that have formerly appear'd in the Heavens now disappear What 's become of the seventh Pleiade and of that seen the last Age in the Constellation of Cassiope And supposing any one since its ceasing to appear should bring his Action against Tyco Brahe and others that observ'd it as false Intelligencers that abus'd the credulous World do you think it would not be thrown out And does not M. Descartes himself give us to apprehend that our Vortex infinitely greater than the Sphere of Fire shall be sometime swallow'd up when one least thinks on 't And when by that Absorption the Sun shall become an Earth and perhaps at once the subtil Matter which is confâ—â—'d in the Centre of our Earth forcing its Passage througâ— the Crusts that cover it shall make that a Sun granting that the Books of M. Descartes existed in another Vortex where are Men would not they look on all he has wrote of our World as Fabulous and Romantick However granting that there never was a Sphere of Fire it was ever admirably suppos'd Never was System more exactly contriv'd than Aristotle's of the Elements They all are rang'd according to the Dignity or Meanness of their Nature The Earth as the most unactive and ignoble Element has the lowest Seat The Water less course and heavy than the Earth takes place above it The Air by reason of its Subtilty is exalted higher than the Water And the Fire the most noble and most vigorous of them all owns no Superior but the Stars and the subtil Matter in which swim the Planets The extent of each is likewise proportion'd to the Merit of their Nature Like Brethren they have divided the Estate of the four Qualities each of them has two one of which in the Superlative Degree The Earth is cold and dry the Water is cold and moist the Air is hot and moist the Fire is hot and dry And to the end they may bear up still in the perpetual Combats they give each other if the prevaling Quality of one 's more active the predominant Quality of the others put them in a good posture of Defence against the effort of their Enemy Could any thing be more justly or ingeniously imagin'd In fine with how many fine Thoughts has that Sphere of Fire and that orderly Disposition of the Elements furnished our Preachers heretofore and still supplies those of Italy But to mention something better in its kind that one Devise of Father le Moine of which the Sphere of Fire is the Substance deserves there had been one and would deserve there should be one still and that it should endure for ever Designing to signifie the more pure are Friendships the more durable they are he painted the Sphere of Fire with this Spanish Motto Eterno porque Puro This Fire 's Eternal because it 's pure What an unhappiness it is that that Thought so fine and solid as it is all over should at last be false for want of a Sphere of Fire Thus I was defending as well as I could the Peripatetick Interest whilst we arriv'd at the Globe of the Moon I shall not be tedious in giving a large Description of it since others have don 't before me I will only say that the Earth look't to us that view'd it from the Moon as the Moon appears to those that view it from the Earth with this difference that the Earth seem'd bigger far because it really is so So we judg'd that the Earth in respect of those that beheld it from the Moon had the same Phases as the Moon in regard of those that behold it from the Earth that it had its Quadratures its Oppositions its Conjunctions except that it could never be totally Eclips'd by the reason of its greatness in comparison of the Moon whose Shade could not have a Diameter so large as the Earth then in Conjunction The Moon is a Mass of Matter much like that of which the Earth is compos'd There you have Fields and Forests Seas and Rivers I saw no Animals indeed but I am of Opinion if there were some transported they would thrive and probably multiply Empire de la Luâ—e 'T is false that there are Men there as Cyrano reports but 't was undesignedly that he deceiv'd us having first been deceiv'd himself One of the separate Souls which we found in great Multitudes and which were there at his Arrival told me the Original of that Error A great Company of Souls surpriz'd to see a Man with his Body in a Land where the like was never seen before had a mind to know the meaning of it They agreed together to appear in Human Shape to him They accost him and enquire by what Method he accomplish'd so great a Voyage Made him relate what he knew of our World and as he seem'd equally inquisitive as to the Transactions of the World of the Moon and the Life the Inhabitants led there the Familiar Spirit of Socrates who was among the rest took upon him to answer And having declar'd who he was as that Historian himself relates he made him upon the Spot a Fantastical System of the Republick and Society which is the same he gives us in his Relation where he seriously tells us There are Men in the Moon characters their Humour describes their Employments their Customs and Government But 't is worth the knowing that some â—opperies he has inserted he brought not from that Country as the Soul assur'd me and that many Profane Allusions and Libertine Reflections he there makes were only the Fruits of a debauch'd Imagination and a corrupt Mind such as was that Historians or of the Imitation of an Author yet more Atheistical than himself I mean Lucian one of whose Works was made the Plan to his History of the Moon The Inequalities we found in the Globe of the Moon are partly Isâ—es wherewith the Seas there are pleasantly chequer'd and partly Hills and Vallies in its Continent They belong to several famous Astronomers or Philosophers whose Names they bear and who are the high and mighty States there We landed in Gassendi a Seat extraordinary fine and very apposite and such in a Word as an Abbot like Monsieur Gassendus could make it who wanted for neither Genius Art nor Science and who had no use for his Revenues in gaming treating and living high The Lord of the Mannor was then absent whom we should have been glad to have waited on since we heard that he still continu'd his Civility and Moderation which were his Natural Endowments And though formerly there were some Misunderstandings betwixt him and Cartesius yet he always very obligingly and with a Mark of Distinction entertain'd the Cartesians that came to pay a Visit and especially Father Mersennus who was his peculiar Friend He was a Man that equall'd M. Descartes in capacity of Genius excell'd him in the reach and extent of Science but was less heady and conceited He seem'd somewhat a Pyrrhonist in Natural
the Existence and Distinction of your three Elements I flatter my self Monsieur you will not be much dissatisfy'd at my Answers and that you will acknowledg that how far soever I am behind-hand with the rest of your Disciples in Parts and Penetration there are but few that exceed me in the Attention you desire your Readers to bring with them in entring on your Books and Application requisite before they pass their Judgment and especially before they venture to oppose them or defend them But to persue in giving you the Account of my Conferences This I have been mentioning had two Effects The first was to break a little our Peripateticks of that mischievous Opinion they had admitted of your Doctrin which they had till then regarded as full of Contradictions and Absurdities absolutely incapable of Defence and as a System that undermin'd it self The other was to cause two or three of the most subtil and discerning of them to apply themselves closely to the reading and examination of your Books whereby they have found Difficulties in earnest that seem to me to be truly so and upon which as I at first observ'd to you I was forc'd to make my Appeal to you your self For I must confess that as Haughty as I was upon my first Success I am now reduc'd to such a Maze as makes your Light and Assistance necessary to extricate me theâ—ce 'T is now a Fortnight that these Gentlemen have desisted to urge any thing against your Doctrin and three or four Conferences in the Interim have pass'd in the explaining your Sentiments and resolving some Questions they propos'd to me upon several particular Passages of your Books of which they thought at least pretended that they thought they did not rightly take the meaning This was only a Stratagem they made use of to trapan me I was well aware of that petty Conspiracy which doubtless would have given me some disturbance having to deal with Men of admirable Sense had not the goodness of the Cause I manag'd bore up my Courage and Resolution To conclude two Days since they brav'd it at an high rate and promising or threatning in a short time to confute the greatest part of your Metaphysicks and your Physicks they told me they would immediately fall aboard the System of your Vortexes That that was to attack you in the main part and they question'd not but they had upon that Article wherewith to ruin your Physicks to all Intents and Purposes Notwithstanding whereas they are as Courtly and Obliging as Ingenuous and Judicious and besides were well persuaded of the difficulty of their Arguments to save me that Perplexity and Confusion in the trouble they foresaw I should be put to in giving the Solution they would not oblige me to answer them on the place But were content to give them me in Writing that I might return my Answer at my leisure They only read them over to me to see if I comprehended their Sense and I protest to you though I seem'd to Vapour I was extraordinary pleas'd in my Mind with those little Differences which they paid me For they argu'd only from Matter of Fact and Principles drawn Word for Word out of your Books which they turn'd one against another and made them destroy themselves in so plausible and probable a manner as requir'd M. Descartes himself at least one better skill'd than I am to refute them I shall transcribe the principal things of their Memoire and in their own Expression They have given it this Title Objections offered a Cartesian by some Peripateticks against the general System of M. Descartes's World FIRST they pretend to prove that the Posture and Array in which M. Descartes has marshal'd his Matter or his three Elements in his Vortexes thwarts and contradicts his general Rules of Motion which he gives himself and the Properties he attributes to every of those Elements And thence they 'l draw such Consequences as intirely overthrow his Doctrin touching the Nature of Light Secondly they will shew that his manner of explaining Light is no ways consistent with not to repeat his Position of the Elements in the Vortexes but the very disposition of his Vortexes amongst themselves Thirdly they will prove that by the Principles of M. Descartes the Earth no more than any other Planet can be priviledg'd with a Peculiar Vortex in the Vortex of the Sun Which being once more Demonstrated all M. Descartes's Astronomy is turn'd topsy-turvy and the whole OEconomis of his World utterly routed and destroy'd The first Argument 1. We forthwith take for granted that Master-Principle of M. Descartes That every Body circularly mov'd constantly endeavours to eccentrick it self and escape from the Circle it describes 2. From that universal Principle immediately follows this particular Consequence that in a Vortex where the Matter of the first second and third Element are circularly mov'd all three endeavour to acquire a Motion eccenctrick to the Vortex 3. We infer yet farther from the same Principle another Conclusion That in that general Attempt made by different Bodies thus agitated and confus'd to deviate from the Centre of their Motion those that are most agitated and are most fit for Motion those I say must have the advantage and ascendent over the rest to gain the Circumference of the Circle the Vortex describes and consequently to compel the less agitated and less fit for Motion towards the Centre of the Vortex Though this Conclusion should have no visible and necessary Connection with the Principle as indeed it has Yet we might warrant our use of it by producing M. Descartes to vouch the same thing in several places of his Books and particularly in his fourth Part of the Book of Principles Where he gives the reason for the Motion of heavy Bodies towards the Centre by this same Proposition Numb 23. That it was by vertue of that Principle that in the Vortex of the Earth Terrestrial Bodies are below the Air and the Air below the Celestial Matter To these we only add one more that M. Descartes frequently repeats especially in the third and fourth Part of Principles and in the eighth Chapter of his Tract of Light viz. That the first and second Element have much more agitation and are far more fit for Motion than the third whose parts are ragged and branchy and of a very irregular Figure All this suppos'd let us agree with M. Descartes that Matter having been created such as he advances God was able to divide and actuate it with Motion and that he effectively has divided it and mov'd it Let us stop now and fix our Imagination and our Thoughts upon that great Partition of Matter or upon that Vortex that hath the polar Star for its Centre Let us conceive that portion of Matter made up of an infinite number of little insensible Parts it self turn'd round whilst all the little Parts are also turn'd about their proper Centre From this Motion must arise
preserve the strict Law of probability in my History will persuade those that shall read it that I envyed Lucian more than once this his so happy Expedient Nor can I but acknowledge the same Yet I must add that a second Consideration would inevitably have determin'd me to a different Choice although decency would have allow'd me to make use of the former I am a Philosopher And the Profession I pretend to bars all admittance unto such a management The Character of a Philosopher is always to speak Truth or to think he does at least indeavour to be thought to speak it For me to devest my self of all gayety of Humour and then to affect it to follow the Example of the greatest Enemy the Philosophers have known would have been poorly to support a Quality I extreamly value my self upon So that I should be cautious of using the like Preamble and acquainting my Readers that all they were to expect of me should be false I certify them therefore from this time forward that I have a quite contrary design and that I mean to set off my History with an Air of Truth such as may be able to persuade the most Incredulous did they lay by Prejudice in the reading of it that what I say is most undoubtedly true But such is the Nature of Prejudice and Prepossession that after all the pains I have take to appear credible I am conscious notwithstanding I shall not be believ'd Let it be how it will For after all I will by no means offer violence to the Iudgment of my Readers Now see in few Words the design of the Work I therein relate the Particulars of a Voyage which I made to the World of Cartesius I begin the Voyage very advantagiously upon an occasion that Fortune presented me and which seems worthy to be related Through the whole Thred of the History as I fall in with Emergencies I explain with as little difficulty and as pleasantly as the Subject will bear the most principal Points of Cartesius his Philosophy I examine many of them in the way and refute the greatest part of them in a manner clear as I think and intelligible enough and which commonly has in it something new and unreceiv'd I have made it my business to diversify and enliven a Subject naturally dry and melancholy as well by the variety of Accidents which give me occasion to digress upon them as by some peculiar and not incurious Instances of the History of Cartesianism And likewise with some brisk and warm Discourses of such Gentlemen as no one will be uneasy to hear Dispute To conclude my last and most principal Business to the Examination and Discussion of the general System of Cartesius his World and his managery of the chiefest Parts of it as he proposes it in his Book of Principles and in that which is Intituled A Treatise concerning Light or the World of M. Descartes which he mentions so often in his Letters to Father Mersennus but was not printed till after his death And I doubt not in that discussion to establish this one Proposition that hath been often advanc'd but still repuls'd and still I am confident will be as a Paradox to many That there is scarce any Philosophical Hypothesis more unjust and incoherent or whose Conclusions have less connexion with its Principles than that of Cartesius That Proposition I say hath always seem'd a Paradox because it thwarts the generally receiv'd Opinion of that Philosophy No one will deny but that some of his Principles being but meer Suppositions without Proof the Mind cannot find that satisfaction it demands But what they stand upon is That these Suppositions being once receiv'd all the rest doth follow in so direct a Line in so great order and perspicuity that the evidence of the Consqeuences expanding it self as I may say upon the Premises the mind begins of its own accord to imbrace for Truths what were before propos'd as bare Suppositions This may be true of some parts of his Philosophy and particularly of those wherein he treats of the Nature of some Sensible Qualities in which a Man must almost be forc'd to acquiesce that shall read them without Prepossession But I am of opinion it is false in respect of the general Constructure of his World and the Consequences he draws from it 'T is this part of his Philosophy which I shall more throughly examine and it is this of all other that hath hitherto best escap'd the Censure Plenty of Objections have been made against his Metaphysicks against the New Demonstrations he hath pretended to give for the existence of a Deity his distinction of the Soul and Body his System of Light his Rules of Motion as also those concerning Reflection and Refraction Scarce any yet have given him disturbance upon the Hypothesis of his Vortexes which is notwithstanding the Foundation of all he says touching the motion of the Planets the ebbing and flowing of the Sea the gravity and levity of Bodies and of his whole System concerning Light of which he himself has been so very fond I will not say but they have augmented the Difficulties upon each of these last Heads since a great many have attack'd him thereupon But I only say they have seldom or never examin'd them with relation to his general Hypothesis by which I undertake to shew that commonly what he writes of particular Matters is inconsistent with the whole and it is mostly in that the Relation of my Voyage hath something altogether new For what remains if I shall succeed in this last Affair which was almost the only occasion of this Enterprize I shall glory to have been the most mischievous Adversary Cartesius ever met with For that which distinguishes that great Man from all the other Philosophers is not the lucky Explication of some particular Phenomena's in Nature that Praise is shar'd by an abundance of Philosophers both Ancient and Modern but that vastness of Capacity and extent of Genius whereby he could frame an intire System of the World so well contriv'd that taking for granted a few Principles most simple and easy to be understood he could give a reason for all the Occurrencies of Nature It is that Attempt as most believe by which he obtain'd his end and which hath procur'd him so much Honour and Reputation To shew then his System to be full of Contradictions that it is incoherent that one Supposition destroys another is to undertake him in his strongest hold and to wound him in the part that is most sensible We shall see in the pursuit of the History what ought to be our Thoughts of it ERRATA PHâ—nomena's read Phaenomena where-ever it is p. 2. l. 15. r. lies ib. l. 35. r. scouted p. 18. l. 9. r. the. p. 19. l. 8. r. humors all those Natural Functions and all the ib. l. 27. r. Britanny l. 29. r. of her p. 21. l. 9. r. laxed p. 23. l. 15. r. Vortex p. 29. l.
also frightning some to whom Lines crossing one another with A. B. C. are as terrible as Magick and the sight thereof enough to make them shut the Book and never open it after And this is the Reason I will make use of them as little as possibly I can He would not for any thing whatever have forgotten to remark to me those little â—â—annel'd Parts whose Service is so very necessary to him nor the way that they are wrought Amongst the Parts of the first Element which are made of the filings of the Second there are some that by reason of their irregular Figure are not so rapid as the other Those of this Nature easily hook themselves together and make up little Bodies larger than the other parts of the first Element and as in their turning about they are often obliged to pass betwixt the Balls of the second Element Numb 90. they accommodate themselves for that Passage and as they squeeze betwixt them wrythe themselves into the Shape of a Skrew or become like little Pillars chamfer'd with three Furrows or gutterwork'd and tourn'd as you see the Shell of a Snail They are chiefly to be found toward the Poles of the Vortex having their Determination toward the Centre Now whereas some of them enter by way of the Northern Pole others by the Southern whilst the Vortex turns upon its Axis it is apparent to every Cartesian that those which proceed from the North-Coast must be turned Shell-wife a different way from those that proceed from the South And Instance M. Descartes took care to inculcate throughly in me For it is principally upon that the Power and Vertue of the Loadstone do depend Numb 91. But it shall not be long said he before you see some particular Effect of these little channel'd Parts Take notice said he how things go in that Star that 's next you How some of the chamfâ—r'd Parts that come fromward the Poles of their Vortex mingle themselves with the Matter of that Star and not being able to keep pace with it in Motion are thrown out of the Star just as the scummy Parts of a boiling Liquor are separated from the other and rise above the Liquor See how they link themselves to one another and by that Union lose the quality of the first Element and take on them that of the third Upon their gathering and condensing in a very great quantity it is manifest they must hinder the action of the first Element whereby it pushes the Balls of the Second Element to the Circumference Fig. Seq and consequently must interrupt that Motion and Pressure in which Light consists And now you may see exactly what those Stains are which you sometimes discover on the Face of the Sun of your World They are nothing else but the drossy and scummy Parts of the third Element gathered in Heaps and expanded on its Surface Now the wreek and scattering of those Stains which are still a gathering and as easily dissipanated diffusing it self far and near throughout the Circumference of the Vortex will constitute a thin and raâ—ify'd Body like the Air about your Earth Numb 92. at least the finest part of it and I have formerly observed that that of the Vortex of your Sun is extended as far as the Sphere of Mercury Mean time of these Occurrences the old Gentleman in haste came and acquainted Descartes That on that Coast he had been on there were three or four Vortexes that began to jumble and fall to Loggerheads and that if he did not speedily come and part them there needed nothing more to tear and shatter all his World in pieces Poor honest old Gentleman said M. Descartes That which makes him so solicitous for my World is one of the finest Phenomena's that can possibly be seen and by which I 'll demonstrate to you how Comets are begot in yours and how in time a fix'd Star may become a Planet Let us go and cure him of his Fears When we came there we found two Stars whose Surface was almost wholly overgrown with Scurf and whose Vortexes began to be dâ—ain'd and suckt up by those round about them If you have read my Book of Principles and my Treatise concerning Light says M. Descartes to me you will easily conclude in what this little buâ—tle and disorder ought to end and I strange said he to the old Gentleman you should be frighted at it Call to mind then what I there teach how that which preserves a Vortex in the midst of several others is that impulse caus'd by the Matter of the Star in its attempt to obtain a remove from the Centre towards the Circumference For the Star by that Impulse pushing and supporting the Matter of its Vortex keeps the other Vortexes within their Bounds and loses no Ground in the Dimensions of its Circuit For we must consider all these Vortexes as so many Antagonists that dispute it to an Inch and so long as their Forces are equally match'd gain no Advantage over each other but as soon as one of them is any ways weakned or disabled it becomes a Prey to all the rest each taking in a part of its Space and at last usurping it all Now when a Star begins to be over-run with this Scurf and crusted with a mass of the parts of the third Element it can no longer push with so much force as it did before the Matter of its Vortex towards the Circumference and then the other that surround it and whose Matter is indeavouring to get as far as possible from its Centre finding no longer so much Motion nor by consequence so much Resistance expatiate and stretch themselves out and oblige the Matter of that impoverisht Vortex to circuit along with them and by little and little each Inrich themselves In so much that some Moments hence you shall see those Vortexes increase their Circumference with the Spoils of this poor Vortex till at last they come to the Star it self which will be made their Sport That is to say it will descend towards the Center of some one of those Vortexes there to continue in the quality of a Plaâ—et to turn with that Vortex and to observe the Motions of the conquering Star Or it will beconstrain'd by the Motion that shall be given it to bound from Vortex to Vortex and to make a long Pilgrimage in Habit of a Comet until its Crusts shall break And then perhaps it will recover the eminency of a Star and will take its revenge on some other by appropriating its Vortex to its self We waited then some Moments and saw happen what M. Descartes had foretold all the the Vortex was drain'd dry the Matter of one of the neighbouring Vortexes surrounded the crusted Star and influencing it with a violent Motion carried it clever off But since that Star by reason of its Solidity that consisted partly in its Figure most proper for Motion partly in the close Connexion of the