COROLLARY 4. ibid. 8 Wâ—y 〈◊〉 Monophon rehearse so much the fâ—â—er syllables by how much neerer the audient is
Because though the Tube be made of Brass Steel or any other Metal whose conteâ—ture is so close as to exclude the subtlest aer yet shall the Experiment hold the same in all Apparences and particularly in this of the deflux of the Quicksilver to the altitude of 27 digits 2 Because if the desert Cavity were replete with aer the incumbent aer could not rush in to the Tube at the eduction of its lower end D out of the restagnant Mercury and Water with such violence since no other cause can be assigned for its impetuous rushing into the Tube but the regression of the compressed parts of the ambient aer to their natural laxity and to the repletion of the violent or forced Vacuity Since if the whole Space in the Tube were possessed i. e. if there were as many particles of Body as Space therein doubtless no part of place could remain for the reception of the irruent aer Secondly As for that most subtile and generally penetatrive substance AETHER or pure Elementary Fire which some have imagined universally diffused through the vast Body of Nature principally for the maintenance of a Continuity betwixt the parts thereof and so the avoidance of any Vacuity though ne're so exile and minute we do not find our selves any way obliged to admit that the Desert Space in the Tube is repleted with the same untill the Propugnators of that opinion shall have abandoned their Fallacy Petitio principii a praecarious assumption of what remains dubious and worthy a serious dispute viz. That Nature dâ—th irreconcileably abhor all vacuity per se. For until they have evinced beyond controversie that Nature doth not endure any Emptiness or solution of Continuity quatenus an Emptiness and not meerly ex Accidenti upon some other sinister and remote respect their Position that she provided that subtile substance Aether chiefly to prevent any Emptiness is rashly and boldly anticipated and depends on the favour of Credulity for a toleration Nor is it so soon demonstrated as affirmed that all Vacuity is repugnant to the fundamental constitution of Nature Naturam abhorrere Vacuum is indeed a maxim and a true one but not to be understood in any other then a metaphorical sense For as every Animal by the instinct of self-conservation abhors the solution of Continuity in his skin caused by any puncture wound or laceration though it be no offence to him to have his skin pinkt or perforated all over with insensible pores so also by the indulgence of a Metaphor may Nature be said to abhor any great or sensible vacuity or solution of Continuity such as is imagined in the Desert Space of the Tube though it be familiar nay useful and grateful to her to admit those insensible inanities or minute porosities which constitute a Vacuum Disseminatum We say by the indulgence of a Metaphor because we import a kind of sense in Nature analogous to that of Animals And tollerating this Metaphorical Speech that Nature hath a kind of sense like that of Animals yet if we allow for the vastity of her Body can it be conceived no greater trouble or offence to her to admit such a solution of Continuity or Emptiness as this supposed in the Desert space of the Tube then to an Animal to have any one pore in his skin more then ordinarily relaxed and expanded for the transudation of a drop of sweat This perpended it can seem no Antiaxiomatisme to affirm that nature doth not abhor Vacuity per se but onely ex Accidenti i. e. upon this respect that in Nature is somewhat for whose sake she doth not without some reluctany admit a Coacervate or sensible Vacuity Now that somewhat existent in Nature per se in relation to which she seems to oppose and decline any sensible Vacuity can be no other then the Fluxility of her Atomical Particles especially those of Fire Air and Water And for ought we poor Haggard Mortals do or can by the Light of Nature know to the contrary all those vast spaces from the margent of the Atmosphere whose altitude exceeds not 40 miles according to Mersennus and Cassendus perpendicular up to the Region of the fixed Stars are not only Fluid but Inane abating only those points which are pervaded by the rayes of the Sun and other Celestial Bodies But why should we lead the thoughts of our Reader up to remote objects whose sublimity proclaims their incertitude when from hence only that the Aer is a Fluid substance it is a manifest direct and unstrained consequence that the immediate cause of its avoidance of any sensible or coacervate Vacuity is the Confluxibility of its Atomical particles which being in their natural contexture contiguous in some though not all points of their superficies must of necessity press or bear each upon other and so mutually compel each other that no one particle can be removed out of its place but instantly another succeeds and possesses it and so there can be no place left empty as hath been frequently explained by the simile of a heap of Sand Now if the Confluxibility of the insensible particles of the aer be the immediate and per se Cause of its avoidance of any aggregate sensible solution of Continuity we need no farther justification of our position that Nature doth oppose vacuity sensible not per se but only in order to the affection of Confluxibility i. e. ex Accidenti Again should we swallow this praecarious supposition of the Aether with no less pertinacity then ingenuity asserted by many Moderns but professedly by Natalis in both his Treatises Physica Vetus Nova Plenum experimentis novis confirmatum and admit that Nature provided that most tenuious and fluid substance chiefly to praevent Vacuity yet cannot the Appetite of our Curiosity be satisfied that the Desert space in the tube is replenished with the same prenetrating through the glass untill they have solved that Apparence of the violent irruption of the ambient Aer into the orifice of the tube so soon as it is educed out of the subjacent liquors the Quicksilver and Water by the same Hypothesis Which whether they have done so as to demonstrate that the sole cause of the Aers impetuous rushing into the canale of the Tube and prodigiously elevating the ponderous bodies of Quicksilver and Water residuous therein is not the Reflux of the incumbent aer by the ascention of the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel compressed to too deep and diffused a subingression of its insensible Particles to recover its natural laxity by regaining those spaces from which it was expelled and secluded and to supply the defect of this reason by substituting some other syntaxical to their hypothesis of the Aether which shall be more verisimilous and plausible this we ought to refer to the judgment of those who have attentively and aequitably perused their Writings Lastly as for the third thing supposed to replenish the Desert space
PHYSIOLOGIA Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana OR A FABRICK OF SCIENCE NATURAL Upon the Hypothesis of ATOMS Founded by EPICVRVS Repaired by PETRVS GASSENDVS Augmented by WALTER CHARLETON Dr. in Medicine and Physician to the late CHARLES Monarch of Great Britain The FIRST PART Fernelius in praefat ad lib. 2. de Abditis rerum Caussis Atomos veteres jam ridemus miramúrque ut sibi quisquam persuaserit Corpora quaedam solida atque individua fortuita illa concursione res magnitudine immensas varietate multitudinéque infinitas omnemque absolutissimum hunc Mundi ornatum effecisse At certè si Democritus mortem cum vita commutare posset multò acriâ—â— haec quae putamus Elementa suo more rideret LONDON Printed by Tho Newcomb for Thomas Heath and are to be sold at his shop in Russel-street neer the Piazza of Covent-Garden 1654. TO THE HONOVRABLE M ris ELIZABETH VILLIERS WIFE TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT VILLIERS ESQUIRE MADAM THe excellent Monsieur Des Cartes I remember in his Dedicatory Epistle of his Principles of Philosophy to that illustrious Lady the Princess Elizabeth shewed Himself so much a Courtier as to profess unto Her Highness that of all Persons living who had perused his former Writings He knew none that perfectly understood them except Herself only This Madam is somewhat more than what I shall adventure to say to you in this my humble Address Not that I might not with the Authority of Truth and the willing Testimonies of all judicious Persons whom you have at any time dignified with your incomparable Conversation affirme That Acuteness of Wit and Soundness of Iudgement are as Eminent in you as in any that I know of either Sex But that I conceive it to be more consistent with my Duty of Conformity to the strict Laws of your Humility which is supreme among your many Virtues if there can be Supremacy where All are Superlative only to ask you leave so far to justifie My self in this way of Devotion as publikely to own my Assurance that of all my Readers none will meet with fewer Difficulties or discover more Lapses and Errors than your self nor could that Book be clearly understood by the Author when He wrote it which you cannot easily understand when you are pleased to read it be the Argument thereof of what kind soever and the Language either Italian French or English which are all equally your own But I have little reason to speak of justifying this my Devotion to the World when that by the General Tribute of Admiration and Reverence which your Excellencies duely receive from it is fully convinced that I am not capable of declaring a greater Prudence in any action of my whole life than in this of laying down both my self and this mean Oblation of my Observance and Gratitude at the feet of a Personage whose single Name is acknowledged to define All the possible Perfections of Humanity and upon consequence cannot fail to give to both Me and my Writings not only an Estimation among Good Men but also a full Protection from the Malevolence of Evil. And I have been very lately told by some and Those such Eminent Witts too as that very Noble Persons to whom they have Dedicated their Labours have thereby received no small Additions of Honour that they seriously Envied the good fortune of my resolution of invocating your Patronage of this Epicurean Philosophy forasmuch as they were confirmed that I had taken the most certain course to procure Immortality thereunto by offering it up to the Favour of so great an Example of all Heroick Accomplishments as that Her Memory must ever continue verdant and sacred to all Posterity since it could not be while Generous Minds should conserve the Memorials of Her as the Mirrour in which Vertue used to dresse Herself when she would appear Amiable and Graceful but that they must often cast some glances of valew upon the Remains of Him who had so deep a sentiment of Her goodness as to have known no other Ambition but that commendable one of making Himself eternally known for Her most humble and obsequious Votary That which would more become me were to make my Excuses for the exceeding Boldness of this my Application and to pravent such Objections as may lye against the Rashness of my Zeal in selecting such a way to express my Reverence as cannot secure me from a suspect of Prophanation and praesenting to you such a Sacrifice of my Thankfulness as if estimated according to its own Vnworthiness must make it a quaestion whether I had any designe of being Thankful at all And here to the First I might justly plead that a great Part of this Volume was composed in your House the chief Mansion of well-order'd Hospitality and All of it in the strength of your Inspiration That the Book comes not into your hands to Informe but only Remember you of many of those Discourses of Nature which your Noble Husband and your self have often suffered me to entertain would to God I might have said satisfy your eager Curiosity withal at those hours your industrious Minds required Relaxation from the bent of more grave and advantageous Thoughts That having the Honour of so great a Trust as that of your most praecious Lives committed unto me it highly concern'd me to study and pursue all ways of Demonstrating my self not altogether uncapable thereof and more especially this of Natural Philosophy which being the Grounds is also the Measure of a Good Physician And that when your Husband being acquainted with my Purpose of Enquiring into the Nature of Souls both Brutal and Human in a distinct Work though but the Remaining Moity of this Physiologie had injoyned me to deliver the same into his hands as soon as I should have finished it I instantly apprehended I had an opportunity of a Double Happiness the one of being equally Grateful to Two singular Friends the other of Allying those Two Treatises by Consecration which would be of so neer Affinity in their Subjects As for the Other I might easily alleage that Great spirits use not to estimate Praesents that are brought them by the value they carry in themselves but the Affections of those who offer them That Thank fulness is the Poor mans wealth and makes him in the eyes of Generosity stand in competition for respect with the Rich. That though this my Oblation hold no proportion to the immense height of your Merit yet it is equal to that of my Power and indeed the best that my Gratitude was able to advance upon the slender stock of my Capacity And that I never intended it as a Retribution fâ—r your incompensable Favours but only as an Homage to testifie that I confess my self infinitely your Debtor But Madam for me to attempt to Excuse unto your self the Vnfitnesse of this Act of my devotion is no lesse unnecessary than for me to justifie to the World that I have placed it upon a most worthy Object forasmuch as
discriminated from the Homoiomerical Principles of Anaxagoras ibid. 8 The principal Difficulties urged against the Hypothesis of Atoms singularly solved 103 9 A recapitulation of the praemises introductory to the verification of the praesent thesis 106 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe 4 notable opinions concerning the Composition of a Continuum 107 2 A Physical Continuum cannot consist of Points Mathematical ibid. 3 Nor of Parts and Points Mathematical united 108 4 Nor of a simple Entity before division indistinct but of Indivisâ—bles ibid. 5 A second Apodictical reason desumed from the nature of Vnion eviâ—cing that Atoms are the First and Catholick Principle of Concretions 109 6 An objection praevented ibid. 7 The reason of the Authors supercession of all other Arguments of the like importance ibid. CHAP. IV. The Essential Proprieties of Atoms p. 111. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe two links connecting this to the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The General Proprieties of Atoms and the Inseparability of each demonstrated ibid. 3 The Resistence of Atoms no distinct propriety but pertinent to their Solidity or Gravity 112 4 The specifical Proprieties of Atoms ibid. SECT II. Concerning the Magnitude of Atoms p. 113. ARTIC 1 BY the Magnitude is meant the Parvity of Atoms ibid. 2 A consideration of the Grossness of our senses and the extreme subtilty of Nature in her operations praeparatory to our Conjectural apprehension of the Exiguity of Her Materials Atoms ibid. 3 The incomprehensible subtility of Nature argued from the Artifice of an exquisite Watch contrived in a very narrow room 114 4 The vast multitude of sensible particles and the vaster of Elemental Atoms contained in one grain of Frankinsense exactly calculated ibid. 5 The Dioptrical speculation of a Handworm discovering the great variety of Organical Parts therein and the innumerability of their Component Particles 115 6 A short Digressive Descant upon the Text of Pliny touching the multiplicity of parts in a Flea hinting the possible perspicacity of Reason ibid. 7 The Exility of Atoms conjectural from the great diffusion of one Grain of Vermillion dissolved in Water 116 8 The same inferrible from the small quantity of oil depraedated by the Flame of a Lamp in a quarter of an hour ibid. 9 The Microscope of great use in the discernment of the minute particles of Bodies and so advantageous to our Conjecture of the exility of Atoms ibid SECT III. Concerning the Figures of Atoms p. 117. ARTIC 1 AN Epitome of all that directly concerns the Figâ—res of Atomâ— in three General Canons ibid. 2 The First Canon explained and certifyed ibid. 3 The Exility of Atoms doâ—h not necessitate their General Roundness 〈◊〉 contrary to the common conceit ibid. 4 The Diversity of Figures in Atoms evicted from the sensible Dissimilitude of Individuals as well Animate as Inanimate 118 5 A singular Experiment antoptically demonstrating the various Configurations of the minute Particles of Concretions 119 6 A variety of Figures in Atoms necessary to the variety of all Sensibles ibid. 7 The second Canon explained and Certified 120 8 The Third Canon explained and refuted 121 SECT IV. Concerning the Motions of Atoms p. 121. ARTIC 1 TWo introductory Observables ibid. 2 The Motion of Atoms according to the General Distinction of the Ancients Two-fold viz Natural and Accidental and each of these redivided into two different Species ibid. 3 The summary of Epicurus Figment of the Perpendicular Motion of Atoms without a common Centre 122 4 His Declinatory natural Motion of Atoms excused not justified ibid. 5 The genuine sense of Epicurus in his distinction of the Reflex Motion of Atoms into ex Plaga and ex Concussione 123 6 The several Conceptions of Epicurus about the perpetual Motions of Atoms 124 7 The perpetual Inquietude of Atoms even in compact Concretions adumbrated in melted Lead ibid. 8 The same more sensibly exemplified in the spirit extracted from Mercury Tin and Subsimate 125 9 The Mutability of all Concretions a good Argument of the perpetual intestine Commotion of Atoms in the most adamantine Compositions ibid. 10 What we are to explode and what retain in the opinion of Epicurus touching the Motion of Atoms ibid. The Third Book CHAP. I. The Origine of Qualities p. 127 SECT I. ARTIC 1 AN introductory Advertisementâ— of the obscurity of many thing to Reason which are manifest to sense and of the Possibility not necessity of the Elementation of Concretions and their sensible Qualities from the Principles praesumed 127 2 The Authors Definition of a Quality in geral and genuine exposition of Democritus mysterious Text concerning the Creation of Qualities 128 3 The necessary deduction of Qualities from Naked or Unqualified Principles 130 4 The two primary Events of Atoms viz. Order and Position associated to their three essential Proprieties viz. Magnitude Figure and Motion sufficient to the Origination of all Qualities ibid. 5 The necessity of assuming the Magnitude and Motion of Atoms together with their Order and Situation as to their production of Qualities evicted by a double instance 131 6 The Figure Order and Position of Parts in Concretions alone sufficient to the Caussation of an indefinite variety of Qualities from the analogy of Letters ibid. 7 The same Exemplifyed in the arise of White Froth on the Waves of the Sea 132 8 The Nativity of Colours in General explained by several obvious Examples ibid. 9 The Accention of Heat from Concretions actually Cold upon a meer ttransposition of their Component Particles exemplifyed in sundry Chymical Experiments 133 10 The Generation of all kinds of sensible qualities in one and the same Conâ—retion from the variegated positions of its particles evidenced in the Example of a putrid Apple 134 11 The assenting suffrage of Epicurus ibid. CHAP. II. That Species Visible are Substantial Emanations p. 136. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Visible Images of objects substantial and either corporeal Emanations from the superficial parts of Concretions or Light it self disposed into contextures consimilar to the figure of the object ibid 2 The position of their being Effluviaes derived from Epicurus and praeferred to the common doctrine of the Schools of the Immateriality of Species Visible ibid. 3 Epicurus Text concerning the same 137 4 The faithful Exposition thereof ibid. 5 The contents thereof reduced to four heads 134 6 The Existence of Images visible certifyed by autoptical Demonstration ibid 7 Epicurus opinion of the substantiality of Images Visible consonant to the judgement of Plato and Empedocles 139 8 The Aristoteleans Thesis that Images optical are meer Accidents recited and ibid. 9 Convicted of sundry Impossibilities Inconsistences and Absurdities ibid. 10 The grand Objection of Alexander that a con tinual Efflux of substance must minorate the Quantity â—f the most solid Visible 140 11 Solved by two Reasons the possible Accretion of other particles and the extreme Tenuity of the Emanent 141 12 The Tenuity of Images visible reduced to some degree of Comprehensibility by conceiving them to be most thin Decortications ibid. 13 By
altogether destitute of thesupport and warrantry of Reason For the Human Soul the only Creature that understands the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent Dignity of its Original by reflecting upon the superlative Idea which it holds of its Creator from the moment of its immersion into the cloud or opacity of flesh labours with an insatiable Appetence of Knowledge as the only means that seems to conduce to the satisfaction of its congenial Ambition of still aspiring to Greater and Better things and therefore hath no Affection either so Essential or Violent as the Desire of Science and consequently lyeth not so open to the deception of any Objects as of those which seem to promise a satisfaction to that desire And obvious it is from the words of the Text that the Argument which turned the sâ—ales i. e. determined the Intellect and successively the Will of our Grandmother Eve from its indifferencie or aequilibration to an Appetition and so to the actual Degustation of the Forbidden Fruit was this Desiderabilis est arboris fructuâ— ad habendam scientiam Besides though we shall not exclude the Beauty of the fruit transmitted by the sight to the judicatory Faculty and so allecting the Sensual Appetite from having a finger in the Delusion yet can we allow it to have had no more then a finger and are perswaded that in the syndrome or conspiracy of Causes the most ponderous and praevalent was the Hope of an accession or augmentation of Knowledge Since â—t cannot but highly disparage the primitive or innocent state of man to admit that his Intellect was so imperfect as not to discern a very great Evil through the thin Apparence of Good when the utmost that Apparence could promise was no more than the momentany pleasure of his Palate or Gust Or that the express and poenal Interdiction of God yet sounding in his ears could be over-balanced by the light species of an object which must be lost in the Fruition Nor is this Curiositie to be accused only of the First Defection from Truth but being an inseparable Annex to our Nature and so derived by traduction to all Adams posteritie hath proved the procatarctick Cause of many some contemplative Clerks would have adventured to say of All the Errors of our judgments And though we have long cast about yet can we not particular any one Vicious inclination or action whose Scope or End may not either directly or obliquely proximly or remotely seem to promise an encrease of Knowledge in some kind or other To instance in one which appears to be determined in the Body to have no interest beyond the Sense and so to exclude all probabilitie of extending to the Mind as to the augmentation of its Science Whoever loves a beutiful Woman whom the right of Marriage hath appropriated to another ardently desires to enjoy her bed why not only for the satisfaction of his sensual Appâ—tite because that might be acquired by the act of carnaliâ—y with some other less beutiful and Beuty is properly the object of the Mind but because that Image of Beuty which his eye hath transmitted to his mind being praesented in the species or apparition of Good and Amiabâ—e seems to contain some Excellence or comparitively more Good then what He hath formerly understood If it be objected that if so one enjoyment must satisfie that Desire and consequently no man could love what He hath once enjoyed since Fruition determineth Desire We Answer that there is no such necessitie justly inferrible when Experience assures that many times Love is so far from languishing that it grows more strong and violent by the possession of its Object The Reason is because the passionate Lover apprehending no fruition total or possession entire supposeth some more Good still in the object then what his former enjoyment made him acquainted withall And if it be replyed that the Lover doth in the perseverance of his Affection propose to himself meerly the Continuation of that Good which He hath formerly enjoyed we are provided of a sufficient Rejoynder viz. that whoso wisheth the Continuation of a Good considers it not as a thing praesent but to come and consequently as a thing which yet He doth not know for no man can know what is not Other Instances the Reader may be pleased to select from among the Passions tracing them up to their first Exciting Cause in order to his more ample satisfaction it being digressive and only collateral to our Scope Good thus being the only proper Object of our Affections for Evil exhibited naked i. e. as Evil never Attracts but ever Averts our Will or Rational Appetite as we have clearly proved in our Discourse of the Liberty Elective of mans Will if we mistake a real evil praesented under the disguise of a Good this mistake is to be charged upon the account of our Rational or judicatory Faculty which not sufficiently examining the Reality of the species judgeth it to be good according to the external Apparence only and so misguideth the Will in its Election Now aâ—ong the Causes of the Intellects erroneous judicature we have formerly touched upon its own Native Imperfection or Coecity and Praejudice the chiefest and most general is the Impatience Praecipitancy or Inconsiderateness of the Mind when not enduring the serious profound and strict examen of the species nor pondering all the moments of Reason whiâ—h are on the Averting part of the Object with that impartialiâ—y requisite to a right judgment but suffering it self at the first occursion or praesentation thereof to be determined by the moments of Reason apparent on the Attracting part to an Approbation thereof it misinformeth the Will and ingageth it in an Election and prosecution of a Falsity or Evil couched under the specious semblance of a positive Truth or Good Now to accommodate all this to the interest of our Paradox if Good real or apparent be the proper and adaequate object of the Intellect and the chief reason of Good doth consist in that of Science as the principal end of all our Affections then most certainly must our praecedent assertion stand firm viz. that our understanding lyeth most open to the delusion of such objects which by their Apparence promise the most of satisfaction to our Desire of Science and upon consequence by how much the more we are spurred on by our Curiosity or Appeâ—ence of Knowledge by so much the more is our mind impatient of their strict examen and aequitable perpension All which we dayly observe experimented in our selves For when our thoughts are violent and eager in the pursuit of some reason for such or such an operation in Nature if either the discourse or writings of some Person in great esteem for Learning or Sagacity or our own meditations furnish us with one plausible and verisimilous such as seems to solve our Doubt how greedily do we embrace it and without further perpension of its solidity and verity immediately judge it to
order in the mutual contact of its insensible particles the empty spaces formerly intercepted betwixt them being replenished with the exhalations of the tapor when the orifice is deobturated there sensibly succeeds a gradual expiration of the atoms of Fire as the most agile volatile and prepared for motion and then the aer impelled by its own native Fluxibility re-expands or dilates it self by degrees But since the narrowness of the Evaporatory or oriâ—ice prohibits the so speedy reflexion or return of the compressed particles of the aer to their naturall contexture or open order as the renitency of their fluxibility requireth so long as there remain any of the atoms of Fire in possession of their Vacuities as long continues the reexpansion of the Aer and that reexpansion pressing upon the sides of the water causeth it to ascend and continue elevated And no longer for so soon as the aer is returned to its native contexture the water by degrees subsideth to the bottom as before the accension of the Tapor and so that motion commonly called a Suction in avoidance of Vacuity is more properly a Protrusion caused by the expanding particles of aer compressed If any praecipitous Curiosity shall recur to this Sanctuary that in the Substance of the Aer is contained Aliquid Combustibile some combustible matter which the hungry activity of the flame of the Tapor doth prey upon consume and adnihilate He runs upon a double absurdity 1 That in Nature is a substance which upon the accidental admotion of Fire is subject to absolute Adnihilation which to suppose smels of so great a wildness of Imagination as must justifie their sentence who shall consign the Author of it to seven years diet on the roots of White Hellebor nor durst any man but that Elias Artium Helmont adventure on the publique Patronage of it 2 That the Aer is the Pabulum or Fewel of Fire which though no private opinion but passant even among the otherwise venerable Sectators of Aristotle who unjustly refer the Extinction of flame imprisoned to the Defection of Aer as intimating that the destruction of Fire like that of Animals doth proceed from the destitution of Aliment is yet openly inconsistent to Reason and Experiment To Reason because the Aer considered sincerely as Aer without the admixture of vapours and exhalations is a pure simple and Homogeneous substance whose parts are consimilar not a composition of heterogeneous and dissimilar whereof some should submit to the consumptive energie of Fire and other some of the invincible temper of Salamandes Wool or Muscovy Glass conâ—erve their originary integrity inviolable in the highest fury of the flames Again Themselves unanimously approve that Definition of Galen lib. 1. de Element cap. 1. Elementa sunt natura prima simplicissima corpora quaeque in alia non amplius dissolvi queant that it is one of the essential Proprieties of an Element as to be ingenerable so also Indissoluble and as unanimously constitute the Aer to be an Element To Experiment because had the Fire found and yet it is exceedingly inquisitive especially when directed by Appetite according to their supposition any part of the Aer iâ—flamable the whole Element of aer had been long since kindled into an univeâ—sal and inextinguable conflagration upon the accension of the first focal â—â—re nor could a flash of Lightning or Gunpowder be so soon extinct if the flame found any maintenance or sustentaculum in the Aer but would enlarge it self into a Combustion more prodigious and destructive then that caused by the wild ambition of Phaeton Most true it is that Fire deprived of aer doth suffer immediate extinction yet not in respect of Aliment denyed for Nutrition and Vitality are ever convertible but of the want of room sufficient to contain its igneous and fuliginous Exhalations which therefore recoiling back upon the flame coarctate suffocate and so extinguish it For upon the excessive and impetuous suddain afflation of aer Flame doth instantly perish though not imprisoned in a glass the cause is that the flame not with tenacity sufficient adhaering to the body of the tapor or lamp is easily blown off and being thus dislodged hath no longer subsistence in the aer And Heat beating upon the outside or convex part of a Glass seems sensibly to dilate the Aer imprisoned within as is manifest upon the testimonie of all Thermometres or Weather-Glasses those only which contain Chrysulca or Aqua Fortis in stead of Water at least if the experiment be true excepted but Fire in the Concave or inside of the Glass violently compresseth the aer by reason of its fuliginous Emissions which wanting vacuities enough in the aer for their reception recoil and suffocate the fire The Fourth this Being in an intense frost at Droitwich in Worcestershire and feeding my Curiosity with enquiring into the Mechanick operations of the Wallers so the Salt-boylers are there called I occasionally took notice of Yce of considerable thickness in a hole of the earth at the mouth of a Furnace very great and charged with a Reverberatory fire or Ignis rotae Consulting with my Phylosophy how so firm a congelation of Water could be made by Cold at the very nose of so great a fire I could light on no determination wherein my reason thought it safe to acquiesce but this That the ambient Aer surcharged with too great a cloud of exhalations from the fire was forced to a violent recession or retreat and a fresh supply of aer as violently came on to give place to the receding and maintain the reception of fresh exhalations and so a third fourth and continued relief succeeded and that by this continued and impetuous afflux or stream of new aer loaden with cold Atoms the activity of the cold could not but be by so much the more intense at the mouth of the furnace then abroad in the open aer by how much the more violent the stream of cold aer was there then elsewhere To complete and assure the Experiment I caused two dishes of equal capacity to be filled with river Water placed one at the mouth of the furnace the other sub Dio and found that near the furnace so nimbly creamed over with Yce as if that visibly-freezing Tramontane Wind which the Italian calls Chirocco had blown there and much sooner perfectly frozen then the other And this I conceive to be also the reason of that impetuous suction of a stream of aer and with it other light and spongy bodies through the holes or pipes made in many Chimneys to praevent the repercursion of smoke From these observations equitably perpended and collated our meditations adventured to infer 1 That the Aer as to its principal and most universal Destination was created to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or common RECEPTARY of Exhalations and that for the satisfaction of this End it doth of necessity contain a Vacuum Desseminatum in those minute
contemptible Evidence that water doth contain various insensible Loculaments Chambers or Receptaries of different Figures and that this variety of those Figures doth accommodate it to extract the Tinctures of several Bodies inâ—ected and infused therein So as it is exceedingly difficult to evince by Experiment that any Liquor is so sated with precedent Tinctures as noâ— to be capable of others also especially while we cannot arrive at the exact knowledge of the Figure of the Atomical Particles of the body to be infused nor of the Figures of those minute spaces in the liquor which remain unpossessed by the former dissolutions Upon which reason we are bold to suspect the truth of the Lord S. Albans assertion Centur. 1 Nat. Hist. that by repeating the infusion of Rhubarb several times letting each dose thereof remain in maceration but a small time in regard to the Fineness and volatility of its Spirits or Emanations a medicament may be made as strongly Catharctical or Purgative as a simple infusion of Sâ—amony in the like weight For 1 when the empty spaces in the Menstruum or Liquor which respond in Figure to the Figure of the Atomical particles of the Rhubarb are replenished with its Tincture they can admit no greater fraught but the Imbibition of Virtue ceaseth and that two or three infusions at most suffice to the repletion of those respective spaces may be collected from hence that the Rhubarb of the fourth infusion loseth nothing of its Purgative Faculty thereby but being taken out and singly infused in a proportionate quantity of the like liquor it worketh as effectually as if it had never been infused before 2 Experience testiâ—ieth the Contrary viz. that a Drachm of Scamony singly infused in an ounce and half of White wine doth operate caeteris paribus by 15 parts of 20 more smartly then 5 drachms of Rhubarb successively infused in the like quantity of the same or any other convenient Liquor Here also is the most probable Cause why two Drachms of Antimony crude or Crocus Metallorum give as powerful a Vomitory impraegnation to a Pint of Saâ—â— or White wine as two ounces viz. because the menstruum hath no more Vacuities of the same Figure with the Atomical Efâ—luviums of the Antimony then what suffice to the imbibition or admission of the two Drachms For the Certitude of this we appeal to the experience of a Lady in Cheshire who seduced by an irregular Charity and an opinion of her own skill doth praetend to the cure of the sick and to that purpose praepares her Catholique Vomitory consisting of four Drachms and an half of crude stibium infused all night in 3 or 4 ounces of White wine and usually gives it without respect to the individual temperament of the Assument for one dose to the sick and yet as our selves have more then once observed the infusion doth work with no greater violence in some persons then as much of our common Emetique Infusion praescribed in the reformed Dispensatory of our Venerable College Nay more then this our selves have often reduced the Dose of the same Emetique Infusion down only to 4 Scruples and yet found its operation come not much short of the usual Dose of an ounce Hence also may be desumed a satisfactory reason for the impraegnation of one and the same Menstruum with various Tinctures for Example Why an Infusion of Rhubarb sated with its tincture doth afterward extract the tinctures of Agarick Senna the Cordial Flowers Cremor Tartari c. injected according to the praescript of the judicious Physician in order to his confection of a Compound Medicament requisite to the satisfaction of a Complex Scope or Intention SECT IV. A Third Argument for the comprobation of a Vacuum Disseminatum may be adferred from the Cause of the Difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity respective to their Density or Rarity i. e. according to the greater or less Inane Spaces interspersed among their insensible Particles And a Fourth likewise from the reason of the Calefaction of Bodies by the subingress or penetration of the Atoms of Fire into the empty Intervals variously disseminate among their minute particles But in respect that we conceive our Thesis sufficiently evinced by the Praecedent Reasons and that the consideration of the Causes of Gravity and Calefaction doth according to the propriety of Method belong to our succeeding Theory of Qualities we may not in this place insist upon them And as for those many Experiments of Water-hour-glasses Syringes Glass Fountains Cuppinglasses c. by the inconvincible Assertors of the Peripatetick Physiology commonly objected to a Vacuity we may expede them altogether in a word We confess those experiments do indeed demonstrate that Nature doth abhort a Vacuum Coacervatum as an heap of Sand abhors to admit an Empty Cavity great as a mans hand extracted from it but not that it doth abhor that Vacuum Disseminatum of which we have discoursed nay they rather demonstrate that Nature cannot well consist without these small empty Spaces interspersed among the insensible Particles of Bodies as an heap of Sand cannot consist without those small Interstices betwixt its Granules whose Figures prohibit their mutual contact in all points So that our Assertion ought not to be condemned as a Kaenodox inconsistent to the laws of Nature while it imports no more then this that as the Granules of a heap of Sand mutually flow together to replenish that great Cavity which the hand of a man by intrusion had made and by extraction left by reason of the Confluxibility of their Nature so also do the Granules or Atomical Particles of Aer Water and other Bodies of that Rare condition flow together by reason of the Fluidity or Confluxibility of their Nature to praevent the creation and remanence of any considerable or Coacervate Vacuum betwixt them To instance in one of the Experiments objected Water doth not distil from the upper into the lower part of a Clepsydra or Water-hour-glass so long as the Orifice above remains stopped because all places both above and below are ful nor can it descend until upon unstopping the hole the aer below can give place as being then admitted to succeed into the room of the lateral aer which also succeeds into the room of that which enâ—ered above at the orifice as that succeeds into the room of the Water descending by drops and so the motion is made by succession and continued by a kind of Circulation The same also may be accommodated to those Vessels which Gardners use for the irrigation of their Plants by opening the hole in the upper part thereof making the water issue forth below in artificial rain It only remains therefore that we endeavour to solve that Giant Difficulty proposed in defiance of our Vacuum Disseminatum by the mighty Mersennus in Phaenomen Pneumatic propos 31. thus Quomodo Vacuola solitò majora in rarefactione desinant aut minora facta in condensatione
degree yet is not the aer thereby urged so as to be compelled to retrocede and permit the restagnant Quicksilver to ascend higher in the vessel and therefore the Quicksilver impendent in the Tube cannot descend because the restagnant wants room to ascend But when the quantity and so the Gravity of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube is so augmented as to exceed the Resistence of the aer then is the aer compelled or driven back by the restagnant Quicksilver rising upwards to a sensible subingression of its atomical particles and the Quicksilver in the Tube instantly defluxeth into the place resigned by the restagnant until it arriveth at that point of altitude or standard where the resistence of the aer becomes again equal to the force compressing it and there subsisteth after various reciprocations up and down in the Tube Now concerning the remaining and indeed the most knotty part of the Difficulty viz. Why the Aequilibrium of these two opposite Forces is constant to the certain praecise altitude of 27 digits of this admirable Magnale no other cause seems worthily assignable but this that such is the nature of aer in respect both of the atomical particles of which it is composed and of the disseminate vacuities variously interspersed among them as that it doth resist compression at such a determinate rate or definite proportion as exactly responds to the altitude of 27 digits Should it be demanded of us Why He who stands on a plane doth resist the impulse of a mighty wind to such a determinate rate or height but not farther we conceive our Answer would be satisfactory to the ingenious if we returned only that such is the exact proportion of his strength resulting from the individual temperament of his body We are Men i. e. Moles whose weak and narrow Opticks are accommodated only to the inspection of the exterior and low parts of Nature not perspicacious enough to penetrate and transfix her interior and abstruse Excellencies nor can we speculate her glorious beauties in the direct and incident line of Essences and Formal Causes but in the refracted and reflected one of Effects nor that without so much of obscurity as leaves a manifest incertitude in our Apprehensions and restrains our ambition of intimate and apodictical Science to the humble and darksome region of mere superficial Conjecture Such being the condition of our imperfect Intellectuals when we cannot explore the profound recesses and call forth the Formal Proprieties of some Natures but find our disquisitive Faculties terminated in the some Apparences or Effects of them it can be no derogation to the dignity of Humanity for us to rest contented nay thankful to the Bounty of our Creator that we are able to erect verisimilous Conjectures concerning their causation and to establish such rational Apprehensions or Notions thereupon as may without any incongruity be laudably accommodated to the probable solution of other consimilar Effects when we are required to yeild an account of the manner of their arise from their proper originals Thus from our observation of other things of the like condition having extracted a rational Conjecture that this so great Gravity of the Quicksilver doth depend upon the very Contexture of its insensible particles or minute bodies whereof it doth consist by which they are so closely and contiguously accommodated each to other in the superficies of their points and sides as no body whatever Gold only excepted doth contain more parts in so small a bulk nor consequently more Ansulae or Fastnings whereon the Magnetique Hooks of the Earth are fixable in order to its attraction downward and on the contrary that the so little Gravity of the Aer depends on a quite dissimilar Contexture of its insensible particles of which it is composed by which they are far less closely and contiguously adapted each to other and so incomparably fewer of them are contained in the like space and consequently have incomparably fewer Ansulae or Fastnings whereon the Hooks of the Magnetick Chains of the Earth may be fixed having we said made this probable conjecture what can be required more at our hands then to arrest Curiosity with this solution that the Aer is of such a Nature i. e. consisteth of such insensible particles and such Inane Spaces interspersed among them as that it is an essential propriety of it to resist compression to such a determinate rate and not beyond Had we bin born such Lyncei as to have had a clear and perspect Knowledge of the Atoms of Aer of their Figure magnitude the dimensions of the Inane spaces intercepted among them of the facility or difficulty of their reciprocal adaptation of the measure of their Attraction the manner and velocity of their Tendency c. then indeed might we without any complex circumambage of Discourse have rendered the express and proper Reason why the Aer doth yeild praecisely so much and no more to the Gravity of the Quicksilver compressing it Since we were not it may be reputed both honour and satisfaction to say that it is essential to the Natures of Mercury and Aer thus and thus opposed to produce such and only such an Effect However that we may not dismiss our Reader absolutely jejune who came hither with so great an Appetite we observe to him that the constant subsistence of the Mercury at the altitude of 27 digits doth seem rather to proceed from the manifest Resistence of the Aer then from any secret Quality in the Mercury unless its proportion of Gravity be so conceived This may be collected from hence that Water infused into the Tube doth also descend to the point of Aequipondium and stops at the altitude of 32 Feet nor more nor less and in that altitude becomes aequiponderant to the Mercury of 27 digits So that it is manifest that with what Liquor soever the Tube be filled still will the Aer resist its deflux at a certain measure provided only that the Tube be long enough to receive so much of it as the weight thereof may equal that of the Mercury at 27 digits or the Water at 32 feet Here we meet an opportunity also of observing to Him by how admirable an Analogy this respective Aequality of the weights of Quicksilver and Water in these so different altitudes doth consent with the absolute weight of each When as the weight of Quicksilver carries the same proportion to the weight of Water of the same measure or quantity as 14 to 1 so reciprocally doth the Altitude of 32 feet carry the same proportion to 27 digits as 14 to 1. And hence comes it that if Water be sâ—peraffused upon the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel under the Tube the Quicksilver doth instantly ascend above the standard of 27 digits higher by a 14 â—â— part of the water superaffused Which truly is no immanifest argument that the Aer according to the measure of its weight or the praecise rate
certain special Faculty or Virtue for a Cause to that motion praesumed and such must be their inhaerent Gravity or the tendency of weight Now in respect to either of these three last Proprieties Atoms may be conceived to admit of difference among themselves for in regard of Magnitude some may be greater then others of Figure some may be sphaerical others cubical some smooth others rough c. and of Gravity some may be more and others less ponderous though this can cause no degrees of Velocity or Tardity in their Motion it being formerly demonstrated that two bodies of different weights are aequally swift in their descent To these 4 Essential Attributes of Atoms Empiricus hath superadded a Fifth viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Renitency or Resistence But by his good leave we cannot understand this to be any distinct Propriety but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something resilient from and dependent on their solidity which is the formal reason of Resistence besides we may confound their Renitency with their Gravity insomuch as we commonly measure the Gravity of any thing by the renitency of it to our arms in the act of Elevation Which may be the reason why Aphrodisaeus lib. 1. Quest. cap. 2. enumerating the proprieties of Atoms takes no notice at all of their Gravity but blends it under the most sensible effect thereof Resistence The specifical are such as belong to Atoms of particular sorts of Figure as Smoothness Acuteness Angularity and their Contraries Asperity Obtuseness Orbicularity c. These in the dialect of Epicurus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cognatae Proprietates Now all these Proprieties both Generical and Specifical or Originary and Dependent are truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch 1. adv Colot calls them Congenial and inseparable Other Proprieties there are adscriptive to Atoms such as their Concurse Connexion Position Order Number c. from which the Qualities of Compound Bodies do emerge but since they are only Communia Accidentia Common Accidents or as Lucretius Atomorum Eventa the fortuitous Events of Atoms considered as complex and coadunated in the Generation of Concretions and not in the intire simplicity of their Essence and consequently seperable from them therefore may we hope that our Reader will content himself with our bare mention of them in this place which is designed for the more advantagious Consideration of only the Essential and Inseparable SECT II. Concerning the Magnitude of Atoms MAgnitude and Atoms though two terms that make a graceful Consonance to ears acquainted with the most charming harmony of Reason may yet sound harsh and discordant in those of the Vulgar which is accustomed to accept Magnitude only Comparatively or as it stands Antithetical to Parvity and therefore it concerns us to provide against misapprehension by an early advertisement that in our assumption of Magnitude as the first essential Propriety of Atoms we intend not that they hold any sensible bulk but that contrary to Insectiles or Points Mathematical they are Entities Quantitive simply i. e. Realities endowed with certain corporeal Dimensions though most minute and consisting in the lowest degree of physical quantity so that even those of the largest size or rate are much below the perception and discernment of the acutest Opticks and remain commensurable only by the finer digits of rational Conjecture And somewhat the more requisite may this Praemonition seem in respect that no meaner an Author then Theodoret hath through gross inadvertency stumbled at the same block of ambiguity For in Serm. 4. therapâ—ut He positively affirms that Democritus Metrodorus and Epicurus by their exile Principles Atoms meant no other but those small pulverized fragments of bodies which the beams of the Sun transmitted through lattice Windows or chincks make visible in the aer when according to their genuine sense one of those dusty granules nay the smallest of all things discernable by the eyes of Linceus though advantaged by the most exquisite Engyscope doth consist of Myriads of Myriads of thousands of true Atoms which are yet corporeal and possess a determinate extension To avert the Wonder impendent on this nice assertion and tune our thoughts to a key high enough to attain the Verisimility thereof We are first to let them down to a worthy acknowledgment of the exceeding Grossnesse and Dulnesse of our Senses when compared to the superlative Subtility and Acuteness of Nature in most of her Operations for that once done we shall no longer boast the perspicacity of our Opticks nor circumscribe our Intellectuals with the narrow line of our sensible discoveries but learn there to set on our Reason to hunt where our sense is at a loss Doubtless the slender Crany of a Pismire contains more distinct Cellules then that magnificent Fabrick the Eschurial doth rooms which though imperceptible to the eye of the body are yet obvious to that of the mind since no man can imagine how otherwise the Faculties of sense and voluntary Motion can be maintained a perpetuall supply of Animal or aâ— Dâ— Hâ—rvâ—â— will have them Vital spirits being indispensably necessary to the continuation of those actions and therefore there must be Elaboratories for the praeparation and confection Treasuries for the conservation and various Conduits for the emission and occasional transvection of them into the Nerves and Muscles of that industrious and provident Animal The due resentment of which praegnant Instance is alone sufficient to demonstrate the incomputable degrees of distance betwixt the sensible Capacity of man and the curious Mechanicks of Nature and make the acutest of us all call for a Table-book to enroll this Aphorism Ubi humana industria subtilitasque desinit inde incipit industria subtilitasque Naturae The wings of our Arrogance being thus clipt let us display those of our Discoursive Faculty and try how near we can come to deprehend the Magnitude i. e. the Parvity of Atoms by an ingenious Conjecture Consider we first that an exquisite Artist will make the movement of a Watch indicating the minute of the hour the hour of the day the day of the week moneth year together with the age of the Moon and time of the Seas reciprocation and all this in so small a compass as to be decently worn in the pall of a ring while a bungling Smith can hardly bring down the model of his grosser wheels and balance so low as freely to perform their motions in the hollow of a Tower If so well may we allow the finer fingers of that grand Exemplar to all Artificers Nature to distinguish a greater multiplicity of parts in one Grain of Millet seed then ruder man can in that great Mountain Caucasus nay in the whole Terrestrial Globe Consider we with Magnenus that one grain of Frankinsense being fired doth so largely diffuse it self in fume as to fill a space in the aer more then seven hundred millions of times greater then it possessed before combustion For to the utmost dispersion
diffuseth to those of the Hearing Tasting and Touching as may be soon inferred by him who shall do us the right and himself the pleasure to descend to particulars These things jointly considered we are yet to seek what may interdict our Conception of great Diversity of Figures in the Principles of Concretions Atoms Concerning the SECOND viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse Figuras Atomorum incomprehensibiles non infinitas that the figures of Atoms are so various as to be incomprehensible though not simply infinite this can be nor Problem nor Paradox For though the species of Regular Figures be many of Irregular more and of those that are producible from both regular and irregular according to all the possible wayes of their Commixture and Transposition so amusingly various as that the mind of man though acquainted with all the mysteries of Arithmetique and Algebra cannot attain to a definite compute nor praecise dâ—â—â—ription of them all yet do they not run up to absolute Infinity so as that there can be no extreme and terminating species That the variety of Figures competent to Atoms ought to be held only Incomprehensible these Reasons evince 1 Since Atoms are circumscribed and limitate in Magnitude that Configurations in diversity infinite should arise from that finite magnitude is clearly impossible For every distinct figuration praesupposeth a distinct position of parts and the parts of finite Magnitude may be transposed so many several wayes as no further way of transposition can remain possible otherwise there would be new and new parts inexhaustibly and so magnitude would become infinite 2 If the Diversity of figures were infinite then could not the Qualities arising to concretions from the various Contexture of their parts be certain and determinate since allowing an inexhaustible novelty of Configurations their insensible particles might be so variegated as that a better then the best and a worse then the worst 〈◊〉 Configurations might be produced which is no obscure absurdity 3 All things are determined by Contrary Qualities which are so extreme that they admit many mediate or Inclusive degrees but none Exclusive or without their boundaries 4 That only a Finite variety is sufficient to that incomprehensible diversity of figures observed in nature That the variety of Figures allowable to Atoms is Incomprehensible may be thus familiarized Thinke we what great multiplicity of words may be composed of only a few Letters variously transposed For if we assume only Two Letters of them we can create only two words if three 6 if four 24 if five 120 if six 720 if seven 5040 if eight 40320 if nine 362880 if ten 3628800 so that before we fulfil the 24 Letters the number of words componible of them according to all the possible ways of positions will swell above our computation This done let us no more but exchange Letters for Figures and assuming only Round Oblong Oval Eliptick Lenticular Plane Gibbous Turbinate Hamous Polite Hispid Conical Obtuse Tetrahedical Pentahedrical Hexahedrical Heptahedrical Dodecahedrical Icosahedrical Striate or skrewed Triangular Cylindrical Atoms cast up to what an inassignable number the Figures producible from them according to the several wayes of their Composition and transposition may amount Doubtless we shall discover so great variety as to elude our comprehension If so how much more incomprehensible must that Diversity be which is possible from the assumption and complication of all the Regular and Irregular figures that a good Geometrician can conceive and which it is justifiable for us to allow existent in Nature But as for the LAST viz. that the number of Atoms retaining to each distinct species of Figures ariseth to Infinity i. e. that there are infinite Oval infinite Pyramidal infinite Sphaerical c. Atoms from this we must declare our Dissent Because how great a number soever be assigned to Atoms yet must the same be Defined by the Capacity of the World i. e. of the Universe as hath been formerly intimated And therefore the common Objection that if so the summe of things existent in the World would be Finite is what we most willingly admit there being no necessity of their Infinity and a copious syndrome of reasons that press the Contrary And as it is unnecessary to Nature so likewise to her Commentator the Physiologist to whom it sufficeth having exploded this delirium of Infinity to suppose 1 that the material Principles of the Universe are essentially Figurate 2 that the species of their figures are incomprehensible as to their Variety 3 that the Number of indivisible Particles comprehended under each difference of Figures is also incomprehensible but not inexhaustible as Epicurus inconsiderately imagined SECT IV. Concerning the Motions of Atoms TO give the more light to this dark Theorem we are to praepossess our Reader with Two introductory Observables 1 that our praesent insistence upon only the MOTION of Atoâ—s doth not suppose our omission of their GRAVITY but duely include the full consideration thereof since their Motion is the proper Effect of their Gravity and that which doth chiefly bring it within the sphaere of our Apprehension 2 That the genuine Atomist doth worthily disavow all Motion but what Plutarch in the name of Epicurus hath defined to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Migratio de loco in locum the translation of a thing from one place to another The suspicion of a Chasme in our Discourse and the Ambiguity imminent from the Aequivocality of the term Motion thus maturely praevented we may more smoothly progress to our short Animadversions on the Conceptions of the Ancients touching the Last General Propriety of Atoms their Congenial and intestine Motion Herein we are to recognize their opinions that concern 1 the Multiplicity 2 the Perpetuity of motions essentially competent to Atoms As to the FIRST they have according to a General Distinction assigned to Atoms a Two-fold Motion 1 Natural whereby an Atom according to the tendency of its essential weight is carried directly downward 2 Accidental whereby one Atom justling or arienating against another is diverted from its perpendicular descendence and repercussed another way The Former they called Perpendicular the other Reflex The Natural or Perpendicular Epicurus hath doubled again into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad perpendiculum or as Cicero de fato interprets it ad Lineam and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Declinationem The Accidental or Reflex hath also according to the tradition of Plutarch 1. placit 12. been by him subdivided into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex plaga seu ictu and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex concussione or rather ex Palpitatione So that according to this special Distinction there must be four different sorts of motions assignable to Atoms For the Perpendicular Motion we advertise that Epicurus therein had no respect to any Centre either of the World or the Earth for He conceded none such possible in the Universe which He affirmed of infinite extent but to two contrary
interspersed among the lines of a less Light and as certain that the Vermillion appeareth on that side of the Prisme where the Light is more copious as therein meeting with fewer retundent impervious particles in the substance of the Glass and the Caerule in that part where the Light is diminished as meeting with more impervious particles and being by them repercussed it must inevitably follow thereupon that if an opacous body be posited within the bounds of this light so that the light may fall on each side thereof and as it were fringe it a symptome quite contrary to the former shall evene i. e. the Vermillion will appear on that side of the species which is over against the Caerule and the Caerule will be transposed to that side of the species which confronteth the Vermillion This is easily Experimented with a piece of narrow black Ribbon affixt longwise to either side of the Prisme For in that case the light is bipartited into two Borders or Fringes the opace part veyled by the Ribbon on each side environed with light and each border of light environed with two shadows or more plainly between each border of shadows conterminate to each extreme of Light trajected through the unopacate parts of the Glass and therefore in the commissure of each of the two lights with each of the conterminous shadows there must be Vermillion on one side and Caerule on the other Now to drive this home to the head the solution of the present Problem the Reason why when the light of a Candle is trajected through a Prism on a White paper or Wall posited at convenient distance beyond it and there transformed into these two luminous Colours Vermillion and Caerule if you put your eye in that place of the Paper or Wall whereon the Vermillion shines you shall perceive only the Caerule in the Glass and è contra we say the Reason of this alteration of site in the Colours seems to be only this that the circumstant Aer about the flame of the Candle being opacous and so serving in stead of two Blacks to environ the borders of light causeth that side of the Candle which is seen through the thicker part of the Glass to appear Blew and that which is seen through the thinner to appear Red according to the constant Phaenomenon in Prismes But if the species be beheld by Reflection from any illustrate and repercussing Body such as the paper or wall then must the series or method of the borders of light and shadow be inverted for the reason immediately praecedent and consequently the situation of the Colours emergent from their various contemperations be also inverted And thus have we by the twilight of Rational Conjecture given you a glimpse of the abstruse Original of the Extreme and Simple Colours and should now continue our Attempt to the discovery of the Reasons of each of those many COMPOUND ones wherewith both Nature and Art so delightfully imbellish most of their peices but since they are as Generally as rightly praesumed to be only the multiplied removes of Light and Darkness i. e. to be educed from the various Commixtures of the Extreme or Simple or both and so it cannot require but a short exercise of the Intellect to investigate the determinate proportions of any two or more of the Simple ones necessary to the creation of any Compound Colour assigned especially when those excellent Rules of that Modern Apelles Albertus Durerus praescribed in his Art of Limning and the common Experience of Painters in the Confection of their several Pigments afford so clear a light toward the remove of their remaining obscurity and the singling out their particular Natures we cannot but suppose that any greater superstructure on this Foundation would be lookt upon rather as Ornamental and Superfluous than Necessary to the entertainment of moderate Curiosity Especially when we design it only as a decent Refuge for the shelter of ingenious Heads from the Whirlwind of Admiration and not as a constant Mansion for Belief For as we cautiously praemonished in the First Article the Foundation of it is not layed in the rock of absolute Demonstration or deâ—umed a Priori but in the softer mould of meer Conjeâ—ture and that no deeper than a Posteriori And this we judge expedient to profess because we would not leave it in the mercy of Censure to determine whether or no we pretend to understand What are the proper Figures and other essential Qualities of the insensible Particles of Light with what kind of Vibration or Evolution they are deradiated from their Fountain What are the determinate Ordinations Positions and Figures of those Reflectent and Refringent particles in the extreams of Bodies Diaphanous and Opace which modifie the Light into this or that species of Colour What sort of Reflection or Refraction whether simple or multiplyed is required to the creation of this or that Colour What are the praecise proportions of shadows interwoven with Light which disguise it into this or that colour Besides had we a clear and apodictical theory of all these niceâ—ies yet would it be a superlative Difficulty for us to advance to the genuine Reasons Why Light in such a manner striking on the superfice of such a body therein suffering such a Reflection or Refraction or both and commixt with such a proportion of shadows in the medium should be transformed into a Vermillion rather then a Blew Green or any other Colour Again were our Understanding arrived at this sublimity yet would it come much short of the top of the mystery and it might hazard a dangerous Vertigo in our brains to aspire to the Causes Why by the appulse of Light so or so modified there is caused in the Eye so fair and delightful a Sensation as that of Vision and why the sentient Faculty or soul therein operating becomes sensible not only of the particular stroak of the species but also of the Colour of it For where is that Oedipus that can discover any Analogy betwixt the Retina Tunica Optick Nerve Brain or Soul therein resident and any one Colour and yet no man can deny that there is some certain Analogy betwixt the Species and Sensory since otherwise there could be no Patibility on the one part nor Agency on the other We are not ignorant that the aspiring Wit of Des Cartes hath made a towring flight at all these sublime Abstrusities and boldly fastned the hooks of his Mechanick Principles upon them thinking to stoop them down to the familiar view of our reason But supposing that all Colours arise from the various proportions of the process and circumvolutions of the particles of Light in bodies respective to various Dispositions of their superficial particles which accordingly more or less Accelerate or Retard them as He hath copiously declared in Dioptric cap. 1. Meteor cap. 8. and erecting this upon his corner stone or grand Hypothesis that Light is nothing but an
possesseth those spaces which would therefore remain absolutely Empty in case the sociable Aer did not instantly succeed in possession of them so since the parts of the matter of Water are Expansed or Dissociated after the same manner as are the Hairs of Wool and after the same manner Contracted or United and certain small Loculaments are likewise intercepted betwixt the particles of that matter in which nothing of Water can be contained during the state of Rarifaction and which no other substance can be proved to possess it must thence follow that those deserted small spaces or Loculaments remain absolutely Empty And more than that our similitude is not concerned to impart But that we may make some farther advantage thereof we observe that as when a Fleece of Wooll is expansed it is of a greater circumference and so includes a greater Capacity therein than when it is compressed not that the single Hairs thereof take up a greater space in that capacity for no Haire can possess more space than its proper bulk requires but because the inane spaces or Loculaments intercepted betwixt their divisions are enlarged exactly so when the same Matter is now Rarified into Aer anon Condensed into Water the Circumference thereof becomes greater and less and the Capacity included in that circumference is augmented and diminished accordingly not that the single Particles of the Matter possess a greater part of that capacity in the state of Rarifaction thâ—â— in that of Condensation because no particle can possess more of space than what is adaequate to its dimensions but only because the Inane spaces intercepted betwixt their divisions are more ample in one case than in the other And hence it is purely consequent that the matter of a Body Rarified can not be justly affirmed to possess more of true or proper Place than the matter of the same body Condensed though when we speak according to the customary Dialect of the Vulgar we say that a Body Rarified doth possess more of space than when Condensed insomuch as under the terme Place is comprehended all that Capacity circumscribed by the extremes or superfice of a Body and to the Matter or Body it self are attributed not onely the small spaces possessed by the particles thereof but also all those inane spaces interjacent among them just as by the word City every man understands not only the dwelling Houses Churches Castles and other aedifices but also all the streets Piazzaes Church-yards Gardens and other void places contained within the Walls of it And in this sense onely are our praecedent Definitions of a Rare and Dense Body to be accepted The Reasons of Rarity and Density thus evidently Commonstrated the pleasantness of Contemplation would invite us to advance to the examination of the several Proportions of Gravity and Levity among Bodies respective to their particular Differences in Density and Rarity the several ways of Rarifying and Condensing Aer and Water and the means of attaining the certain weights of each in the several rates or degrees of their Rarifaction and Condensation according to the evidence of Aerostatick and Hydrostatick Experiments but in regard these things are not directly pertinent to our present scope and institution and that Galilaeus and Mersennus have enriched the World with excellent Disquisitions upon each of those sublime Theorems we conceive ourselves more excusable for the Omission than we should have been for the Consideration of them in this place However we ask leave to make a short Excursion upon that PROBLEM of so great importance to those who exercise their Ingenuity in either Hydraulick or Pneumatick Mechanicks viz. Whether may Aer be Rarified as much as Condensed or whether it be capable of Rarifaction and Condensation to the same rate or in the same proportion That common Oracle for the Solution of Problems of this abstruse nature Experience hath assured that Aer may be Rarified to so great a height in red-hot Aeolipiles or Hermetical Bellows that the 70 part of Aer formerly contained therein before rarifaction will totally fill an Aeolipile upon extreme Rarifaction thereof For Mersennus using an Aeolipile which being Cold would receive exactly 13 ounces one Drachm and an half and when Hot would suck in only 13 ounces found that the whole quantity of Aer ignified and replenishing the same Aeolipile when glowing Hot being reduced to its natural state did possess only the 70. part of the whole Capacity which was due to the Drachm and half of Water We say upon Extreme Rarifaction because this seems to be the highest rate to which any Rarifaction can attain in regard the Metal of the Aeolipile can endure no more violence of the Fire without Fusion As for the Tax or Rate of its utmost Condensation though many are persuaded that Aer cannot be reduced by Condensation to more than a Third part of that Space which it possesseth in its natural state because they have observed that Water infused into a Vessel of three Heminae doth not exceed two Heminae in regard of the Aer remaining within yet certain it is that Aer may be Condensed to a far higher proportion For Experience also confirms that into the Chamber of a Wind-Gun of usual Dimensions Aer may be intruded to the weight of a Drachm or sixty Grains and that in that Capacity which contains only an ounce of Water it may be so included as that yet a greater proportion of Aer may be injected into it Now therefore insomuch as the Aer in â—ersennus his Aeolipile amounts to four Grains at least or sixe at most which number is ten times multiplied in sixty and that the Concave of the Aeolipile is to the Concave of the Pipe of the Wind-Gun in proportion sesquialteral by Computation it appears that the Aer condensed in the Chamber of the Wind-Gun must be sufficient to fill the Aeolipile ten times over or the same Chamber 15 times over if restored to its natural tenour And hereupon we may safely Conclude that Aer may be Compressed in a Wind-Gun to such a rate as to be contained in a space 15 times less than what it possessed during its natural Laxity and that by the force only of a Mans hand ramming down the Embolâ—s or Charging Iron which Force being capable of Quadruplication the Aer may be reduced into a space subquadruple to the former If so the rate of the possible Condensation of Aer will not come much short of that of its extreme Rarefaction at least if a Quadruple Force be sufficient to a Quadruple Condensation and Aer be capable of a Quadruple Compression both which are Difficulties not easily determinable SECT III. PERSPICUITY and OPACITY we well know to be Qualities not praecisely conformable to the Laws of Rarity and Density yet insomuch as it is for the most part found true caeteris paribus that every Concretion is so much more Perspicuous by how much the more Rare and è contra so much
the accensed matter with such pernicity and vehemence and reciprocal arietations and in such swarms as that they repel the water affused and permit it not to enter the pores of the fewel as constantly happens in Wild-fire where the ingredients are Unctuous and consist of very tenacious particles in that case Water is so far from extinguishing the flame that it makes it more impetuous and raging However we shall acknowledg thus much that if the Principality of Cold must be adscribed to one of the Three vulgar Elements the Aer doubtless hath the best title thereunto because being the most Lax and Porous bodie of the Three it doth most easily admit and most plentifully harbour the seeds of Cold and being also subtile and Fluid it doth most easily immit or carry them along with it self into the pores of other bodies and so not only Infrigidate but some times Congeal and Conglaciate them in case they be of such Contextures and such particles as are susceptible of Congelation and Conglaciation The Fable of the Satyr and Wayfering man who blew hot and cold though in the mouth of every School-boy is yet scarce understood by their Masters nay the greatest Philosophers have found the reason of that Contrariety of Effects from one and the same Cause to be highly problematical Wherefore since we are fallen upon the cause of the Frigidity in the Aer and the Frigidity of our Breath doth materially depend thereon opportunity invites Us to solve that Problem which though both Aristotle sect 3. prob 7. Anaximenes apud Plutarch de frigore primigenio have strongly attempted yet have they left it to the conquest of Epicurus principles viz. Why doth the breath of a man warme when effâ—ated with the mouth wide open and cool when efflated with the mouth contraâ—â—ed To omit the opinions of others therefore we conceive the cause hereof to be only this that albeit the Breath doth consist of aer for the most part fraught with Calorifick Atoms emitted from the lungs and vital organs yet hath it many Frigorifick ones also interspersed among its particles which being of greater bulk than the Calorifick and so capable of a stronger impuls are by the force of efflation transmitted to greatter distance from the mouth because the Calorifick Atoms commixt with the breath in regard of their exility are no sooner dischaged from the mouth than they instantly disperse in round Wence it comes that if the breath be expired in 〈◊〉 large stream or with the mouth wide open because the circuit of the 〈◊〉 of breaâ—h is large and so the Hot Atoms emitted are not so soon dispersed therefore doth the stream feel warme to the hand objected there and so much the more warme by how much neerer the hand is held to the mouth the Calorifick Atoms being less and less Dissipated in each degree of remove But in case the breath be â—mitted with contracted lipps becausâ—â—hen the compass of the stream is small and the force of Efflation greater 〈◊〉 therefore are the Calorifick Atoms soon Disgregated and the Frigorificâ— only râ—main commixt with the Aer which affects the objected hand 〈◊〉 Cold and by how much farther in the limits of the power of Efflation◠〈◊〉 hand is held from the mouth by so much colder doth the breath appear 〈…〉 contra That Calorifick Atoms are subject to more and more 〈…〉 the stream of a Fluid substance to which they are commixt is greater and greater in circuit may be confirmed from hence that if we poure hoâ—â—â—ter from on high in frosty weather we shall observe a fume to issue 〈◊〉 â—scend from the stream all along and that so much the more plentifully by how much greater the stream is Thus we use to cool Burnt wine or 〈◊〉 by frequent refunding it from vessel to vessel or infunding it into broad and shallow vessels that so the Atoms of Heat may be the sooner disperâ—â—â— for by how much larger the superfice of the liquor is made by so much more of liberty for Exsilition is given to the Atoms of Heat containeâ—â—herein and as much of Insinuation to the Atoms of Cold in company 〈◊〉 the circumstant Aer Thus also we cool our faces in the heat of 〈◊〉 with fanning the aer towards us the Hot Atoms being thereby 〈◊〉 and the Cold impelled deeper into the pores of the skin which 〈…〉 the reason why all Winds appear so much the Colder by how much â—â—â—onger they blowe as Deâ—s Cartes hath well observed in these words 〈…〉 vehementior majoris frigiditatis perceptionem quam aer 〈…〉 corpore nostro excitat quod aer quietus tantùm exteriorem nostram 〈…〉 quae interiâ—ribus nostris carnibus frigidior est contingat ventus vero â—â—hementius in corpus nostrum actus etiam in penetralia ejus adigatur 〈◊〉 illa siut cute calidiora id circo etiam majorem frigiditatem ab ejus contaâ—â—â— percipiunt In our preceâ—ent Article touching the necessary assignatin of a Tetrahedical Figure 〈…〉 Atoms of Cold we remember we said that in respect of their 〈…〉 or plane faces they were most apt to Compinge or bind in the particle 〈◊〉 all Concretions into which they are intromitted and from thence we shalâ—â—â—ke the hint of inferring Three noble CONSECTARIES 1. That 〈◊〉 Snow Hail Hoarfrost and all Congelations are made meerly by thâ—â—â—â—romission of Frigorifick Atoms among the particles of 〈…〉 being once insinuated and commixt among them in sufficieâ—◠〈…〉 alter their fluid and lax consistence into a rigid and compact i. e. they Congeal them 2. That 〈…〉 or Trembling sometimes observed in the members of 〈…〉 that Rigor or Shaking in the beginning of most putri◠〈…〉 when the Fits of Intermittent fevers invade are chiefly cause◠〈◊〉 Frigorifick Atoms For when the Spherical Atoms of Heat which swarm in and vivifie the bodies of Animals are not moved quaquaversùm in the members with such freedom velocity and directness excentrically as they ought because meeting and contesting with those less Agile Atoms of Cold which have entred the body upon its chilling their proper motion is thereby impeded they are strongly repelled and made to recoyle towards the Central parts of the bodie in avoydance of their Adversary the Cold ones and in that tumultuous retreat or introcession they vellicate the fibres of the membranous and nervous parts and so cause a kind of vibration or contraction which if only of the skin makes that symptome which Physicians call a Horror but if of the Muscles in the Habit of the bodie makes that more vehement Concussion which they call a Rigor Either of which doth so long endure as till the Atoms of Heat being more strong by Concentration and Union have re-encountered and expelled them That it is of the Nature of Hot Atoms when invaded by a greater number of Cold ones to recoyle from them and concentre themselves in the middle of the body that contains them is demonstrable from the Experiment of Frozen
resteth but also Versus latera toward the sides or circumambient And that after a various manner according to the various Contextures of soft bodies in the superfice For if the superfice i. e. the outward part of a soft body be of a more Compact and tenacious Contexture than the interior mass or substance as is the skin of an Animal compared to the subjacent flesh and a bladder in respect of the oyle therein contained in that case the compression of the particles is indeed propagated by succession to some distance as well toward the bottom as the sides to which the superior particles being pressed directly downward and there resisted deflect yet not to that distance as where the superfice is of the same Contexture with the interior mass as in Wax and Clay in both which the Compression and so the yeilding may be propagated quite thorow or from the superior to the inferior superfice where it immediately resteth upon the hard body all the intermediate particles starting toward the sides as being pressed above and resisted belowe And hereupon doubtless was it that Aristotle properly called those soft bodies whose superfice is either of a weaker or of the same contexture with their internal substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formatilia insomuch as when a Seal or other Solid body doth press them they suffer such a Diffraction or Solution of Continuity in their superficial parts as that the dissociated particles are not able to restore themselves to their former situation and mutual cohaesion but retain the figure of the body which pressed them and on the contrary such as have the contexture of their superfice more firm and tenacious than that of their internal mass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pressilia insomuch as upon pressure they suffer not so great a Diffraction or Solution of Continuity in their superficial parts but that they still have some mutual cohaerence and so are able to restore themselves to their former situation upon the remove of the body that pressed them For the illustration of this it is observable 1 That to the yielding of every soft body when pressed it is necessary that it have freedom of space on its sides because if the lateral particles when pressed by the intermediaâ—â— ones have not room whether to recede they cannot yield at all and so the Compression must be very small This may most sensibly be Exemplified in a tube filled with Water for if you attempt to compress the Water therein contained with a Râ—mmer so exactly adapted to the bore of the tube as that no spaces be left betwixt it and the sides thereof whereat the water may rise upward you shall make buâ— a very small and almost insensible progress therein 2 That no superfice of what contexture soever can be depressed versus profundum or be any way dilated but it must suffer some Diffraction or Solution of Continuity more or less For insomuch as each particle of the superfice doth possess a peculiar part of space proportionate to its dimensions and though upon the Dilatation of the superfice i. e. the remove of its particles to a more lax order greater spaces are intercepted among them yet are not the particles multiplied in number nor magnified in dimensions and so cannot possess more or greater spaces than before therefore is it necessary that the superfice be variously crackt and the continuity thereof infringed in many places The Necessity hereof doth farther evidence it self in the Flexion of a Twig Cane or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flexile body for when a Twigg is bended as the Concave superfice becomes Contracted and Corrugated the particles thereof being not able to penetrate each other nor crowd themselves into fewer places So at the same time is the Convex Dilated and suffers many small breaches or cracks the particles thereof being uncapable either to multiply themselves or possess more spaces than before The same likewise is easily intelligible in a Tractile body such as Aristotle names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Nerve or Lutestring for allbeit the interruption of Continuity be not so manifest to the sense in a Tractile as in a Flexile body yet may we observe that when a Tractile body is extended or drawn out in length it is extenuated or diminished in thickness And what think you becomes of those interior particles which compose its Crassitude or thickness Certainly they must come sorth into the superfice that so they may interpose themselves â—mong the Dissociated particles thereof possess the void spaces left betwixt them and with their small clawes or hooks on each hand cohaering to them make the superfice apparently continued Would you observe the Interruption of Continuity among the superficial particles of a Tractile body and the issuing forth and intermistion of interior particles among them be pleased to paint over a Lutestring with some oyled Colour and afterward vernish it over with oyle of Turpentine then strain it hard upon the Lute and you shall plainly perceive the superfice of it to crack and become full of small clefts or chinks and new particles not tincted with the colour to issue forth from the entralls of the string and interpose themselves among those small breaches Lastly the same is also discoverable by the sight in a Ductile body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as every Metal for no metal when pressed or hammerd is dilated or expanded on all sides for any other reason but this that it is as much attenuated in thickness and the particles in the superfice are so dissociated as that the interior particles rise up possess the deserted spaces and cohaere to the discontinued exterior particles as may be more plainly discerned if the superfice of the Metal be tincted with some colour SECT II. FRom the Praemises whereupon we therefore insisted somewhat the longer â—t is manifest that FLEXILITY TRACTILITY DUCTILITY and other Qualities of the same Classis are all the Consequents of Softness as the Contrary to them all RIGIDITY is the Consequent of Hardness insomuch as whoever would frame to himself an exact notion of a Rigid body meerly as a Rigid must compose it of the Attributes inflexile intractile inductile Nor doth any thing remain to our clear understanding of the nature of FLEXILITY but the Solution of that great Difficulty Cur flexilia postquam inflexa fuerint in pristinum statum resiliant Why a flexile body such as a Bowe of wood Steel Whalebone c. doth after flexion spring back again into its natural figure and situation The Reason of this Faculty of Restitution we conceive with the immortal Gassendus to be this that the Recurse or Resilition of a flexile body is a certain Reflex motion which is continued with a Direct motion as we shall have opportunity professedly to demonstrate in our subsequent Enquiry into the nature of Motion In the mean while it may suffice to stay the stomach of Curiosity that we evidence the cause of
their own occasionall and extemporary spinning as t is not every common eye that can discern them Nay in a Mask at Court we have seen a whole Chorus of Gods descend into the theatre as from the clouds only by Wires and other lines so fine and slender as that all the light of the tapers burning therein was not sufficient to discover them to the sight of the Spectators and vast and ponderous Scenes so suddenly and dextrously shifted by the almost inobservable motions of Skrews Elevators Pulleys and the like Archimedean Engines and Devices that the common Beholders judging only by the Apparence or rather Non-apparence have thought those great machines to have been Automatous or to have moved themselves and at last to vanish into nothing And shall we not then allowe the incomparably more Curious Mechaniques of Natures the Exemplar of Art to be wrought by Instruments of Subtility incomparably greater and that many of those small Engines whereby she usually moves and susteins bodies of considerable bulk and weight are Corporeal though by incomputable excesses below the perception of our acutest sense Certainly for us to affirm that nothing Material is emitted from the Loadstone to Iron which by continuity may Attract it only because our sense doth deprehend nothing intercedent betwixt them is an Argument of equal weight with that of the Blind man who denied the Being of Light and Colours because He could perceive none In a word if there be any validity in what we have so plainly asserted and frequently inculcated touching the Hebetude or Grossness of our Senses on one part and the great Exility of all Aporraea's or Effuxes streaming from Bodies on the other and if thaâ— Oracle Reason be to be heard which so long since persuaded Hippocrates and many other Secretaries of Nature that most if not All Bodies are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perspirable and Conspirable i. e. that they continually emit insensible Effluvia's from themselves to others We say if there be any weight in all this men cannot think it unreasonable in us to conceive that those Admired Effects which they commonly ascribe to Hidden Sympathies and Antipathies are brought about by the same ways and means which Nature and Art use in the Causation of the like Ordinary and Sensible Effects and that the Instruments of Natural Attraction Complectence Repulsion Sejunction are Corporeal and hold a neer Analogie to those of Artificial only these are Gross and Perceptible those Subtile and Imperceptible Notwithstanding the perspicuity of these Arguments we shall not supererogate to heighten the lustre of so desirable a Truth by the vernish of a convenient and praegnant Simile or two If we attentively observe a Chamaeleon catching Gnats and other small Flyes in the Aer for his food we shall see him dart out a long and slender tongue with a small recurvation at the tip and birdlimed with a certain tenacious and inviscating moisture wherewith in a trice laying hold of a Fly at some distance from his mouth he conveys the same into it with such cleanly speed as exceeds the Legerdemane of our cunningst Juglers and may have been the cheif occasion of that popular Error that he lives meerly upon Aer And when we see a peice of Amber Jet hard Wax or other Electrique after sufficient friction to attract straws shavings of wood quils and other festucous bodies of the same lightness objected within the orbe of their Alliciency and that with a cleanly and quick motion Why should we not conceive that this Electricity or Attraction may hold a very neer Analogy to that attraction of Gnats by the exserted and nimbly retracted tongue of a Chamaeleon For 1 it is not improbable that the Attraction of all Electriques is performed by the mediation of swarms of subtle Emanations or Continued Rayes of exile particles comparative to so many Chamaeleons Tongues which through the whole Sphere of their Virtue in various points mutually intersecting or decussating and more especially toward their Extreams doe not only insinuate themselves into the pores of those small and light festucous bodies occurrent but lay hold upon several insensible Asperities in their superfices and then returning by way of Retraction back to their Original or Source bring them along in their twined arms and so long hold them fast in their Complicate embraces as the warmth and radial Diffusion excited by affriction lasteth 2 All the Disparity that can be objected seems to consist onely in the Manner of their Return or Retraction the Tongue of the Chamaeleon being both darted forth and retracted by help of certain Muscles wherewith Nature by a peculiar providence hath accommodated that otherwise Helpless Animal but Electriques are destitute of any such organs either for the Exsertion or Reduction of their Rayes And this is not so great but it may be solved by supposing that as if the Chamaeleons Tongue were drawn forth at length by a mans hand and not extruded by the instruments of Voluntary Motion it would again Contract and Reduce it self spontaneously after the same manner as Nerves and Lutestrings retract and curle up themselves after violent Distension so may the Rayes which stream from an Electrique being abduced from their fountains not spontaneously but by the force of praecedent Affriction be conceived to Reduce and Retract themselves after the manner of Sinews and Lutestrings violently extended 3 That such tenacious Rayes are abduced from Amber and other Electriques is easily convincible besides the experiment of their Attraction of convenient objects from hence that all Electriques are Uncâ—uous and Pinguous Concretions and that in no mean degree and manifest it is that a viscid and unctuous Bodie is no sooner Warmed by rubbing but there rise out of it certain small Lines or Threads which adhaere to a mans finger that toucheth it and such as may by gentle abduction of the finger be prolonged to considerable distance But however this may be controverted and the Way of all Electrique Attractions variously explicated according to the various Conceptions of men the Itch of Phancy being soonest allayed by the liberty of ones singular Conjecture in such curious Theorems yet still is it firme and indubitable that though the Attraction of straws by Amber be in some sort Admirable yet is it not Miraculous as is implied in that opinion which would have it to be by some Immaterial i e. Supernatural Virtue and that it is effected by some Corporeal though both impalpable and invisible Organs continued from the Attrahent to the Attracted On the Other side as for the Abaction or Repulsion of one thing by another in respect whereunto Vulgar Philosophers have thought and taught that the Abacted or Repulsed doth if an Animal voluntarily if Inanimate spontaneously Flie from and avoid Conjunction with the Abacting or Repellent by reason of some hidden Enmity or Antipathy betwixt their Forms though the Reasons and Manner of such Fugation so far forth as concerns Animals may be
them their prâ—y 2 It is worthy a serious Remark that sundry Animalls bear a kind of 〈…〉 to the Persons of such men as are delighted or conversant in the Destruction of those of the same species with them as we daily see that 〈◊〉 are highly offended and angry at Butchers that Dogs bark 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Glovers that deal most in Dog skins and 〈…〉 killing of Dogs in time of the plague to praevâ—nt 〈◊〉 diffusion 〈…〉 and encrease of Putrefaction by their 〈◊〉 that Vermin 〈◊〉 the trapps and gins of Warrenners whereâ—◠〈…〉 their owne kind hath been taken and destroyed c. As 〈…〉 or strong Aversions t is manifest that they arise 〈…〉 or Character of Providence 〈…〉 Natures or Essential Forms but only 〈…〉 upon the sense For the 〈…〉 any Animal of the same species excite a kind of Horror in the like Animal that smells them and so cause it to abhor and avoid all such persons and places for fear of the like harm and internecion as their fellowes have suffered from them Now that which makes these odours insinuate themselves with such â—ase and familiarity into the Sensories of animals of the same species is the similitude and Uniformity of their Specifical Constitutions which yet the rough hand of Corruption seems not totally to have obliterated in the long since extravenated blood and spirits but to have left some Vestigia or Râ—mains of the Canine nature in the Doggs blood of the Porcine in the Swâ—â—â—s c. And that which makes them so horridly Odious is the great Aâ—â—â—â—â—ion of the blood from its genuine temper and conditius For the smell of the Carcass or blood of any Animal having once suffered the Depâ—avation of Corruption is always most hateful and dangerous to others of the same Species and it hath been observed that the most pernicious inâ—ections and Plagues have been such as took their Original from the Corruption of Humane Bodies which indeed is the best reason that hath â—een yet given why the Plague so often attends long and bloody Sieges and is commonly the second to the Sword We conceive the same to 〈…〉 the ground of that Axiom of the Lord St. Alban Nat. Hist. cent 10 â— â—enerally that which is Dead or Corrupted or Excerned hath Antipaâ—â—â—â—â—th the same thing when it is Alive and when it is sound and with those 〈◊〉 which do excern as a Carcass of Man is most infectious and odious â—â—man a Carrion of an Horse to an Horse c. Purulent matter of 〈◊〉 and Ulcers Carbuncles Pocks Scabbs Leprousy to Sound flesh And the Excrements of every species to that Creature that excerneth them But the Excâ—ements are less Pernicious than the Corruptions 3 The 〈◊〉 and according to some reports the opening of the Eyesâ— of the Carcass of a murthered man at the praesence and touch of the Homicide 〈…〉 in truth the noblest of Antipathies and scarce any Writer of the Secrets or Miracles of Nature hath omitted the Consideration thereof This Life in Death Revenge of the Grave or loud language of silent Corruption many Venerable and Christian Philosophers have accounteâ—â— holly Miraculous or Supernatural as ordained and effected by the just 〈◊〉 of God for the detection and punishment of the inhumane 〈◊〉 And least we should seem too forward to expunge from 〈◊〉 mind of any man the beleif of that opinion which to some may 〈…〉 more powerful Argument than the express Command of God to 〈◊〉 them from committing so horrid and execrable a Crime as Muâ—â—er we shall so far concurr with them as to conceive this Effect 〈…〉 Divine only in the Iâ—stitution but meerly Natural in the Production or Immediate Causes Because the Apparence seems not to 〈◊〉 the Capacity of Natural Means and the whole Syndrome and 〈◊〉 of it Causes may be thus explained It is an Opinion highly Câ—â—â—entaneous that in every vehement Passion there is formeâ—â— certain 〈…〉 well of the Object whereupon the Imagination is 〈…〉 the Good or Evil connected unto and expected from that Objecâ— and that this Idea is as it were impressed by a kind of inexplicable 〈◊〉 upon the Spirits at the same instant the Mind 〈◊〉 to Will the praesent Prosecution or Avoidance or the object 〈…〉 by the mediation of the Spirits those Angels of the Mind the same Idea is transmitted to the Blood and through the Arteries diffused into all parts of the body as well as into the Nerves and Muscles which are inservient to such Voluntary Motions as are requisite to the execution of the Decrees and Mandats of the Will concerning the Prosecution or Avoidance of the Object This being so we may conceive that the Phansy of the Person assaulted by an Assassine having formed an Idea of Hatred Opposition and Revenge and the same being Characterized upon the Spirirs and by them diffused through the blood though the blood become much less Fluid in the veins after death by reason the vital influence and Pulsifick Faculty of the Heart which Animated and Circulated it is extinct yet because at the praesence of the Murderer there issue from the pores of his body such subtile Emanations as are Consimilar to those which were emitted from him at the time He strove with overcame and killed the Patient and those Emanations entering the Dead Body doe cause a fresh Commotion in the blood remaining yet somewhat Fluid in its veins and as it were renew the former Colluctation or Duell betwixt the yet wholly uncondensed Spirits of the slain and those of the Homicide therefore is it that the Blood suffering an Estuation flows up and down in the veins to seek some vent or salley-port and finding none so open as in that part wherein the wound was made it issues forth from thence And where the Murthered Person is destroyed by strangulation suffocation or the like unbloody Death so that there is no manifest Solution of Continuity in the skin or other Exterior parts of the body in that case it hath been observed that the Carcass bleeds at the Mouth or Nose or both and this only because in all vehement strivings and especially in Colluctation for life the Spirits and Blood flow most plentifully into the Arteries and Veins of the Herd as is visible by the great Redness of the Eyes and face of every man that Fights and where the blood fixeth in most plenty there will be the greatest tumult aestuation and commotion when it is fermented agitated and again set afloat by the Discordant Effluvia's emitted from the body of the neer approâ—ching or touching Murtherer and consequently there must the vessels suffer the greatest stress distension and disruption or apertion of their orifices 4 And this magnale of the as it were Reanimation of the vindictive blood in the veins of a Dead body by the Magick of those Hostile and Fermenting Aporrhaea's transmitted from the body of Him who violently extinguished its former life ushers in Another no less prodigious nor less
celebrated by Naturalists and that is the suddain Disanimation of the Blood in Living Bodies by the meer prâ—sence of the Basilisk Catablepa and Diginus Serpents of a Nature so transcendently Venemous that according to pogular Tradition and the several relations of Dioscorides Galen Pliny Solinus Aelian Avicen and most other Authors who have treated of the Proprieties of Animals and Venoms they are Dectructive beyond themselves i. e. they either kill by intuition or Hiss out the flames of life by their Deieterious Expirations If Natural Historians have herein escaped that itch of Fiction to which they are so generally subject when they come to handle Rarities and that Nature hath produced any such Speâ—â—es whose optical Emissions or Pectoral Expirations are fatal and pernicious whether he sees the Woolf first or the Woolf him suddain silence being ever the Associate â—or rather Consequent of great and suddain Fear The Aphonia therefore or Defect of voice which hath sometimes though very rarely been observed to invade men upon the Conspection of Woolves is not the genuine Effect of any secret and radicated Antipathy or Fascinating Virtue in the subtle Aporrhaea's emitted from the eyes lungs or bodie of the Woolf but only of their own Fear and Terror arising from a strong apprehension of Danger the suddain and impetuous Concentration of the Spirits toward the Heart by reason of the violent Terror at that time causing a Defection of spirits and consequently a kind of Relaxation in the Muscles of the Tongue and Nerves inservient to the vocal instruments So that the inspired Aer cannot be Efflated with that force and celerity as is necessary to the loudness and distinct articulation of the voice 6 Nor is it the Eye alone that the Folly of men hath made obnoxious to Antipathies but the Ear also hath it share of wonderful Effects for there go solemn stories of inveterate and specifical Enmities betwixt the Lyon and Cock Elephant and Swine and He hath read little who hath not more than once met with sundry relations that the Crowing of the Cock is more terrible than death to the fiercest Lyon and the Grunting of a Swine so odious to an Elephant that it puts him into an Agony of Horror Trembling and Cold sweat Which notwithstanding may well be called to the barre of Experiment and many worthy Authors have more then questioned among whom Camerarius in Symbol expresly assures us that in his time one of the Duke of Bavaria's Lyons breaking into a yard adjacent to his Den and there finding a flock of Poultry was so far from being afraid of the Cock or his Crowing that he devoured him and his troop of Hens together And as for the other Antipathy ourselves have seen an Elephant feed and sleep quietly in the same stable with a Sow and her whole litter of Piggs However lest some should plead the power of Custom in both these cases and object that that Lyon and Elephant had been by Assuefaction brought to endure the naturally hateful Noises of the Cocks Crowing and the Swines Grunting to eradicate the belief of the supposed Occult Antipathies we say that such may be the Discrepancy or Disproportion betwixt the Figures and Contextures of those subtile particles that compose those Harsh Sounds and the Contexture of the organs of Hearing in the Lyon and Elephant as that they exasperate them and so highly offend those Animals For thus we suffer a kind of short Horror and our Teeth are set on edge by those harsh and vehement sounds made by scraping of trenchers filing the teeth of saws squeaking of doors and the like only because those sounds grate and exasperate the Auditory Nerves which communicate the harsh impression to the Nerves of the Teeth and cause a stridor therein 7 But if we pass from these Imaginary to Real Antipathies and desire not to misimploy our Understanding in the quest of Dihotâ—es for such things of whose Hoti the more sober and judicious part of Schollars justly doubt let us come to the wonderful Venome of the TARANTULA a certain Phalangium or smal Spider frequent in Italy but most in and about Tarentum in Apulia which hath this strange Propriety that being communicated to the bodie of man by biting it makes him Dance most violently at the same time every year till He be perfectly cured thereby being invincible by any other Antidote but Musick An Effect so truly admirable and singular that the Discovery of its abstruse Causes and the manner of their operation cannot but be most opportune and grateful to the Curious who we presume would gladly knowe Why suâ—h as are empoysoned by the biting of a Tarantula fall intâ— violent Fits of Dancing and cannot be Cured by any other Remedies but the Harmonious Straines of Musick aloâ—â— SOLUTION How great the power of Musick is as to the excitement exaltation and compescence or mitigation of the Passions of the Mind of Man and wherein the Câ—use of that Harmonical Magick doth consist would be a Digression and perhaps somewhat superfluous for us here to enquire And therefore cutting off all Collateral Curiosities we shall confine our present 〈◊〉 to the limits of our owne Profession endeavouring only to explain the Reasons why Musick hath so strong and generous an Energy as certainly to cure the Bodie of a man intoxicated with the Venome of the Taruntula which eludes and despises the opposition of all other Alexipharmacal Medicaments Forasmuch therefore as the â—tâ—ings of a Lute Vial or other Musical Instrument do alwayes movâ— and impell the Aer after the same manner as themselves are moved anâ— impelled and by this proportionate misture of Sounds create an Harmony delightful not only to the Eare but to that Harmonious Essencâ— the soul which Animates the Eare hence comes it that by the musical Harmony that is made by the Musicians playâ—â—g to the person infected with the Tarantâ—sme the Aer by reason of the various and yet proportionate motions of the strings is harmonically moved and agitated and carying thâ—se various motions of the harmony impressed upon it self into the Eare and so affecting the Phantastical Faculty with those pleasant motions 〈…〉 like manner affect and move the spirits in the brain and the spirits having received those impressions and diffused into the Nerves Muscles and 〈◊〉 of the whole body and there meeting with a certain thin acrimonâ—ous and pricking Humor which is the chief fewel and vehicle of the Venoâ—e derived from the Tarantula they attenuate and agitate the same by a 〈◊〉 very like that of Fermentation and disperse it with a quick motion 〈…〉 all the parts And this Humor being thus set afloat and estuated toâ—â—â—her with the venome or seeds of the Poyson which are contained 〈◊〉 must needs affect all the Musculousand Nervous parts 〈…〉 with a kind of Itch or gentle and therefore pleasan◠〈◊〉 or rather Titillation So that the Patient feeling this universa◠〈…〉 Tickling can be no longer at ease and
to assist the Contention of her optique Nerves and Muscles that so those Spirits may be ejaculated with great force For that an old woman though as highly malignant in her Nature and Malice as can be supposed should be able to infect and envenome an Infant at great distance is not to admitted by any but such as have ignorance enough to excuse their perswasion of the highest Impossibility imaginable But that she may in some measure contribute to the indisposition of an Infant at whom she shoots her maligne Eye-beams neer at hand may receive much of credit from the Pollution of a Lookinglass by the adspect of a Menstruous woman and from the Contagion of Blear Eyes Coughing Oscitation or Gaping Pissing and the like all which are observed to be somewhat infectious to the standers by 10 You may call it Fascination also if you please when the Torpedo doth benumb or stupifie the hand of the Fisherman For as the Maleficiation of Infants is the Effect only of certain malign or ill conditioned Emanations transmitted to them from the brain of some malevolent and half venemous Ruines of a woman so likewise must the stupefaction of the hand of the Fisherman be the Effect of certain Stupefactive Emanations either immediately or by the mediation of a staff or other continued body transmitted thereunto from the offended Fish which Emanations by a Faculty holding some neer Analogy to that of Opium Hyosciamus and other strong Narcoticks or stupefactive Medicaments do in a moment Dull and Fix the Spirits in the part that they invade and so make it Heavy Senseless and unfit for voluntary motion 11 But how shall we get free of that Difficulty wherein so many high-going Wits have been Gravell'd the sudden arrest of a ship under sail by the small Fish Echineis thereupon general called a Remora We cannot expede our selves from it by having recourse to any Fixing Emanations transmitted from the Fish to the ship because the Motion thereof is not voluntary but from External Impulse nor hath the ship any spirits or other Active principles of motion that can be supposed capable of Alteration by any influx whatever Nor by alleaging any motion contrary to that of the tide winds and oares impressed upon the ship by the Remora because whatsoever kind of Impulse or Force can be imagined impressible upon it thereby yet can it never be sufficient to impede and suppress the so violent motion thereof insomuch as the Remora neither adhaering to any rock shelf or other place more firme than the water but only to the ship 〈◊〉 self must want that fixation Firmitude that is inevitably necessary whenever any thing doth stop or move another thing of greater weight then it self What then shall we impeach of unfaithfulness all those Authentick Historians who have recorded the suddain and prodigious Arrests of the ships of Periaâ—â—er Aâ—tigonus and Caius Caligula in the middest of their Courses though therein advantaged by the Conspiring impulses of Saâ—ls and Oares Not so neither because many other vessels as well before as since have been stopped in the like manner and there is in nature Another Cause incompâ—â—ably more potent and so more likely to have arrested them than that 〈◊〉 small and weak Fish Echmeis and that is the Contrary motion of the sea which our Mariners â—who also have been often troubled with 〈◊〉 experiments of its Retropellent Force call the Current which is alwayes most strong and cumbersome in narrow and aufractuous Chanels Whâ—â—h being scarce known to the Sea-men of those times when Navigation and Hydrography were yet in their infancy and few Pilots so expert as to dâ—â—â—â—minate the several Re-encounters or Contrary Drifts of Waters in 〈◊〉 â—nd the same Creek or Arme of the Sea when they found any 〈◊〉 â—â—ddenly retarded and impeded in its course they never conceived that â—â—moration to arise from some Contrary Current of Waters in that plaâ—â—â—ut from some Impediment in the bottome or keel of the vesseâ—â—t sel◠〈◊〉 â—s â—hey searched there for it if it hapned twice or thrice that they 〈…〉 small Fish such as the Concha Veneris or any other not 〈…〉 adhaering to the lower part of the Rudder or Keel they instantly 〈◊〉 without any examinâ—tion at all whether so weak a cause might not be 〈…〉 to so great an Effect imputed the Remoration of theâ—r 〈…〉 Historians indeed tell us that the Admiral Galley which â—â—â—ried the Emperour Caligula in his last voyage to Rome was unexpecteâ— Arâ—ested in the middest of all his numerous Fleet and that an 〈…〉 found sticking to the bottom thereof but they forgot to tell us 〈◊〉 or no there were any other Fishes of the same kind affixed to any 〈◊〉 of the Galleys that kept on their course and we have good â—â—ason 〈◊〉 â—â—njecture that there were because very few ships are brought into 〈◊〉 and Docks to be carined but have many small fishes resembling 〈◊〉 adhaering to their bottoms as ourselves have more than once obseâ—â—â—â— in Holland Besides since at Caligula's putting forth â—â—om Astura 〈◊〉 Island Port and steering his course for Antium his Galley as is 〈◊〉 custome of Admirals kept up in the middle Chanell 〈…〉 encountred and opposed by some special current or violent 〈…〉 place so streitly pent in on both sides by the situation oâ— certain 〈◊〉 and Shelves as that its greatest force was in one certain pâ—râ— oâ— the â—â—aneâ—l and so not extensible to the other Galleys of his Navy 〈…〉 â—owed neerer to the shoars and so rode upon free water 〈…〉 are now adayes often Arrested by special Currents in the 〈…〉 whose Chanels are rocky aufractuous and vortiâ—ou◠〈…〉 to frequent Eddies and strong Whirlepools and neer 〈…〉 every day behold the Contrary Drifts of ships by the 〈…〉 in the same Arme of the Sea some vessels being 〈…〉 whether the sea runs out while others rice toward 〈…〉 sea runâ— in 12 So unlimited is the Credulity of man that some have gone farther yet from the bounds of Reason and imagined a Second wonderful Faculty in the Remora viz. the Praesagition of violent Death or some eminent Disaster to the chief person in the ship which it arresteth For Pliny lib. 9. cap. 25. lib. 23. cap. 1. will needs have it a Prodigy portending the murder of Caligula which ensued shortly after his arrival at Rome from Astura and that by the like arresting of the ship of Perianders Ambassadors sent to obtain an edict for the Castration of all Noble youths Nature did declare her high detestation of that Course so destructive to the way of Generation that she had instituted for the Conservation of her noblest species But every man knows how easie it is to make any sinister Accident the Omen of a tragical Event after it hath happened and that Plinies Remark upon the inhuman Embassie and succeeding Infortune of Perianders Messengers would better beseem the ranging pen or tongue of an Orator than the strict
commixt with it Thus also doth the body of a Scorpion being bruised and layed warm to tâ—â— part which it hath lately wounded and envenomed suddainly Retract aâ—d so hinder the further Diffusion of the Poison that it had immitted into the body only because the Nervous and Fibrous parts of the Scorpions body bruised by a motion of Vermiculation recontracting themselves as Chords too much extended and so retracting the Venome that yet remains adhaerent to them do at the same time Extract that Consimilar Venome that was infused into the wound The same also may be conceived of the Cure of the venome of a Spider by the body of the Spider contused and applied to the part envenomed and of the Cure of the Biting of a Mad Dog by the Liver of the same Dog in like manner Contused and imposed Nor is it by way of Union and Abduction alone that some Poysons become Antidotes against others but also by that of direct Contrariety Colluctation and Conquest for there being great Diversity of Venoms some must be Contrapugnant to others and whenever any two whose Natures and Proprieties are Contrary one to the other meet together they must instantly encounter and combate each other and at last the Activity of the Weaker submit to that of the stronger while Nature acting the part of a third Combatant observes the advantage and coming in with all her forces to the assistance of her Enemies Enemie completes the Victory and delivers Her self from the danger Besides we have the testimony of Experience that Divers men have fortified their bodies against the assault and fury of some Poisons by a gradual Assuefaction of them to others as Mithridates and the Attick old Woman c. Hence we remember Another considerable Secret concerning Poisons much disputed of in the School of Physitians viz. Whence comes it that not only sundry Particular Persons but even Whole Nations have fedd upon venemous Animals and Plants without the least of harm nay with this benefit that they have thereby so familiarized Poisons to their own Nature as that they needed no other Praeservative against the danger of the strongest Poison but that Venenate one of their own Temperament Whereto we Answer in a word that that Tyrant Custome alone challengeth the honour of this wonder such men having by sensible degrees or slow advance from lesser to greater Doses of Poisons so changed the temperament and habit of their bodies that the wildest Venoms degenerated into wholesome Aliments and Poisons were no more Poisons to them than to the Animals themselves which Generate and contain them Which duely considered we have little reason to doubt the verity of Galens relation de theriaca ad Pison of the Marsi and Aegypâ—ians whose ordinary Diet was Serpents or of the like in Pliny lib. 6. cap. 29. concerning the Psyllae Tintyritae and Candei who were all ophiophagi or Serpent-Eaters or of Theophrastus his story lib. 9. de histor animal cap. 18. of certain Shepherds in Thrace who made their grand Sallads of white Hellebor or of Avicens lib. 4. sen. 6. tract 1. cap. 6. of a certain Wench who living upon no other Viands but Toads Serpents and other the strongest poisons and mostly upon that of Napellus became of a Nature so prodigiously virulent that she outpoisoned the Basilisk kissed several Princes to death and to all those unhappy Lovers whom her rare beauty had invited to her bed her Embraces proved as fâ—tal as those of Iupiter armed with his thunder are feigned to have been to femele or of Iul. Caes. Scaligers Exercit. 175. concerning the Kings son of Cambaia who being educated with divers sorts of poisons from his infancy had his temperament thereby made so inhumane and transâ—endently Deleterious that He destroyed Flyes only with his breath killeâ— several women with his first nights Courtship and pistolled his Enemies with his Spittle like the serpent Ptyas that quickly resolves a man into his originary Dust only by Inspuition as Galen reports de theriaca ad Pison cap. 8. The Rear of this Division of Secrets concerning Animals belongs to the ARMARIE or MAGNETICK UNGUENT and its Cousin German the SYMPATHETICK POWDER or Roman Vitriol calcined both which are in high esteem with many especially with the Disciples of Paraâ—â—lsus Croâ—lius Goclenius and Helmont all which have laboured hard to assert their Virtue in the Cure of Wounds at great distance either the Unguent or Powder being applyed only to the weapon wherewith the wound was made or to some piece of Wood Linnen or other thing to which any of the blood or purulent matter issuing from the wound doth â—â—haere Concerning those therefore we say in short 1 That notwithstanding the stories of wounds supposed to have been cured by Hoplochrism both with the Unguent and Vitriol are innumerable yet is not that a suffiâ—â—ent Argument to convince a circumspect and wary judgment that either oâ— them is impowered with such a rare and admirable Virtue as their admireâ—â— praesume because many of those stories may be Fabulous and were the several Instances or Experiments of their Unsuccessfulness summed up â—nd alledged to the contrary they would doubtless by incomparable excesses overweigh those of their successfulness and soon counter-incline the minds of men to a suspicion at least of Error if not of Imposture in their Inventors and Patrons 2 Though the Examples of their success were many more than those of their Failing yet still would it be less reasonable for us to flye to such remote obscure imaginary Faculties as do not only transcend the capacity of our Understanding but openly contradict that no less manifest than general Axiome Nihil agere in rem distantem than to have recourse to a proxime manifest and real Agent such as daily producing the like and greater Effects by its own single power may justly challenge the whole honour of that Sanative Energy to it self which the fraud of some and incircumspection of others have unduly ascribed to the Unguent or Sympathetick Powder We mean the Vital if you please you may call it the Animal or Vegetative Faculty it self which rightly performing the office of Nutrition doth by the continual apposition of the Balsam of the Blood to the extremes of the small Veins and to the Fibres in the wound repair the lost flesh consolidate the Disuâ—â—ted parts and at length induce a Cicatrice thereupon For common Experience demonstrateth that in men of temperate Diet and euchymical bodies very deep and large wounds are many times soon healed of themselves i. e. meerly by the goodness of Nature it self which being vigorous and of our own provision furnished with convenient means wholesom and assimilable Blood doth every moment freshly apply it to the part that hath suffered solution of Continuity and thereby redintegrate the same especially when those Impurities generated by putrefaction in the wound which might otherwise be impediments to Natures work of Assimilation and Consolidation are removed by the
of small bodies or minute masses of Atoms and that the Form thereof doth consist in the Congeries Concretion complexion and determinate Disposition of them all as also that the Fire or Flame issuing from â—t in combustion is a thing likewise consisting of various sorts of particles contained in the Wood and which being separated and again consocâ—ated according to the Consimilarity or likeness of their natures and concreted among themselves obtain another Disposition and Forme and so exhibite the species of a New body SECT II. FRom Generation â—s in the Method of Nature so in our disquisitions concerning Her we pass to CORRUPTION which is no more but the Dissolution of the Forme i. e. the determinate Modification of the matter of a thing so that it is thereby totally devested of the right of its former Denomenation For since it is most certain that in Generation there doth arise no such New substantial Forme as Aristotle dreamt of and most men have ever since disquieted their heads withal it can be no less certain that neither in Corruption can any such Form as ever was substantial perish or be annihilated Which verily that we may most commodiously enforce resuming our late Instance of the Generation of Fire Flame Smok c. from the combustion of wood we shall to our praecedent remarks there thereupon superad this observation that when wood perisheth by Fire and so is resolved into divers other Bodies it is not resolved into any other but those very same things which were really praeexistent and contained therein and consequently that nothing thereof perisheth but only that determinate Connexion and situation of its parts or that special manner of their existence you may call it Forme Quality Species Accident or Event in respect whereof it was wood and was so denominated A strange Assertion you 'l say that there is really existent in wood Fire that there is Flame that there is Salt that there are all those divers things into which it is resoluble by corruption And yet the Truth much transcends the strangeness of it the difficulty at which you are startled consisting only in Name not in the Thing it self For if by Fire you understand burning Coales or Flame actually ardent and lucent and if by Salt you conceive a Body sapid really and sensibly corrading the tongue then indeed we shall confess that there is no such Fire nor Flame no such Salt existing actually in wood But if you bâ— the names of Fire and Salt understand as the tenour of our Dissectation both directeth and obligeth you to understand the seeds or small masses or first Concretions of Fire and Salt such which arâ— so exile as that each of them singly accepted is very much beneath the perception and discernment of the most acute of senses but yeâ— when multituâ—es of them are sequestred from the whole mass and are again congregated and freshly complicated together the seeds oâ— Fire by themselves those of Salt by themselves then do these actually burn and shine and those actually make a Sapour sharply affecting and corrading the tongue we see no reason why you should wonder at our tenent that both Fire and Salt viz. that very Fire which burns and shines in the wood that very Salt which may be extracted from the Ashes thereof were praeexistent in the wood Certainly you cannot but admit as highly consentaneous to reason that in a vapour to what rate soever attenuated there are contained the seeds of Water or the first concretions of Aqueous Atoms which though singly existent they are wholly imperceptible yet nevertheless are they really particles of water for as much as they want only the convention and coalition of many of them together to the discovery of their nature in sensible masses for of many of them condensed are made very small drops of water of those drops assembled together arise greater drops of those rain is generated from that rain arise whole streams and many of those streams meeting together swell into great and impeâ—uous torrents And if this be so easily why should that be so hardly admittible But to desert this Example and address to another so competent and illustrious that it takes off all obscurity as well as difficulty from our conception it is well known that silver is capable of such exact permâ—stion with Gold as that though there be but one single ounce of Silver admixt by confusion to 1000 ounces of Gold yet in the whole mass there shall be no sensible part wherein somewhat of that small proportion of silver is not contained Now you cannot expect that each single molecula or seed of silver should appear to the sense so as to distinguish it self by its proper colour from the small masses of Gold because each molecula of silver is surrounded with and immersed among 1000 particles or small masses of Gold Nor can you believe that the silver is wholly unsilvered or Changed into Gold as Aristotle affirmed that a drop of Wine infused into a great quantity of Water is changed into Water because the skilful Metallist will soon contradict you in that by an ocular demonstration For by Aqua Fortis poured upon the whole mass He will so separate the silver from that so excessive proportion of Gold as that there shall not be left inhaerent therein so much as one the smallest particle thereof and in the superfice you may plainly discern multitudes of very small holes like punctures in wax made by the point of the smallest needle in which the moleculae or small masses of the silver were resident before its sequestration from Gold Why therefore according to the same reason should it not be equally probable that the seeds or particles of Fire are so scatteringly diffused through the substance of wood as that being surrounded and overwhelmed with myriads of particles of other sorrts they cannot therefore put on the apparence proper to their nature and discover themselves to be what really they are until being by the force of the external fire invading and dissolving the compage of the wood set at liberty and disengaged from their former oppression they issue forth in swarms and by their coemergency and consimilarity in bulk figure and motion being again congregated they display themselves to the sense in the illustrious Forme of Fire and Flame and proportionately diminish the quantity of the wood which thereupon is first reduced to Coals and aâ—terward the separation and avolation of more and more particles successively being continued to Ashes which containing no more igneous particles can maintain the combustion no longer The like may be said also of the Salt diffusedly concealed in Wood. For insomuch as each single particle of Salt ambuscadoed therein is blended among and as it were immured by myriads of other particles it is impossible they should exhibite themselves in their genuine Forme while they remain in that state of separation or singular existence which they must do till the
therefore doth the begun motion persever as praevailing upon the repression and renitency of the Fibre impinged against the plane and since it cannot be continued in a direct line because of the impediment ariseing from the parts cohaerent it is continued by that way it can i. e. by the open and free obliquity of the plane But this of necessity must be done with some certain Evolution of the Ball and with the contact of the Fibres posited in order both toward the Axis and beyond it and while this is in doing every Fibre strives to give back but because the farther part doth yet praevail over the neerer therefore doth the neerer part still follow the sway and conform to the inclination and conduct of the farther and all the toucht Fibres change their situation nor are they any longer capable of returning by the same way they came because they no longer respect that part from whence they came We say with the Contact of the plane by the Fibres posited toward the Axis and beyond it because since in that Evolution or Turn of the Ball the extream of the Axis toucheth the plane yet nevertheless no Resilition or Rebound is therefore caused in that instant and if there were a resilition at that time it would be to a perpendicular as well the Axis as all the circumstant Fibres being erected perpendicularly upon the face of the plane but the Resilition there must be beyond it because the force of the farther part of the Fibres doth yet praevail over that of the neerer For the Force of the farther part doth yet continue direct and intire but that of the neerer is reflected and by the repression somewhat debilitated and therefore the Resilition cannot be made until so much of Repression and Debilitation be made in the further part as was made at first in the neerer And that must of necessity be done so soon as ever the plane is touched by some one Fibre which is distant from the Axis as much beyond as that Fibre which first touched the plane is distant from the Axis on this side for then do the two forces become equal and so one part of the Fibres having no reason any longer to praevail over the other by counter inclination the Ball instantly ceaseth to touch the plane and flies off from it toward that region to which the Axis and all the circumstant Fibres are then i. e. after the Evolution directed Now because the Ball is after this manner reflected from the plane with the same inclination or obliquity with which it was impinged against it it is an evident consequence that the Angle of its Reflexion must be commensurable by the Angle of its Incidence and that each of them must be so much the more Obtuse by how much less the line of projection doth recede from a perpendicular and contrariwise so much the more Acute by how much more the line of projection doth recede from a perpendicular or how much neerer it approacheth to a parallel with the plane From these Considerations we may infer Two Observables The One that the oblique projection of a Globe against a plane is composed of a double Parallel the one with the Perpendicular the other with the plane for the Globe at one and the same time tends both to the plane and to that part toward which the plane runs out forward The Other that Nature loseth nothing of her right by the Reflexion of bodies forasmuch as she may nevertheless be allowed still to affect and pursue the shortest or neerest way for because the Angle of Reflexion above the plane is equal to that Angle which would have been below the plane in case the plane had not hinderd the progress of the line of projection beyond it by reason of the Angles Equal at the Vertex as Geometricians speak therefore is the Reflex way equal to the Direct and consequently to the shortest in which the ball projected could have tended from this to that place Here to bring up the rear of this Section we might advance a discourse concerning the Aptitude and Ineptitude of Bodies to Reflexion but the dulness of our Pen with long writing as well as the Confidence we have of our Readers Collective Abilities inclining us to all possible brevity we judge it sufficient onely to advertise that what we have formerly said concerning the Aptitude and Ineptitude of Bodies to Projection hath anticipated that Disquisition For certain it is in the General that such Bodies which are More Compact Cohaerent and Hard as they may be with more vehemence and to greater distance Projected so may they with more vehemence and to greater distance Rebound or be Reflected provided they be impinged against other bodies of requisite Compactness Cohaerence and Hardness And the Reason why a Tennis-ball doth make a far greater Rebound than a Globe of Brass of the same magnitude and thrown with equal force is onely this that there is not a proportion betwixt the Force imprest by the Projicient and the Gravity of each of them or betwixt the Gravity of each and the Resistence of the Plane Which holds true also concerning other bodies of different Contextures CONCLUSION Ingenious Reader I Have kept you long at Sea I confess and such was the Unskilfulness of my Pen though steered for the most part according to the lines drawn on those excellent Charts of Epicurus and Gassendus often shipwrackt your Patience But be pleased to consider that our way was very Long and taedious insomuch as we had no less than the whole of that vast and deep Ocean of Sublunary Corporeal Natures to sayl over that our passage was full of Difficulties as well in respect of those sundry Rocks of Incertitude which the great Obscurity of most of those Arguments whose discovery we attempted inevitably cast us upon as of those frequent Mists and Foggs which the exceeding Variety of mens Opinions concerning them surrounded and almost benighted our judgement withal and chiefly that if by the voyage your Understanding is brought home not only safe but inriched though in the least measure with that inestimable Wealth the Knowledge of Truth or what is so Like to Truth as to satisfie your Curiosity as fully as I have reason to congratulate my self for the happiness of my Care and Industry in being your Pilot so must you to esteem the adventure of your Time and Attention compensated with good Advantage And now you are on Land agen give me leave at parting to tell you That all the Fare I shall ever demand of you is only a Candid sentiment of my Good-will and cordial Devotion to the Commonwealth of Philosophy Which indeed doth so strongly Animate me on to enterprizes of Publique Utility though but to those in the Second Form of Scholars that I can be well contented not only to neglect opportunities of Temporal advantages to my self while I am imployed in the study how to contribute to the
Absurdities inseparable from the position of Infinite parts in a Continuum Art 6. Aristotles subâ—erfuge of Infinitude Potential Art 7. Found openly Collusive Art 8. A second subterfuge of the Stoick Art 9. Manifestly dissentaneoâ—s to Reasoâ— Art 1. The Absurdities by Empiricus charged upon the supposition of only Finite parts in a Continuum Art 2. The sundry Incâ—ngruities Inconsistencâ—s by the Modern Anti-Democritans imputed to the supposâ—tion of Insectility Art 3. The full Derogation of the 〈◊〉 all together by oâ—e single Respâ—nse that the minimum of Atomists is not Mathematical but Phâ—sical contrary to their praesumption Art 4. A seeming Dâ—lemma of the Adversary expeditely evaded Art 5. A Digression stating and determining that notable Quaestion Whether Geometâ—ical Demâ—nstrations may be conveniniently transâ—fâ—â—red to Physical or sensible Quantity Art 1. The introduction hinting the two general assumptions of the Chapter Superbissimo furore ambitiosus nominis Aristoteles in Philosâ—phorum Principes est debaâ—chaâ—us uno â—ue incendio congestas trigintae sex seculis tot sapientiae divitias absumpsit si quae voluit superesse funeri ea omnium â—udibâ—iâ— dicteriisque lacessenda tradidit pâ—steris dum in optimorum bona invectus abâ—cissis perditisque sapientiae statuâ—rum capitibus suum imp suit singulis ut Magnâ—nas in Democrit Script Elench ex Plinio in pâ—aeâ—at ad D. Vespanianum Imp. Art 2. Demoâ—itus Epicurus vindicated from the absurd admission of Inanity to be one Principle of Generables Art 3. Atoms not inconsistent with because the Principles of the four vulgar Elements * Accipitur pro Igneâ—seu Aethere quem dictum Anaxagoras censuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab â—rendo Art 4. The dissent of the Ancients about the number of Elements Art 5. No one of the four Elements sufficient to the production of either any of the other three or of any Compound nature Art 6. The four Elements not the Protâ—principle of Concretions Art 7. Aâ—oms discriminated from the Hâ—mâ—â—omerical Principles of Anaxagoras Art 8. The principal Difficulties urged against the Hypothesis of Atoms singularly solved Art 9. A recapitulation of the praemises iâ—troductory to the verification of the praesent thesis Art 1. The 4 noâ—able opinions concerning the Câ—mposition of a 〈◊〉 Art 2. A Physical 〈◊〉 cannot consâ—â—â— of Points Mâ—themaâ—â—â—â—l Art 3. Nâ—t of Parts and Points Mathematical united Art 4. Noâ— of a simple Eâ—tity before divisiâ—n 〈…〉 of Indivisibles Art 5. A second Apodictical reason deâ—umed fâ—om the nature of Union evincing that Atoms are the First and Catholick Principle of Concretions Art 6. An obâ—ection praevented Art 7. The reason of the Authors supercâ—ssion of all other Arguments of the like importance Art 1. The two links connecting this to the praecedent Chapter Art 2. The General Proprieties of Atoms and the Inseparability of each demonstrated Art 3. The Resistence of Atoms no distinct propriety but pertinent to their Solidity or Gravity Art 4. The specifical Proprieties of Atoms Art 1. By the Magnituâ—e is meant the Parvity of Atoms Art 2. A consideration of the Grosseneâ—s of our senses and the extreme 〈◊〉 of Natuâ—e in her operations prâ—paratory to our Conjectural apprehension of the Exiguâ—ty of Her Materials 〈◊〉 Art 3. The incomprehensible subtility of Nature argued from the Artâ—fice of an exquisite Watâ—h contrived in a very narrow room Art 4. The vast multitude of sensible particles the vaster of Elemental Atoms contained in one grain of Frankinsense exactly calculated Art 5. The Dioptrical speculation of a Handworm discovering the great variety of Organical Parts therein and the innumerability of their Component Particles Art 6. A short Digressive Descant upon the Text of Pliny touching the multiplicity of parts in a Flea hinting the possible perspicacity of Reason Art 7. The Exility of Atoms conjectural from the great diffusion of one Grain of Vermillion dissolved in Water Art 8. The same infâ—rrible from the smal quantity of oil depraedated by the Flame of a Lamp in a quarter of an hour Art 9. The Microscope of great use in the discernment of the minute particles of Bodies and so advantageous to our Conjecture of the exility of Atoms Art 1. An Epitome of all that directly concerns the Figures of Atoms in 3 General Canons Art 2. The First Canon explained and certified Art 4. The Diâ—eâ—sity of Figures in Atoms eviâ—ted frâ—m the sensible Dissimilitude of individuals as well Animate a◠〈◊〉 Art 5. A singular Experiment antoptically demonstrating the various Configurations of the minute Particles of Concretions Art 6. A variety of Figures in Atoms necessary to the variety of all Seâ—sibles Art 7. The second Canon explained and Certified Art 8. The Third Canâ—n explained reâ—uted Art 1. Two introductory Observables Art 2. The Motion of Atoms according to the General Distinction of the Ancients Two-fold viz. Natural and Accidental each of these redivided into two different Species Art 3. The summary of Epiâ—urus Figment of the Perpendicular Moâ—ion of Atoms without a common Centre Art 4. His Declinatâ—â—y natural Motion of Atoms excused not justified Art 5. The genuine sense of â—piâ—arus in his distinction oâ— the Reflex Motâ—on of Atoms into ec Plaga 〈◊〉 Concuâ—â—â—â—ne Art 6. The several Conceptions of Epicurus about the perpetual Motions of Atoms Art 7. Thâ— perpetual Inâ—uâ—eâ—ude of Atoms even in compact Concretions adâ—â—â—â—rated in 〈◊〉 Leaâ— Art 8. The same more sensibly exemplified in the spirit extracted from Mercury Tin and Sublimate Art 9. The Mutabâ—lity of all Concretions a good Argument of the perpetual intestine Commotion of Atoms in the most adamantine Compositions Art 10. What we are to explode and what retain in the opinion of Epicurus touching the Motion of Atoms Art 1. An introductory Advertisement of the obscurity of many things to Reason which are manifest to sense and of the Possibility not necessity of the Elementation of Concretâ—â—ns and their sensible Qâ—alities frâ—m the Principles praeâ—uaâ—ed Art 2. The Authors Definition of a Quality in general and 〈◊〉 exposition of Demâ—crituâ— mysterious Text concâ—râ—ing the Creation of Qualities Art 3. The necessary deduction of Qualities from Naked or Vnqualified Principles Art 4. The two primary Events of Atoms viz. Order and 〈◊〉 associated to their three essential Proprieties viz. Magnitude 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 sufficient to the Origination of all â—â—alities Art 5. The necessity of assuming the Magnitude and Motion of Atoms together with their Order and Situation as to their production of Qualities evicted by a double instance Art 6. The Figure Order and 〈…〉 Concretions alone sufficient to the Caussation of an indefiniâ—e variety of Qualities from the 〈…〉 Art 7. The 〈◊〉 Exemplified in tâ—e 〈…〉 on the Waves â—f the Sea Art 8. 〈…〉 Example Art 9. The Accension of Heat from Concretions actually Câ—â—d upon a mâ—er transposition of their 〈◊〉 Particles exeâ—plifies in â—â—ndry Chyâ—â—cal Experiments Art 10. The Generation of all kinds of sensible Qualities in one and the same Concretion from the variegated