encounter and that the fruits which Antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements are materially of one onely Element also that those three Elements are naturally cold nor that native heat is any where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas In like manner that all actual moisture is of Water but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds Likewise that dryness is by it self in the Air and Earth but in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations and that there are not Contraries in Nature To give you my opinion hereof first I think it too great a presumption in any man to feign himself so much above the rest as to accuse all others of ignorance and that none but he alone hath the true knowledg of all things as infallible and undeniable and that so many Learned Wise and Ingenious Men in so many ages have been blinded with errors for certainly no particular Creature in Nature can have any exact or perfect knowledg of Natural things and therefore opinions cannot be infallible truths although they may seem probable for how is it possible that a single finite Creature should know the numberless varieties and hidden actions of Nature Wherefore your Author cannot say that he hath demonstrated any thing which could not be as much contradicted and perhaps with more reason then he hath brought proofs and demonstrations And thus when he speaks of Elements that there are not four in Nature and that they cannot go together or encounter it may be his opinion but others have brought as many reasons to the contrary and I think with more probability so as it is unnecessary to make a tedious discourse thereof and therefore I 'le refer you to those that have treated of it more learnedly and solidly then I can do But I perceive your Author is much for Art and since he can make solid bodies liquid and liquid bodies solid he believes that all bodies are composed out of the Element of Water and that Water therefore is the first Principle of all things when as Water in my opinion is but an Effect as all other natural Creatures and therefore cannot be a cause or principle of them Concerning the Natural coldness of Water Air and Earth it may be or not be so for any thing your Author can truly know but to my sense and reason it seems probable that there are things naturally hot and moist and hot and dry as well as cold and moist and cold and dry But all these are but several effects produced by the several actions of Natural Matter which Natural Matter is the onely Principle of all Natural Effects and Creatures whatever and this Principle I am confident your Author can no more prove to be Water then he can prove that Heat Light Life Motion and Blas are not material Concerning what he saith That Native Heat is no where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas I believe that motion of life makes not onely heat but all effects whatsoever but this native heat is not produced onely from the motions of Particular lives in particular Creatures but it is made by the motions of Natures life which life in all probability is the self-moving Matter which no doubt can and doth make Light and Blas without Heat and Heat without Light or Blas Wherefore Light and Blas are not principles of native Heat no more then native Heat is the principle of Light and Blas Neither is Water the Principle of Actual moisture nor the propriety of seeds the Principle of all Virtual moisture but self-moving Matter is the Principle of all and makes both actual and virtual moisture and there is no question but there are many sorts of moistures As for Dryness which he says is by it self in the Air and Earth and in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations I cannot conceive how any thing can be by it self in Nature by reason there is nothing alone and single in Nature but all are inseparable parts of one body perchance he means it is naturally and essentially inherent in Air and Earth but neither can that be in my reason because all Creatures and Effects of Nature are Intermixt and there is as much dryness in other Creatures as in Air and Earth Lastly as for his opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I believe not in the essence or nature of Matter but sense and reason inform us that there are Contraries in Natures actions which are Corporeal motions which cause mixtures qualities degrees discords as also harmonious conjunctions and concords compositions divisions and the like effects whatsoever But though your Author seems to be an enemy to the mixtures of Elements yet he makes such a mixture of Divinity and natural Philosophy that all his Philosophy is nothing but a meer Hotch-potch spoiling one with the other And so I will leave it to those that delight in it resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM WAter according to your Authors opinion is frozen into Snow Ice or Hail not by Cold but by its own Gas But since I am not able to conceive what his Gas is being a term invented by himself I will briefly declare my own opinion which is That Snow Ice and Hail in my judgment are made in the like manner as Passions or Colours are made and raised in Man for a sad discourse or a cruel object will make a Man pale and cold and a fearful object will make him tremble whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot But yet these discourses and objects are onely external occasional and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations Also when a Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold or enters into a cold or hot room bath or air he becomes hot or cold by the actions of those external agents that work upon him or rather whose motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out The like for diseases for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body or by Infections inwardly or outwardly and many other ways Likewise may Colours be made different ways And so may Snow Ice and Hail for all loose rare and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change then close solid and dense bodies and not onely to change from what they are but to rechange to what they were But Madam many studious persons study Nature more in her own substance then in her various actions which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of Natures Works for the same parts of Matter may act or work several ways Like as a Man or other animal creature may put one part of his body into various and several postures and move it many different ways Your Author may say that although several Creatures may be
or self-moving matter do bear up and cause the inanimate parts to move and work with them and thus there is an activity in all parts of matter moving and working as one body without any fixation or rest for all is moveable moving and moved All which Madam if it were well observed there would not be so many strange opinions concerning nature and her actions making the purest and subtillest part of matter immaterial or incorporeal which is as much as to extend her beyond nature and to rack her quite to nothing But I fear the opinion of Immaterial substances in Nature will at last bring in again the Heathen Religion and make us believe a god Pan Bacchus Ceres Venus and the like so as we may become worshippers of Groves and shadows Beans and Onions as our Forefathers I say not this as if I would ascribe any worship to Nature or make her a Deity for she is onely a servant to God and so are all her parts or creatures which parts or creatures although they are transformed yet cannot be annihilated except Nature her self be annihilated which may be whensoever the Great God pleases for her existence and resolution or total destruction depends upon Gods Will and Decree whom she fears adores admires praises and prayes unto as being her God and Master and as she adores God so do all her parts and creatures and amongst the rest Man so that there is no Atheist in Infinite Nature at least not in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant V. MADAM I Cannot well conceive what your Author means by the Common Laws of Nature But if you desire my opinion how many Laws Nature hath and what they are I say Nature hath but One Law which is a wise Law viz. to keep Infinite matter in order and to keep so much Peace as not to disturb the Foundation of her Government for though Natures actions are various and so many times opposite which would seem to make wars between several Parts yet those active Parts being united into one Infinite body cannot break Natures general Peace for that which Man names War Sickness Sleep Death and the like are but various particular actions of the onely matter not as your Author imagines in a confusion like Bullets or such like things juggled together in a mans Hat but very orderly and methodical And the Playing motions of nature are the actions of Art but her serious actions are the actions of Production Generation and Transformation in several kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures as also the action of ruling and governing these her several active Parts Concerning the Preeminence and Prerogative of Man whom your Author calls The flower and chief of all the products of nature upon this Globe of the earth I answer That Man cannot well be judged of himself because he is a Party and so may be Partial But if we observe well we shall find that the Elemental Creatures are as excellent as Man and as able to be a friend or foe to Man as Man to them and so the rest of all Creatures so that I cannot perceive more abilities in Man then in the rest of natural Creatures for though he can build a stately House yet he cannot make a Honey-comb and though he can plant a Slip yet he cannot make a Tree though he can make a Sword or Knife yet he cannot make the Mettal And as Man makes use of other Creatures so other Creatures make use of Man as far as he is good for any thing But Man is not so useful to his neighbour or fellow-creatures as his neighbour or fellow-creatures to him being not so profitable for use as apt to make spoil And so leaving him I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM YOur Author demands Whether there was ever any man that was not mortal and whether there be any mortal that had not a beginning Truly if nature be eternal all the material figures which ever were are and can be must be also eternal in nature for the figures cannot be annihilated unless nature be destroyed and although a Creature is dissolved and transformed into numerous different figures yet all these several figures remain still in those parts of matter whereof that creature was made for matter never changes but is always one and the same and figure is nothing else but matter transposed or transformed by motion several modes or ways But if you conceive Matter to be one thing Figure another and Motion a third several distinct and dividable from each other it will produce gross errors for matter motion and figure are but one thing And as for that common question whether the Egg was before the Chick or the Chick before the Egg it is but a thred-bare argument which proves nothing for there is no such thing as First in Eternity neither doth Time make productions or generations but Matter and whatsoever matter can produce or generate was in matter before it was produced wherefore the question is whether Matter which is Nature had a beginning or not I say not for put the case the figures of Earth Air Water and Fire Light and Colours Heat and Cold Animals Vegetables and Minerals c. were not produced from all Eternity yet those figures have nevertheless been in Matter which is Nature from all eternity for these mentioned Creatures are onely made by the corporeal motions of Matter transforming Matter into such several figures Neither can there be any perishing or dying in Nature for that which Man calls so is onely an alteration of Figure And as all other productions are but a change of Matters sensitive motions so all irregular and extravagant opinions are nothing but a change of Matters rational motions onely productions by rational motions are interior and those by sensitive motions exterior For the Natural Mind is not less material then the body onely the Matter of the Mind is much purer and subtiller then the Matter of the Body And thus there is nothing in Nature but what is material but he that thinks it absurd to say the World is composed of meer self-moving Matter may consider that it is more absurd to believe Immaterial substances or spirits in Nature as also a spirit of Nature which is the Vicarious power of God upon Matter For why should it not be as probable that God did give Matter a self-moving power to her self as to have made another Creature to govern her For Nature is not a Babe or Child to need such a Spiritual Nurse to teach her to go or to move neither is she so young a Lady as to have need of a Governess for surely she can govern her self she needs not a Guardian for fear she should run away with a younger Brother or one that cannot make her a Jointure But leaving those strange opinions to the fancies of their Authors He add no more but that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend
changed to our sight or perception yet they are not really changed in Nature I answer Their Principle which is a natural matter of which all Creatures are made cannot be changed because it is one simple and unalterable in its Nature but the figures of several Creatures are changed continually by the various motions of this matter not from being matter but onely from such or such a figure into another and those figures which do change in their room are others produced to keep up the certain kinds of Creatures by a continual successive alteration And as there are changes of parts so there are also mixtures of several parts figures and motions in one and the same Matter for there are not different kinds in the nature of Matter But although Matter is of several degrees as partly animate and partly inanimate and the animate Matter is partly rational and partly sensitive Nevertheless in all those degrees it remains the same onely or meer Matter that is it is nothing else but Matter and the onely ground in which all changes are made And therefore I cannot perceive it to be impossible in Nature as to your Author it seems That Water should not be transchangeable into Air for that he says The Air would have increased into a huge bulk and all Water would have long since failed It is no consequence because there is a Mutual transmutation of all figures and parts of Nature as I declared above and when one part is transchanged into another that part is supplied again by the change of another so that there can be no total mutation of kinds or sorts of figures but onely a mutual change of the particulars Neither is it of any consequence when your Author says That if Water should once beturned into Air it would always remain Air because a returning agent is wanting which may turn Air again into Water For he might as well say a Man cannot go or turn backward being once gone forward And although he brings a General Rule That every thing as much as in it lies doth desire to remain in it self Yet it is impossible to be done by reason there is no rest in Nature she being in a perpetual motion either working to the consistance of a figure or to the uniting of several parts or to the dissolving or dividing of several parts or any other ways By dissolving I do not mean annihilating but such a dissolving of parts as is proper for the altering of such a figure into one or many other figures But rather then your Author will consent to the transchanging of Water into Air he will feign several grounds soils or pavements in the Air which he calls Peroledes and so many Flood-gates and Folding-dores and make the Planets their Key-keepers which are pretty Fancies but not able to prove any thing in Natural Philosophy And so leaving them to their Author I rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant V. MADAM I Cannot in reason give my consent to your Authors opinion That Fishes do by the force or vertue of an inbred Seed transchange simple water into fat bones and their own flesh and that materially they are nothing but water transchanged and that they return into water by art For though my opinion is that bodies change and alter from one figure into another yet they do not all change into water neither is water changed into all other figures and certainly Fishes do not live nor subsist meerly by Water but by several other meats as other animals do either by feeding upon other Fishes the stronger devouring the weaker or upon Mud and Grass and Weeds in the bottom of Seas Rivers and Ponds and the like As for example put Fish into a Pool or Sluce wherein there is not any thing but clear pure water and in a short time they will be starved to death for want of Food and as they cannot live onely by water so neither can they breed by the power of water but by the power of their food as a more solid substance And if all Creatures be nourished by those things whereof they consist then Fishes do not consist of water being not nourished by water for it is not the transchanging of water by which Fishes live and by which they produce but it is the transchange of food proceeding from other Creatures as I mentioned above T is true Water is a proper element for them to live in but not to live on and though I have neither learning nor experience in Chymistry yet I believe that your Author with all the subtilest Art he had could not turn or convert all Creatures into pure and simple water but there would have been dregs and several mixtures left I will not say that the Furnace may not rarifie bodies extreamly but not convert them into such a substance or form as Nature can And although he thinks Gold is made of Water yet I do not believe he could convert it into Water by the help of Fire he might make it soluble fluid and rare but all things that are supple soluble flowing and liquid are not Water I am confident no Gas or Blas will or can transform it nor no Art whatsoever what Nature may do I know not But since your Authors opinion is that Air is also a Primigenial Element and in its nature a substance Why doth he not make it a Principle of natural bodies as well as Water I think it had not been so improper to liken Juices to Water but to make the onely Principle of the composition and dissolution of all Creatures to be Water seems to me very improbable Neither can I admit in reason that the Elements should be called first pure and simple beings we might as well call all other creatures first pure and simple beings for although the word Element sounds as much as Principle yet they are in my reason no more Principles of Nature then other Creatures are there being but one Principle in Nature out of which all things are composed viz. the onely matter which is a pure and simple corporeal substance and what Man names impure dregs and filths these are onely irregular and cross motions of that matter in respect to the nature of such or such a figure or such motions as are not agreeable and sympathetical to our Passions Humors Appetites and the like Concerning the Contrarieties Differences and Wars in Nature which your Author denies I have spoken thereof already and though he endeavours in a long discourse to prove that there is no War in nature yet in my opinion it is to little purpose and it makes but a war in the thoughts of the Reader I know not what it did in his own But I observe he appeals often to Divinity to bear him up in Natural Philosophy but how the Church doth approve his Interpretations of the Scripture I know not Wherefore I will not meddle with them lest I offend the Truth of the Divine Scripture
wherein I desire to submit to the Judgment of the Church which is much wiser then I or any single Person can be However for all what your Author says I do nevertheless verily believe there is a war between Natural motions For example between the Regular motions of Health and the Irregular motions of Sickness and that things applied do oftentimes give assistance to one side or other but many times in the conflict the applied remedies are destroyed and sometimes they are forced to be Neutrals Wherefore though the nature of Infinite Matter is simple and knows of no discord yet her actions may be cross and opposite the truth is Nature could never make such variety did her actions never oppose each other but live in a constant Peace and Unity And thus leaving them to agree I am confident your Ladiship and I shall never disagree for as long as my life doth last I shall always prove MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VI. MADAM YOur Author condemns the Schools for saying That Air is moist or that it may be converted into Water by pressing it together bringing an example of an Iron Pipe wherein Air has been pressed together which afterwards in its driving out has like a Hand-gun discharged with Gun-powder sent a bullet thorow a board or plank Truly Madam concerning the moisture of Air I am against it but the transchanging of Air into Water I do verily believe viz. that some sorts of Air may be contracted or condensed into Water and that Water again may be dilated into Air but not readily commonly and easily by Art but onely by Nature Wherefore your Authors Experiment can serve for no proof for an artificial trial cannot be an infallible natural demonstration the actions of Art and the actions of Nature being for the most part very different especially in productions and transmutations of natural things Neither can an alteration of parts cause an utter destruction of the whole because when some parts change from their figures other parts of matter change again into the like figures by which successive change the continuation of the whole is kept up Next your Author reproves the Schools for maintaining the opinion that Air is hot for says he Water Air and Earth are cold by Creation because without Light Heat and the partaking of Life He might in my opinion conclude as well that Man is cold by Creation because a Chameleon or a Fish is cold being all of animal kind But why may not some sorts of Air Water and Earth be hot and some be cold as well as some sorts of Light are hot and some cold and so several other Creatures His Reasons prove nothing for Light doth not make Heat nor is it the principle of Heat and it is no consequence to say all that is without Light is without Heat there being many things without Light which nevertheless are Hot But to say Water Air and Earth are cold because they are without heat is no proof but a meer begging of the principle for it is but the same thing as if I should say this is no Stone because it is no Glass And that Water Air and Earth do not partake of Life must be proved first for that is not granted as yet there being according to my opinion not one Creature that wants Life in all Nature Again your Author is of opinion That Water is the first and chief Principle of all Natural things But this I can no more believe then that Water should never change or degenerate from its essence nay if your Author means there shall always be Water in Nature it is another thing but if he thinks that not any part of water doth or can change or degenerate in its nature and is the principle and chief producer of all other Creatures then he makes Water rather a Creator then a Creature and it seems that those Gentiles which did worship Water were of the same opinion whereas yet he condemns all Pagan opinions and all those that follow them Moreover I cannot subscribe to his opinion That Gas and Blas from the Stars do make heat For heat is made several ways according to its several sorts sor there is a dry heat and a moist heat a burning melting and evaporating heat and many more But as for Meteors that they are made by Gas and Blas I can say nothing by reason I am not skilled in Astrology and the science of the Heavens Stars and Planets wherefore if I did offer to meddle with them I should rather express my Ignorance then give your Ladiship any solid reasons and so I am willing to leave this speculation to others resting content with that knowledg Nature hath given me without the help of Learning Which I wholly dedicate and offer to your Ladiship as becomes MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made mention in my last of your Authors opinion That Air is in its nature Cold I thought it fit to take a stricter view of the temper of Air and to send you withal my own opinion thereof First of all I would fain know what sort of Air your Author means for if he thinks there is but one sort of Air he might as well say that there is but one sort of Animals or Vegetables whereas yet there are not onely different sorts of animal and vegetable kind but also different particulars in one and the same sort As for example what difference is not amongst Horses as between a Barb a Turk a Ginnet a Courser of Naples a Flanders-horse a Galloway an English-horse and so forth not onely in their shapes but also in their natures tempers and dispositions The like for Cows Oxen Sheep Goats Dogs as also for Fowl and Fish nay for Men. And as for Vegetables What difference is there not between Barly and Wheat and between French-barly Pine-barly and ordinary Barly as also our English-wheat Spanish-wheat Turkish-wheat Indian-wheat and the like What difference is there not amongst Grapes as the Malago Muscadel and other Grapes and so of all the rest of Vegetables The same may be said of the Elements for there is as much difference amongst the Elements as amongst other Creatures And so of Air for Air in some places as in the Indies especially about Brasilia is very much different from our air or from the air that is in other places Indeed in every different Climate you shall find a difference of air wherefore 't is impossible to assign a certain temper of heat or cold to air in general But although my sense and reason inform me that air in its own nature or essence is neither hot nor cold yet it may become hot or cold by hot or cold motions for the sensitive perceptive motions of Air may pattern out heat or cold and hence it is that in Summer when as heat predominates the air is hot and in Winter when as cold predominates the air is cold But perhaps you
that there is one maximum or biggest which is the world and what is beyond that is Infinite Truly Madam I must ingeniously confess I am not so high learned as to penetrate into the true sense of these words for he says they are both divisible and indivisible and yet no atomes which surpasses my Understanding for there is no such thing as biggest and smallest in Nature or in the Infinite matter for who can know how far this World goes or what is beyond it There may be Infinite Worlds as I said before for ought we know for God and Nature cannot be comprehended ' nor their works measured if we cannot find out the nature of particular things which are subject to our exterior senses how shall we be able to judg of things not subject to our senses But your Author doth speak so presumptuously of Gods Actions Designs Decrees Laws Attributes Power and secret Counsels and describes the manner how God created all things and the mixture of the Elements to an hair as if he had been Gods Counsellor and Assistant in the work of Creation which whether it be not more impiety then to say Matter is Infinite I 'le let others judg Neither do I think this expression to be against the holy Scripture for though I speak as a natural Philosopher and am unwilling to cite the Scripture which onely treats of things belonging to Faith and and not to Reason yet I think there is not any passage which plainly denies Matter to be Infinite and Eternal unless it be drawn by force to that sense Solomon says That there is not any thing new and in another place it is said That God is all fulfilling that is The Will of God is the fulfilling of the actions of Nature also the Scripture says That Gods ways are unsearchable and past finding out Wherefore it is easier to treat of Nature then the God of Nature neither should God be treated of by vain Philosophers but by holy Divines which are to deliver and interpret the Word of God without sophistry and to inform us as much of Gods Works as he hath been pleased to declare and make known And this is the safest way in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM YOur new Author endeavours to prove that Water in its own proper nature is thicker then Earth which to my sense and reason seems not probable for although water is less porous then earth in its exterior figure yet 't is not so thick as earth in its interior nature Neither can I conceive it to be true that water in its own nature and as long as it remains water should be as hard as Crystal or stone as his opinion is for though Elements are so pliant being not composed of many different parts and figures as they can change and rechange their exterior figures yet they do not alter their interior nature without a total dissolution but your Author may as well say that the interior nature of man is dust and ashes as that water in its interior nature is as thick as earth and as hard as Christal or stone whereas yet a man when he becomes dust and ashes is not a man and therefore when water is become so thick as earth or so hard as stone it is not water I mean when it is so in its interior nature not in its exterior figure for the exterior figure may be contracted when yet the interior nature is dilative and so the exterior may be thick or hard when the interior is soft and rare But you may say that water is a close and heavy as also a smooth and glossy body I answer That doth not prove its interior nature to be hard dense thick or contracted for the interior nature and parts of a body may be different from the exterior figure or parts neither doth the close joyning of parts hinder dilatation for if so a line or circle could not dilate or extend But this close uniting of the parts of water is caused through its wet and glutinous quality which wet and sticking quality is caused by a watery dilatation for though water hath not interiously so rare a dilatation as Air Fire and Light yet it hath not so close a contraction as Earth Stone or Metal neither are all bodies that are smooth and shining more solid and dense then those that are rough and dark for light is more smooth glossy and shining then Water Metal Earth or Transparent-stones and yet is of a dilative nature But because some bodies and figures which are transparent and smooth are dense hard and thick we cannot in reason or sense say that all bodies and figures are so As for Transparency it is caused through a purity of substance and an evenness of parts the like is glossiness onely glossiness requires not so much regularity as transparency But to return to Water its exterior Circle-figure may easily dilate beyond the degree of the propriety or nature of water or contract beneath the propriety or nature of water Your Author may say Water is a globous body and all globous bodies tend to a Center I answer That my sense and reason cannot perceive but that Circles and Globes do as easily dilate as contract for if all Globes and Circles should endeavour to draw or fall from the circumference to the Center the Center of the whole World or at least of some parts of the World would be as a Chaos besides it is against sense and reason that all Matter should strive to a Center for humane sense and reason may observe that all Creatures and so Matter desire liberty and a Center is but a Prison in comparison to the Circumference wherefore if Matter crowds it is rather by force then a voluntary action You will say All Creatures desire rest and in a Center there 's rest I answer Humane sense and reason cannot perccive any rest in Nature for all things as I have proved heretofore are in a perpetual motion But concerning Water you may ask me Madam Whether congeal'd Water as Ice if it never thaw remains Water To which I answer That the interior nature of Water remains as long as the Ice remains although the outward form is changed but if Ice be contracted into the firmness and density of Crystal or Diamond or the like so as to be beyond the nature of Water and not capable to be that Water again then it is transformed into another Creature or thing which is neither Water nor Ice but a Stone for the Icy contraction doth no more alter the interior nature of Water which is dilating then the binding of a man with Chains alters his nature from being a man and it might be said as well that the nature of Air is not dilating when inclosed in a bladder as that Water doth not remain Water in its interior nature when it is contracted into Ice But you may ask Whether one extreme can change into another I
I did before but it is not so much as to make me a Scholar nor yet so little but that had I read more before I did begin to write my other Book called Philosophical Opinions they would have been more intelligible for my error was I began to write so early that I had not liv'd so long as to be able to read many Authors I cannot say I divulged my opinions as soon as I had conceiv'd them but yet I divulged them too soon to have them artificial and methodical But since what is past cannot be recalled I must desire you to excuse those faults which were committed for want of experience and learning As for School-learning had I applied my self to it yet I am confident I should never have arrived to any for I am so uncapable of Learning that I could never attain to the knowledge of any other Language but my native especially by the Rules of Art wherefore I do not repent that I spent not my time in Learning for I consider it is better to write wittily then learnedly nevertheless I love and esteem Learning although I am not capable of it But you may say I have expressed neither Wit nor Learning in my Writings Truly if not I am the more sorry for it but self-conceit which is natural to mankind especially to our Sex did flatter and secretly perswade me that my Writings had Sense and Reason Wit and Variety but Judgment being not called to Counsel I yielded to Self-conceits flattery and so put out my Writings to be Printed as fast as I could without being reviewed or corrected Neither did I fear any censure for Self-conceit had perswaded me I should be highly applauded wherefore I made such haste that I had three or four Books printed presently after each other But to return to this present Work I must desire you worthy Readers to read first my Book called Philosophical and Physical Opinions before you censure this for this Book is but an explanation of the former wherein is contained the Ground of my Opinions and those that will judge well of a Building must first consider the Foundation to which purpose I will repeat some few Heads and Principles of my Opinions which are these following First That Nature is Infinite and the Eternal Servant of God Next That she is Corporeal and partly self-moving dividable and composable that all and every particular Creature as also all perception and variety in Nature is made by corporeal self-motion which I name sensitive and rational matter which is life and knowledg sense and reason Again That these sensitive and rational parts of matter are the purest and subtilest parts of Nature as the active parts the knowing understanding and prudent parts the designing architectonical and working parts nay the Life and Soul of Nature and that there is not any Creature or part of nature without this Life and Soul and that not onely Animals but also Vegetables Minerals and Elements and what more is in Nature are endued with this Life and Soul Sense and Reason and because this Life and Soul is a corporeal Substance it is both dividable and composable for it divides and removes parts from parts as also composes and joyns parts to parts and works in a perpetual motion without rest by which actions not any Creature can challenge a particular Life and Soul to it self but every Creature may have by the dividing and composing nature of this self-moving matter more or fewer natural souls and lives These and the like actions of corporeal Nature or natural Matter you may find more at large described in my afore-mentioned Book of Philosophical Opinions and more clearly repeated and explained in this present T is true the way of arguing I use is common but the Principles Heads and Grounds of my Opinions are my own not borrowed or stolen in the least from any and the first time I divulged them was in the year 1653. since which time I have reviewed reformed and reprinted them twice for at first as my Conceptions were new and my own so my Judgment was young and my Experience little so that I had not so much knowledge as to declare them artificially and methodically for as I mentioned before I was always unapt to learn by the Rules of Art But although they may be defective for want of Terms of Art and artificial expressions yet I am sure they are not defective for want of Sense and Reason And if any one can bring more Sense and Reason to disprove these my opinions I shall not repine or grieve but either acknowledge my errour if I find my self in any or defend them as rationally as I can if it be but done justly and honestly without deceit spight or malice for I connot chuse but acquaint you Noble Readers I have been informed that if I should be answered in my Writings it would be done rather under the name and cover of a Woman then of a Man the reason is because no man dare or will set his name to the contradiction of a Lady and to confirm you the better herein there has one Chapter of my Book called The Worlds Olio treating of a Monastical Life been answer'd already in a little Pamphlet under the name of a woman although she did little towards it wherefore it being a Hermaphroditical Book I judged it not worthy taking notice of The like shall I do to any other that will answer this present work of mine or contradict my opinions indirectly with fraud and deceit But I cannot conceive why it should be a disgrace to any man to maintain his own or others opinions against a woman so it be done with respect and civility but to become a cheat by dissembling and quit the Breeches for a Petticoat meerly out of spight and malice is base and not fit for the honour of a man or the masculine sex Besides it will easily be known for a Philosopher or Philosopheress is not produced on a sudden Wherefore although I do not care nor fear contradiction yet I desire it may be done without fraud or deceit spight and malice and then I shall be ready to defend my opinions the best I can whilest I live and after I am dead I hope those that are just and honorable will also defend me from all sophistry malice spight and envy for which Heaven will bless them In the mean time Worthy Readers I should rejoyce to see that my Works are acceptable to you for if you be not partial you will easily pardon those faults you find when you do consider both my sex and breeding for which favour and justice I shall always remain Your most obliged Servant M. N. Philosophical Letters SECT 1. 1. MADAM YOu have been pleased to send me the Works of four Famous and Learned Authors to wit of two most Famous Philosophers of our Age Des Gartes and Hobbs and of that Learned Philosopher and Divine Dr. More as also of that
of animate matter works variously and in divers motions by which it produces various and divers effects which are several Perceptions as Conception Imagination Fancy Memory Remembrance Understanding Judgment Knowledg and all the Passions with many more Wherefore this Reason is not in one undivided part nor bound to one motion for it is in every Creature more or less and moves in its own parts variously and in some Creatures as for example in some men it moves more variously then in others which is the cause that some men are more dull and stupid then others neither doth Reason always move in one Creature regularly which is the cause that some men are mad or foolish And though all men are made by the direction of Reason and endued with Reason from the first time of their birth yet all have not the like Capacities Understandings Imaginations Wits Fancies Passions c. but some more some less and some regular some irregular according to the motions of Reason or Rational part of animate matter and though some rational parts may make use of other rational Parts as one man of another mans Conceptions yet all these parts cannot associate together as for example all the Material parts of several objects no not their species cannot enter or touch the eye without danger of hurting or loosing it nevertheless the eye makes use of the objects by patterning them out and so doth the rational matter by taking patterns from the sensitive And thus knowledg or perception of objects both sensitive and rational is taken without the pressure of any other parts for though parts joyn to parts for no part can be single yet this joining doth not necessarily infer the pressure of objects upon the sensitive organs Whereof I have already discoursed sufficiently heretofore to which I refer you and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM UNderstanding says your Author is nothing else but Conception caused by speech and therefore if speech be peculiar to man as for ought I know it is then is understanding peculiar to him also Where he confineth Understanding onely to speech and to Mankind But by his leave Madam I surely believe that there is more understanding in Nature then that which is in speech for if there were not I cannot conceive how all the exact forms in Generations could be produced or how there could be such distinct degrees of several sorts and kinds of Creatures or distinctions of times and seasons and so many exact motions and figures in Nature Considering all this my reason perswadeth me that all Understanding which is a part of Knowledg is not caused by speech for all the motions of the Celestial Orbs are not made by speech neither is the knowledg or understanding which a man hath when sick as to know or understand he is sick made by speech nor by outward objects especially in a disease he never heard nor saw nor smelt nor tasted nor touched Wherefore all Perception Sensation Memory Imagination Appetite Understanding and the like are not made nor caused by outward objects nor by speech And as for names of things they are but different postures of the figures in our mind or thoughts made by the Rational matter But Reasoning is a comparing of the several figures with their several postures and actions in the Mind which joyned with the several words made by the sensitive motions inform another distinct and separate part as an other man of their minds conceptions understanding opinions and the like Concerning Addition and Substraction wherein your Author sayes Reasoning consists I grant that it is an act of Reasoning yet it doth not make Sense or Reason which is Life and Knowledge but Sense and Reason which is self-motion makes addition and substraction of several Parts of matter for had matter not self-motion it could not divide nor compose nor make such varieties without great and lingring retardments if not confusion Wherefore all what is made in Nature is made by self-moving matter which self-moving matter doth not at all times move regularly but often irregularly which causes false Logick false Arithmetick and the like and if there be not a certainty in these self-motions or actions of Nature much less in Art which is but a secundary action and therefore neither speech words nor exterior objects cause Understanding or Reason And although many parts of the Rational and Sensitive Matter joyned into one may be stronger by their association and over-power other parts that are not so well knit and united yet these are not the less pure onely these Parts and Motions being not equal in several Creatures make their Knowledge and Reason more or less For when a man hath more Rational Matter well regulated and so more Wisdom then an other that same man may chance to over-power the other whose Rational Matter is more irreregular but yet not so much by strength of the united Parts as by their subtilty for the Rational Matter moving regularly is more strong with subtilty then the sensitive with force so that Wisdom is stronger then Life being more pure and so more active for in my opinion there is a degree of difference between Life and Knowledge as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you Again your Author sayes That Man doth excel all other Animals in this faculty that when he conceives any thing whatsoever he is apt to enquire the Consequences of it and what effects he can do with it Besides this sayes he Man hath an other degree of Excellence that he can by Words reduce the Consequences he finds to General Rules called Theoremes or Aphorisms that is he can reason or reckon not onely in Number but in all other things whereof one may be added unto or substracted from an other To which I answer That according to my Reason I cannot perceive but that all Creatures may do as much but by reason they do it not after the same manner or way as Man Man denies they can do it at all which is very hard for what man knows whether Fish do not Know more of the nature of Water and ebbing and flowing and the saltness of the Sea or whether Birds do not know more of the nature and degrees of Air or the cause of Tempests or whether Worms do not know more of the nature of Earth and how Plants are produced or Bees of the several sorts of juices of Flowers then Men And whether they do not make there Aphorismes and Theoremes by their manner of Intelligence For though they have not the speech of Man yet thence doth not follow that they have no Intelligence at all But the Ignorance of Men concerning other Creatures is the cause of despising other Creatures imagining themselves as petty Gods in Nature when as Nature is not capable to make one God much less so many as Mankind and were it not for Mans supernatural Soul Man would not be more Supreme then other Creatures in Nature
Animals do often see in the dark and in sleep I will not say but that the animate matter which by self-motion doth make the Perception of light with other perceptive Figures and so animal perceptive light may be the presenter or ground perceptive figure of sight yet the sensitive corporeal motions can make other figures without the help of light and such as light did never present But when the eye patterns out an exterior object presented by light it patterns also out the object of light for the sensitive motions can make many figures by one act not onely in several organs but in one organ as for example there is presented to sight a piece of Imbroydery wherein is silk silver and gold upon Sattin in several forms or figures as several flowers the sensitive motions streight by one and the same act pattern out all those several figures of flowers as also the figures of Silk Silver Gold and Sattin without any pressure of these objects or motions in the medium for if they all should press the eye would no more see the exterior objects then the nose being stopt could smell a presented perfume Thirdly They may ask me if sight be made in the eye and proceeds not from the outward object what is the reason that we do not see inwardly but outwardly as from us I answer when we see objects outwardly as from us then the sensitive motions work on the outside of the organ which organ being outwardly convex causes us to see outwardly as from us but in dreams we see inwardly also the sensitive motions do pattern out the distance together with the object But you will say the body of the distance as the air cannot be perceived and yet we can perceive the distance I answer you could not perceive the distance but by such or such an object as is subject to your sight for you do not see the distance more then the air or the like rare body that is between grosser objects for if there were no stars nor planets nor clouds nor earth nor water but onely air you would not see any space or distance but light being a more visible body then air you might figure the body of air by light but so as in an extensive or dilating way for when the mind or the rational matter conceives any thing that hath not such an exact figure or is not so perceptible by our senses then the mind uses art and makes such figures which stand like to that as for example to express infinite to it self it dilates it parts without alteration and without limitation or circumference Likewise when it will conceive a constant succession of Time it draws out its parts into the figure of a line and if eternity it figures a line without beginning and end But as for Immaterial no mind can conceive that for it cannot put it self into nothing although it can dilate and rarifie it self to an higher degree but must stay within the circle of natural bodies as I within the circle of your Commands to express my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and obedient Servant XXI MADAM HEat and Cold according to your Authors opinion are made by Dilation and Contraction for says he When the Motion of the ambient aethereal substance makes the spirits and fluid parts of our bodies tend outwards we acknowledg heat but by the indeavour inwards of the same spirits and humors we feel cold so that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body endeavour inwards by a motion contrary to that of calefaction by which the internal parts are called outwards He therefore that would know the cause of Cold must find by what motion the exterior parts of any body endeavour to retire inwards But I desire you to consider Madam that there be moist Colds and dry Heats as well as dry Colds and moist Heats wherefore all sorts of Cold are not made by the retyring of parts inwards which is contraction or attraction neither are all sorts of Heat made by parts tending outwards which is dilation or rarefaction for a moist cold is made by dilation and a dry heat by contraction as well as a moist heat is made by dilation and a dry cold by contraction But your Author makes not this difference but onely a difference between a dilated heat and a contracted cold but because a cold wind is made by breath blown thorow pinched or contracted lips and an hot wind by breath through opened and extended lips should we judg that all heat and cold must be made after one manner or way The contracted mouth makes Wind as well as the dilated but yet Wind is not made that way as heat and cold for it may be that onely the air pressed together makes wind or it may be that the corporeal motions in the air may change air into wind as they change water into vapour and vapour into air or it may be something else that is invisible and rare as air and there may be several sorts of wind air heat cold as of all other Creatures more then man is capable to know As for your Authors opinion concerning the congealing of Water and how Ice is made I will not contradict it onely I think nature hath an easier way to effect it then he describes Wherefore my opinion is that it is done by altering motions as for example the corporeal motions making the figure of water by dilation in a Circle figure onely alter from such a dilating circular figure into a contracted square which is Ice or into such a contracted triangle as is snow And thus water and vapour may be changed with ease without any forcing pressing raking or the like The same may be said of hard and bent bodies and of restitution as also of air thunder and lightning which are all done by an easie change of motion and changing into such or such a figure is not the motion of Generation which is to build a new house with old materials but onely a Transformation I say a new house with old materials not that I mean there is any new Creation in nature of any thing that was not before in nature for nature is not God to make new beings out of nothing but any thing may be called new when it is altered from one figure into another I add no more at this time but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THe Generation of sound according to your worthy Authors opinion is as follows As Vision says he so hearing is Generated by the medium but but not in the same manner for sight is from pressure that is from an endeavour in which there is no perceptible progression of any of the parts of the medium but one part urging or thrusting on another propagateth that action successively to any distance whatsoever where as the motion of the medium by which sound is made is a stroke for when we hear the drum of the
and glassie next it must not be transparent the first is manifest by experience for the subject being rough and uneven will never be able to present such a figure as for example A piece of steel rough and unpolished although it may perhaps pattern out the figure of an external object yet it will never present its figure but as soon as it is polished and made smooth and glassie the figure is presently perceived But this is to be observed that smooth and glassie bodies do not always pattern out exterior objects exactly but some better some worse like as Painters have not all the same ingenuity neither do all eyes pattern out all objects exactly which proves that the perception of sight is not made by pressure and reaction o herwise there would be no difference but all eyes would see alike Next I say it is observed that the subject which will present the figure of an external object must not be transparent the reason is that the figure of Light being a substance of a piercing and penetrating quality hath more force on transparent then on other solid dark bodies and so disturbs the figure of an external object pattern'd out in a transparent body and quite over-masters it But you wil say you have found by experience that if you hold a burning Candle before a Transparent-glass although it be in an open Sun-light yet the figure of light and flame of the Candle will clearly be seen in the Glass I answer that it is an other thing with the figure of Candle-light then of a duskish or dark body for a Candle-light though it is not of the same sort as the Suns light yet it is of the same nature and quality and therefore the Candle-light doth resist and oppose the light of the Sun so that it cannot have so much power over it as over the figures of other bodies patterned out and presented in Transparent-glass Lastly I say that the fault often-times lies in the perceptive motions of our sight which is evident by a plain and Concave-glass for in a plain Looking-glass the further you go from it the more your figure presented in the glass seems to draw backward and in a Concave-glass the nearer you go to it the more seems your figure to come forth which effects are like as an house or tree appears to a Traveller for as the man moves from the house or tree so the house or tree seems to move from the man or like one that sails upon a Ship who imagines that the Ship stands still and the Land moves when as yet it is the Man and the Ship that moves and not the House or Tree or the Land so when a Man turns round in a quick motion or when his head is dizzie he imagines the room or place where he is turns round Wherefore it is the Inherent Perceptive motions in the Eye and not the motions in the Looking-glass which cause these effects And as for several figures that are presented in one glass it is absurd to imagine that so many several figures made by so many several motions should touch the eye certainly this would make such a disturbance if all figures were to enter or but to touch the eye as the eye would not perceive any of them at least not distinctly Wherefore it is most probable that the glass patterns out those figures and the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye take again a pattern from those figures patterned out by the glass and so make copies of copies but the reason why several figures are presented in one glass in several places is that two perfect figures cannot be in one point nor made by one motion but by several corporeal motions Concerning a Looking-glass made in the form or shape of a Cylinder why it represents the figure of an external object in an other shape and posture then the object is the cause is the shape and form of the Glass and not the patterning motions in the Glass But this discourse belongs properly to the Opticks wherefore I will leave it to those that are versed in that Art to enquire and search more after the rational truth thereof In the mean time my opinion is that though the object is the occasion of the figure presented in a Looking-glass yet the figure is made by the motions of the glass or body that presents it and that the figure of the glass perhaps may be patterned out as much by the motions of the object in its own substance as the figure of the object is patterned out and presented by the motions of the glass in its own body or substance And thus I conclude and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM SInce I mentioned in my last that Light did disturb the figures of External objects presented in Transparent bodies you were pleased to ask Whether light doth penetrate transparent bodies I answer for any thing I know it may for when I consider the subtil piercing and penetrating nature of light I believe it doth but again when I consider that light is presented to our sight by transparent bodies onely and not by duskish and dark bodies and yet that those duskish bodies are more porous then the transparent bodies so that the light hath more passage to pass through them then through transparent bodies but that on the contrary those dark bodies as Wood and the like do quite obscure the light when as transparent bodies as Glass c. transmit it I am half perswaded that the transparent bodies as Glass rather present the Light by patterning it out then by giving it passage Also I am of a mind that the air in a room may pattern out the Light from the Glass for the Light in a room doth not appear so clear as in the Glass also if the Glass be any way defective it doth not present the Light so perfectly whereas if it were the penetration of light through the glass the light would pass through all sorts of glass alike which it doth not but is more clearly seen through some and more obscurely through others according to the goodness or purity of the glass But you may say that the light divulges the imperfection or goodness of the glass I answer so it doth of any other objects perceived by our sight for light is the presenter of objects to the sense and perception of sight and for any thing I know the corporeal optick motions make the figure of light the ground figure of all other figures patterned out by the corporeal optick motions as in dreams or when as some do see in the dark that is without the help of exterior light But you may say That if the glass and the air in a room did pattern out the figure of light those patterns of light would remain when light is absent I answer That is not usual in nature for when the object removes the Pattern alters I will not say but that the
as afore-mentioned are all one thing and then all bodies that receive motion from other bodies must needs increase in their substance and quantity and those bodies which impart or transferr motion must decrease as much as they increase Truly Madam that neither Motion nor Figure should subsist by themselves and yet be transferrable into other bodies is very strange and as much as to prove them to be nothing and yet to say they are something The like may be said of all others which they call accidents as skill learning knowledge c. saying they are no bodies because they have no extension but inherent in bodies or substances as in their subjects for although the body may subsist without them yet they being always with the body body and they are all one thing And so is power and body for body cannot quit power nor power the body being all one thing But to return to Motion my opinion is That all matter is partly animate and partly inanimate and all matter is moving and moved and that there is no part of Nature that hath not life and knowledg for there is no Part that has not a comixture of animate and inanimate matter and though the inanimate matter has no motion nor life and knowledg of it self as the animate has nevertheless being both so closely joyned and commixed as in one body the inanimate moves as well as the animate although not in the same manner for the animate moves of it self and the inanimate moves by the help of the animate and thus the animate is moving and the inanimate moved not that the animate matter transfers infuses or communicates its own motion to the inanimate for this is impossible by reason it cannot part with its own nature nor alter the nature of inanimate matter but each retains its own nature for the inanimate matter remains inanimate that is without self-motion and the animate loses nothing of its self-motion which otherwise it would if it should impart or transferr its motion into the inanimate matter but onely as I said heretofore the inanimate works or moves with the animate because of their close union and commixture for the animate forces or causes the inanimate matter to work with her and thus one is moving the other moved and consequently there is life and knowledg in all parts of nature by reason in all parts of nature there is a commixture of animate and inanimate matter and this Life and Knowledg is sense and reason or sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are all one thing with animate matter without any distinction or abstraction and can no more quit matter then matter can quit motion Wherefore every creature being composed of this commixture of animate and inanimate matter has also selfe-motion that is life and knowledg sense and reason so that no part hath need to give or receive motion to or from another part although it may be an occasion of such a manner of motion to another part and cause it to move thus or thus as for example A Watch-maker doth not give the watch its motion but he is onely the occasion that the watch moves after that manner for the motion of the watch is the watches own motion inherent in those parts ever since that matter was and if the watch ceases to move after such a manner or way that manner or way of motion is never the less in those parts of matter the watch is made of and if several other figures should be made of that matter the power of moving in the said manner or mode would yet still remain in all those parts of matter as long as they are body and have motion in them Wherefore one body may occasion another body to move so or so but not give it any motion but everybody though occasioned by another to move in such a way moves by its own natural motion for self-motion is the very nature of animate matter and is as much in hard as in fluid bodies although your Author denies it saying The nature of fluid bodies consists in the motion of those little insensible parts into which they are divided and the nature of bard bodies when those little particles joyned closely together do rest for there is no rest in nature wherefore if there were a World of Gold and a World of Air I do verily believe that the World of Gold would be as much interiously active as the World of Air exteriously for Natures motions are not all external or perceptible by our senses neither are they all circular or onely of one sort but there is an infinite change and variety of motions for though I say in my Philosophical opinions As there is but one onely Matter so there is but one onely Motion yet I do not mean there is but one particular sort of motions as either circular or straight or the like but that the nature of motion is one and the same simple and intire in it self that is it is meer motion or nothing else but corporeal motion and that as there are infinite divisions or parts of matter so there are infinite changes and varieties of motions which is the reason that I call motion as well infinite as matter first that matter and motion are but one thing and if matter be infinite motion must be so too and secondly that motion is infinite in its changes and variations as matter is in its parts And thus much of motion for this time I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM I Observe your Author in his discourse of Place makes a difference betwixt an Interior and Exterior place and that according to this distinction one body may be said to change and not to change its place at the same time and that one body may succeed into anothers place But I am not of this opinion for I believe not that there is any more place then body as for example Water being mix'd with Earth the water doth not take the Earths place but as their parts intermix so do their places and as their parts change so do their places so that there is no more place then there is water and earth the same may be said of Air and Water or Air and Earth or did they all mix together for as their bodies join so do their places and as they are separated from each other so are their places Say a man travels a hundred miles and so a hundred thousand paces but yet this man has not been in a hundred thousand places for he never had any other place but his own he hath joined and separated himselfe from a hundred thousand nay millions of parts but he has left no places behind him You will say if he travel the same way back again then he is said to travel thorow the same places I answer It may be the vulgar way of expression or the common phrase but to speak properly
impression of exterior objects there would be so much difference betwixt them by reason of the diversity of objects as they would have no resemblance at all But for a further proof of my own opinion did the perception proceed meerly from the motion impression and resistance of the objects the hand could not perceive those objects unless they touched the hand it self as the stick doth for it is not probable that the motions of the stone water sand c. should leave their bodies and enter into the stick and so into the hand for motion must be either something or nothing if something the stick and the hand would grow bigger and the objects touched less or else the touching and the touched must exchange their motions which cannot be done so suddenly especially between solid bodies But if motion has no body it is nothing and how nothing can pass or enter or move some body I cannot conceive T is true there is no part that can subsist singly by it self without dependance upon each other and so parts do always joyn and touch each other which I am not against but onely I say perception is not made by the exterior motions of exterior parts of objects but by the interior motions of the parts of the body sentient But I have discoursed hereof before and so I take my leave resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVIII MADAM ICannot conceive why your Author is so much for little and insensible parts out of which the Elements and all other bodies are made for though Nature is divideable yet she is also composeable and I think there is no need to dissect every creature into such little parts to know their nature but we can do it by another way as well for we may dissect or divide them into never so little parts and yet gain never the more knowledg by it But according to these principles he describing amongst the rest the nature of Water says That those little parts out of which Water consists are in figure somewhat long light and slippery like little Eeles which are never so closely joyned and entangled but may easily be separated To which I answer That I observe the nature and figure of water to be flowing dilating divideable and circular for we may see in Tides overflowings and breaking into parts as in rain it will always move in a round and circular figure And I think if its parts were long and entangled like a knot of Eeles it could never be so easily contracted and denced into snow or ice Neither do I think That Salt-water hath a mixture of somewhat grosser parts not so apt to bend for to my observation and reason the nature of salt-water consists herein that its circle-lines are pointed which sharp and pointed figure makes it so penetrating yet may those points be separated from the circle lines of water as it is seen in the making of Salt But I am not of your Authors opinion That those little points do stick so fast in flesh as little nails to keep it from putrefaction for points do not always fasten or else fire which certainly is composed of sharp-pointed parts would harden and keep other bodies from dissolving whereas on the contrary it separates and divides them although after several manners But Putrefaction is onely a dissolving and separating of parts after the manner of dilation and the motion of salt is contracting as well as penetrating for we may observe what flesh soever is dry-salted doth shrink and contract close together I will not say but the pointed parts of salt may fasten like nayls in some sorts of bodies but not in all they work on And this is the reason also that Sea-water is of more weight then fresh-water for being composed of points those points stick within each other and so become more strong But yet do they not hinder the circular dilating motion of water for the circle-lines are within and the points without but onely they make it more strong from being divided by other exterior bodies that swim upon it And this is the cause that Salt-water is not so easily forced or turned to vapour as Fresh for the points piercing into each other hold it more strongly together but this is to be considered that the points of salt are on the outside of the watry Circle not on the inside which causes it to be divideable from the watry Circles I will conclude when I have given the reason why water is so soon suckt up by sand lime and the like bodies and say that it is the nature of all spongy dry and porous bodies meeting with liquid and pliable bodies as water do draw and suck them up like as animal Creatures being thirsty do drink And so I take my leave and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIX MADAM COncerning Vapour Clouds Wind and Rain I am of your Authors opinion That Water is changed into Vapour and Vapour into Air and that dilated Vapours make Wind and condensed Vapours Clouds and Mists But I am not for his little particles whereof he says Vapours are made by the motion of a rare and subtil matter in the pores of terrestrial bodies which certainly I should conceive to be loose atoms did he not make them of several figures and magnitude for in my opinion there are no such things in nature which like little Flyes or Bees do fly up into the air and although I grant that in Nature are several parts whereof some are more rare others more dense according to the several degrees of matter yet they are not single but all mixt together in one body and the change of motions in those joyned parts is the cause of all changes of figures whatever without the assistance of any forreign parts And thus Water of it self is changed to Snow Ice or Hail by its inherent figurative Motions that is the circular dilation of Water by contraction changes into the figure of Snow Ice or Hail or by rarifying motions it turns into the figure of Vapour and this Vapour again by contracting motions into the figure of hoar-frost and when all these motions change again into the former then the figure of Ice Snow Hail Vapour and Frost turns again into the figure of Water And this in all sense and reason is the most facil and probable way of making Ice Snow Hail c. As for rarefaction and condensation I will not say that they may be forced by forreign parts but yet they are made by change and alteration of the inherent motions of their own parts for though the motions of forreign parts may be the occasion of them yet they are not the immediate cause or actors thereof And as for Thunder that clouds of Ice and Snow the uppermost being condensed by heat and so made heavy should fall upon another and produce the noise of thunder is very improbable for the breaking of a little small string will make
but a dense or rare heavie or light matter is but one substance or body And thus having obeyed your commands I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIV MADAM IAm very ready to give you my opinion of those two questions you sent me whereof the first was Whether that which is rare and subtil be not withal pure To which I answer That all rare bodies are not subtil nor pure and that all which is dense is not gross and dull As for example Puddle-water or also clear water is rarer then Quicksilver and yet not so subtil and pure as Quicksilver the like of Gold for Quicksilver and Gold may be rarified to a transparentness and yet be so dense as not to be easily dissolved and Quicksilver is very subtil and searching so as to be able to force other bodies to divide as well as it can divide and compose its own parts Wherefore my opinion is that the purest and subtilest degree of matter in nature is that degree of matter which can dilate and contract compose and divide into any figure by corporeal self-motion Your second question was Why a man's hand cannot break a little hard body as a little nail whereas yet it is bigger then the nail I answer It is not because the hand is softer then the nail for one hard body will not break suddenly another hard body and a man may easily break an iron nail with his hand as I have bin informed but it is some kind of motion which can easier do it then another for I have seen a strong cord wound about both a man's hands who pulled his hands as hard and strongly asunder as he could and yet was not able to break it when as a Youth taking the same cord and winding it about his hands as the former did immediately broke it the cause was that he did it with another kind of motion or pulling then the other did which though he used as much force and strength as he was able yet could not break it when the boy did break it with the greatest ease and turning onely his hands a little which shews that many things may be done by a slight of motion which otherwise a great strength and force cannot do This is my answer and opinion concerning your proposed questions if you have any more I shall be ready to obey you as MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I understand by your last that you are very desirous to know Whether there be not in nature such animal creatures both for purity and size as we are not capable to perceive by our sight Truly Madam in my opinion it is very probable there may be animal creatures of such rare bodies as are not subject to our exterior senses as well as there are elements which are not subject to all our exterior senses as for example fire is onely subject to our sight and feeling and not to any other sense water is subject to our sight taste touch and hearing but not to smelling and earth is subject to our sight taste touch and smelling but not to our hearing and vapour is onely subject to our sight and wind onely to our hearing but pure air is not subject to any of our senses but onely known by its effects and so there may likewise be animal creatures which are not subject to any of our senses both for their purity and life as for example I have seen pumpt out of a water pump small worms which could hardly be discerned but by a bright Sun-light for they were smaller then the smallest hair some of a pure scarlet colour and some white but though they were the smallest creatures that ever I did see yet they were more agil and fuller of life then many a creature of a bigger size and so small they were as I am confident they were neither subject to tast smell touch nor hearing but onely to sight and that neither without dificulty requiring both a sharp sight and a clear light to perceive them and I do verily believe that these small animal creatures may be great in comparison to others which may be in nature But if it be probable that there may be such small animal creatures in nature as are not subject to our exterior senses by reason of their littleness it is also probable that there may be such great and big animal creatures in nature as are beyond the reach and knowledg of our exterior senses for bigness and smallness are not to be judged by our exterior senses onely but as sense and reason inform us that there are different degrees in Purity and Rarity so also in shapes figures and sizes in all natural creatures Next you desired to know VVhether there can be an artificial Life or a Life made by Art My answer is Not for although there is Life in all natures parts yet not all the parts are life for there is one part of natural matter which in its nature is inanimate or without life and though natural Life doth produce Art yet Art cannot produce natural Life for though Art is the action of Life yet it is not Life it self not but that there is Life in Art but not art in life for Life is natural and not artificial and thus the several parts of a watch may have sense and reason according to the nature of their natural figure which is steel but not as they have an artificial shape for Art cannot put Life into the watch Life being onely natural not artificial Lastly your desire was to know Whether a part of matter may be so small as it cannot be made less I answer there is no such thing in nature as biggest or least nature being Infinite as well in her actions as in her substance and I have mentioned in my book of Philosophy and in a letter I sent you heretofore concerning Infinite that there are several forts of Infinites as Infinite in quantity or bulk Infinite in number Infinite in quality as Infinite degrees of hardness softness thickness thinness swiftness slowness c. as also Infinite compositions divisions creations dissolutions c. in nature and my meaning is that all these Infinite actions do belong to the Infinite body of nature which being infinite in substance must also of necessity be infinite in its actions but although these Infinite actions are inherent in the power of the Infinite substance of nature yet they are never put in act in her parts by reason there being contraries in nature and every one of the aforementioned actions having its opposite they do hinder and obstruct each other so that none can actually run into infinite for the Infinite degrees of compositions hinder the infinite degrees of divisions and the infinite degrees of rarity softness swiftness c. hinder the infinite degrees of density hardness slowness c. all which nature has ordered with great wisdom and Prudence to make an amiable combination between her parts
Ingenuity Wit and Wisdom then any of her particular Creatures The same may be said of her Government And so leaving Wise Nature I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM TO your Authors argument That if Motion belong naturally to Matter Matter being Uniform it must be alike moved in every part of particle imaginable of it by reason this Motion being natural and essential to Matter is alike every way I answer That this is no more necessary then that the several actions of one body or of one part of a body should be alike for though Matter is one and the same in its Nature and never changes yet the motions are various which motions are the several actions of one and the same Natural Matter and this is the cause of so many several Creatures for self-moving matter by its self-moving power can act several ways modes or manners and had not natural matter a self-acting power there could not be any variety in Nature for Nature knows of no rest there being no such thing as rest in Nature but she is in a perpetual motion I mean self-motion given her from God Neither do I think it Atheistical as your Author deems to maintain this opinion of self-motion as long as I do not deny the Omnipotency of God but I should rather think it Irreligious to make so many several Creatures as Immaterial Spirits like so many severall Deities to rule and govern Nature and all material substances in Nature for what Atheism doth there lie in saying that natural matter is naturally moving and wise in her self Doth this oppose the omnipotency and Infinite wisdom of God It rather proves and confirms it for all Natures free power of moving and wisdom is a gift of God and proceeds from him but I must confess it destroys the power of Immaterial substances for Nature will not be ruled nor governed by them and to be against Natural Immaterial substances I think is no Atheisme except we make them Deities neither is it Atheisme to contradict the opinion of those that believe such natural incorporeal Spirits unless man make himself a God But although Nature is wise as I said before and acts methodically yet the variety of motions is the cause of so many Irregularities in Nature as also the cause of Irregular opinions for all opinions are made by self-moving matters motions or which is all one by corporeal self-motion and some in their opinions do conceive Nature according to the measure of themselves as that Nature can nor could not do more then they think nay some believe they can do as much as Nature doth which opinions whether they be probable or regular I 'le let any man judg adding onely this that to humane sense and reason it appears plainly that as God has given Nature a power to act freely so he doth approve of her actions being wise and methodical in all her several Productions Generations Transformations and Designs And so I conclude for the present onely subscribe my self as really I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM I Am of your Authors opinion concerning self-activity or self-motion That what is Active of it self can no more cease to be active then to be And I have been always of this opinion even from the first begining of my conceptions in natural Philosophy as you may see in my first Treatise of Natural Philosophy which I put forth eleven years since where I say That self-moving Matter is in a Perpetual motion But your Author endeavors srom thence to conclude That Matter is not self-active because it is reducible to rest To which I answer That there is no such thing as Rest in Nature Not do I say that all sorts of motions are subject to our senses for those that are subject to our sensitive Perceptions are but gross Motions in comparison to those that are not subject to our exterior senses as for example We see some bodies dilate others consume others corrupt yet we do not see how they dilate nor how they consume nor how they corrupt Also we see some bodies contract some attract some condense some consist c. yet we do not see their contracting attracting condensing consisting or retenting motions and yet we cannot say they are not corporeal motions because not subject to our exterior senses for if there were not contracting attracting retenting or consistent corporeal self-motions it had been impossible that any creature could have been composed into one united figure much less stayed and continued in the same figure without a general alteration But your Author says If Matter as Matter had Motion nothing would hold together but Flints Adamants Brass Iron yea this whole Earth would suddenly melt into a thinner substance then the subtil Air or rather it never had been condensated together to this consistency we find it But I would ask him what reason he can give that corporeal self-motion should make all matter rare and fluid unless he believe there is but one kind of motion in Nature but this human sense and reason will contradict for we may observe there are Infinite changes of Motion and there is more variety and curiosity in corporeal motions then any one single Creature can imagine much less know but I suppose he conceives all corporeal matter to be gross and that not any corporeal motion can be subtil penetrating contracting and dilating and that whatsoever is penetrating contracting and dilating is Individable But by his leave Madam this doth not follow for though there be gross degrees of Matter and strong degrees of Corporeal Motions yet there are also pure and subtil degrees of Matter and Motions to wit that degree of Matter which I name sensitive and rational Matter which is natural Life and Knowledg as sensitive Life and rational Knowledg Again your Author askes What glue or cement holds the parts of hard matter in Stones and Metals together I answer Consistent or retentive corporeal motions by an agreeable union and conjunction in the several parts of Metal or Stone and these retentive or consistent motions are as strong and active if not more then some dilative or contractive motions for I have mentioned heretofore that as sensitive and rational corporeal motions are in all Creatures so also in Stone Metal and any other dense body whatsoever so that not any one Creature or part of Matter is without Motion and therefore not any thing is at rest But Madam I dare say I could bring more reason and sense to prove that sensitive and rational Matter is fuller of activity and has more variety of motion and can change its own parts of self-moving Matter more suddenly and into more exterior figures then Immaterial Spirits can do upon natural Matter But your Author says That Immaterial Spirits are endued with Sense and Reason I say My sensitive and rational corporeal Matter is Sense and Reason it self and is the Architect or Creator of all
there were none presented to the sensitive organs Nor is there any thing which can better prove the mind to be corporeal then that there may be several Figures in several parts of the body made at one time as Sight Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching and all these in each several organ as well at one as at several times either by patterns or not which figuring without Pattern may be done as well by the sensitive motions in the organs as by the rational in the mind and is called remembrance As for example a Man may hear or see without an object which is that the sensitive and rational matter repeat such figurative actions or make others in the sensitive organs or in the mind and Thoughts Memory Imagination as also Passion are no less corporeal actions then the motion of the hand or heel neither hath the rational matter being naturally wise occasion to jumble and knock her parts together by reason every part knows naturally their office what they ought to do or what they may do But I conclude repeating onely what I have said oft before that all Perceptions Thoughts and the like are the Effects and Life and Knowledg the Nature and Essence of self-moving Matter And so I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM IAm not able to conceive how the Mind of Man can be compared to a Table-book in which nothing is writ nor how to a Musician who being asleep doth not so much as dream of any Musick but being jogg'd and awakend by another who tells him two or three words of a Song and desires him to sing it presently recovers himself and sings upon so slight an Intimation For such intimations are nothing else but outward objects which the interior sense consents to and obeys for interior sense and reason doth often obey outward objects and in my opinion there is no rest in Nature and so neither in the Mind or natural Soul of Man which is in a perpetual motion and needs therefore no jogging to put it into any actual motion for it hath actual motion and knowledg in it self because it is a self-moving substance actually knowing and Material or Corporeal not Immaterial as your Author thinks and this material or corporeal Mind is nothing else but what I call the rational matter and the corporeal life is the sensitive matter But this is to be observed that the motions of the corporeal Mind do often imitate the motions of the sensitive Life and these again the motions of the mind I say oftentimes for they do it not always but each one can move without taking any pattern from the other And all this I understand of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul and her powers and faculties for I leave that to Divines to inform us of onely this I say that men not conceiving the distinction between this natural and divine Soul make such a confusion betwixt those two Souls and their actions which causes so many disputes and opinions But if Nature hath power from God to produce all kinds of Vegetables Minerals Elements Animals and other sorts of Creatures Why not also Man Truly if all Creatures are natural Creatures Man must be so too and if Man is a natural Creature he must needs have natural sense and reason as well as other Creatures being composed of the same matter they are of Neither is it requisite that all Creatures being of the same matter must have the same manner of sensitive and rational knowledg which if so it is not necessary for Corn to have Ears to hear the whistling or chirping of Birds nor for Stones to have such a touch of feeling as animals have and to suffer pain as they do when Carts go over them as your Author is pleased to argue out of AEsopes Tales or for the Heliotrope to have eyes to see the Sun for what necessity is there that they should have humane sense and reason which is that the rational and sensitive matter should act and move in them as she doth in man or animals Certainly if there must be any variety in nature it is requisite she should not wherefore all Vegetables Minerals Elements and Animals have their proper motions different from each others not onely in their kinds and sorts but also in their particulars And though Stones have no progressive motion to withdraw themselves from the Carts going over them which your Author thinks they would do if they had sense to avoid pain nevertheless they have motion and consequently sense and reason according to the nature and propriety of their figure as well as man has according to his But this is also to be observed that not any humane Creature which is accounted to have the perfectest sense and reason is able always to avoid what is hurtful or painful for it is subject to it by Nature Nay the Immaterial Soul it self according to your Author cannot by her self-contracting faculty withdraw her self from pain Wherefore there is no manner of consequence to conclude from the sense of Animals to the sense of Minerals they being as much different as their Figures are And saying this I have said enough to express the opinion and mind of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YOur Author endeavours very much to prove the Existency of a Natural Immaterial Spirit whom he defines to be an Incorporeal substance Indivisible that can move it self can penetrate contract and dilate it self and can also move and alter the matter Whereof if you will have my opinion I confess freely to you that in my sense and reason I cannot conceive it to be possible that there is any such thing in Nature for all that is a substance in Nature is a body and what has a body is corporeal for though there be several degrees of matter as in purity rarity subtilty activity yet there is no degree so pure rare and subtil that can go beyond its nature and change from corporeal to incorporeal except it could change from being something to nothing which is impossible in Nature Next there is no substance in Nature that is not divisible for all that is a body or a bodily substance hath extension and all extension hath parts and what has parts is divisible As for self-motion contraction and dilation these are actions onely of Natural Matter for Matter by the Power of God is self-moving and all sorts of motions as contraction dilation alteration penetration c. do properly belong to Matter so that natural Matter stands in no need to have some Immaterial or Incorporeal substance to move rule guide and govern her but she is able enough to do it all her self by the free Gift of the Omnipotent God for why should we trouble our selves to invent or frame other unconceivable substances when there is no need for it but Matter can act and move as well without them and of it self Is not God able
Ruler and Governor of all Perhaps you will say it is because I make Matter Eternal T is true Madam I do so but I think Eternity doth not take off the dependance upon God for God may nevertheless be above Matter as I have told you before You may ask me how that can be I say As well as any thing else that God can do beyond our understanding For I do but tell you my opinion that I think it most probable to be so but I can give you no Mathematical Demonstrations for it Onely this I am sure of That it is not impossible for the Omnipotent God and he that questions the truth of it may question Gods Omnipotency Truly Madam I wonder how man can say God is Omnipotent and can do beyond our Understanding and yet deny all that he is not able to comprehend with his reason However as I said it is my opinion That Matter is self-moving by the power of God Neither can Animadversion and Perception as also the variety of Figures prove that there must be another external Agent or Power to work all this in Matter but it proves rather the contrary for were there no self-motion in Matter there would be no Perception nor no variety of Creatures in their Figures Shapes Natures Qualities Faculties Proprieties as also in their Productions Creations or Generations Transformations Compositions Dissolutions and the like as Growth Maturity Decay c. and for Animals were not Corporeal Matter self-moving dividable and composable there could not be such variety of Passions Complexions Humors Features Statures Appetites Diseases Infirmities Youth Age c. Neither would they have any nourishing Food healing Salves soveraign Medicines reviving Cordials or deadly Poysons In short there is so much variety in Nature proceeding from the self-motion of Matter as not possible to be numbred nor thorowly known by any Creature Wherefore I should labour in vain if I endeavoured to express any more thereof and this is the cause that I break off here and onely subscribe my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM COncerning the comparison your Author makes between an Immaterial Spirit and Light That as Light is contractive and dilative and yet not divisible so is also an Immaterial substance Give me leave to tell you that in my opinion all that is contractive and dilative is also dividable and so is light As for example when a Candle is snuff'd the Snuffers do not onely clip the wick but also the light The like when a dark body is interposed or crosses the rays of the Sun it cuts those rays asunder which by reason they cannot joyn together again because of the interposed body the light cut off suddenly goeth out that is the matter of light is altered from the figure of light to some other thing but not annihilated And since no more light can flow into the room from the Fountain or Spring of Light the Sun because the passage is stopt close the room remaineth dark For Light is somewhat of the nature of Water so long as the Spring is open the Water flows and whatsoever is taken away the Spring supplies and if another body onely presses thorow it it immediately joyns and closes its severed parts again without any difficulty or loss The same doth Light onely the difference is that the substance of Light is extraordinary rare and pure for as Air is so much rarer then Water so Light is so much rarer and purer then Air and its matter may be of so dilating a nature as to dilate from a point into numerous rayes As for ordinary Fire-light it doth not last longer then it hath fuel to feed it and so likewise it is with the light of the Sun for Light is according to the substance that feeds it and though it is a substance it self yet it increases and decreases according as it hath something that succours or nourishes it But some may object that if Light were a body and did contract and dilate as I say it is impossible that it could display it self in so great and vast a compass and remove so suddenly and instantly as it doth To which objection I answer first That although I say Light is a real corporeal substance and doth contract and dilate it self from a point into numerous rayes as also in another Letter I sent you before That Light and Darkness do succeed each other nevertheless as for the perception of Light I am not so eager in maintaining this opinion as if it was an Infallible Truth and impossible to be otherwise but I say onely That to my sense and reason it seems very probable that it may be so that the light of the Sun doth really dilate it self into so vast a compass as we see and that light and darkness do really succeed each other as all other Creatures do But yet it seems also probable to mee that the parts of the Air may onely pattern out the figure of light and that the light we see in the Air may be onely patterns taken from the real figure of the light of the Sun And therefore if it be according to the former opinion to wit That the light of the Sun doth really dilate it self into so vast a compass My answer is That contraction and dilation are natural corporeal actions or motions and that there is no alteration of motion in Nature but is done in Time that is successively not instantly for Time is nothing else but the alteration of motion Besides I do not perceive any so sudden and swift alteration and succession of light but that it is done by degrees As for example in the morning when it begins to dawn and grow light it appears clearly to our sight how light doth come forth and darkness remove by degrees and so at night when it grows dark how light removes and darkness succeeds nay if there be any such sudden change of the motions of Light I desire you to consider Madam that light is a very subtil rare piercing and active body and therefore its motions are much quicker then those of grosser bodies and cannot so well be perceived by our gross exterior senses But if it be that the Air doth pattern out the light of the Sun then the framed objection can prove nothing because there is not then such a real dilation or succession of light but the corporeal figurative motions of the Air do make patterns of the light of the Sun and dissolve those patterns or figures again more suddenly and quickly then man can shut and open his eyes as being more subtil then his gross exterior senses But it may be said that if Air did pattern out the light of the Sun the light would increase by these numerous patterns I answer that cannot appear to our Eyes for we see onely the pattern'd figure of light and that a great compass is enlightned also that the further the air is from the Sun the darker
forced them forth as soon as conceived and this made the first publishing of them so full of Imperfections which I am much sorry for But since that time I have not onely reviewed but corrected and altered them in several places so that the last Impression of my Philosophical Opinions you will find more perfect and exact then the former Next I pray you to take notice Madam that in the mentioned first Edition by the word Spirits I meant Material not Immaterial Spirits for observing that Learned Men do discourse much of Animal Spirits which are Material and that also high extracts in Chymistry are called Spirits I used that word purposely thinking it most proper and convenient to express my sense and meaning of that degree of matter which I call rational and sensitive But considering again that my opinions being new would be subject to misapprehensions and mis-interpretations to prevent those I thought it fitter to leave out the word Spirits in the second as also in the last Edition of my named Book of Philosophy lest my Readers should think I meant Immaterial Spirits for I confess really that I never understood nor cannot as yet apprehend Immaterial Spirits for though I believe the Scripture and the Church that there are Spirits and do not doubt the existency of them yet I cannot conceive the nature of Immaterial Spirits and what they are Wherefore I do onely treat of natural material substances and not of incorporeal also my discourse is of the Infinite servant of the Infinite God which servant is corporeal or material Nature God is onely to be admired adored and worshipped but not ungloriously to be discoursed of Which Omnipotent God I pray of his Infinite Mercy to give me Faith to believe in him and not to let presumption prevail with me so as to liken vain and idle conceptions to that Incomprehensible Deity These Madam are my humble Prayers to God and my request to you is that I may continue the same in your love and affection which I have been hitherto so shall I live content and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant SECT III. I. MADAM I Have discharged my duty thus far that in obedience to your commands I have given you my answers to the opinions of three of those famous and learned Authors you sent me viz. Hobbes Des Cartes and More and explained my own opinions by examining theirs My onely task shall be now to proceed in the same manner with that famous Philosopher and Chymist Van Helmont But him I find more difficult to be understood then any of the forementioned not onely by reason of the Art of Chymistry which I confess my self not versed in but especially that he has such strange terms and unusual expressions as may puzle any body to apprehend the sense and meaning of them Wherefore if you receive not that full satisfaction you expect from me in examining his opinions and arguments I beg your pardon before hand and desire you to remember that I sent you word in the beginning I did undertake this work more out of desire to clear my own opinions then a quarrelsome humor to contradict others which if I do but obtain I have my aim And so to the business When as your Author discourses of the causes and beginnings of Natural things he is pleased to say That Souls and Lives as they know no Degrees so they know no Parts which opinion is very different from mine For although I confess that there is but one kind of Life and one kind of Soul in Nature which is the sensitive Life and the rational Soul both consisting not onely of Matter but of one kind of Matter to wit Animate nevertheless they are of different degrees the matter of the rational Soul being more agil subtil and active then the matter of the sensitive Life which is the reason that the rational can act in its own substance or degree of matter and make figures in it self and its own parts when as the sensitive being of somewhat a grosser degree then the rational and not so subtil and active is confined to work with and upon the Inanimate matter But mistake me not Madam for I make onely a difference of the degrees of Subtilty Activity Agility Purity betwixt rational and sensitive Matter but as for the rational Matter it self it has no degrees of Purity Subtilty and Activity in its own Nature or Parts but is always one and the same in its substance in all Creatures and so is the sensitive You will ask me How comes then the difference of so many Parts and Creatures in Nature if there be no degrees of Purity Activity and Subtilty in the substance of the rational and in the substance of the sensitive Matter As for example if there were no such degrees of the Parts of rational Matter amongst themselves as also of the Parts of the sensitive there would be no difference betwixt Animals Vegetables Minerals and Elements but all Creatures would be alike without distinction and have the same manner of sense and reason life and knowledg I answer That although each sort or degree of animate Matter rational as well as sensitive has in it self or its own substance no degrees of purity rarity and subtilty but is one and the same in its nature or essence nevertheless each has degrees of quantity or parts which degrees of quantity do make the onely difference betwixt the several creatures or parts of Nature as well in their general as particular kinds for both the rational and sensitive matter being corporeal and so dividable into parts some creatures do partake more some less of them which makes them to have more or less and so different sense and reason each according to the nature of its kind Nay this difference of the degrees of quantity or parts in the substance of the rational and sensitive Matter makes also the difference betwixt particulars in every sort of Creatures as for example between several particular Men But as I said the nature or essence of the sensitive and rational Matter is the same in all for the difference consists not in the Nature of Matter but onely in the degrees of quantity and parts of Matter and in the various and different actions or motions of this same Matter And thus Matter being dividable there are numerous lives and souls in Nature according to the variousness of her several Parts and Creatures Next your Author mentioning the Causes and Principles of natural Bodies assigns two first or chief beginnings and corporeal causes of every Creature to wit the Element of Water and the Ferment or Leaven which Ferment he calls a formal created being neither a substance nor an accident but a neutral thing Truly Madam my reason is not able to conceive this neutral Being for it must either be something or nothing in Nature and if he makes it any thing betwixt both it is a strange Monster and will produce monstrous
will say air may be cooled by moving it with a Fan or such like thing which can make wind wherefore it follows that air must needs be naturally cold I answer That doth not prove Air to be in its nature cold for this moving or making of wind may contract or condense the air into cold motions which may cause a cold wind like as Ventiducts where the air running thorow narrow Pipes makes a cold wind The same may be done with a mans breath for if he contract his lips close his breath will be cold but if he opens his mouth wide his breath will be warm Again you may say that rain is congealed by the coldness of the air into Snow Hail and Ice I answer Frost Ice Snow and Hail do not proceed from the coldness of the air but rather the coldness of the air proceeds from them for Ice Snow and Hail proceed from cold contraction and condensation of a vaporous or watery substance and as Frost and Snow cause air to be cold so Thunder and Lightning cause it to be hot so long as they last Thus Madam though Air may be altered either to heat or cold yet it is neither hot nor cold in it self And this is all for the present that I can say concerning the Temper of Air I conclude and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VIII MADAM HAving hitherto considered your Authors Elements or Principles of Natural things you will give me leave to present you now with a short view of his Opinions concerning Wind Vacuum Rainbows Thunder Lightning Earth-quakes and the like which I will do as briefly as I can lest I betray my Ignorance for I confess my self not to be well versed in the knowledg of Meteors nor in those things which properly belong to the Mathematicks as in Astrology Geography Opticks and the like But your Author says in the first place That Natural Wind is nothing but a flowing Air moved by the Blas of the Stars Certainly Madam if this were so then in my judgment when the Stars blaze we should have constant Winds and the more they blaze the more violent winds there would be But I have rather observed the contrary that when the Stars blaze most apparently we have the calmest weather either in Summer or Winter Perchance your Author will say he doth not mean this apparant and visible Blas but another invisible Blas I answer I know not nor cannot conceive any other Blas in the Stars except I had seen it in a Vision neither do I think that Nature her self knows of any other But your Author doth refer himself upon the Authority of Hypocrates who says That not onely the Wind is a blast but that all Diseases are from blasts and that there is in us a Spirit stirring up all things by its Blas which Spirit by a Microcosmical Analogy or the proportion of a little World he compares to the blasts of the world As for my particular Madam I dare say I could never perceive by my sense and reason any such blazing Spirit in me but I have found by experience that when my mind and thoughts have been benighted with Melancholy my Imagination hath been more active and subtil then when my mind has been clear from dark Melancholy Also I find that my thoughts and conceptions are as active if not more in the night then in the day and though we may sometimes dream of several Lights yet I cannot perceive a constant light in us however Light Blazes and all those effects are no more then other effects of Nature are nor can they have more power on other Creatures then other Creatures have on them Neither are they made otherwise then by the corporeal motions of Natural Matter and are dissolved and transchanged as other Creatures out of one form or figure into another Next your Author discoursing whether there be any Vacuum in Nature doth incline to the affirming party that there is a Vacuum in the Air to wit There is in the air something that is less then a body which fills up the emptinesses or little holes and pores in the air and which is wholly annihilated by fire It is actually void of all matter and is a middle thing between a body and an Incorporeal Spirit and almost nothing in respect of bodies for it came from Nothing and so may easily be reduced to nothing All this Madam surpasses my capacity for I can in no ways conceive any thing between something and nothing as to be less then something and more then nothing for all that is corporeal in Nature is to my reason something that is some really existent thing but what is incorporeal in Nature is nothing and if there be any absolute vacuum in Nature as your Author endeavours to prove then certainly this Vacuum cannot be any thing whatsoever for a Vacuum is a pure Nothing But many ingenious and learned men have brought as many arguments and reasons against Vacuum as others bring for it and so it is a thing which I leave to them to exercise their brains withal The like is the opinion which many maintain concerning Place viz. that there is a constant succession of Place and Parts so that when one part removes another doth succeed in its place the truth and manner whereof I was never able to comprehend for in my opinion there can be no place without body nor no body without place body and place being all but one thing But as for the perpetual Creation and annihilation of your Authors Vacuities give me leave to tell you Madam that it would be a more laborious work then to make a new World or then it was to make this present World for God made this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this is a perpetual making of something out of nothing Again concerning Rainbows your Author says That a Rainbow is not a natural effect of a natural Cause but a divine Mystery in its original and that it has no matter but yet is in a place and has its colours immediately in a place but in the air mediately and that it is of the nature of Light This is indeed a great mystery to my reason for I cannot conceive as I said before a place without a body nor how Light and Colours can be bodiless But as for Rainbows I have observed when as water hath been blown up into the air into bubles that by the reflexion of light on the watery bubles they have had the like colours of the Rainbow and I have heard that there hath been often seen at the rising and setting of the Sun Clouds of divers colours Wherefore I cannot be perswaded to believe that a Rainbow should not have a natural cause and consequently be a natural effect For that God has made it a sign of the Covenant between him and mortal men is no proof that it is not a natural effect Neither can I believe that
stories in brief is this My Sense and Reason doth inform me that there is Natural Witchcraft as I may call it which is Sympathy Antipathy Magnetisme and the like which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures as by Imagination Fancy Love Aversion and many the like but these Motions being sometimes unusual and strange to us we not knowing their causes For what Creature knows all motions in Nature and their ways do stand amazed at their working power and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures I cannot readily believe Certainly I dare say that many a good old honest woman hath been condemned innocently and suffered death wrongfully by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft when as really there hath been no such thing for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors And thus an English-man whose name was Banks was like to be burnt beyond the Seas for a Witch as I have been inform'd onely for making a Horse shew tricks by Art There have been also several others as one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things and another who did make a Drum beat of it self But all these were nothing but slights and jugling tricks as also the talking and walking Bell and the Brazen-Head which spake these words Time was Time is and Time is past and so fell down Which may easily have been performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men when they do not know the manner or way how they are done so as they are apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the Devil But as I said before I believe there is Natural Magick which is that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way as is unknown to us and in the number of these is also the bleeding of a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer which your Author mentions for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move so as to work such effects which are more then ordinary for the animal Figure being not so quickly dissolved the animal motions are not so soon altered for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else but an alteration of its Motions and this dissolution is not done in an instant of time but by degrees But yet I must confess it is not a common action in Nature for Nature hath both common and singular or particular actions As for example Madness natural Folly and many the like are but in some particular persons for if those actions were general and common then all or most men would be either mad or fools but though there are too many already yet all men are not so and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at the presence of the Murtherer but I do not believe that all do so for surely in many not any alteration will be perceived and others will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer And thus you see Madam that this is done naturally without the help of the Devil nay your Author doth himself confess it to be so for says he The act of the Witch is plainly Natural onely the stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan But I cannot understand what your Author means by the departing of spiritual rays from the Witch into Man or any other animal which she intends to kill or hurt nor how Spirits wander about in the Air and have their mansions there for men may talk as well of impossibilities as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter If man were an Incorporeal Spirit himself he might perhaps sooner conceive the essence of a Spirit as being of the same Nature but as long as he is material and composed of Natural Matter he might as well pretend to know the Essence of God as of an Incorporeal Spirit Truly I must confess I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil substances purer and subtiler then the Sky or AEthereal substance is whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works but these substances which I conceived within my fancy were material and had bodies though never so small and subtil for I was never able to conceive a substance abstracted from all Matter for even Fancy it self is material and all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter and so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits but a material Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects that is Ideas of Incorporeal Spirits And this was the cause that in the first impression of my Philosophical Opinions I named the sensitive and rational Matter sensitive and rational Spirits because of its subtilty activity and agility not that I thought them to be immaterial but material Spirits but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial and Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another to prevent a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers as if I meant Incorporeal Spirits I altered this expression in the last Edition and call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter or which is all one sensitive and rational corporeal motions You will say perhaps That the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit but I desire you to call to mind what I oftentimes have told you to wit that when I speak of the Soul of Man I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul which as she is supernatural so she acts also supernaturally but all the effects of the natural Soul of which I discourse are natural and not divine or supernatural But to return to Magnetisme I am absolutely of opinion that it is naturally effected by natural means without the concurrence of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad meerly by natural corporeal sensitive and rational motions and for the most part there must be a due approach between the Agent and the Patient or otherwise the effect will hardly follow as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron Neither is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance that is such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to work for if their light comes to our Eyes I know no reason against it but their effects may come to our bodies And as for infectious Diseases they come by a corporeal imitation as by touch either of the infected air drawn in by breath or entring through the Pores of the Body or of some things brought from infected places or else by hearing but diseases caused by Conceit have their beginning as all alterations have from
or a corporeal substance and millions of immaterial Spirits nay were their number infinite cannot possess so much place as a small Pinspoint for Incorporeal Spirits possess no place at all which is the reason that an Immaterial and a Material Infinite cannot hinder oppose or obstruct each other and such an Infinite Immaterial Spirit is God alone But as for Created Immaterial Spirits as they call them it may be questioned whether they be Immaterial or not for there may be material Spirits as well as immaterial that is such pure subtil and agil substances as cannot be subject to any humane sense which may be purer and subtiller then the most refined air or purest light I call them material spirits onely for distinctions sake although it is more proper to call them material substances But be it that there are Immaterial Spirits yet they are not natural but supernatural that is not substantial parts of Nature for Nature is material or corporeal and so are all her Creatures and whatsoever is not material is no part of Nature neither doth it belong any ways to Nature Wherefore all that is called Immaterial is a Natural Nothing and an Immaterial Natural substance in my opinion is non-sense And if you contend with me that Created Spirits as good and bad Angels as also the Immortal Mind of Man are Immaterial then I say they are Supernatural but if you say they are Natural then I answer they are Material and thus I do not deny the existence of Immaterial Spirits but onely that they are not parts of Nature but supernatural for there may be many things above Nature and so above a natural Understanding and Knowledg which may nevertheless have their being and existence although they be not Natural that is parts of Nature Neither do I deny that those supernatural Creatures may be amongst natural Creatures that is have their subsistence amongst them and in Nature but they are not so commixed with them as the several parts of Matter are that is they do not joyn to the constitution of a material Creature for no Immaterial can make a Material or contribute any thing to the making or production of it but such a co-mixture would breed a meer confusion in Nature wherefore it is quite another thing to be in Nature or to have its subsistence amongst natural Creatures in a supernatural manner or way and to be a part of Nature I allow the first to Immaterial Spirits but not the second viz. to be parts of Nature But what Immaterial Spirits are both in their Essence or Nature and their Essential Properties it being supernatural and above natural Reason I cannot determine any thing thereof Neither dare I say they are Spirits like as God is that is of the same Essence or Nature no more then I dare say or think that God is of a humane shape or figure or that the Nature of God is as easie to be known as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world For if this were so man would know God as well as he knows himself but God and his Attributes are not so easily known as man may know himself and his own natural Proprieties for God and his Attributes are not conceiveable or comprehensible by any humane understanding which is not onely material but also finite for though the parts of Nature be infinite in number yet each is finite in it self that is in its figure and therefore no natural Creature is capable to conceive what God is for he being infinite there is also required an infinite capacity to conceive him Nay Nature her self although she is Infinite yet cannot possibly have an exact notion of God by reason she is Material and God is Immaterial and if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive God much less will a finite part of Nature do it Besides the holy Church doth openly confess and declare the Incomprehensibility of God when in the Athanasian Creed she expresses that the Father is Incomprehensible the Son Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Therefore if any one will prove the contrary to wit that God is Comprehensible or which is all one that God is as easie to be known as any Creature whatsoever he surely is more then the Church But I shall never say or believe so but rather confess my ignorance then betray my folly and leave things Divine to the Church to which I submit as I ought in all Duty and as I do not meddle with any Divine Mysteries but subject my self concerning my Faith or Belief and the regulating of my actions for the obtaining of Eternal Life wholly under the government and doctrine of the Church so I hope they will also grant me leave to have my liberty concerning the contemplation of Nature and natural things that I may discourse of them with such freedom as meer natural Philosophers use or at least ought to do and thus I shall be both a good Chistian and a good Natural Philosopher Unto which to make the number perfect I will add a third which is I shall be MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THough I am loth as I have often told you to imbarque my self in the discourse of such a subject as no body is able naturally to know which is the supernatural and divine Soul in Man yet your Author having in my judgment strange opinions both of the Essence Figure Seat and Production of the Soul and discoursing thereof with such liberty and freedom as of any other natural Creature I cannot chuse but take some notice of his discourse and make some reflections upon it which yet shall rather express my ignorance of the same subject then in a positive answer declare my opinion thereof for in things divine I refer my self wholly to the Church and submit onely to their instructions without any further search of natural reason and if I should chance to express more then I ought to do and commit some errror it being out of ignorance rather then set purpose I shall be ready upon better information to mend it and willingly subject my self under the censure and correction of the holy Church as counting it no disgrace to be ignorant in the mysteries of Faith since Faith is of things unknown but rather a duty required from every Lay-man to believe simply the Word of God as it is explained and declared by the Orthodox Church without making Interpretations out of his own brain and according to his own fancy which breeds but Schismes Heresies Sects and Confusions But concerning your Author I perceive by him first that he makes no distinction between the Natural or Rational Soul or Mind of Man and between the Divine or Supernatural Soul but takes them both as one and distinguishes onely the Immortal Soul from the sensitive Life of
I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM YOur Author in opposition to the Schools endeavouring to prove that there are no humors in an animal body except blood proves many humors in himself But I can see no reason why Nature should not make several humors as well as several Elements Vegetables Minerals Animals and other Creatures and that in several parts of the body and many several ways for to mention but one sort of other Creatures viz. Vegetables they are as we see not onely produced many several ways but in many several grounds either by sowing setting or grafting either in clayie limy sandy chalky dry or wet grounds And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts as others are produced of them for all parts of Nature are produced one from another as being all of one and the same Matter onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive Truly Madam I should not be of such a mind as to oppose the Schools herein so eargerly as your Author doth but artificial actions make men to have erroneous opinions of the actions of Nature judging them all according to the rule and measure of Art when as Art oft deludes men under the cover of truth and makes them many times believe falshood for truth for Nature is pleased with variety and so doth make numerous absurdities doubts opinions disputations objections and the like Moreover your Author is as much against the radical moisture as he is against the four humors saying that according to this opinion of the Schools a fat belly through much grease affording more fuel to the radical moisture must of necessity live longer But this in my opinion is onely a wilful mistake for I am confident that the Schools do not understand radical moisture to be gross fat radical oyl but a thin oylie substance Neither do they believe radical heat to be a burning fiery and consuming heat but such a degree of natural heat as is comfortable nourishing refreshing and proper for the life of the animal Creature Wherefore radical heat and moisture doth not onely consist in the Grease of the body for a lean body may have as much and some of them more Radical moisture then fat bodies But your Author instead of this radical moisture makes a nourishable moisture onely as I suppose out of a mind to contradict the Schools when as I do not perceive that the Schools mean by Radical moisture any other then a nourishable moisture and therefore this distinction is needless Lastly he condemns the Schools for making an affinity betwixt the bowels and the brain But he might as will condemn Politicians for saying there is an affinity betwixt Governors and Subjects or betwixt command and obedience but as the actions of Particulars even from the meanest in a Common-wealth may chance to make a Publick disturbance so likewise in the Common-wealth of the body one single action in a particular part may cause a disturbance of the whole Body nay a total ruine and dissolution of the composed which dissolution is called Death and yet these causes are neither Light nor Blas nor Gas no more then men are shining Suns or flaming Torches or blazing Meteors or azure Skies Wherefore leaving your Author to his contradicting humor I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM I Do verily believe with the Schools the Purging of the Brain against your Author For I know no reason why all the parts of a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and purging as well as some 'T is true if the substance or nourishment received were all useful and onely enough for the maintenance subsistance and continuance of the Creature and no more then there would be no need of such sort of evacuation but I believe the corporeal self-motions in a body discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the body if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong and over-power the motions in the parts of the body but some parts do produce more superfluities then others by reason their property is more to dilate then to contract and more to attract then to retain or fix which parts are the brain stomack bowels bladder gall and the like wherefore as there is nourishment in all parts of the body so there are also excrements in all parts for there is no nourishment without excrement Next your Author says That the nourishment of the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment without a separation of the pure from the impure But I pray give me leave to ask Madam whether the solid Parts are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood Truly I cannot conceive how blood should be nourished wanting those solid parts and their particular motions and imployments Again his opinion is That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins neither doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive or a vapour enter And by reason of the want of such a passage in another place he is pleased to affirm That nothing can fume up from the stomack into the brain and therefore Wine doth not make drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head but the Winie spirit is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomack without digestion and so into the head and there breeds a confusion First I am not of the opinion that all nourishment comes from the veins or from one particular part of the body no more do Excrements neither do I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists for Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature to find them out which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects for certainly they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths Next as for Drunkenness I believe that many who drink much Wine are drunk before such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries but if there be Pores to the Brain as it is most probable the spirit of Wine may more easily ascend and enter those Pores then the Pores of the Arteries or the Mouth-veins and so make a circular journey to the Head But as for Excrements whereof I spake in the beginning as they are made several manners or ways and in several parts of the body so they are also discharged several ways from several parts and several ways from each particular part indeed so many several ways and manners as would puzzle the wisest man in the world nay your Authors Interior keeper of the Brain to find them out Wherefore to conclude he is the best Physician that can tell how to discharge
answer To my sense and reason it were possible if extremes were in Nature but I do not perceive that in Nature there be any although my sense and reason doth perceive alterations in the effects of Nature for though one and the same part may alter from contraction to dilation and from dilation to contraction yet this contraction and dilation are not extremes neither are they performed at one and the same time but at different times But having sufficiently declared my opinion hereof in my former Letters I 'l add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM MY discourse of Water in my last Letter has given you occasion to enquire after the reason Why the weight of a great body of water doth not press so hard and heavily as to bruise or crush a body when it is sunk down to the bottom As for example If a man should be drowned and afterwards cast out from the bottom of a great Sea or River upon the shore he would onely be found smother'd or choak'd to death and not press'd crush'd or bruised by the weight of water I answer The reasons are plain for first the nature of a mans respiration requires such a temperature of breath to suck in as is neither too thick nor too thin for his lungs and the rest of his interior parts as also for the organs and passages of his exterior senses but fit proper and proportionable to those mentioned parts of his body As for example in a too thin and rarified air man will be as apt to die for want of breath as in a too gross and thick air he is apt to die with a superfluity of the substance he imbreaths for thick smoak or thick vapour as also too gross air will soon smother a man to death and as for choaking if a man takes more into his throat then he can swallow he will die and if his stomack be filled with more food then it is able to digest if it cannot discharge it self he will die with the excess of food and if there be no food or too little put into it he will also die for want of food So the eye if it receives too many or too gross or too bright objects it will be dazled or blinded and some objects through their purity are not to be seen at all The same for Hearing and the rest of the exterior senses And this is the reason why man or some animal Creatures are smother'd and choak'd with water because water is thicker then the grossest air or vapour for if smoak which is rarer then water will smother and choak a man well may water being so much thicker But yet this smothering or choaking doth not prove that water hath an interior or innate density as your Authors opinion is no more then smoak or thick and gross air hath but the density of water is caused more through the wet and moist exterior parts joyning and uniting closely together and the interior nature of smoak being more moist or glutinous then thin air and so more apt to unite its exterior parts it makes it to come in effect nearer to water for though water and smoak are both of rare natures yet not so rare as clear and pure air neither is water or smoak so porous as pure air by reason the exterior parts of water and smoak are more moist or glutinous then pure air But the thickness of water and smoak is the onely cause of the smothering of men or some animals as by stopping their breath for a man can no more live without air then he can without food and a well tempered or middle degree of air is the most proper for animal Respiration for if the air be too thick it may soon smother or choak him and if too thin it is not sufficient to give him breath And this is the reason that a man being drown'd is not onely smother'd but choak'd by water because there enters more through the exterior passages into his body then can be digested for water is apt to flow more forcibly and with greater strength then air not that it is more dilating then air but by reason it is thicker and so stronger or of more force for the denser a body is the stronger it is and a heavy body when moved is more forcible then a light body But I pray by this expression mistake not the nature of water for the interior nature of water hath not that gravity which heavy or dense bodies have its nature being rare and light as air or fire but the weight of water as I said before proceeds onely from the closeness and compactness of its exterior parts not through a contraction in its interior nature and there is no argument which proves better that water in its interior nature is dilating then that its weight is not apt to press to a point for though water is apt to descend through the union of its parts yet it cannot press hard by reason of its dilating nature which hinders that heavy pressing quality for a dilating body cannot have a contracted weight I mean so as to press to a Center which is to a point and this is the reason that when a grave or heavy body sinks down to the bottom of water it is not opprest hurt crusht or bruised by the weight of water for as I said the nature of water being dilating it can no more press hard to a center then vapour air or fire The truth is water would be as apt to ascend as descend if it were not for the wet glutinous and sticking cleaving quality of its exterior parts but as the quantity and quality of the exterior parts makes water apt to sink or descend so the dilating nature makes it apt to flow if no hinderance stop its course also the quantity and quality of its exterior parts is the cause that some heavy bodies do swim without sinking as for example a great heavy Ship will not readily sink unless its weight be so contracted as to break asunder the united parts of water for the wet quality of water causing its exterior parts to joyn close gives it such an united strength as to be able to bear a heavy burden if the weight be dilated or level and not piercing or penetrating for those bodies that are most compact will sink sooner although of less weight then those that are more dilated although of greater weight Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others Indeed the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming But to conclude water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree as neither too rare nor too grave a body and for its exterior quality it is in as high a degree for wetness as fire is for heat and being apt both to divide and to unite it can bear a burden and devour a
they make Ice Surely Nature is wiser then to trouble her self with unnecessary labour and to make an easie work difficult as Art her Creature doth or as some dull humane capacities conceive for it is more easie for Nature to make Snow by some sorts of cold contractions as she makes Ice by other sorts of cold contractions then to force Air and Wind to beat grinde or pound Ice into Snow which would cause a confusion and disturbance through the Irregularity of several parts being jumbled in a confused manner together The truth is it would rather cause a War in Nature then a natural production alteration or transformation Neither can I conceive in what region this turbulent and laborious work should be acted certainly not in the caverns of the Earth for snow descends from the upper Region But perchance this Author believes that Nature imploys Wind as a Hand and the Cold air as a Spoon to beat Ice like the white of an Egg into a froth of Snow But the great quantity of Snow in many places doth prove that Snow is not made of the fragments of Ice but that some sorts of cold contractions on a watery body make the figure of snow in the substance of water as other sorts of cold contractions make the figure of ice which motions and figures I have treated of in my Book of Philosophy according to that Judgment and Reason which Nature has bestowed upon me The Author of this Fancy gives the same reason for Snow being white For Ice says he is a transparent body and all transparent bodies when beaten into powder appear white and since Snow is nothing else but Ice powder d small it must of necessity shew white Truly Madam I am not so experienced as to know that all transparent bodies being beaten small shew white but grant it be so yet that doth not prove that the whiteness of snow proceeds from the broken parts of Ice unless it be proved that the whiteness of all bodies proceeds from the powdering of transparent bodies which I am sure he cannot do for Silver and millions of other things are white which were never produced from the powder of transparent bodies Neither do I know any reason against it but that which makes a Lilly white may also be the cause of the whiteness of Snow that is such a figure as makes a white colour for different figures in my opinion are the cause of different colours as you will find in my Book of Philosophy where I say that Nature by contraction of lines draws such or such a Figure which is such or such a Colour as such a Fgure is red and such a Figure is green and so of all the rest But the Palest colours and so white are the loosest and slackest figures Indeed white which is the nearest colour to light is the smoothest evenest and straightest figure and composed of the smallest lines As for example suppose the figure of 8. were the colour of Red and the figure of 1. the colour of White or suppose the figure of Red to be a z. and the figure of an r. to be the figure of Green and a straight l. the figure of White And mixt figures make mixt colours The like examples may be brought of other Figures as of a Harpsichord and its strings a Lute and its strings a Harp and its strings c. By which your Reason shall judg whether it be not easier for Nature to make Snow and its whiteness by the way of contraction then by the way of dissolution As for example Nature in making Snow contracts or congeals the exterior figure of Water into the figure of a Harp which is a Triangular figure with the figure of straight strings within it for the exterior figure of the Harp represents the exterior figure of Snow and the figure of the strings extended in straight lines represent the figure of its whiteness And thus it is easier to make Snow and its whiteness at one act then first to contract or congeal water into Ice and then to cause wind and cold air to beat and break that Ice into powder and lastly to contract or congeal that powder into flakes of Snow Which would be a very troublesom work for Nature viz. to produce one effect by so many violent actions and several labours when the making of two figures by one action will serve the turn But Nature is wiser then any of her Creatures can conceive for she knows how to make and how to dissolve form and transform with facility and ease without any difficulty for her actions are all easie and free yet so subtil curious and various as not any part or creature of Nature can exactly or throughly trace her ways or know her wisdom And thus leaving her I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM I Have taken several questions out of your new Author which I intend to answer in this present Letter according to the conceptions of my own sense and reason and to submit them to your censure which if you vouchsafe to grant me without partiality I shall acknowledge my self much obliged to you for this favour The first question is Why wet Linnen is dried in the Air I answer That according to my sense and reason the water which is spred upon the linnen being not united in a full and close body dilates beyond the Circle-degree of water and wetness and so doth easily change from water to vapour and from vapour to air whereby the linnen becomes as dry as it was before it became wet The second question is Why Water and Wine intermix so easily and suddenly together I answer All wet liquors although their exterior figures do differ yet their interior natures figures and forms are much alike and those things that are of the same interior nature do easily and suddenly joyn as into one Wherefore Wine and Water having both wet natures do soon incorporate together whereas were they of different natures they would not so peaceably joyn together but by their contrary natures become enemies and strive to destroy each other but this is to be observed that the sharp points of the Circle-lines of Wine by passing through the smooth Circle-lines of Water help to make a more hasty and sudden conjunction The third question is Why Light which in its nature is white shining through a coloured Glass doth appear of the same colour which the Glass is of either Blew Green Red or the like I answer The reason is that though Light in its nature be white and the Glass clear and transparent yet when as the Glass is stained or painted with colours both the clearness of the glass and the whiteness of the light is obstructed by the figure of that colour the glass is stained or painted withal and the light spreading upon or thorow the glass represents it self in the figure of that same colour indeed in all probability to sense and reason it appears that
the lines or beams of light which are straight small even and parallel do contract in their entrance through the glass into the figure of the colour the glass is stained or painted with so that the light passes through the glass figuratively in so much as it seems to be of the same colour the glass is of although in it self it is white lucent and clear and as the light appears so the eye receives it if the sight be not destructive The fourth question is Whether as your Authors opinion is kisses feel pleasing and delightful by the thinness of the parts and a gentle stirring and quavering of the tangent spirits that give a pleasing tact I answer If this were so then all kisses would be pleasing which surely are not for some are thought very displeasing especially from thin lips wherefore in my opinion it is neither the thinness of the parts of the lips nor the quavering of the tangent spirits but the appetites and passions of life reason and soul that cause the pleasure Nevertheless I grant the stirring up of the spirits may contribute to the increasing heightning or strengthning of that tact but it is not the prime cause of it The fifth question is Whether the greatest man have always the greatest strength I answer Not for strength and greatness of bulk doth not always consist together witness experience for a little man may be and is oftentimes stronger then a tall man The like of other animal Creatures As for example some Horses of a little or middle size have a great deal more strength then others which are high and big for it is the quantity of sensitive matter that gives strength and not the bigness or bulk of the body The sixth question is Whether this World or Vniverse be the biggest Creature I answer It is not possible to be known unless Man could perfectly know its dimension or extension or whether there be more Worlds then one But to speak properly there is no such thing as biggest or least in Nature The seventh question is Whether the Earth be the Center of Matter or of the World As for Matter it being Infinite has no Center by reason it has no Circumference and as for this World its Center cannot be known unless man knew the utmost parts of its circumference for no Center can be known without its circumference and although some do imagine this world so little that in comparison to Infinite Matter it would not be so big as the least Pins head yet their knowledg cannot extend so far as to know the circumference of this little World by which you may perceive the Truth of the old saying Man talks much but knows little The eighth question is Whether all Centers must needs be full and close as a stufft Cushion and whether the matter in the Center of the Vniverse or World be dense compact and heavy I answer This can no more be known then the circumference of the World for what man is able to know whether the Center of the world be rare or dense since he doth not know where its Center is and as for other particular Centers some Centers may be rare some dense and some may have less matter then their circumferences The ninth question is Whether Finite Creatures can be produced out of an Infinite material cause I answer That to my sense and reason an Infinite cause must needs produce Infinite effects though not in each Particular yet in General that is Matter being Infinite in substance must needs be dividable into Infinite parts in number and thus Infinite Creatures must needs be produced out of Infinite Matter but Man being but a finite part thinks all must be finite too not onely each particular Creature but also the Matter out of which all Creatures are produced which is corporeal Nature Nevertheless those Infinite effects in Nature are equalized by her different motions which are her different actions for it is not non-sence but most demonstrable to sense and reason that there are equalities or a union in Infinite The tenth question is Whether the Elements be the onely matter out of which all other Creatures are produced I answer The Elements as well as all other Creatures as it appears to humane sense and reason are all of one and the same Matter which is the onely Infinite Matter and therefore the Elements cannot be the Matter of all other Creatures for several sorts of Creatures have several ways of productions and I know no reason to the contrary but that Animals Vegetables and Minerals may as well derive their essence from each other as from the Elements or the Elements from them for as all Creatures do live by each other so they are produced from each other according to the several ways or manners of productions But mistake me not Madam for I speak of production in General and not of such natural production whereby the several species of Creatures are maintained As for example Generation in Animals for an Element cannot generate an Animal in that manner as an Animal can generate or produce its like for as Nature is wise so her actions are all wise and orderly or else it would make a horrid confusion amongst the Infinite parts of Nature The eleventh question is What is meant by Natural Theology I answer Natural Theology in my opinion is nothing else but Moral Philosophy for as for our belief it is grounded upon the Scripture and not upon Reason These Madam are the Questions which I have pickt out of your new Author together with my answers of which I desire your impartial Judgment But I must add onething more before I conclude which is I am much pleased with your Authors opinion That Sound may be perceived by the Eye Colour by the Ear and that Sound and Colour may be smell'd and tasted and I have been of this opinion eleven years since as you will find in my Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the Year 1653. And thus I take my leave of you and remain constantly MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XVI MADAM COncerning your question of the ascending nature of fire I am absolutely of Aristotle's Opinion that it is as natural for Fire to ascend as it is for Earth to descend And why should we believe the nature of one and doubt the nature of the other For if it be granted that there are as well ascending as descending bodies in Nature as also low and high places according to the situation of Particulars and Circumferences as well as Centers considering the shape of bodies I cannot perceive by humane reason but that the Nature of fire is ascending and that it is very improbable it should have a descending or contracting nature as to tend or endeavour to a Center But Madam give me leave to ask what sort of Fire you mean whether a Celestial or a Terrestrial Fire viz. that which is named an Elemental fire or any
other sort of fire for there may be as many several sorts of fire as of other Creatures or whether you mean onely that sort of fire that belongs to this terrestrial Globe or all the fire in general that is in Infinite Nature and if you mean onely that sort of fire which belongs to this Terrestrial World we live upon I answer There are many several sorts of that fire too for all the fire belonging to this Earthly Globe doth not lie in one place body or part no more then all metal or but one sort of metal as Gold lies in one mine or all Mankind in one womb Neither can I believe that the Sun is the onely Celestial Fire in Nature but that there may be as numerous Suns as there are other sorts of Creatures in Nature But as for the ascending propriety of this terrestrial Fire you may say That the Elements do commix and unite in this worldly Globe and if Fire should have an ascending motion it would pierce into other Globes or Worlds and never leave ascending I answer That first of all the strength of fire is to be considered consisting not onely in its quantity but also in its quality as whether it can ascend to those bodies and places which are far above it For example A Man or any other Creature hath never so much strength or ability or length of life as to travel to the utmost parts of the Universe were the way never so plain and free and the number of men never so great the like for Elementary fire which hath life and death that is generation and dissolution and successive motion as well as other Creatures But you would fain know whether fire if it were left at liberty would not turn to a Globous figure I answer That to my sense and reason it would not but some men seeing the flame of fire in an arched Oven descend round the sides of the Oven in a Globous figure do perhaps imagine the nature of fire to be descending and its natural figure round as a Globe which is ridiculous for the fire in the Oven although every where incompassed and bound yet according to its nature ascends to the top of the Oven and finding a stoppage and suppression offers to descend perpendicularly but by reason of a continual ascending of the following flame the first and so all the following parts of flame are forced to spread about and descend round the sides of the Oven so that the descension of the flame is forced and not natural and its Globous figure is caused as it were by a mould which is the Oven But some are of opinion that all bodies have descending motions towards the Center of this worldly Globe and therefore they do not believe that any bodies do ascend naturally But what reason have they to believe one and not the other Besides how do they know that all bodies would rest in the Center of this terrestriaal Globe if they came thither For if it was possible that a hole could be digged from the superficies of this Earthly Globe thorow the middle or Center of it unto the opposite superficies and a stone be sent thorow the question is whether the stone would rest in the Center and not go quite thorow Wherefore this is but an idle Fancy and the proof that Fire tends not to a Center is because it cannot be poised or weighed not onely by reason of its rarity but of its dilative and aspiring Nature and as fire is ascending or aspiring so likewise do I Madam aspire to the top of your favour and shall never descend from the ambition to serve you but by the suppression of death Till then I remain MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XVII MADAM IN your last you were pleased to desire my answer to these following Questions First What the reason is that a Vessel although it be of a solid and compact substance yet will retain the smell or odour of a forreign substance poured into it for a long time I answer The Vessel or rather the perceptive corporeal motions of the Vessel having patterned out the figure of the sent of the odorous substance retain that same figure of sent although the odorous substance is gone and as long as that patterned figure is perfect the sent will remain in the Vessel either more or less according as the figure doth last or alter But you must consider Madam that although it be the natural motions that make those patterns of odours yet those patterned figures are but as it were artificial like as a man who draws a Copy from an Original for Nature has divers and several ways of such motions as we call Art for whatsoever is an imitation is that which man calls Art Your second question was How it came that the mind and understanding in many did die or dissolve before the body I answer The reason is because the rational corporeal motions alter before the sensitive for as in some as for example in Natural fools the rational motions never move to a regular humane understanding so in some dying Persons they do make a general alteration before the sensitive Your third question was Why a man being bitten by a mad Dog is onely distempered in his mind and not in his body The reason according to my judgment is that the rational part of Matter is onely disturbed and not the sensitive The fourth question was Why a Basilisk will kill with his eyes I answer It is the sensitive corporeal motions in the organ of fight in the man which upon the printing of the figure of the eyes of the Basilisk make a sudden alteration Your fifth question was Why an Asp will kill insensibly by biting The reason in my opinion is That the biting of the Asp hath the same efficacy as deadly Opium hath yea and much stronger Your sixth question was Why a Dog that rejoyces swings his tail and a Lyon when angry or a Cat when in a fear do lift up their tails I answer The several motions of the mind may produce either but one or several sorts of motions in some part or parts of the body and as the sensitive motions of anger will produce tears so will the motions of joy but grief made by the rational motions of the mind may by excess disturb and make a general alteration of the sensitive motions in an animal the same may excessive joy But Madam you may perhaps find out better reasons for your own questions then these are for my endeavour was onely to frame my answer to the ground of my own opinions and so to satisfie your desire which was and is still the ambition of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVIII MADAM IN your last you were pleased to desire an account how far or how much I did understand the ancient and modern Philosophers in their Philosophical Writings Truly Madam I can more readily tell you what I do not
abolish'd the intended benefit and banish'd equity and instead of keeping Peace they make War causing enmity betwixt men As for Natural Philosophy they will not suffer sense and reason to appear in that study And as for Physick they have kill'd more men then Wars Plagues or Famine Wherefore from nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry Good God deliver us especially from those that concern Divinity for they weaken Faith trouble Conscience and bring in Atheism In short they make controversies and endless disputes But least the opening of my meaning in such plain terms should raise a controversie also between you and me I 'le cut off here and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YEsterday I received a visit from the Lady N. M. who you know hath a quick wit rational opinions and subtil conceptions all which she is ready and free to divulge in her discourse But when she came to my Chamber I was casting up some small accounts which when she did see What said she are you at Numeration Yes said I but I cannot number well nor much for I do not understand Arithrnetick Said she You can number to three Yes said I I can number to four Nay faith said she the number of three is enough if you could but understand that number well for it is a mystical number Said I There is no great mystery to count that number for one and two makes three Said she That is not the mystery for the mystery is That three makes one and without this mystery no man can understand Dlvinity Nature nor himself Then I desired her to make me understand that mystery She said It required more time to inform me then a short visit for this mystery was such as did puzle all wise men in the world aud the not understanding of this mystery perfectly had caused endless divisions and disputes I desired if she could not make me understand the mystery she would but inform me how three made one in Divinity Nature and Man She said That was easie to do for in Divinity there are three Persons in one Essence as God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost whose Essence being individable they make but one God And as for Philosophy there is but Matter Motion and Figure which being individable make but one Nature And as for Man there is Soul Life and Body all three joyned in one Man But I replied Man's Life Soul and Body is dividable That is true said she but then he is no more a Man for these three are his essential parts which make him to be a man and when these parts are dissolved then his interior nature is changed so that he can no longer be call'd a man As for example Water being turned into Air and having lost its interior nature can no more be called Water but it is perfect Air the same is with Man But as long as he is a Man then these three forementioned parts which make him to be of that figure are individably united as long as man lasts Besides said she this is but in the particular considering man single and by himself but in general these three as life soul and body are individably united so that they remain as long as manking lasts Nay although they do dissolve in the particulars yet it is but for a time for they shall be united again at the last day which is the time of their resurrection so that also in this respect we may justly call them individable for man shall remain with an united soul life and body eternally And as she was thus discoursing in came a Sophisterian whom when she spied away she went as fast as she could but I followed her close and got hold of her then asked her why she ran away She answer'd if she stayed the Logician would dissolve her into nothing for the profession of Logicians is to make something nothing and nothing something I pray'd her to stay and discourse with the Logician Not for a world said she for his discourse will make my brain like a confused Chaos full of senseless minima's and after that he will so knock jolt and jog it and make such whirls and pits as will so torture my brain that I shall wish I had not any Wherefore said she I will not stay now but visit you again to morrow And I wish with all my heart Madam you were so near as to be here at the same time that we three might make a Triumvirate in discourse as well as we do in friendship But since that cannot be I must rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOu were pleased to desire my opinion of the works of that Learned and Ingenious Writer B. Truly Madam I have read but some part of his works but as much as I have read I have observed he is a very civil eloquent and rational Writer the truth is his style is a Gentleman's style And in particular concerning his experiments I must needs say this that in my judgment he hath expressed himself to be a very industrious and ingenious person for he doth neither puzle Nature nor darken truth with hard words and compounded languages or nice distinctions besides his experiments are proved by his own action But give me leave to tell you that I observe he studies the different parts and alterations more then the motions which cause the alterations in those parts whereas did he study and observe the several and different motions in those parts how they change in one and the same part and how the different alterations in bodies are caused by the different motions of their parts he might arrive to a vast knowledg by the means of his experiments for certainly experiments are very beneficial to man In the next place you desire my opinion of the Book call'd The Discourses of the Virtuosi in France I am sorry Madam this book comes so late to my hands that I cannot read it so slowly and observingly as to give you a clear judgment of their opinions or discourses in particular however in general and for what I have read in it I may say it expresses the French to be very learned and eloquent Writers wherein I thought our English had exceeded them and that they did onely excel in wit and ingenuity but I perceive most Nations have of all sorts The truth is ingenious and subtil wit brings news but learning and experience brings proofs at least argumental discourses and the French are much to be commended that they endeavour to spend their time wisely honourably honestly and profitably not onely for the good and benefit of their own but also of other Nations But before I conclude give me leave to tell you that concerning the curious and profitable Arts mentioned in their discourses I confess I do much admire them and partly believe they may arrive to the use of many of them but there are two arts which I
There was and There shall be but onely There is Neither can it properly be said from this to that place but onely in reference to the several moving parts of the onely Infinite Matter And thus much to your Questions I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXX MADAM IN your last you were pleased to express that some men who think themselves wise did laugh in a scornful manner at my opinion when I say that every Creature hath life and knowledg sense and reason counting it not onely ridiculous but absurd and asking whether you did or could believe a piece of wood metal or stone had as much sense as a beast or as much reason as a man having neither brain blood heart nor flesh nor such organs passages parts nor shapes as animals To which I answer That it is not any of these mentioned things that makes life and knowledg but life and knowledg is the cause of them which life and knowledg is animate matter and is in all parts of all Creatures and to make it more plain and perspicuous humane sense and reason may perceive that wood stone or metal acts as wisely as an animal As for example Rhubarb or the like drugs will act very wisely in Purging and Antimony or the like will act very wisely in Vomiting and Opium will act very wisely in Sleeping also Quicksilver or Mercury will act very wisely as those that have the French disease can best witness likewise the Loadstone acts very wisely as Mariners or Navigators will tell you Also Wine made of Fruit and Ale of Malt and distilled Aqua-vitae will act very subtilly ask the Drunkards and they can inform you Thus Infinite examples may be given and yet man says all Vegetables and Minerals are insensible and irrational as also the Planets and Elements when as yet the Planets move very orderly and wisely and the Elements are more active nay more subtil and searching then any of the animal Creatures witness Fire Air and Water As for the Earth she brings forth her fruit if the other Elements do not cause abortives in due season and yet man believes Vegetables Minerals and Elements are dead dull senseless and irrational Creatures because they have not such shapes parts nor passages as Animals nor such exterior and local motions as Animals have but Man doth not consider the various intricate and obscure ways of Nature unknown to any particular Creature for what our senses are not capable to know our reason is apt to deny Truly in my opinion Man is more irrational then any of those Creatures when he believes that all knowledg is not onely confined to one sort of Creatures but to one part of one particular Creature as the head or brain of man for who can in reason think that there is no other sensitive and rational knowledg in Infinite Matter but what is onely in Man or animal Creatures It is a very simple and weak conclusion to say Other Creatures have no eyes to see no ears to hear no tongues to taste no noses to smell as animals have wherefore they have no sense or sensitive knowledg or because they have no head nor brain as Man hath therefore they have no reason nor rational knowledg at all for sense and reason and consequently sensitive and rational knowledg extends further then to be bound to the animal eye ear nose tongue head or brain but as these organs are onely in one kind of Natures Creatures as Animals in which organs the sensitive corporeal motions make the perception of exterior objects so there may be infinite other kinds of passages or organs in other Creatures unknown to Man which Creatures may have their sense and reason that is sensitive and rational knowledg each according to the nature of its figure for as it is absurd to say that all Creatures in Nature are Animals so it is absurd to confine sense and reason onely to Animals or to say that all other Creatures if they have sense and reason life and knowledg it must be the same as is in Animals I confess it is of the same degree that is of the same animate part of matter but the motions of life and knowledg work so differently and variously in every kind and sort nay in every particular Creature that no single Creature can find them out But in my opinion not any Creature is without life and knowledg which life and knowledg is made by the self-moving part of matter that is by the sensitive and rational corporeal motions and as it is no consequence that all Creatures must be alike in their exterior shapes figures and motions because they are all produced out of one and the same matter so neither doth it follow that all Creatures must have the same interior motions natures and proprieties and so consequently the same life and knowledg because all life and knowledg is made by the same degree of matter to wit the animate Wherefore though every kind or sort of Creatures has different perceptions yet they are not less knowing for Vegetables Minerals and Elements may have as numerous and as various perceptions as Animals and they may be as different from animal perceptions as their kinds are but a different perception is not therefore no perception Neither is it the animal organs that make perception nor the animal shape that makes life but the motions of life make them But some may say it is Irreligious to believe any Creature has rational knowledg but Man Surely Madam the God of Nature in my opinion will be adored by all Creatures and adoration cannot be without sense and knowledg Wherefore it is not probable that onely Man and no Creature else is capable to adore and worship the Infinite and Omnipotent God who is the God of Nature and of all Creatures I should rather think it irreligious to confine sense and reason onely to Man and to say that no Creature adores and worships God but Man which in my judgment argues a great pride self-conceit and presumption And thus Madam having declared my opinion plainly concerning this subject I will detain you no longer at this present but rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXXI MADAM I Perceive you do not well apprehend my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions That the Infinite degrees of Infinite Matter are all Infinite For say you the degrees of Matter cannot be Infinite by reason there cannot be two Infinites but one would obstruct the other My answer is I do not mean that the degrees of Matter are Infinite each in its self that is that the animate and inanimate are several Infinite matters but my opinion is that the animate degree of matter is in a perpetual motion and the inanimate doth not move of it self and that those degrees are infinite in their effects as producing and making infinite figures for since the cause which is the onely matter is infinite the
effects and as for Water if he doth make it a Principle of Natural things I see no reason why he excludes the rest of the Elements But in my opinion Water and the rest of the Elements are but effects of Nature as other Creatures are and so cannot be prime causes The like the Ferment which to my sense and reason is nothing else but a natural effect of natural matter Concerning his opinion That Causes and Beginnings are all one or that there is but little difference betwixt them I do readily subscribe unto it but when he speaks of those things which are produced without life my reason cannot find out what or where they should be for certainly in Nature they are not Nature being Life and Soul her self and all her parts being enlivened and soulified so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning when he says That the Seeds of things and the Spirits as the Dispensers thereof are divided from the Material Cause For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed and the material Cause but they are all one thing it being undeniable that the seed is the matter of that which is produced But your Author was pleased to say heretofore that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things and now he makes so many more for says he Of Efficient and Seminal Causes some are efficiently effecting and others effectively effecting which nice distinctions in my opinion do but make a confusion in natural knowledg setting a mans brain on the rack for who is able to conceive all those Chymaeras and Fancies of the Archeus Ferment various Ideas Blas Gas and many more which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature but betwixt both except a man have the same Fancies Visions and Dreams your Author had Nature is easie to be understood and without any difficulty so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names able to fright any body Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed which cause is corporeal Nature or natural self-moving Matter which forms and produces all natural things and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions which are the various motions in Nature some whereof are Regular some Irregular I mean Irregular as to particular Creatures not as to Nature her self for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed or else all would run into confusion Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures not Infinite Nature and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power they cause either Peace or War Sickness or Health Delight and Pleasure or Grief and Pain Life or Death to particular Creatures or parts of Nature but all these various actions are but various Effects and not prime Causes which is well to be observed lest we confound Causes with Effects And so leaving this discourse for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM IT is no wonder your Author has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions Apparitions and Dreams but are built upon so strange grounds and principles as Ideas Archeus Gas Blas Ferment and the like the names of which sound so harsh and terrifying as they might put any body easily into a fright like so many Hobgoblins or Immaterial spirits but the best is they can do no great harm except it be to trouble the brains of them that love to maintain those opinions for though they are thought to be powerful beings yet being not corporeal substances I cannot imagine wherein their power should consist for Nothing can do nothing But to mention each apart first his Archeus he calls the Spirit of Life a vital Gas or Light the Balsam preserving from Corruption the Vulcan or Smith of Generation the stirrer up and inward director of Generation an Air a skiey or airy Spirit cloathing himself presently with a bodily cloathing in things soulified walking through all the dens and retiring places of the seed and transforming the matter according to the perfect act of its own Image remaining the president and overseer or inward ruler of his bounds even till death the Principle of Life the Inn of Life the onely immediate Witness Executor and Instrument of Life the Prince and Center of Life the Ruler of the Stern the Keeper of Life and promoter of Transmutations the Porter of the Soul a Fountainous being a Flint These and many more names your Author attributes to his Archeus but what properly it is and what its Nature and its peculiar office I am not able to conceive In the next place Gas and Blas are to your Author also true Principles of Natural things for Gas is the Vapour into which Water is dissolved by Cold but yet it is a far more fine and subtil thing then Vapour which he demonstrates by the Art of Chymistry This Gas in another place he calls a Wild Spirit or Breath unknown hitherto which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body in some things it is nothing but Water as for example in Salt in Fruits and the like But Blas proceeds from the local and alterative motion of the Stars and is the general beginning of motion producing heat and cold and that especially with the changing of the Winds There is also Blas in all sublunary things witness Amulets or preserving Pomanders whereby they do constrain objects to obey them Which Incorporeal Blas of Government acts without a Corporeal Efflux even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell but the fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own and it is twofold one which existeth by a natural Motion the other voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an Internal Willing There is also a Blas of the Heart which is the fuel of the Vital Spirit and consequently of its heat The Ferment he describes to be A true Principle or Original beginning of things to wit a Formal Created being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral being framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchy in the manner of Light Fire the magnal or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds Lastly his Ideas are Certain formal seminal Lights mutually piercing each other without the adultery of Union For says he although at first that which is imagined is nothing but a meer being of reason yet it doth not remain such for truely the Fancy is a sealifying vertue
and in this respect is called Imaginative because it forms the Images of Likenesses or Ideas of things conceived and doth characterize them in its own Vital Spirit and therefore that Idea is made a spiritual or seminal powerful being to perform things of great moment And those Ideas he makes various and numerous as Archeal Ideas Ideas of Diseases Sealifyiug Ideas Piercing Ideas Forreign and strange Ideas Mad Ideas Irrational and Incorrigible Ideas Staggering Ideas and a hundred others the like of Gas Blas and the rest Thus Madam I have made a rehearsal of your Authors strange and hitherto unknown Principles as his Confession is of Natural things which to my sense and reason are so obscure intricate and perplex as is almost impossible exactly to conceive them when as Principles ought to be easie plain and without any difficulty to be understood Wherefore what with his Spirits meer-beings non-beings and neutralbeings he troubles Nature and puzles the brains of his Readers so that I think if all men were of his opinion or did follow the way of his Philosophy Nature would desire God she might be annihilated Onely of all other she doth not fear his Non-beings for they are the weakest of all and can do her the least hurt as not being able to obstruct real and corporeal actions of Nature for Nature is a corporeal substance and without a substance Motion cannot be and without Motion opposition cannot be made nor any action in Nature whether Prints Seals Stamps Productions Generations Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Passions Appetites or the like and if motions cannot be without substance then all Creatures their properties faculties natures c being made by corporeal motions cannot be Non-beings no nor anything else that is in Nature for non-beings are not in the number of Natural things Nature containing nothing within her but what is substantially really and corporeally existent But your Authors Ideal Entity whereof he is speaking in another place of his Works which performs all the Works of Nature seems to me as if it were the Jack of all Offices or like the Jack in a Clock that makes every Wheel move for it hath an admirable power to put off and on Corporeality and Incorporeality and to make it self Something and Nothing as often as it has occasion but if this Proteus have such power it may well be named the Magick of Nature Your Author saith it is not the Devil nor any effect thereof but certainly in my opinion according to its description and the effects laid to its performance it must be more then the Devil wherefore in my Reason I cannot conceive it neither am I able to understand his Phantastick Activity Fancy of Forms the Souls acting by an insensible way and many more such like expressions But I conceive that all these can be nothing else but the several motions of the sensitive and rational matter which is the Active Ingenious Distinguishing Knowing Wise and Understanding part of Infinite corporeal Nature and though Infinite Matter hath Infinite parts in general yet there is a finiteness in every part considered by it self not that I think a Part can really subsist single and by it self but it is onely considered so in the manner of our Conception by reason of the difference and variousness of natural Creatures for these being different from each other in their figures and not all alike so that we can make a distinction betwixt them this difference and distinction causes us to conceive every part of a different figure by it self but properly and according to the Truth of Nature there is no part by it self subsisting for all parts are to be considered not onely as parts of the whole but as parts of other parts all parts being joyned in Infinite Nature and tied by an inseparable tie one way or other although we do not altogether perceive it But to return to Ideas I had almost forgot to tell you Madam of another kind of Ideas by your Author named Bewitching or Inchanting Ideas which are for the most part found in Women against which I cannot but take exception in the behalf of our Sex For says he Women stamp Ideas on themselves whereby they no otherwise then Witches driven about with a malignant spirit of despair are oftentimes governed or snatched away unto those things which otherwise they would not and do bewail unto us their own and unvoluntary Madness These Ideas are hurtful to themselves and do as it were Inchant Infatuate and weaken themselves for so as Plutarch witnesses a desire of death by hanging took hold of all the young Maids in the Island Chios By this it appears that your Author has never been in Love or else he would have found that Men have as well bewitching Ideas as Women and that they are as hurtful to Men as to Women Neither can I be perswaded to believe that men should not have as well Mad Ideas as Women for to mention no other example some I will not speak of your Author their Writings and strange Opinions in Philosophy do sufficiently witness it but whence those Ideas do proceed whether from the Bride-bed of the Soul or the Splene your Author doth not declare As for the young Maids in Chios I must confess it is a very strange example but I think there have been as many Men that have killed themselves as Women if not more However I hope by the Grace of God the young Maids in this Kingdom are better advised for if they should do the like it would be a sad fate for all young Men. To conclude Madam all these rehearsed opinions of your Author concerning the Grounds or Principles of Natural Philosophy if you desire my Unfeigned Judgment I can say no more but that they shew more Fancy then Reason and Truth and so do many others and perhaps my opinions may be as far from Truth as his although their Ground is Sense and Reason for there is no single Creature in Nature that is able to know the perfectest Truth but some opinions to humane sense and reason may have more probability then others and every one thinks his to be most probable according to his own fancy and imagination and so I think of mine nevertheless I leave them to the censure of those that are endued with solid judgment and reason and know how to discern betwixt things of fancy and reason and amongst the rest I submit them to the censure of your Ladiship whose solid and wise Judgment is the rule of all the actions of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant III. MADAM YOur Author relating how he dissents from the False Doctrine as he terms it of the Schools concerning the Elements and their Mixtures Qualities Temperaments Discords c. in order to Diseases is pleased to say as follows I have sufficiently demonstrated that there are not four Elements in Nature and by consequence if there are onely three that four cannot go together or