Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	air_n	earth_n	element_n	2,483	5	9.5484	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38593	Geologia Norvegica, or, A brief instructive remembrancer concerning that very great and spacious earthquake, which hapned [sic] almost quite through the south parts of Norvvay upon the 24th day of April, in the year 1657 also physical, historical, and theological grounds and reasons concerning the causes and significations of earthquakes / written in the Danish tongue by Michael Peterson Escholt ... ; and Englished by Daniel Collins.; Geologia Norvegica. English	Escholt, Michel Pedersøn, d. 1666.; Collins, Daniel, 17th cent.	1663 (1663)	Wing E3252; ESTC R15886	31,029	106

shapes such as are whole pieces of pure Silver or Copper in the shapes of Men Women Horses Fowls Fishes Dragons Trees and the like which have been really found both in the Silver and the Copper-Mines here in Norway and are safely reserved by such as are partners in the Mines as miracles of nature It is likewise certain that there are divers Spirits found in many of the Ore Mines amongst which some do the workmen no harm at all but otherwise wander up and down below in the Mines and seem to imitate the Labourers in the Mine in doing all kind of work after an Apish Antick fashion some seem to hew the Ore loose some to fill that which is hewen into tubs and to wind it up some seem to hasten the rest to follow their work and yet they do nothing at all but only mock the Labourers in the Mines and these are most frequently seen in those Mines where much Ore is shortly after found But some of these Spirits are so dangerous and pernitious in some places that they do destroy and kill the Laborers in the Mines infesting and expelling them so that they are forced wholly to give over and forsake the Mines and repair to other places as it hapned at Anneberg in Elsatz in Germany at a M●ne-pit then called Corona Rosacea or Rosen Crown And here is to be observed that nature doth often yea for the most part mix more sorts then one together as Gold Silver and Copper as also Silver Copper Tinn and Lead one with another from whence this word Metal derives its name from the Greek quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one mixt with the other And moreover besides this Nature doth sometimes work and produce Metals below in the earth that are found to be hard tight and solid as if they had been cast or wrought with the hammer but sometimes and most commonly it is found growing in and mixed with stone so that the Ory stones must be beaten with pestles as in a morter and then the Ore-power melted in Furnaces and afterwards refined from the drosse before any necessary thing can be made of it And this may suffice to be spoken concerning several Minerals and Metals and how wonderfully they may be wrought and changed within and under the earth and do help to the production of great Earthquakes CHAP. IV. Concerning Air and Wind that is inclosed in the Earth and how it doth occasion great and terrible Earthquakes IT is an universal Axiome and Physical rule non datur vacuum in rerum natura that is there is nothing found empty in Nature whence it follows that all things over or under the earth must of necessity be full or filled with something especially with one or more of the four Elements which be Fire Air Earth and Water and where none of the visible Elements are there the Air is present being a thin subtile and invisible body that fils up all places and things every where which seem to our eies to be empty the which we may easily try and experiment by putting a hollow Reed Straw or Feather into Wine Beer Water or other liquid stuff yea though it were Sand or loose Earth and afterwards strongly sucking out and drawing to us the Air that is in the hollow reed or straw we do presently see that before the reed or straw will be empty the heavy stuff that is below will come up into and fill the hollow place in it until it can recover its lost air again the same may be perceived when one drinks Tobacco for when the Air is suckt out of the pipe into the mouth then before the hollow of the pipe will be empty the smoak is forced as it were by the power of nature to forsake the fire that is in the tobacco to fill up the hollowness of the pipe least it should be empty Now the earth within is not generally close and tight but cleft and parted one piece from another in many places And there are also many Rocks and great stones below in it that have their Clefts Cracks and Cranies which are wide and large and as it were hollow and empty besides the earth in many places is sunk down from the Corners Angles and uneveness of those Rocks and Stones which makes many great hollow and as it were empty places within the earth And besides this the earth is on all sides environed with water and is with several Seas and running streams both salt and fresh enterlac't and filled as the body is with veins and is also with great and long Rains often wet and moistned by which means she is soakt thorough with water and the same water in time gets into those hollow places below in the earth but being hindred in its course to such places doth again spring up in certain places of the earth as may by several Springs be perceived and observed And besides all this there must needs be a wonderful great water in the innermost parts of the earth which Moses that man of God the writer of the creation of the worlds foundation calls the fountains of the great deep Gen. 7. chap. 11. ver and 8. chap. 2. ver which springs up in many places so abundantly both hot and cold that it makes great and rapid streams above the earth Now where such great waters under the earth cannot break forward and force themselves thorough to those hollow places in the earth there the Air being a more thin and subtile body than the water forceth it selfe through and fils them For as the moisture humours and spirits do often force themselves through the Pores of a mans warm body or a horse that sweats through whose thick hide the humours and moisture so pierces that the Horse seems to smoak again with reek In like manner the Air goes about to and fro below in the earth seeking to fill those hollow and empty places according to the appointment of nature which suffers nothing to be empty as is before mentioned Now when such hollow places are filled with subterraneous water or with other stuff then is the inclosed Air expelled and forced thence comming up out of those holes and appearing above the earth as a thick fogg mist or smoak which in Latine is called halitus exhalationes evaporationes but we here in Norway call it a mist whereof some are thicker then others and of different colours according as the said Air so arising and expelled hath contracted its thickness and colour from that moisture below in the earth with which it was mixed and inclosed And then if the earth be so close Tight and solid that the Air cannot so suddainly get passage to depart away it breaks out by force and when this conflict and breach betwixt the subterraneous Air and Water happens then the earth as the seat of this warr must certainly quake tremble shake and be moved and this is called Terrae motus that is an Earthquake whereof the following

the mouth of the hole in the top of it was choakt by the smoak and damp of the said fire and lost his life In Sycillia there is also such a Mountain called Etna which in old time was and is yet much spoken of for its continual casting up of fire and brimstone whose fire is only seen at nights and nothing but smoak a days except when it breaks out very vehemently then the fire may be seen day and night In the year 1537. the same Mountain cast up a great piece of burning Brimstone into the Air which fell down again in several places in pieces and spoiled the adjacent Countreys Woods and Villages The precedent year namely 1536. the 22. of March did this Mountain of Etna begin to cast out a most terrible fire so that the whole Countrey was amazed and trembled at it and there was such a dreadful Earthquake with a crackling and ratling noise that many dyed for very fear and the ashes which that same fire cast up cover'd over not only Sycillia but also Calabria a Province in Italy like a great Snow The Learned Philosopher Empedocles was choak't and destroy'd by this mountains fire and smell when he to satisfie his curiosity concerning the nature and qualities thereof went too neer the hole Philosophers give the reason and cause of such wonderful and continual burnings to be this viz. That the Earth is hollow in many places within it selfe as shall be further declared in the fourth chapter and is full of Brimstone Bitumen and other kind of substances which can feed the fire As also unslakt Lime and Water by which the subterraneous fire is easiest and oftnest kindled Now the fire cannot burn except it have Air or as we may say a breathing place And therefore it is thought that Therma or those hot Baths that are found in several Countreys must be certain Spiracula or breathing holes by which the subterraneous fire doth in some kind get air unto it and when the air by what means soever it be gets into the hollow places in the earth where the fire is Then that fire increaseth into a flame and maketh burning coals or living Embers as it were even in the innermost parts of the earth Therefore it cannot be doubted but there must needs be great and wonderful yet natural Meatus ways or passages in and under the earth through which the heat and flame of the oft named subterraneous fire hath in several places its passage until it gets an open Spiraculum or breathing hole through such flaming mountains Here it is to be noted that those flaming mountains do not burn always alike outwardly but sometimes more and sometimes lesse for such reasons as this When the Hiatus or hole which is above in the mountain is stopt with any kind of stuff so that the fire is smother'd and cannot have its free air or breathing-place then it goes out though not quite but burns notwithstanding below in the earth and only sends forth some few sparkles or small flame and sometimes nothing but only smoak and a stinking burnt damp smell above the earth which sheweth that the fire below in the earth is not dead or wholly quenched but burns and works faintly under the earth as long as till either the former hole opens again or it cannot break through and make another Hiatus or breathing hole and then breaks out afresh again with so much the greater power and vehemence not without doing great mischief and dammage to the adjacent places as is afore declared Now from hence may any man sufficiently understand and observe that by the power operation and force of such fire in and under the earth there must needs be a boyling working distilling and changing of several Minerals and Metals especially considering that the Sun with the rest of the Planets have also their influence and do work effectually under the earth and this must needs be no small cause of great and terrible Earthquakes How Minerals and Metals are wrought decocted and prepared by nature under the Earth shall be handled in the following chapter CHAP. III. Concerning several Minerals Metals and substances in and under the earth and how they are wrought and changed TOuching Minerals which are wrought by nature below in the earth it is according to Physical judgement thus When any dry substance in and under the earth mixeth it selfe with any wet or moist substance by what means soever it hapneth whether by the Airs Fires or Waters passage under the earth and the same mixture either by the powerful influence of the Planets or by the heat of the oft named subterraneous Fire and warm waters is decocted and well boiled together then there is produced a Mineral according to the nature of the substances which are mixt together Also when the subterraneous waters in their several passages or courses under the earth do happen to cover over soak or steep any kind of mettal so long that they do contract gather a thickness to themselves from it and become like unto troubled waters above the earth and the same waters afterwards comes where the fire is or the heat of the subterraneous fire doth penetrate and force it selfe through to the same waters then there is boiled of that water a certain moist substance or matter which in time comes to be a hard and solid Mineral according to the nature of that mettal which the waters did so cover soak or steep and from which it had gathered its quality or thickness under the earth Moreover when such thick troubled and changed subterraneous waters continue long in a place without motion then that quality with which it is so thickned mixt or changed settles it self to the bottom as any thick and troubled water naturally doth where it remains and when the water gets any kind of passage out it runs away and that which is left behind in the bottom is dryed and hardned by the power and influence of the Sun and Planets and also by the subterraneous air or heat wrought into a Mineral suitable to the nature and quality of that from whence the subterraneous waters that are run away had gathered and received its thickness And this may now be more easily apprehended and understood by the following examples When the waters have their courses and passage through that earth which is full of Copper and such like Ore and covers soaks or steeps it so long and often that it becomes thick and muddy and its nature throughly altered and changed or infected by the quality thereof And the same waters afterward by the heat of the fire or the power and influence of the Planets is boyled and distilled in the earth then it becomes a Succus or natural green moist substance whereof being dryed comes the Mineral called Chrysocolla that is Mountaingreen and Virdigrease In like manner when the subterraneous waters covers over soaks or steeps pyriten aerosum friabilem that is a rusty Firrstone

chapter more plainly and particularly discourseth And that there is no little Air or Wind in the hollow places of the earth we may apparently perceive when it breaks forth in Earthquakes for then we see that it can cast great stones up into the Air and lift up the earth yea great Mountains and make such a terrible quaking of the earth that mighty Citys and Towns Castles Fortresses high Towers and Walls great Churches and Buildings have been thereby utterly overthrown sunk and lost as it is Recorded concerning the great and mighty City of Antioch in Asia which in the year of Christ 528. was wholly destroyed by an Earthquake and there was 4870 persons killed by the fall of its Towers Spires Walls and Buildings Likewise in the year of Christ 1509. the 14th of September the City of Constantinople was very much defaced and spoiled by a dreadful Earthquake which continued 18 days for it overthrew that long thick and strong wall which stood along by the water-side and all the houses that stood neer it to the ground and fill'd up the Motes and Ditches without the walls with Rubbish Stones and Chaulk that one might have gone dry-shod over them The same Earthquake shook down that part of the Grand-Signiors Pallace where the Treasury was and five great and strong Towers quite and clean and besides all the mischief that it did by Sea and Land which could not be repaired for many Tun of Gold it killed and destroyed 13000 persons Munster lib. 4. Likewise in the year 1517. the 16th of June There hapned a terrible Earthquake at Norlingen 40 miles from Nuremburg in High Germany which overthrew St. Emerania's Church to the ground and 2000 houses besides within and without the City for about the space of eight miles and the same Earthquake did also overthrow many great trees both in Orchards and Woods Munster lib. 3. de Suevia CHAP. V. Concerning the Physical description of Earthquakes with their species operation and natural effects THere are certain Divines which will by no means grant that Earthquakes should proceed from natural causes but only from the particular power appointment and dispensation of God according to the Testimony of Job chap. 9. ver 5 6. He removeth Mountains and they know not He shaketh the earth out of her place and the pillars thereof do tremble These I do in equity allow the retention of their received opinions But other Divines do acknowledge that Earthquakes have also their natural causes by which God Almighty doth occasion their production and to speak Physically to this Naturalists do describe it thus An Earthquake is a violent moving stirring shaking or quaking of the earth occasioned by the subterraneous salt-peterish moisture and damps inclosed together with the Air or wind in the hollow places of the earth Now when such damps and moistures grow so great strong and thick by length of time that they cannot continue with the subterraneous Air any longer in one hole together then they do forcibly expell the subterraneous Air from thence which by nature always giveth way to solid and thicker bodies and then there is a kind of civil conflict between them which of them shall give way and depart from those hollow places in the earth if the earth then be poreous sandy or loose the inclosed Air and Wind gets out thorough those Pores or sweating holes and is seen above the earth like a smoaky Fogg or Mist as is touched before in the last preceding chapter But if the earth be so hard close and tight that the inclosed Damps and Air cannot by its thinnesse and subtilty penetrate exhale and force it selfe thorough the pores and sweating holes of the earth then it breaks thorough the earth violently by its natural force and strength and thereby causes the earth to shake and quake until it can split and burst assunder in some certain place to give them room And hence it is that such Earthquakes do seldom happen in those countreys or places where the earth is porous loose or sandy because there the inclosed air damps and moistures can easily penetrate and force themselves through the earth and make their way without the shaking or moving of the earth which cannot be where there is close tight and solid earth round about them Now as touching the several kinds and species of Earthquakes it is certain truth found by experience That all Earthquakes do not happen after one and the same but after divers kinds and manners Aristotle in libello de mundo reckons up and describes seven sorts of Earthquakes each by its particular properties and fashion according to the strength or weakness of the subterraneous contest of Nature 1. Amongst which by some Earthquakes whole Citys and Mountains with Houses and People sink quite down into the earth as Pliny writes lib. 2. cap. 48 That in Asia in the time of the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius there sunk twelve great Citys and principal Towns quite and clean down in one night by an Earthquake Eusebius in Chronic. ad Annum Christi 33. Nicephorus lib. 1. cap. 14. do suppose that this was the great Earthquake that hapned at the time of Christs death which was in the 18th year of the Reign of the Emperour Tiberins 2. By some Earthquakes the earth is swoln and heaved up high above its natural shape and proportion so that great Mountains and Hills are made there where before it was plain and even ground Freeburgum Brisgojae was destroyed by such an Earthquake in the year 1509. And there are many great Islands and places incompassed with water often thus made for when this kind of Earthquake happens under the waters it heaves and raiseth up the earth sometimes and in some places so high that it reaches up above the water and there it remains and in time is changed and comes to be an inhabitable Island It is Recorded that the Island Delus Rhodus Alone Thera and Therasia c. came up so and also the Islands of Echinades were so lifted up out of the River Acheloo and certain others in Egypt out of the River Nilus as Pliny witnesseth lib. 2. cap. 87. 3. Some Earthquakes do raise and lift up the earth very high above its natural shape but assoon as the Earthquake is past it presently sinks and settles down and recovers its former natural shape again and doth not much hurt 4. By some Earthquakes the earth is torn and divided assunder in a certain place so that there is a horrible great Hiatus or open hole made as it hapned in Moses his time when such a Hiatus rending or opening of the earth swallowed up Moses seditious adversarys such were Korah Dathan and Abiram with certain other men of the children of Israel 250 Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation and men of renown with their Houses Goods and all the men that appertained to Korah sunk alive down into Hell with all that they had and the earth closed upon

City broke down the Walls Fortresses and places of strength plundered and destroyed all that came before him sparing none and set the City on fire so that for the space of forty days no body could be there for fire and smoak Thus was Rome utterly destroyed by the Goths according to the prediction of Scipio of Carthage who had prophesied it with tears 700 years before when the Romans burnt and destroyed Carthage Two years after the same King Totillas besieged the City of Placentia so long and hard that the Inhabitants were fain to eat one another and at last were forc't to surrender up the City to him In the year 591. there was such a dreadful Earthquake in Antioch that more then 60000 persons perished thereby and thereupon followed an extraordinary hot and dry Summer after which ensued a most fearful famine and a plague and the Lombards with much blood-shed did reform the old Lombards gross Barbarism to the Christian faith In the year 832. there was a terrible Earthquake in Italy whereby certain Citys and Hills were quite swallowed up Thereupon arose a destructive warr between the Emperour Lodovicus Pius and his three Sonns who sought by open warr raised against their Father to deprive him of his Government these three sonns made a League with Gregory the 4th Pope of Rome who threatned to depose the Emperour Lodowick But the German Bishops stuck close to the Emperour and said that if the Pope came thither to excommunicate he should depart thence excommunicated The year following namely 834. The Emperour Lodowick advanced with a great Army into Alsatz to reduce his seditious and rebellious sonns to obedience and submission but was surprized in the battle of Lugenfield by Basell and Lotharins whom Lodowick fully impowred to mannage the Government together with himselfe carried his Father prisoner a long time about with him as a spectacle of wonder At this the Princes of Germany were highly displeased and desired his Sons Lodowick and Pipin that they either by good means or by force would procure their Lord and Father's enlargement if they expected to find any faithful friendship from the High Dutch whereupon the Emperour was set at liberty again In the year 868. there was a great Comet seen in the Air after which followed many Earthquakes and after that a great plague and there did arise a terrible warr between the three Brothers the sons of the Emperour Lodowick which of them should get and enjoy the Empire alone The Danes sail'd over and invaded Scotland and there with sword fire and plundering put all things into confusion went afterwards into England and took Edmund the King of England prisoner in a Church drag'd him out and hang'd him up on a tree and shot his body full of Arrows the 20th day of November in the year 870. as Matthew Westmonster writes And King Harrald Haarfager waged a furious warr in Norway for the space of ten years subdued and expelled all the petty Kings and turned the Government into a Monarchy in the year 878. In the year 882. the 29th of December there hapned a fearful Earthquake in Germany whereby many fair houses and buildings in Worms were destroyed Thereupon it followed that the Normen and Danes under the conduct of Godfrid their King marched to the River Rhine rob'd and plunder'd all wheresoever they came demolisht and destroyed to the very ground Camerich Tornai Arras Tarren and Gent burnt up Lowen Utrecht Lurich Neus Coln Achen and Gulich Whereupon the Emperour Carolus Crassus was sent for cut of Italy by the French and German Princes to defend his own Countrey against the tyranny of the Normen but he could not prevail by force of Arms and therefore concluded a peace with them and delivered into their possession the Province of Newstria in France to be their own free inheritance which is called by them now at this day Normandia or Normandy In the year 983. there was a most terrible Earthquake in Italy whereby Beneventura and Capua were destroyed Thereupon followed an extraordinary drie Summer and burning drought which occasioned a great scarcity and a fearful plague In the year 990. there hapned terrible Earthquakes in many places and thereupon ensued fearful and incredible inundations of water all over Europe upon which followed an extraordinary hot and dry Summer that burnt up the fruits of the earth which occasioned a great scarcity and famine every where In Saxony there rained F●sh out of the Air and in Albania there rained Corn from Heaven but unfit for the use of man The Sunn was wholly Eclipsed and a great piece of fire fell down out of the Air and burnt upon the earth after which followed a most terrible plague so that the living which bare the dead to their graves fell down dead themselves and were buried together and there came much fire from the River of Rhine also by which many of the adjacent Towns and Villages were wholly burnt up In the year 1085. there hapned a fearful Earthquake in England whereby many houses were overthrown and much harm done and it followed thereupon that King William of England caused all his Subjects annual Profits Estates and Incomes of every kind both of Corn-land Medows Woods Pastures Cattle and Sheep and every thing they had to live upon to be Registred and accordingly required great contribution of the Countrey which caused danger ous civil tumults uproars and discontents in the Land and there followed also a very unfruitfull year In the year 1085. there hapned a terrible Earthquake in Lorain whereupon there followed a fierce plague and suddain death of people And the same year there was unspeakable harm done in the Netherlands by great and unusual inundations of water both to people and Cattle In the year 1126. there was another terrible Earthquake in Italy which lasted 40 days Thereupon followed a lamentable mis-growth of the fruits of the earth and a most miserable famine as also a destructive and bloody warr between the Emperour Lotharius and the German Princes and between the Bohemians and Conrad Duke of Frankenland In the year 1135. there were several terrible Earthquakes heard of both in England and in Germany whereby many houses were thrown down the fire also burnt fearfully out of the earth for certain days together and could not be quenched by water nor by any other kind of thing And besides that there was very great mischief done in many places of Germany by other fire Mentz and its Cathedral was burnt in the Cities of Spire and Strasborg many Churches and Cloysters were laid in Ashes Ausburg was almost quite burnt up and a third part of Goslar Hall in Saxony flew up into the air in a smoak and the next year following there was such an extream hot and dry Summer that the waters in great Rivers Channels and streams contrary to Nature did so diminish that men might have gone dry-shod over where great Ships used to sail the Wells and Springs also