uselesse Piece of Service to Natural Philosophy Partly by exciting You and Your Learned Friends to Enquire after more Intelligible and Satisfactory wayes of explicating Qualities and Partly by Beginning such a Collection of Materials towards the History of those Qualities that I shall the most largely Insist on as Heat Colours Fluidity and Firmnesse as may invite You and other Ingenious â—en to contribute also their Experiments and Observations to so Usefull a VVork and thereby lay a foundation whereon You and perhaps I may superstruct a more Distinct and Explicite Theory of Qualities then I shall at present adventure at And though I Know that some of the things my Experiments tend to Manifest may likewise be Confirm'd by the more obvious Phaenomena of Nature yet I Praesume You will not dislike my Chosing to entertaine You with the Former though without at all Despising or so much as strictly forbearing to Employ the Latter because the Changes of Qualities made by Our Experiments will for the most part be more Quick Conspicuous and the agents made use of to produce them being of our own Applying and oftentimes of our own Praeparation we may be thereby assisted the better to judge of what they Are and to make an aestimate of what 't is they Do. CONSIDERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS touching the Origine of Qualities and Forms The Theoricall Part. THat before I descend to Particulars I may Pyrophilus furnish you with some General Apprehension of the Doctrine or rather the Hypothesis which is to be Collated with and to be either Confirmed or Disproved by the Historicall Truths that will be deliver'd concerning Particular Qualities Forms I will assume the person of a Corpuscularian and here at the Entrance give you in a general way a brief Account of the Hypothesis it selfe as it concernes the Origine of Qualities and Forms and for Distinctions sake I shall comprize it in the Eight following Particulars which that the whole Scheme may be the better Comprehended and as it were Survey'd under one Prospect I shall do little more then Barely propose Them that either seem evident enough by their owne Light or may without Praejudice have diverse of their Proofes reserv'd for proper places in the following part of this Treatise and though there be some Other Particulars to which the Importance of the Subjects and the Greatnesse of the almost Universall Prejudices that lye against them vvill oblige mee Immediately to annexe for the seasonable Clearing and Justifying of them some Annotations yet that they may as Little as I can Obscure the Cohaerence of the vvhole Discourse as much of them as conveniently may be shall be included in Paratheses I. I agree with the generality of Philosophers so far as to allow that there is one Catholick or Universal Matter common to all Bodies by which I mean a Substance extended divisible and impenetrable II. But because this Matter being in its own Nature but one the diversity we see in Bodies must necessarily arise from somewhat else then the Matter they consist of And since we see not how there could be any change in Matter if all its actual or designable parts were perpetually at rest among themselves it will follow that to discriminate the Catholick Matter into variety of Natural Bodies it must have Motion in some or all its designable Parts and that Motion must have various tendencies that which is in this part of the Matter tending one way and that which is in that part tending another as we plainly see in the Universe or general Mass of Matter there is really a great quantity of Motion and that variously determin'd and that yet diverse portions of Matter are at rest That there is Local Motion in many parts of Matter is manifest to sense but how Matter came by this Motion was of Old and is still hotly disputed of for the antient Corpuscularian Philosophers whose doctrine in most other points though not in all we are the most inclinable to not acknowledging an Author of the Universe were thereby reduc'd to make Motion congenite to Matter and consequently coëval with it but since Local Motion or an Endeavour at it is not included in the nature of Matter which is as much Matter when it rests as when it moves and since we see that the same portion of Matter may from Motion be reduc'd to Rest and after it hath continu'd at Rest as long as other Bodies doe not put it out of that state may by external Agents be set a moving again I who am not wont to think a man the worse Naturalist for not being an Atheist shall not scruple to say with an Eminent Philosopher of Old whom I find to have propos'd among the Greeks that Opinion for the main that the Excellent Des Cartes hath revived amongst Us That the Origine of Motion in Matter is from God and not onely so but that thinking it very unfit to be believ'd that Matter barely put into Motion and then left to it self should Casually constitute this beautiful and orderly World I think also further that the wise Author of Things did by establishing the laws of Motion among Bodies and by guiding the first Motions of the small parts of Matter bring them to convene after the manner requisite to compose the World and especially did contrive those curious and elaborate Engines the bodies of living Creatures endowing most of them with a power of propagating their Species But though these things are my Perswasions yet because they are not necessary to be suppos'd here where I doe not pretend to deliver any compleat Discourse of the Principles of Natural Philophy but onely to touch upon such Notions as are requisite to explicate the Origine of Qualities and Forms I shall pass on to what remains as soon as I have taken notice that Local Motion seems to be indeed the Principl amongst Second Causes and the Grand Agent of all that happens in Nature For though Bulk Figure Rest Situation and Texture do concurre to the Phaenomena of Nature yet in comparison of Motion they seem to be in many Cases Effects and in many others little better then Conditions or Requisites or Causes sine quibus non which modifie the operation that one part of Matter by vertue of its Motion hath upon another as in a Watch the number the figure and coaptation of the Wheels and other parts is requisite to the shewing the hour and doing the other things that may be perform'd by the Watch but till these parts be actually put into Motion all their other affections remaine inefficacious and so in a Key though if it were too big or too little or if its Shape were incongruous to that of the cavity of the Lock it would be unfit to be us'd as a Key though it were put into Motion yet let its bigness and figure be never so fit unless actual Motion intervene it will never lock or unlock any thing as without the like
Milk especially in hot weather will by the intestine though languid Motions of its parts be in a short time turn'd into a thinner sort of liquor then Milk and into Cream and this last nam'd will by being barely agitated in a Churn be turn'd in a shorter time into that Unctuous and consistent Body we call Butter and into thin fluid and sower Butter-milk And thus to dispatch by the bruising of Fruit the Texture is commonly so chang'd that as we see particularly in Apples that the Bruis'd part soon comes to be of another nature then the Sound part the one differing from the other both in Colour Tast Smell and Consistence So that as we have already inculcated Local Motion hath of all other affections of Matter the greatest Interest iâ— the Altering and Modifying of it since it is not onely the Grand Agent or Efficient among Second Causes but is also oftentimes one of the principal things that constitutes the Forme of Bodies as when two Sticks are set on fire by long and vehement Attrition Local Motion is not onely that which kindles the Wood and so as an Efficient produces the Fire but is That which principally concurrs to give the produced Stream of shining Matter the name and nature of Flame and so it concurrs also to constitute all Fluid Bodies 5. And that since we have formerly seen that 't is from the Size Shape and Motion of the small parts of Matter and the Texture that results from the manner of their being dispos'd in any one Body that the Colour Odour Tast and other qualities of that Body are to be deriv'd it will be easie for us to recollect That such Changes cannot happen in a portion of Matter without so much varying the Nature of it that we need not deride the antient Atomists for attempting to deduce the Generation and Corruption of Bodies from the fam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Convention and Dissolution and the Alterations of them from the transposition of their suppos'd Atoms For though indeed Nature is wont in the Changes she makes among things Corporeal to imploy all the three wayes as well in Alterations as Generations and Corruptions yet if they onely meant as probably enough they did That of the three waies propos'd the First was wont to be the Principal in the Generation of Bodies the second in the Corruption the third in their Alterations I shall not much oppose this Doctrine though I take the Local Motion or Transposition of Parts in the same portion of Matter to bear a great stroak as well in reference to Generation and Corruption as to Alteration as we see when Milk or Flesh or Fruit without any remarkable addition or loss of parts turns into Maggots or other Insects and as we may more conspicuously observe in the Praecipitation of Mercury without addition in the Vitrification of Mettals and other Chymical Experiments to be hereafter mention'd These things premis'd it will not now be difficult to comprise in few words such a Doctrine touching the Generation Corruption and Alteration of Bodies as is suitable to our Hypothesis and the former Discourse For if in a parcel of Matter there happen to be produc'd it imports not much how a Concurrence of all those Accidents whether those onely or more that Men by tacite agreement have thought necessary and sufficient to constitute any one Determinate Species of things corporeal then we say That a Body belonging to that Species as suppose a Stone or a Mettal is Generated or produc'd de novo Not that there is really any thing of Substantial produc'd but that those parts of Matter that did indeed before praeexist but were either scatter'd and shar'd among other Bodies or at least otherwise dispos'd of are now brought together and dispos'd of after the manner requisite to entitle the Body that results from them to a new Denomination and make it appertain to such a Determinate Species of Natural Bodies so that no new Substance is in Generation produc'd but onely That which was praeexistent obteins a new Modification or manner of Existence Thus when the Spring and Wheels and String and Balance and Index c. necessary to a Watch which lay before scatter'd some in one part some in another of the Artificer's Shop are first set together in the Order requisite to make such an Engine to shew how the time passes a watch is said to be made not that any of the mention'd Material parts is produc'd de novo but that till then the divided Matter was not so contriv'd and put together as was requisite to constitute such a thing as we call a Watch. And so when Sand and Ashes are well melted together and suffer'd to cool there is Generated by the Colliquation that sort of Concretion we call Glass though it be evident that its Ingredients were both praeexistent and do but by their Association obtain a New manner of existing together And so when by the Churning of Creame Butter and Butter-milk are generated we find not any thing Substantial Produc'd de novo in either of them but onely that the Serum and the fat Corpuscles being put into Local Motion do by their frequent Occursions extricate themselves from each other and associate themselves in the new manner requisite to constitute the Bodies whose names are given them And as a Body is said to be generated when it first appears clothed with all those Qualities upon whose Account Men have been pleas'd to call some Bodies Stones others Mettals others Salts c. so when a Body comes to loose all or any of those Accidents that are Essential and necessary to the constituting of such a Body it is then said to be corrupted or destroy'd and is no more a Body of that Kind but looses its Title to its former Denomination Not that any thing Corporeal or Substantial perishes in this Change but onely that the Essential Modification of the Matter is destroy'd and though the Body be still a Body no Natural Agent being able to annihilate Matter yet 't is no longer such a Body as 't was before but perisheth in the capacity of a Body of that Kind Thus if a Stone falling upon a Watch break it to pieces as when the Watch was made there was no new Substance produc'd all the Material parts as the Steel Brass String c. being praeexistent some where or other as in Iron and Copper Mines in the Bellies of those Animals of whose Guts Men use to make Strings so not the least part of the Substance of the Watch is lost be onely displac'd and scatter'd and yea that Portion of Matter ceases to be a VVatch as it was before And so â— resume our late Example when Creamâ— is by Churning turn'd into Butâ—er and a Serous Liquor the parts of the Milâ— remain associated into those two Bodies but the White Liquor perisheth in the capacity of Milk And so when Ice comes to be thaw'd in exactly close Vessels though
have a fair Occasion to take notice of the Fruitfulnesse and Extent of our Mechanical Hypothesis For since according to our Doctrine the World we live in is not a Movelesse or Indigested Mass of Matter but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Self moving Engine wherein the greatest part of the common Matter of all Bodies is alwaies though not still the same parts of it in Motion wherein Bodies are so close set by one another that unlesse in some very few and extraordinary and as it were Praeternatural cases they have either no Vacuities betwixt them or onely here and there interpos'd and very small ones And since according to us the various manner of the Coalition of several Corpuscles into one visible Body is enough to give them a peculiar Texture and thereby fitt them to exhibit divers sensible Qualities and to become a Body sometimes of one Denomination and sometimes of another it will very naturally follow that from the various Occursions of those innumerable swarms of little Bodies that are mov'd to and fro in the World there will be many fitted to stick to one another and so compose Concretions and many though not in the self same place disjoyn'd from one another and agitated apart and multitudes also that will be driven to associate themselves now with one Body and presently with another And if we also consider on the one side that the Sizes of the small Particles of Matter may be very various their Figures almost innumerable and that if a parcel of Matter do but happen to stick to one Body it may chance to give it a new Quality and if it adhere to another or hit against some of its Parts it may constitute a Body of another Kind or if a parcel of Matter be knockt off from another it may barely by That leave It and become it self of another Nature then before If I say we consider these things on the one side and on the other side that to use Lucretius his Comparison all that innumerable multitude of Words that are contain'd in all the Languages of the World are made of the various Combinations of some of the 24 Letters of the Alphabet 't will not be hard to conceive that there may be an incomprehensible variety of Associations and Textures of the Minute parts of Bodies and consequently a vast Multitude of Portions of Matter endow'd with store enough of differing Qualities to deserve distinct Appellations though for want of heedfulnesse and fit Words Men have not yet taken so much notice of their lesse obvious Varieties as to sort them as they deserve and give them distinct and proper Names So that though I would not say that Any thing can immediately be made of Every thing as a Gold Ring of a VVedge of Gold or Oyl or Fire of Water yet since Bodies having but one common Matter can be differenc'd but by Accidents which seem all of them to be the Effects and Consequents of Local Motion I see not why it should be absurd to think that at least among Inanimate Bodies by the Intervention of some very small Addition or Substraction of Matter which yet in most cases will scarce be needed and of an orderly Series of Alterations disposing by degrees the Matter to be transmuted almost of any thing may at length be made Any thing as though out of a wedge of Gold one cannot immediately make a Ring yet by either Wyre-drawing that Wedge by degrees or by melting it and casting a little of it into a Mould That thing may easily be effected And so though Water cannot immediately be transmuted into Oyl and much less into Fire yet if you nourish certain Plants with Water alone as I have done 'till they have assimilated a great quantity of Water into their own Nature You may by committing this Transmuted Water which you may distinguish and separate from that part of the Vegetable you first put in to Distillation in convenient Glasses obtain besides other things a true Oyl and a black combustible Coal and consequently Fire both of which may be so copious as to leave no just cause to suspect that they could be any thing neer afforded by any little Spirituous parts which may be praesum'd to have been communicated by that part of the Vegetable that is first put into the water to that far greater part of it which was committed to Distillation But Pyrophilus I perceive the Difficulty and Fruitfulnesse of my Subject have made me so much more prolix then I intended that it will not now be amiss to Contract the Summary of our Hypothesis and give you the Main Points of it with little or no Illustration and without particular Proofs in a few words We teach then but without peremptorily asserting it First That the Matter of all Natural Bodies is the Same namely a Substance extended and impenetrable 2. That all Bodies thus agreeing in the same common Matter their Distinction is to be taken from those Accidents that do diversity it 3. That Motion not belonging to the Essence of Matter which retains its whole Nature when 't is at Rest and not being Originally producible by other Accidents as They are from It may be look'd upon as the First and chief Mood or Affection of Matter 4. That Motion variously determin'd doth naturally divide the Matter it belongs to into actual Fragments or Parts and this Division obvious Experience and more eminently Chymical Operations manifest to have been made into parts exceedingly minute and very often too minute to be singly perceiveable by our Senses 5. Whence it must necessarily follow that each of these Minute Parts or minima Naturalia as well as every particular Body made up by the Coalition of any number of them must have its Determinate Bignesse or Size and its own Shape And these three namely Bulk Figure and either Motion or Rest there being no Mean between these two are the three Primary and most Catholick Moods or Affections of the insensible parts of Matter consider'd each of them apart 6. That when diverse of them are consider'd together there will necessarily follow here Below both a certain Position or Posture in reference to the Horizon as Erected Inclining or Level of each of them and a certain Order or placing before or behind or besides one another as when in a company of Souldiers one stands upright the other stoops the other lyes along upon the Ground they have various Postures and their being plac'd besides one another in Ranks and behind one another in Files are Varieties of their Order and when many of these small parts are brought to Convene into one Body from their primary Affections and their Disposition or Contrivance as to Posture and Order there results That which by one Comprehensive Name we call the Texture of that Body And indeed these several Kinds of Location to borrow a Scholastical Terme attributed in this 6th number to the Minute Particles of Bodies are so neer of
Matter hath oâ— appetite to these Accidents more thâ—â— to any others they demand how without a substantial Form these Accidenâ— can be contain'd and preserv'd Tâ— this I might represent that I am not â— well satisfy'd with the Notion wont iâ— be taken for granted not onely by the vulgar but by Philosophers of the Natural state of Bodies as if it were undeniable that every Natural Body for a to some I shall not now question it has a certain state wherein Nature endeavours to preserve it and out of which it cannot be put but by being put into a Praeternatural state For the World being once constituted by the great Author of Things as it now is I look upon the Phaenomena of Nature to be caus'd by the Local Motion of one part of Matter hitting against another and am not so fully convinc'd that there is such a thing as Natures designing to keep such a parcel of Matter in such a state that is cloth'd with just such Accidents rather then with any other But I look upon many Bodies especially fluid ones as frequently changing their state according as they happen to be more or lesse agitated or otherwise wrought upon by the Sun and other considerable Agents in Nature As the Air Water and other Fluids if the temperature as to Cold or Heat and Rarefaction or Condensation which they are in at the beginning of the Spring here at London be pitcht upon as their Natural state then not onely in the torrid and frozen Zones they must have other and very differing Natural states but here it self they will almost all the Summer and all the Winter as our Weather Glasses inform us be in a varying Praeternatural state because they will be in those seasons either more hot and rarify'd or more cold and condens'd then in the beginning of the Spring And in more stable and constant Bodies I take in many cases the Natural state to be but either the most usual state or That wherein that which produces a notable Change in them finds them As when a slender piece of Silver that is most commonly flexible and will stand bent every way comes to be well hammer'd I count that Flexibility to be the Natural state of that Mettal because most commonly Silver is found to be flexible and because it was so before it was hammer'd but the Springinesse it acquires by hammering is a state which is properly no more unnatural to the Silver then the other and would continue with the Mettal as long as It if both pieces of Silver the one flexible the other springy were let alone and kept from outward violence And as the Silver to be depriv'd of its flexibleness needed the violent Motion of the Hammer so to deprive it of its Spring it needs the violent Agitation of a nealing fire These things and much more I might here represent but to come close to the Objection I Answer That the Accidents spoken of are introduced into the Matter by the Agents or Efficient Causes whatever they be that produce in it what in the sense formerly explain'd we call an essential though not a substantial Form And these Accidents being once thus introduc'd into the Matter we need not seek for a new substantial Principle to preserve them there since by the general law or common course of Nature the Matter qualify'd by them must continue in the state such Accidents have put it into till by some Agent or other it be forcibly put out of it and so divested of those Accidents as in the formerly mention'd Example borrow'd from Aristotle of a Brazen Sphaere when once the Motion of Tools impell'd and guided by the Artificer have turn'd a piece of Brass into a Sphaere there needs no new Substance to preserve that round figure since the Brasse must retain it till it be destroy'd by the Artificer himself or some other Agent able to overcome the resistance of the Matter to be put into another figure And on this occasion let me confirme this ad hominem by representing That there is not an inconsiderable Party among the Peripateticks themselves who maintain That in the Elements the First Qualities as they call them are instead of Forms and that the Fire for instance hath no other Form then Heat and Drynesse and the Water then Coldnesse and Moisture Now if these Bodies that are the vastest and the most important of the Sublunary World consist but of the Universal Matter and the few Accidents and if in these there needs no substantial Form to keep the Qualities of the Matter united to it and conjoyn'd among themselves and preserve them in that state as long as the Law of Nature requires though besides the four Qualities that are call'd First the Elements have divers others as Gravity and Levity Firmnesse and Fluidity Opacousnesse and Transparency c. why should the favourers of this Opinion deny That in other Bodies besides the Elements Qualities may be preserv'd and kept united to the Matter they belong to without the Band or Support of a substantial Form And as when there is no competent destructive Cause the Accidents of a Body will by the Law of Nature remain such as they were so if there be it cannot with reason be pretended that the substantial Form is able to preserve all those Accidents of a Body that are said to slow from it and to be as it were under its care and tuition for if for instance you expose a Sphaere or Bullet of Lead to a strong fire it will quickly loose not to mention its Figure both its Coldness its Consistence its Malleableness its Colour for 't will appear of the colour of fire its Flexibility and some other Qualities and all this in spight of the imaginary substantial Form which according to the Peripatetical Principles in this case must still remain in it without being able to help it And though upon the taking the Lead from off the fire it is wont to be reduc'd to most of its former Qualities for it will not of it self recover its Sphaericity yet That may well be ascrib'd partly to its peculiar Texture and partly to the Coldness of the ambient Air according to what we lately discours'd touching heated and refrigerated Water which Temperature of the Air is an extrinsecal thing to the Lead and indeed it is but Accidental that the Lead upon refrigeration regains its former Qualities for in case the Lead have been expos'd long enough to a sufficiently intense fire it will as we have purposely try'd be turn'd into Glasse and loose its colour its opacity its malleableness and former degree of flexiblenesse and acquire a Reddishness a degree of Transparency a Brittlenesse and some other Qualities that it had not before and let the supposed substantial Form do what it can even when the Vessel is remov'd from the fire to reduce or restore the Body to its Natural state and Accidents yet the former Qualities will remain lost as long
at least in a general way by intelligible principles I am not yet arriv'd to the distinct and particular knowledg of Now for our Doctrine touching the Origine of Forms it will not be difficult to collect it from what we formerly discours'd about Qualities and Forms together for the Form of a Natural Body being according to us but an Essential Modification and as it were the Stamp of its Matter or such a convention of the Bigness Shape Motion or Rest Scituation and Contexture together with the thence resulting Qualities of the small parts that compose the Body as is necessary to constitute and denominate such a particular Body and all these Accidents being producible in Matter by Local Motion 't is agreeable to our Hypothesis to say That the first and Universal though not immediate cause of Forms is none other but God who put Matter into Motion which belongs not to its Essence and Establish'd the Laws of Motion amongst Bodies and also according to my Opinion guided it in divers cases at the beginning of Things and that among Second Causes the Grand Efficient of Forms is Local Motion which by variously dividing sequestring transposing and so connecting the parts of Matter produces in them those Accidents and Qualities upon whose account the portion of Matter they diversifie comes to belong to this or that determinate species of Natural Bodies which yet is not so to be understood as if Motion were onely an Efficient cause in the Generation of Bodies but very often as in water fire c. t is also one of the chiefe Accidents that concurre to make up the Form But in this last Summary Account of the Origine of Forms I think my self oblig'd to declare to you a little more distinctly what I just now intimated to be my own Opinion And this I shall do by advertising you that though I agree with our Epicureans in thinking it probable that the World is made up of an innumerable multitude of singly insensible Corpuscles endow'd with their own Sizes Shapes and Motions and though I agree with the Cartesians in believing as I find that Anaxagoras did of Old that Matter hath not its Motion from its self but Originally from God yet in This I differ both from Epicurus and Des Cartes that whereas the former of them plainly denies that the World was made by any Deity for Deities he own'd and the Latter of them for ought I can find in his Writings or those of some of his Eminentest Disciples thought that God having once put Matter into Motion and establish'd the Laws of that Motion needed not more particularly interpose for the Production of Things Corporeal nor even of Plants or Animals which according to him are but Engines I do not at all believe that either these Cartesian Laws of Motion or the Epicurean casual Concourse of Atoms could bring meer Matter into so orderly and well contriv'd a Fabrick as This World and therefore I think that the wise Author of Nature did not onely put Matter into Motion but when he resolv'd to make the World did so regulate and guide the Motions of the small parts of the Universal Matter as to reduce the greater Systems of them into the Order they were to continue in and did more particularly contrive some portions of that Matter into Seminal Rudiments or Principles lodg'd in convenient Receptacles and as it were Wombs and others into the Bodies of Plants and Animals one main part of whose Contrivance did as I apprehend consist in this That some of their Organs were so fram'd that supposing the Fabrick of the greater Bodies of the Universe and the Laws he had establish'd in Nature some Juicy and Spirituous parts of these living Creatures must be fit to be turn'd into Prolifick Seeds whereby they may have a power by generating their like to propagate their Species So that according to my apprehension it was at the beginning necessary that an Intelligent and Wise Agent should contrive the Universal Matter into the World and especially some Portions of it into Seminal Organs and Principles and settle the Laws according to which the Motions and Actions of its parts upon one another should be regulated without which interposition of the Worlds Architect however moving Matter may with some probability for I see not in the Notion any Certainty be conceiv'd to be able after numberless Occursions of its insensible parts to cast it self into such grand Conventions and Convolutions as the Cartesians call Vortices and as I remember Epicurus speaks of under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I think it utterly improbable that brute and unguided though moving Matter should ever convene into such admirable Structures as the Bodies of perfect Animals But the World being once fram'd and the course of Nature establish'd the Naturalist except in some few cases where God or Incorporeal Agents interpose has recourse to the first Cause but for its general and ordinary Support and Influence whereby it preserves Matter and Motion from Annihilation or Desition and in explicating particular Phaenomena considers onely the Size Shape Motion or want of it Texture and the resulting Qualities and Attributes of the small particles of Matter And thus in this great Automaton the World as in a Watch or Clock the Materials it consists of being left to themselves could never at the first convene into so curious an Engine and yet when the skilful Artist has once made and set it a going the Phaenomena it exhibits are to be accounted for by the number bignesse proportion shape motion or endeavour rest coapration and other Mechanical Affections of the Spring Wheels Pillars and other parts it is made up of and those effects of such a Watch that cannot this way be explicated must for ought I yet know be confess'd not to be sufficiently understood But to return thither whence my Duty to the Author of Nature oblig'd me to make this short Digression The hitherto propos'd Hypothesis touching the Origination of Forms hath I hope been rendred probable by divers particulars in the past Discourses and will be both exemplify'd and confirm'd by some of the Experiments that make the Latter part of this present Treatise especially the Fifth and 7th of them which containing Experiments of the Changing the Form of a Salt and a Mettal do chiefly belong to the Historical or Experimental part of what we deliver touching the Origine of Forms And indeed besides the two kinds of Experiments presently to be mention'd we might here present you a Third sort consisting partly of divers Relations of Metalline Transmutations deliver'd upon their own Credit by Credible men that are not Alchymists and partly of some Experiments some made some directed by us of Changing both Bodies totally inflammable almost totally into Water and a good part ev'n of distill'd Rain water without Additament into Earth and distill'd Liquors readily and totally mingleable with Water pro parte into a true
could not find that this black Substance would easily if at all be brought I say not to flame but to burn nor that it had any discernible Tast though both the Liquors from whose mixture it was obtain'd have exceeeding strong and pungent Tasts 7. And whereas both Oyl of Vitriol and Spirit of Wine will each of them more readily then most Liquors that are yet known mingle with common Water and diffuse it self therein I observ'd that this pitchy Mass if the Distillation had been continued till it was perfectly dry would not that I could perceive dissolve in common water for very many hours and if I much misremember not for some dayes 8. And Lastly whereas the Oyl of Vitriol and the Spirit of Wine were both of them distill'd Liquors and one of them exceeding volatile and fugitive yet the black Mass produc'd by them was so far fix'd that I could not make it rise by a considerably strong and lasting fire that would have rais'd a much more sluggish Body then the heaviest of those that concurr'd to produce it The remaining particulars that I have observ'd in this Experiment belong to another Treatise and therefore I shall forbear to mention them in this nor shall I at present adde any new Phaenomena to those I have already recited those freshly mention'd Experiments and those that preceded it being even without the assistance of the four Observations I have delivered before them sufficient to manifest the Truth I have been endeavouring to make out For in the Experiments we are speaking of it cannot well be pretended or at least not well prov'd that any Substantial Forms are the Causes of the Effects I have recited For in most of the above mention'd cases besides that in the Bodies we imploy'd the Seminal Vertues if they had any before may be suppos'd to have been destroy'd by the fire they were such as those I argue with would account to be Factitious Bodies artificially produc'd by Chymical Operations And t is not more manifest that in the production of these Effects there intervenes a Local Motion and change of Texture by these Operations then t is inevident and precarious that they are the Effects of such things as the Schools fancy Substantial Forms to be since t is in these new Experiments by the Addition of some new particles of Matter or the Recess or Expulsion of some praeexistent ones or which is the most frequent way by the Transposition of Minute parts yet without quite excluding the other two that no more skilful a Chymist then I have been able to produce by Art a not inconsiderable number of such changes of Qualities that more notable ones are not ordinarily presented us by Nature where she is presumed to work by the help of Substantial Forms I see not why it may not be thought probable that the same Catholick and fertile Principles Motion Bulk Shape and Texture of the Minute parts of Matter may under the Guidance of Nature whose Laws the modern Peripateticks acknowledge to be establish'd by the all-wise God suffice likewise to produce those other Qualities of Natural Bodies of which we have not given particular Instances FINIS ERRATA Praef. p. 11. l. ult read aime praef p. 13. l. 13. r. perhaps p. 68. l. 13. r. destroyes p. 130 l. 14. r. Peare p. 146. l. 20. r. Principle p. 247. l. 25. r. Fleurs p. 231. l. 15. r. it p. 325. l. 6. a Comma at inflammable p. 337. l. 7. r. of p. 411. l. 7. r. former * Nego tibi ullam esse formam robis notam pleâ—è planè nostrámque scientiam esse umbram in sole Scalâ—ger â—f whose confession to the same purpose more are cited hereafter * Cardan Contradict 9. lib. 2. Tract 5. a pud Schenckium * This memorable Accident happen'd to a Senator of Bâ—rne who was cur'd by the Experienc'd Fabricius Hildanus that gives a long Account of it to the Learned Horstius among whose Observatâ—ons t is extant Lib. 2. observ 35. who ascribes the Indolence of the Part whilst uncompress'd to some slimy Juice familiar enough to those Tendinous parts wherein the Glassy fragment was as it were Bedded †In those Notes about Occult Qualitles where the Deleterious Faculty attributed to Diamonds is considered †Since the writing of this the Author found that some of the Eminentest of the modern Schoolmen themselves have been as well as he unsatisfied with the Aristotelian Definition of Quality concerning which not to mention Revius a Learned Protestant Annotatoâ— upon Suaâ—ez Ariaga sayes disp 5. sect 2. subs 1. Per haec nâ—hil explicatur nam de hoc quaerimus quid sit esse qual dices habere qualitatem bonus Circulus qualitas est id quo quis sit qualis esse qualem est habere Qualitatem And even the famous Jesuit Suarez though he endeavours to excuse it yet confesseth that it leaves the proper Notion of Quality as obscure to us as before Quae dâ—finitio saith he licèt â—a rationâ— essentâ—alis videatur quod detur per habitudinem ad effectum formalem quem omnis Foâ—ma essâ—â—tialiter respicit tamen quod ad nos spectat aquè obscura nobis manet propria ratio Qualitatis Suarez Disputat Metaphysic 42. But Hurtadus â—n his Metaphysical Disputations speaks moâ—e boldly telling us roundly that it is Non tam Definitio quà m inanis quaedam Nugatio which makes me the moâ—e wonder that a famous Cartesian whom I forbear to name should content himself to give us such an Insignificant or â—t least Superficial Definition of Quality †Anst Metaph. lib. 7. cap. 8. * Aromat Hist lib. 1. cap. 29. de Cassia solutiva * Ligon's History of Barbados pag. 67.68 * See Nicholaus Monardes under the Title Fabae Purgatrices â Vincent le Blanck's Survey of the World Part. 2. p. 260. * The following Discourse Of the Origine of Formâ— ought to have been placed before this foregoing Sectioâ— the Historical Part. Formarum cognitio est rudis conâ—usa nec nisi per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neque verum est formae substantialis speciem recipi in intellectum non enim in sensu usquam fuit J.C. Scalig. Formae substantiales sunt incognitae nobis quia insensiles ideo per qualitates quae sunt principia immediatae Transmutationis exprimuntur Aquinas ad 1. de generat corrupt In hac humanae mentis caligine aequè forma Ignis ac Magnetis nobis ignoâ—a est Sennertus * Nego tibi uilâ—m esse formam nobis notam plenè planè nostramque scientiam esse umbram in Sole Scalig. * Nomina tu lapidis qâ—i quoâ—idie tuis oculis observatur formam Phyllida solus habeto Seal contra Card. * Aristotle speaking of Anaxagoras in the first Ch. of the last Book of his Physicks hath this passage Dicit Anaxagoras cùm omnia simul essent atque quâ—escereâ—t tempore infinito Mentem movisse aâ— segregasse * Epicurus in his Epistle to Pythocles * The Sceptical Chymist * See Lib. 1. de Gen. Cor. t. 80. Idem Corpus sayes he there quaâ—quam continuum alià s liquidum alià s concretum videmus non divisione aut compositione hoc passum aut conversione aut attactu sicuti Democritus asserit nam neque transpositione neque Naturae demutatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex liquido concretum evadere solet * Georg Agricola de re metall lib. 12. p. 462. * G. Agricola de re Metallica lib. 12. * In the Essays about things supposed to be spontaneously generated * Parchas Pilgr part the first p. 152. * The passage which is long I do not here transcribe having had occasion to do it elsewhere It is extant Lib. 5. Câ—p. 21. and at the close of his Narrative he subjoynes Non est quod quisquam de veritate dubitet cum infinitos â—estes habeat Brasilta c. * Floâ—a Sinensis oâ— Traite des Flerus c. under the title Lozmeoques * Containing some Advices and Directions for the writing of an Experimental Natural History ☞ These two Leaves are to be placed immediately before the 271 page * The Preface here mentioned is that premissed to the Tract intituled Sâ—me Specimens of an Attempt to make â—â—mical Experiments useful to illustrate the Notions of the Corposculaâ— Philosophy * See the Sceptical Chymist * Though this VII Experiment being considerable and very pertinent the Author thought fit to mention it such as it is here delivered when he writ but to a private friend yet after he was induc'd to publish these Papers t was the now raging Plague which drove him from the Accommodations requisite to his purpose that frustrated the Designe he had of first repeating that part of the Experiment which treats of the Destruction of Gold for as for that part which teaches the Volatilization of it he had tryed That often enough before * What is here delivered may be for the main verify'd by what the Reader will meet with in the following Xth. Experiment though That be not It which the Author meant * Of the possible wayes of turning Liquors into consistent Bodies by bending breaking twisting and by otherwise changing the Texture of the Liquor see more particularly the History of Fluidity and Firmnesse publishd by the Author
the Corruption be produc'd onely for ought appears by introducing a new Motion and Disposition into the parts of the Frozen Water yet it thereupon ceases to be Ice however it be as much VVater and consequently as much a Body as before it was frozen or thaw'd These and the like Examples may teach us rightly to understand that common Axiom of Naturalists Corruptio unius est generatio alterius è contrà for since it is acknowledged on all hands that Matter cannot be annihilated and since it appears by what we have said above that there are some Properties namely Size Shape Motion or in its absence Rest that are inseparable from the actual parts of Matter and since also the Coalition of any competent number of these parts is sufficient to constitute a Natural Body endow'd with diverse sensible Qualities it can scarce be otherwise but that the same Agents that shatter the Frame or destroy the Texture of one Body will by shuffling them together and disposing them after a New manner bring them to constitute some new sort of Bodies As the same thing that by burning destroyes Wood turns it into Flame Soot and Ashes Onely I doubt whether the Axiome do generally holâ— true if it be meant That every Corruption must end in the Generation of a Body belonging to some particular Species â— things unlesse we take Powders anâ— fluid Bodies indefinitely for Speciesâ— Natural Bodies since it is plain theâ— are multitudes of Vegetables and other Concretions which when they rot dâ— not as some others do turn inâ—â— Worms but either into some slimy oâ— watery Substance or else which is thâ— most usuall they crumble into a kinâ— of Dust or Powder which thougâ— look'd upon as being the Earth inâ— which rotten Bodies are at length resolv'd is very far from being of an Elementary nature but as yet a Compounded Body retaining some if not many Qualities which often makes the Dâ— of one sort of Plant or Animal diffâ— much from that of another And Thâ— will supply me with this Argument Ad hominem viz. That since in those violent Corruptions of Bodies that are made by Outward Agents shattering them into pieces if the Axiome hold true the New Bodies emergent upon the Dissolution of the Former must be really Natural Bodies as indeed divers of the Moderns hold them to be and Generated according to the course of Nature as when Wood is destroy'd by Fire and turn'd partly into Flame partly into Soot partly into Coals and partly into Ashes I hope we may be allow'd to conclude That those Chymical Productions which so many would have to be but Factitious Bodies are Natural ones and regularly Generated For it being the same Agent the Fire that operates upon Bodies whether they be expos'd to it in close Glasses or in Chimnies I see no sufficient reason why the Chymical Oyls and Volatile Salts and other things which Spagirites obtain from mixt Bodies should not be accounted Natural Bodies as well as the Soot and Ashes anâ— Charcoal that by the same fire are obtain'd from Kindled Wood. But before we passe away from the mention of the Corruption of Bodies must take some notice of what is call'd their Putrefaction This is but a Peculiar kind of Corruption wrought slowly whereby it may be distinguish'd from Destruction by Fire and otheâ— nimble Agents in Bodies it happens to them for the most part by means oâ— the Air or some other Ambient Fluid which by penetrating into the Pores oâ— the Body and by its agitation in them doth usually call out some of the more Agile and lesse entangled parts of the Body and doth almost ever loosen and dislocate the parts in general and thereby so change the Texture and perhaps too the Figure of the Corpuscles that compose it that the Body thus chang'd acquires Qualities unsuitable to its Former Nature and for the most part offensive to Our Senses especially of Smelling and Tasting which last clause I therefore adde not onely because the Vulgar look not upon the Change of an Egge into a Chick as a Corruption but as a Perfection of the Egge but because also I think it not improbable that if by such slow Changes of Bodies as make them loose their former Nature and might otherwise passe for Putrefaction many Bodies should acquire better Sents or Tasts then before or if Nature Custom or any other cause should much alter the Texture of our Organs of Tasting and Smelling it would not perhaps be so well agreed on what should be call'd Putrefaction as that imports an impairing Alteration but Men would find some favourabler Notion for such Changes For I observe that Medlars though they acquire in length of time such a Colour and Softness as rotten Apples and other putrify'd Fruits do yet because their Tast is not then harsh as before we call that Ripeness in them which otherwise we should call Rottenness And though upon the Death of a fourfooted Beast we generally call that Change which happens to the Flesh or Bloud Putrefaction yet we passe a more favourable judgment upon That which happens to the Flesh and other softer parts of that Animal whether it be a kind of large Rabbets or very small and hornlesse Deer of which in China and in the Levant they make Musk because by the Change that ensues the Animals death the Flesh acquires not an odious but a grateful Smell And we see that some Men whose Appetites are gratified by Rotten Cheese think it Then not to have degenerated but to have attain'd its best State when having lost its former Colour Smell and Tast and which is more being in great part turn'd into those Insects call'd Mites 't is both in a Philosophical sense corrupted and in the aestimate of the generality of Men grown Putrid But because it very seldom happens that a Body by Generation acquires no other Qualities then just those that are absolutely necessary to make it belong to the Species that Denominates it therefore in most Bodies there are diverse other Qualities that may be there or may be missing without Essentially changing the Subject as Water may be clear or muddy odorous or stinking and still remain Water and Butter may be white or yellow sweet or rancid consistent or melted and still be call'd Butter Now therefore whensoever a Parcâ—l of Matter does acquire or loose a Quality that is not Essential to it That Acquisition or Losse is distinctly call'd Alteration or by some Mutation the Acquist onely of the Qualities that are absolutely necessary to constitute its Essential and Specifical difference or the Loss of any of those Qualities being such a Change as must not be call'd meer Alteration but have the particular name of Generation or Corruption both which according to this Doctrine appear to be but several Kinds of Alteration taken in a large sense though they are distinguish'd from it in a more strict and Limited acception of that Terme And here we
the same account that Anatomists and Physicians call several parts of the humane Body as Bones Membranes c. Similar that is such as that every Sensible part of it hath the same Nature or Denomination with the whole as every Splinter of Bone is Bone as every Shred of Skin is Skin And though I find by distilling the Yolks and Whites they seem to be Dissimilar Bodies in regard that the White of an Egge for Example will afford Substances of a very differing Nature as Flegme Salt Oyl and Earth yet not now to examine whether or how far these may be esteem'd Productions of the Fire that are rather obtain'd from the White of the Egge then were praeexistent in it not to mention this I say it doth not appear by Distillation that the White of an Egg is other then a Similar Body in the sense above deliver'd For it would be hard to prove that one part of the White of an Egg will not be made to yield the same differing Substances by Distillation that any other part does and Bones themselves and other hard parts of a humane Body that are confessedly Similar may by Distillation be made to afford Salt and Phlegme and Spirit and Oyl and Earth as well as the White of an Egg. This being thus setled in the First place we may in the Next consider that by beating the White of an Egge well with a Whisk you may reduce it from a somewhat Tenacious into a Fluid Body though this Production of a Liquor be as we elsewhere noted effected by a Divulsion Agitation c. of the parts that is in a word by a Mechanical change of the Texture of the Body In the Third place I consider that according to the exactest Observations of Modern Anatomists which our own Observations do not contradict the Rudiments of the Chick lodg'd in the Cicatricula or white Speck upon the Coat of the Yolk is nourish'd 'till it have obtain'd to be a great Chick onely by the White of the Egg the Yolk being by the Providence of Nature reserv'd as a more strong and solid Aliment till the Chick have absum'd the White and be thereby grown great and strong enough to digest the Yolk and in effect you may see the Chick furnish'd not onely with all the necessary but divers other parts as Head Wings Legs and Beak and Claws whilst the Yolk seems yet as it were untouch'd But whether this Observation about the Entireness of the Yolk be precisely true is not much material to our present purpose nor would I be thought to build much upon it since the Yolk it self especially at that time is wont to be fluid enough and to be a Liquor perhaps no less so then the White was and That is enough for my present purpose For in the Last place I consider that the Nutritive Liquor of an Egg which is in it self a Body so very soft that by a little Agitation it may be made Fluid and is readily enough dissolvable in common cold water this very Substance I say being brooded on by the Hen will within two or three weeks be transmuted into a Chick furnish'd with Organical parts as Eyes Ears Wings Legs c. of a very differing Fabrick and with a good number of Similar ones as Bones Cartilages Ligaments Tendons Membranes c. which differ very much in Texture from one another besides the Liquors as Blood Chyle Gall c. contain'd in the solid parts So that here we have out of the White of an Egg which is a Substance Similar Insipid Soft not to call it Fluid Diaphanous Colourlesse and readily dissoluble in cold water out of this Substance I say we have by the new and various Contrivement of the small parts it consisted of an Animal some of whose parts are not Transparent but Opacous some of them Red as the Bloud some Yellow or Greenish as the Gall some White as the Brain some Fluid as the Bloud and other Juices some Consistent as the Bones Flesh and other stable parts of the Body some Solid and Frangible as the Bones others Tough and Flexible as the Ligaments others Soft and loosly Cohaerent as the Marrow some without Springs as many of the parts some with Springs as the Feathers some apt to mingle readily with cold water as the Bloud the Gall some not to be so dissolv'd in it as the Bones the Claws and the Feathers some well tasted as the Flesh and Bloud some very ill tasted as the Gall for That I have purposely and particularly observ'd In a word we have here produc'd out of such an uniforme Matter as the White of an Egg First new kind of Qualities as besides Opacity Colours whereof a single Feather will sometimes afford us Variety Odours Tasts and Heat in the Heart and Bloud of the Chick Hardness Smoothness Roughness c. Secondly diverse other Qualities that are wont to be distinguish'd from Sensible ones as Fluidity in the Bloud and aqueous humor of the Eye Consistency in the Grisles Flesh c. Hardnesse Flexibility Springynesse Toughness unfitnesse to be dissolv'd in cold water and several others To which may probably be added Thirdly some Occult Properties as Physicians observe that some Birds as young Swallows young Magpies afford Specifick or at least Noble Medicines in the Falling sickness Hysterical Fits and divers other Distempers Fourthly I very well foresee it may be objected that the Chick with all its parts is not a Mechanically contriv'd Engine but fashion'd out of Matter by the Soul of the Bird lodg'd chiefly in the Cicatricula which by its Plastick power fashions the obsequious Matter and becomes the Architect of its own Mansion But not here to examine whether any Animal except Man be other then a Curious Engine I answer that this Objection invalidates not what I intend to prove from the alledg'd Example For let the Plastick Principle be what it will yet still being a Physical Agent it must act after a Physical manner and having no other Matter to work upon but the White of the Egg it can work upon that Matter but as Physical Agents and consequently can but divide the Matter into minute parts of several Sizes and Shapes and by Local Motion variously context them according to the Exigency of the Animal to be produc'd though from so many various Textures of the produc'd parts there must naturally emerge such differences of Colours Tasts and Consistencies and other Qualities as we have been taking notice of That which we are here to consider is not what is the Agent or Efficient in these Productions but what is done to the Matter to effect them And though some Birds by an inbred Skill do very Artificially build their Curious Nests yet cannot Nature that teaches them enable them to do â—ny more then select the Materials of tâ—eir Nests and by Local Motion divâ—de transport and connect them after Certain manner And when Man himself who is undoubtedly an Intelligent Agent is
knowingly Confess'd themselves unable to explain them or unwittingly Prov'd themselves to be so by giving but unsatisfactory Explications of them It will not I presume be expected that I who now write but Notes should enumerate much lesse examine all the various Opinions touching the Origine and Nature of Forms it being enough for our purpose if having already intimated in our Hypothesis what according to that may be thought of this Subject we now briefly consider the general Opinion of our Modern Aristotelians and the Schools concerning it I say the Modern Aristotelians because diverse of the Antient especially Greek Commentators of Aristotle seem to have understood their Masters Doctrine of Forms much otherwise and lesse incongruously then his Latin followers the Schoolmen and others have since done Nor do I expresly mention Aristotle himself among the Champions of substantial Forms because though he seem in a place or two expresly enough to reckon Formes among Substances yet elsewhere the Examples he imploies to set forth the Forms of Natural things by being taken from the Figures of artificial things as of a Statue c. which are confessedly but Accidents and making very little use if any of Substantial Forms to explain the Phaenomena of Nature He seems to me upon the whole matter either to have been irresolv'd whether there were any such Substances or no or to speak ambiguously and obscurely enough of them to make it questionable what his Opinions of them were But the summe of the Controversy betwixt Us and the Schools is this whether or no the Forms of Natural things the Souls of Men alwaies excepted be in Generation educed as they speak out of the power of the Matter and whether these Forms be true substantial Entities distinct from the other substantial Principle of Natural Bodies namely Matter The Reasons that move me to embrace the Negative are principally these three First That I see no necessity of admitting in Natural things any such substantial Forms Matter and the Accidents of Matter being sufficient to explicate as much of the Phaenomena of Nature as we either do or are like to understand The next That I see not what use this puzling Doctrine of substantial Forms is of in Natural Philosophy the Acute Scaliger and those that have most busied themselves in the Indagation of them having freely acknowledg'd as the more Candid of the Peripateticks generally do That the true Knowledg of Forms is too difficult and abstruse to be attain'd by them And how like it is that particular Phaenomena will be explain'd by a Principal whose Nature is confessedly ignor'd I leave you to judg but because to these considerations I often have had and shall have here and there occasion to say something in the body of these Notes I shall at present insist upon the third which is That I cannot conceive neither how Forms can be generated as the Peripateticks would have it nor how the things they ascribe to them are consistent with the Principles of true Philosophy or even with what themselves otherwise teach The Manner how Forms are educed out of the Power of the Matter according to that part of the Doctrine of Forms wherein the Schools generally enough agree is a thing so Inexplicable that I wonder not it hath put Acute men upon several Hypotheses to make it out And indeed the number of These is of late grown too great to be fit to be here recited especially since I find them all so very unsatisfactory that I cannot but think the acute Sticklers for any of them are rather driven to embrace it by the palpable inconveniences of the wayes they reject then by any thing they find to satisfy them in that which they make choice of and for my part I confess I find so much Reason in what each Party sayes against the Explications of the rest that I think they all Confute well and none does well Establish But my present way of Writing forbidding me to insist on many Arguments against the Doctrine where they most agree I shall onely urge That which I confess chiefly sticks with me namely that I find it not Comprehensible I know the Modern Schoolmen fly here to their wonted Refuge of an Obscure Distinction and tell us that the Power of Matter in reference to Forms is partly Eductive as the Agent caâ— make the Form out of it and partly Receptive whereby it can receive the Forâ— so made but since those that say this will not allow that the Form of a generated Body was actually praeexistenâ— in its Matter or indeed any where else 't is hard to conceive how a Substance can be educ'd out of another Substance totally distinct in Nature from it without being before such Eduction actually existent in it And as for the Receptive Power of the Matter That but fitting it to receive or lodge a Form when brought to be United with it how can it be intelligibly made out to contribute to the Production of a new Substance of a quite differing Nature from that Matter though it harbours it when produc'd And 't is plain that the Humane Body hath a receptive Power in reference to the Humane Soule which yet themselves confess both to be a substantial Form and not to be educ'd out of the Power of Matter Indeed if they would admit the Form of a Natural Body to be but a more fine and subtle part of the Matter as Spirit of Wine is of Wine which upon its recess remains no longer Wine but Flegm or Vinegar then the Eductive Power of Matter might signifie something and so it might if with us they would allow the Form to be but a Modification of the Mattter for then it would import bâ— that the Matter may be so order'd â—â— dispos'd by fit Agents as to constitutâ— a Body of such a sort and Denomination and so to resume that Example the Form of a Sphaere may be said 〈◊〉 lurk potentially in a piece of Brass in aâ— much as that Brass may by casting tuâ—ning or otherwise be so figur'd as â— become a Sphaere But this they wâ— not admit least they should make Form to be but Accidents though it is â—o ought I know as little intelligible hoâ— what is educ'd out of any Matter without being either praeexistent or being any part of the Matter can be a trâ— Substance as how that Roundness thaâ— makes a piece of Brass become a Sphere can be a new Substance in it Nor caâ— they admit the other way of educing 〈◊〉 Form out of Matter as Spirit is out oâ— Wine because then not onely Matter will be corruptible against their grounds but Matter and Form would not be two differing and substantial Principles but one and the same though diversify'd by firmness and grosseness c. which are but Accidental differences I know they speak much of the efficacy of the Agent upon the Matter in the Generation of Natural Bodies and tell us strange things of his
mention'd each Christal being compos'd of many small and finely shap'd Solids that stick so congruously to one another as to have one surface that appear'd Plain enough common to theâ— all Thirdly that insensible Corpuscles of different but all of them exquisite shapes and endowed with plain as well as smooth sides will constitute Bodies variously but all very finely figur'd I have made use of several waies to manifest And first though Harts-horn Bloud and Urine being resolv'd and as the Chymists speak Analiz'd by Distillation may well be suppos'd to have their substantial Forms if they had any destroy'd by the action of the Fire yet in regard the Saline Particles they contain are endow'd with such figures as we have been speaking of when in the Liquor that abounds with either of these volatile Salts the dissolv'd Particles do leisurely shoot into Christals I have divers times observ'd in these many Masses some bigger and some less whose surfaces had Plains some of Figures as to sense exactly Geometrical and others very curious and pleasant And of these finely shap'd Christals of various sizes I have pretty store by me And because as it may be probably gather'd from the Event the Saline Corpuscles of Stillatitioâ—s acid liquors and those of many of the Bodies they are fitted to dissolve have such kind of Figures as we have been speaking of when the solutions of these Bodies upon the recess of the superfluous moisture shoot into Christals these though they will sometimes be differing enough according to the particular natures of the dissolv'd Bodies and the Menstruum yet either the Christals themselves or their Surfaces or both will oftentimes have fine and exquisite Figures as I have try'd by a Menstruum wherewith I was able to dissolve some Gems as also with a solution of Coral made with Spirit of Verdigreese to omit other Examples And for the same reason when I try'd whether the Particles of Silver dissolv'd in Aquâ— fortis would not without Concoagulating with the Salts convene upon the Account of their own shapes into little Concretions of smooth and flat surfaces I found that having to afford the Metalline Corpuscles scope to move in diluted one part of the Solution with a great many parts of distill'd Rain water for common water will oftentimes make such Solutions become white or turbid a Plate of Copper being suspended in the Liquor and suffer'd to lie quiet there a while for it need not be long there would settle all about it swarms of little Metalline and Undiaphanbus Bodies shining in the water like the scales of small Fishes but form'd into little Plates extremely thin with surfaces not onely flat but exceeding glossy and among those divers of the larger were prettily figur'd at the Edges And as for Gold its Corpuscles are sufficiently dispos'd to convene with those of fit or congruous Salts into Concretions of determinate Shapes as I have found in the Christals I obtain'd from Gold dissolv'd in Aqua Regis and after having been suffer'd to loose its superfluous moisture kept in a cold place and not onely so but also when by a more powerful MenstruuÌ„ I had subdivided the Body of Gold into such minute Particles that they were sublimable for That I can assure you is possible these volatile Particles of Gold with the Salts wherewith they were elevated afforded me sometimes store of Christals which though not all of theâ— near of the same Bigness resembled one another in their shape which waâ— regular enough and a very pretty one But of this more elsewhere § I remember I have also long since taken pleasure to dissolve two or more of those saline Bodies whose shapes we know already in fair Water that by a very gentâ—â— Evaporation I might obtain Concretions whose Shapes should be thougâ— curious yet differing from the Figuâ—â— of either of the Ingredients But we must not expect that in all cases the Salts dissolv'd together should be totaly compounded for oftentimes they are of such different Natures that one will shoot much sooner then another and then it frequently happens that a good Proportion of that will be first Christalliz'd in its own shape as is conspicuously to be observ'd in the refining of that impure Petâ—e which from the Country that affords it the Purifiers call Barbary Nitre from the common Salt it abounds with and also as Agricola observes that in some cases where a Vitriolate Matter is mingled with that which yields Allom those two kinds of Salts will shoot separately in the same large vessel which the Tryals I have made with the compounded Solutions of those two Salts do not discountenance Now in such cases all that can be expected or needs be desir'd is that the remaining part of the mixture or some portion of it afford Christals or Grains of compounded solid figures Though the Venetian Borax wont to be sold in shops be known to be a factitious Body compounded of several Salts that I shall not now stay to enumerate and though when we buy it we usually find it to consist of Lumps and Grains mishapen enough yet when I dissolv'd some of it in a good quantity of fair water and made it coagulate very leisurely I had Chrystals upon whose surfaces I could perceive very exquisite and as to sense regular Geometrical figures And one thing I must not here by any means praetermit which is that though the Caput mortuum of common Aqua fortis consists of Bodies of very differing Natures for such are Nitre and Vitriol and has been expos'd to a great violence of the Fire yet I have sometimes admir'd the curiousness of those figures that might be obtain'd barely by frequent Solutions and Coagulations of the Saline Particles of this Caput mortuum in fair water But because the Glasses wherein my Concretions were made were too little to afford great Christals and they ought to shoot very slowly I choose rather to shew the Curious some large Christals which I took out of the Laboratory of an Ingenious Person who without minding the Figures had upon my Recommendation made great quantity of that Salt in large vessels for a Medicine it being the Panacea duplicata so famous in Holstein For divers of these Christals have not onely Triangles Hexagons and Rhomboids and other Figures exquisitely Cut on their smooth specular surfaces and others Bodies of Prismatical shapes But some of them are no less accurately figur'd then the finest Nitre or Vitriol I remember my self to have observ'd and some also terminate in Bodies almost like Pyramids consisting of divers Triangles that meet in one Vertical point and are no less admirably shap'd then the fairer sort of Cornish Diamonds that have been brought me for Rarities Besides the producing of Salts of new shapes by compounding of Saline Bodies I have found it to be practicable not onely iâ— some Gross or as they speak Corporal Salts such as Sea-salt Salt-petre but also in some Natural and some Chymical