by Nature Which is very different from the Epithet he gives to Motion and Rest in his 38th Paragraph where he determines That by the Ordainment of God Matter together with Motion and Rest were as to their ordinary Course originally Constituted From whence he concludes That all Parts of Material Things were primarily so dispos'd by the Will of the Almighty as by their divers Conservations the World 's total Matter might be continually preserv'd by the same determin'd Method that every of its Particulars receiv'd when first Created From which Immutable Decree of the Omnipotent he derives several Laws or Rules of Nature The First of which he considers as her constant Industry and Prerogative whereby she would as far as her Regalia's extend unalterably continue every particular Thing in its Manner of Being And thus whatsoever Mov'd should by her Intention be always Mov'd So that if any Part of Matter represented its Motion in a Square or other suitable Figure it would so perpetually continue did not some other Thing interrupt its Movement All which might be conceded were not Nature oblig'd to dispense with for Universal Convenience such Alterations in her Methods of Rule that she accommodates to the frail Disposition of her Elementary Subjects whose Distempers unless so prevented would be more disorderly or confus'd For which Reason she necessarily waves her Original Intention as to the permanent continuance of her Subordinate Individuals by Exercising in a manner against her Will a Tyrannick Power by which she kills some Beings to give Life and Repose to others Which could not otherwise have room to Exist were the Compass of the World far greater than its conceiv'd Dimension And thus we ought to apprehend the various Effects of Motion as also such Alterations as relate to Generation and Corruption by which Things cease to be and others have Being Tho' neither Motion or any of its Concomitants or Tendencies here mention'd can be reasonably suppos'd according to the Opinion of this Author to endeavour incessant Movement did not some other intervening Thing put an end to their Motion by obstructing its farther progress Which were to Affirm That Motion were void of Design if any Thing Mov'd regardless of its proper Residence If granted That the Motion of one Thing may cause the Motion of another to cease 't is not to be understood as any hindrance that its natural Capacity can receive or the Intendment it has to Arrive where it ought to remain It being absurd to suppose That Motion as it is appropriated to Material Composition of which only we can be sensible should be actually or potentially Imbu'd with a perpetual motional Faculty which were to allow it Indeterminate and therefore Infinite contrary to the undoubted Philosophiaal Maxim non datur Infinitum actu in rerum Natura And as experimentally certain as that a Man cannot always Run or Walk The Second Law which he Attributes to Nature he thus delivers Every Motion of it self is in a streight Line and therefore whatsoever circularly Moves always endeavours to depart from the Center of the Circle it describes Before I enter my Replication to this Head which in some respects is very questionable I think fit to Inform the Reader how he does here Dissent from what he deliver'd in his 32d Particular where he grants That Motion may be not seldom exceedingly Contorted Twisted or Wrested which he must intend by such a lineal Movement as might be neither Direct or Circular And therefore it must have such a kind of oblique Curvitude as cannot be comprehended by the Definition of regular Curv's or such as may be term'd Geometrically Commensurable which by Learned Mathematicians is solely Attributed to the Circle Parabola Hyperbola and Ellipsis The Reason they give is by demonstrating That no other Curvitudes can in every of their Points have a due Relation to streight Lines as it may be equally prov'd On which Mathematical Certainty is grounded their rejecting of all other Curv's as Mechanical because in particular they cannot be Geometrical by right Lines applied to such Figures and therefore not to motional Things and Parts by Indistinct Commensurations and such as may express their common equality Whosoever desires to be assur'd by Geometrical Delineament and Proof to this purpose he may Inspect the Commentary of Van-Schooten a Dutch Mathematician on the Geometry of this Author In the mean time this Observation is sufficient to explain the egregious Mistake of this Writer as to the Place before-mention'd Where contrary to the actual Performance and Method of Nature that allows to every Thing Mov'd Commensurable Space and Parts he Allys the possibility of Motion to such a perverse and irregular Figure as would render it absolutely confus'd instead of being orderly consistent with the Certainty of Measure But now in the above-mention'd Second Law of Nature as he defines it he thinks 't is very manifest That Motion by its simplicity of Operation should be conits simplicity of Operation should be continu'd in a streight Line but never in a crooked Which is true if meant of such Things that by their Inherent Proprieties of Length or Weight Ascend or Descend which are always continu'd in a streight Line But are not so in every Thing that Moves as may be evidently perceiv'd in that admirable Providence by whose Conduct the Celestial Motions of the Sun and Planets have a constant Circular Revolution Which sublime Manner and excellency of Motion is no otherwise naturally theirs than suitable Gravity or Lightness is the Cause that Things so compos'd Move upwards or downwards These Examples are sufficient to refell his general Hypothesis by which he would limit the genuine Action of whatsoever does Move to a direct Line without excepting the Orbs above That he well understood did Move otherwise To which purpose he delineates a Diagram the same in Effect with this that follows Let a Stone be suppos'd to Move by any Force according to his Example in a Sling as E A Circularly Mov'd in the same instant in which it is in the Point A determin'd to Move any whether in a Right Line towards C so as the Right Line may be the Tangent of the Circle It cannot be imagin'd to terminate Motionally Contorted tho' it first comes from L to A by a crooked Line because nothing of that Curvitude can be understood to remain in it whilst it is in the Point A. But should it then be out of the Sling it would not Move forward towards B but towards C. From whence he concludes That whatsoever does Circularly Move would always endeavour to depart from its Center Here he undertakes to give Nature a Law against her natural Legalities if not such a fictious Swing as would whisk her ordinary Operations out of their usual Course into the Region of Fables It being very Demonstrable that both Parts of the Proposition to which this Diagram Relates are erroneously Applied As to the First by which he would prove
them accordingly by confining my Observations to a cursory Consideration of some Particulars that I judge most useful and therefore fit to be separated from the rest The Primitive Ingredients annex'd by this Author to the Original Consistence and forming of the Visible World together with every Individual Substance within its vast Circumference are comprehended in three Elements no otherwise different than as they are more or less fluid The First of which he conceives so forcibly acting that in meeting with other Bodies it is divided into very diminutive and numberless Particulars Accommodating its various Figures to the replenishing of all Angles that were caus'd by them The Second Element he supposes divided into very small spherical Particles but of certain and determinate Quantity and divisible into many less The Third he defines more Gross or Thick consisting of Figures not very inclinable to Motion Of the first of these he conceives the Sun and fix'd Stars Compos'd the Heavens or Firmaments above of the Second the Earth together with the Planets and Comets made up of the Third Which Catalogue of Elements he thinks very significant because as he conceives that only the Sun and fix'd Stars properly emit Light the Heavens transmit it and by the Earth Planets and Comets remitted which difference he judges may be discern'd and therefore believes it well referr'd to Three Elements If Nature has accommodated us with Four Elements of which we are as certainly Intelligent as that Heat Cold Moisture and Dryness are incident to her genune Production of Things This Author has exempted one out of her Catalogue and what is more has complicated a Trinity of Elements into one Substance which he no otherwise distinguishes than as in some Operations and Capacities it is more Fluid than in other as he applies it to the primary Production of the Visible World and whatsoever had Being in it So that the First Star that twinkled in the Universe was in his Judgment but such a refin'd Part of Fluid Matter which if sufficiently thicken'd might have grosly produc'd an Elephantick Constellation in the Firmament But of such Particulars more hereafter or when I Inscribe my intended Remarks on the Fourth Part of his Philosophy where he Treats of the Earth and its Appurtenances In the mean time I shall briefly Elevate my Observations to the height of his Suppositions as they tend to the Method deliver'd by Des-Cartes whereby he would conceive in what manner the fix'd Stars and Sun might be Originally form'd and compleated In the beginning he means of the World the Matter of the First Element increas'd by reason that the Particles of the Second Element by their assiduous Motion did impair one another From whence it ensu'd that the Quantity of the Second Element was greater in the Universe than was necessary to fill up such exiguous Spaces that were between the spherical Particulars of the Second Element as they were mutually Incumbent So that whatsoever did remain after those Spaces were so replenish'd had a Recourse to certain Centers And there Compos'd the most Fluid spherical Bodies the Sun on one Center and six'd Stars on others But afterwards when the Particulars of the Second Element were more attrited or worn and receding equally from their Centers they left such spherical Spaces as were from all Circumjacent Places by the flowing thither of the First Element exactly fill'd His Words I have deliver'd in as clean English as I could fit or contract them to his purpose but that being done I must confess that I cannot Conster their meaning It being very unconceivable how he could furnish his Brain with a speculative Idea of such Particles of Nature separately and fluidly Moving since whatsoever is Fluid must necessarily Imply a continu'd material Emanation of the same Substance as in purest Water it is impossible to imagine any separate Fluidity in any of its Particles no more than the most diminutive Bubbles when discern'd on a flowing Spring or River can be said to be separately Fluid And next to Affirm as he does That such Materials could movingly Atteriate or Rub one another less there being no such Capacity in any Fluid Substance Wherefore if he had us'd the Epithet of washing or dashing of greater into smaller Particulars tho' somewhat Improper the Expression had been more pardonable than his calling them Rubbers of one another into any Fluid Diminution And what is more he undertakes by their reciprocal Motions to fill up every Corner amongst them But how to find an Angle in any continual Fluid Matter cannot be understood by Geometrical Delineation wherefore I wonder to find in so knowing a Mathematician as was this Author so undemonstrable a System But howsoever Interpreted he undertakes abundantly to Replenish with such petit material Quantities no less than three of the Superior and vastest Heavens And next by his Invented Vortices which in a Grammatical Sense may be denominated Whirl-pools he Circumvolves Clusters of them until he has dispos'd them capacious enough to be Metamorphos'd by Motion into the Figures of the Stars and Sun Against the main of his Opinion that the Heavens are fluidly Compos'd on which the rest of his Phaenomena's depend there is farther to be objected That it is unnatural and clearly Inconsistent with undeniable Philosophical Principles and as contradictory to ocular Evidence By which we are assur'd as perfectly as by Sight we can discern that the Sun and Stars must be of the same Celestial Substance with the total Heavens and which is not denyed by Des-Cartes otherwise than as he supposes some Parts of it which he calls the first or most fluid Element and therefore ought not to be so defin'd by him Because whasoever is Fluid is also dissipable and consequently may be more Extended Dilated or Contracted but neither of these are to be observ'd in the Figure or Appearance of the Sun that always continues exactly Spherical tho' at some times the clearness of his Figure is not equally perceivable by reason of Exhalations and Vapors that interpose betwixt his Splendors and the Eye of the Beholder Moreover if any Part of the Celestial Substance were fluidly dissipable Nature would be necessitated to prevent Vacuity the detested Opposite to her Existence that some inferior Matter or Body should Ascend to supply that place in the Heavens where the Parts were separately remov'd Which were repugnant to Providence that has ordain'd that no other than the Substance of Heaven by any Natural Motion shall possess the Supreme Part of the Universal World If it could the Elementary and Corporeal Mixture of Bodies below might be corruptly intermingled with the refin'd Nature of the Heavens which are apparently unalterable undiminish'd and as totally uncorrupted In which Sense it may be concluded That the Heavens are Immutable and therefore Impatible as being of supremest Excellency or not at all partaking with the distemper'd Compositions or Ingredients that constitute other Bodies If the Heavens are determin'd to
all Things of which we can in any manner doubt as also supposing them false we may easily suppose That there is no God no Heaven no Bodies and that we have neither Hands or Feet or any Bodies But not that we who so imagine are nothing because it is absurd to conceive That whatsoever thinks does not Exist at the Time of its Thinking Wherefore he concludes That he is and that he Thinks is of all the most certain Truth that can be acquired by Philosophical Order Who would not judge That so wild an Invention as this in order to Improve Knowledge might not rather proceed from some Person in Bedlam than from Des-Cartes Of whom if Interrogated how he comes to suppose That a Man may point-blank on the account of his Fiction deny the Being of a God together with all the visible Particulars already mention'd As to the Existence of the Deity he that considers the necessity of its Concession as he beholds the wonderful Conduct of the Universe with so many miraculous Objects as are contain'd therein will as soon give credit to any Forgery of Fables as to doubt of the World 's Omnipotent Creator And no less impossible to acquiesce in his other Suppositions there being no Body that has his Eyes to See and Hands and Feet can doubt That he discerns That which is called Heaven above his Head and that he feels with Hands and treads on the Earth with Feet But if you 'l pass the Supposition of Des-Cartes he will assure you That both Seeing and Feeling is not so Intelligible as Ego cogito and Ego sum Whereas in truth I neither can understand That I either Live or Think but as my Senses Conspire with my Intellect If not one may as well conclude That he may live without Thinking of whatsoever he knew before or was sensibly requisite to his Being and Life So nakedly has this Author stript the Humane Soul from the necessity of participating with the Body and This he farther undertakes to Affirm by his next Step where he positively expresses That there is no other Method of defining the Nature of the Mind and its distinction from the Body Adding That it may be done by Examining what we are and supposing all Things false that are diverse from us whence says he we may perspicuously apprehend That no extension Figure local Motion nor any Thing like these Attributed to the Body could appertain to our Nature On which account he concludes That meer Cogitation is more to be preferred in point of certainty than any Corporeal Thing that could be Apprehended To which I Answer That had it been demanded of this thinking Gentleman Whether at the time he writ This Treatise he did not Contemplate of some Bodily Notion For how could he Pen the Wording in any Kind of Extension Figure local Motion or the like and be without Thought of their Being when he nam'd them such Had he been in that Season to have Answer'd This Querie it must have posed his Contemplating in the singular way he proposes And if the Author of this Conceit could not perform what he requires it could not be Doctrinal to others It being as Impossible totally to separate the Mind from the Senses as to think of a Non-Entity or what has no Existence which were a contradiction to Nature and the sensible Impression adherent to the Intellect with the Being of Things and such s cannot be apprehended by it otherwise than as they are Compossed of quantitive and Bodily Parts Could I imagine another World as vast as This with as many Individual Beings and Creatures of all Sorts as are contained within the Compass of the Universe we Inhabit I could think of no other in all its Parts than such a One or in likeness the same with This that had with all its Particulars been the precedent sensible Object of my Understanding So heterogeneous to the Nature of Humane Comprehension is the Principle of Des-Cartes whereby he endeavours to separate the Imagination from the Commixture it has with our Senses These Discussions if duly considered are sufficient to defeat the farther Progress of his Maxims which in Effect will be liable to the same Confutation But to give him the Scope he takes together with the Advantage he can make by it let us admit the Question he makes in his Ninth Particular which he conceives very Emphatical to the purpose and where he has this passage supposing by a kind of Interlude of his Fancy himself to See to Walk and have Being and all these Corporeally performed yet makes no certain Conclusion from thence Because says he I may sleeping think I See or Walk notwithstanding my Eyes be not open and that I move not from the Place I was in and perhaps as if I conceiv'd that I had no Body All which if referred to the Operation of the Mind whereby he Imagin'd or Thought that he saw and walked he determines certain And I Affirm no less if to the Imagination be annexed the Impression made in it by the Senses For so I can Think that I saw or walk'd when I Slept which Imports no more than that there was a Residence in my Intellect conveyed by my Senses of my Seeing and observing of my walking Person when I was really Awake So that it must be a very empty Notion to conceive That I can be Personated meerly by the working of my Brain without Comprehending any concern of the Senses For Example Seeing or Moving must needs have a necessary Relation to my Bodily Parts and the Senses that appertain to Motion as I cannot move on the Ground but as on it I feel I move So that all that can be Implied from this visionary Conceit of Des-Cartes is That the Fancy imaginarily Retain'd what before had been actually performed by the Senses He proceeds to Explicate That misconception by not orderly Philosophizing is the absolute Cause that the Mind is not accurately distinguished from the Body And here methinks he imposes too critical a Task to be practically Discharged by the common Use of Humane Understanding considering how few the World affords that are philosophically Accomplished or sufficiently Instructed to that purpose Or if they were could they be therefore convinced That his manner of distinguishing the Mind from the Body is not a more refined Conceit than can be exerted by any Imagination that resides in Bodily Composition Is it not manifest that Elementary Substances are the Ingredients of our Constitutions as they temper our Flesh and Bloud And can the Soul that resides within their Circumference and Acts by them contemplate her self discharged from them yet at the same time as is acknowledged by Des-Cartes imploy her Imagination in Representing such Objects as could not be known to her but as the Senses had made their Impressions on Things on the Intellect that in their material Proprieties and Shapes had been precedently apprehended by them And it were unnaturally absurd to annex
Spaces and such as contain Corporeal Substances indefinitely Extended Against which I offer a brief and obvious Exception by sensibly proving That as we cannot Imagine any Indefinite Extension or Space in the World in which we have Being so were another World equally Vast and Contiguous to this it were impossible to apprehend a boundless Corporeal Space within its total Continent By reason that uncircumscrib'd Space cannot be the Receptacle of Material Substance because whatever includes Body must have commensurable Attributes or such as in a Geometrical Sense may be defin'd a Superficies terminated by Length and Breadth Which demonstrably profligates his pretended Idea of Indefinite Space or Extension So little is in this Case the Doctrine of Nature beholding to the Philosophy of Des-Cartes His next Conception produc'd by his fruitful Idea is That Heaven and Earth are of one and the same Matter and that there is no possible Being of more than one World The first of this Head he no otherwise proves than as he takes it for granted That if there were Infinite or Innumerable Worlds they would be all of the same Matter wherefore he concludes there can be but One. The Objection that may be made against his Affirmation that the Matter of Heaven and Earth is the same is because Heaven can be no otherwise understood than as it has a Select and Primary Distinction from all Bodies of Elementary Composition Which is apparently manifest in its Figure Motion and Height absolutely different and far more Excellent than can be compar'd with other Substance Wherefore Zanchius writing of the Works of God gives to its most Sublime and Refin'd Perfection a spiritual Epithet to which purpose the Learned Pena in his Preface to Euclid defines it an Animated Spirit universally diffus'd To these may be added the Authority of Jamblichus a very considerable Author who in admiration of its Substance allows to its Perfections the nearest Attributes to Incorporeal Existence And who can doubt that the Judgment of any one of these erudite Persons in being more speculatively Refin'd and naturally suitable to the wonderful Objects Immensly distant from the Earth we tread on should not have a deference from our Understandings highly Superior to the gross Definition given them by Des-Cartes Who determines That the Substance of Heaven and Earth alike proceeds from the Heap of Nature's common Materials And whereas he Asserts in the latter Part of this Head That it is not possible to Imagine more Worlds than One. I think the contrary may be as certainly Affirm'd as that the World we reside in has a natural Confinement A Truth no less facile to Thought than 't is easie to delineate a Circle that in any Point shall touch another and yet leave betwixt them no Intervening Space that is not substantially repleted But this Speculation however readily exerted cannot be the proper Entertainment of the Mind unless I imagine a Similitude of Things and Beings Correspondent to the World in which I am As by the diligence of Thought I might observe in a devis'd World the same Persons Creatures Trees and Fields with such other Objects that had been visible to me in this Wherefore I take liberty to think contrary to the Opinion of this Author That the Intellect strengthned by the Senses is sufficiently enabled to Transport its Prospect to the plurality of Worlds To avoid which Imaginative Power of the Mind he annexes to his Idea of Matter undeterminate Extent A Notion absolutely Inconsistent with the Nature of Substance in all its Capacities which cannot have an Indefinite Being And therefore no less absurd than if suppos'd that Matter or Substance could be actually Infinite In some of his following Particulars he bestows many Words on the Motion of whatever may be deem'd Matter or Substance but finding nothing of Consequence to observe in most of them or that occasion any considerable Remark in being Dissentaneous to what he delivers I pass to his 25th Particular in which he Comprehends the main Fund of what he intends by Corporeal Movement the Instance which he gives is That any one Body or Substance in his Sense may be said to Move out of the Vicinity of other Bodies that were contiguous to it before and as at rest into the Vicinity of others By this Definition he proclaims an endless War in the Campains of Nature where the opposite Commotions and Powers of Individual Bodies endeavour to possess the natural Beings of their quiet Neighbours From which Problem could it be prov'd might be deduc'd a better Disciplin'd Argument in behalf of Exorbitant Potentates when Molesting or Intruding into the peaceable Vicinities and Provinces of others than has as yet been urg'd on their Part Because it might be dextrously grounded on the Toleration and Conduct dispens'd by Imperial Nature amongst her subordinate Dominions This War of Nature denounc'd by so Eminent a Philosophical Herald as Des-Cartes could not but Incense many Combats in the Schools of Science But how far prosperous there or disallow'd is not requisite in this Place to Discuss I shall therefore Imploy the Force of my Understanding without being oblig'd to the Assistance of any Tribe or Scholastical Association to attack his Arguments where they deserve the most Emphatical Opposition My first Assault on this Head shall be against the main Fort of his New-Modell'd Fortification where to defend his Principles he Exerts the Artillery of his Idea which according to the Level of his Notions must batter to pieces the entire Confederacies of Nature and so separate their Societies and Rooms in the Universe That unless a more pathetical Expedient can be found than what he offers Towns and Countries with whatever they contain may as soon be Remov'd out of this World and Situated in another as one Corporeal Substance can Usurp the Province or Being of another Because no quantitative Matter but must if Mov'd into the Place of any other possess the Space that naturally appertain'd to its Existence And whether could he suppose That a Bodily Thing could Remove that is by any means Expell'd by the Motion of another Substance from its proper Appartment Since neither his Brain or any other Man's can by an empty Idea so diminish the World as that any Particle of it might be conceiv'd to vanish to Vacuity Nor less Intolerably opposite to the Proprieties of Nature is the Maxim he Inserts of the Translation of Material Things into the proper Residence or Place of others Not that 't is deniable that Bodies are alterably Mov'd or Chang'd by Effects of Rarifaction or Condensation and other ordinary Methods of Nature as to their manner of Extension and Figure but not as to the Space that Circumscrib'd their Substances because it is Impossible for them for Reasons before mention'd to be naturally provided for by any other Room for their Existence And thus if any Receptacle or Vessel be suppos'd fill'd with Earth or Water and those Materials afterwards Remov'd the Air
That all Motion does of it self proceed in a right Line 't is broadly untrue if consider'd that 't is no less Naturally than Mathematically Certain That whatsoever Moves must be progressive with the Proper Superficies and Space in every Kinde that appertains to its Substance When a Man Walks does he not suitably Move to the Height Breadth and Depth which at that Instant expos'd the Proportions of his Figure The same may be Affirm'd of the Motion of Animate or Unanimated Bodies On which ground Geometricians determine That a Line of it self has no Commensurable Proportion compar'd to a Superficies and therefore to no substantial Velocity or Motion in any Consideration otherwise than as betwixt two different superficies lines may be allow'd a Relative Proportion as in Squares Parallelograms and other Figures that assimilate in Height and Breadth Wherefore to Assert as he does That by Intendment of Nature all Corporeal Motion is comprehended in a streight Line were all one as to Affirm that a Mathematical Line which by Euclid is defin'd to consist meerly of Points that have no Parts otherwise then suppos'd should singly Measure a Superficies the Continent of Body Not but in a genuine Philosophical Sense a Material Composition may have a direct Motion allowing its requisite Extension Place and Superficies transferr'd with it either upwards or downwards according to the Nature of its Substance but no other lineal Rectitude as is already Demonstrated Where I Instanc'd the natural Tendencies that Things Light or Ponderous have to their proper Stations and therefore Inconsistent with the Example he gives in the Diagram of a Stone Enforc'd by other Material Thing or in a manner sling'd from its direct Movement into the obliquity of a winding Figure which must so detain it as never to depart or 't is not to be doubted that the Weight of the Stone would cause it to Move downward towards its resting Place On which account the Stone may be suppos'd to be taken from the Sling and flung at the Head of his Argument As intolerably extravagant is his other Principle or rather Conceit that he annexes to the Law of Nature whereby he would take it for granted That whatsoever does circularly Move has in its self an Inherent proneness to Recede from its Center Which is totally opposite to the Supreme Perfection of Circular Motion if compar'd with whatsoever is directly Lineal Because it is the Measure of Lineal Movement without separating its Terminations as the other does Which is obviously evident in the Motion of a Wheel where the Terms of its Motion are not so distinct that any one can be thought separated from the other But when a weighty Thing directly Move's from a Superior Place to an Inferior it may truly be Affirm'd that the Terms of any such direct Motion are by their Interval and Distance considerably separated which Separation Imports Composition of Terms but none to be found in Circular Movement as is manifest by the precedent Example Wherefore Aristotle acutely Defines the excellency of Circular Motion by considering that it is more Absolute or simply Compleat than can be Attributed to any other Figure by reason it is more Equal and therefore less obnoxions to Irregularity and consequently more durable From whence he concludes That it was the most perfect and first of Motious As likewise a possibility of Being Eternal because no Part of a Circle can be said to be its Beginning or Period and where neither the First and Last of any Thing is discernible it may be allow'd in a manner Eternal To which purpose the Poet Virgil compendiously expresses the admirable Revolution of the Hours Days and Seasons of the Year by no more Words than In se ciroumvolvitur Annus Which shews that Circular Motion is not effected by any forcible Cause or Inclination that any Thing Mov'd can by that means be endu'd with whereby to depart from its Center according to the devis'd Maxim of this Author But rather a continu'd Providential and Natural Method in order to the Computation of Time together with the Innumerable Benefits that from thence accrew to Mankind with whatsoever the World Comprehends And if otherwise reputed 't were as easie to believe that Providence might receive a forcible Period or that the Sun and Planets have as natural a propensity to drop from the Orbs in which they Revolve as the Stone might have to fall out of the Sling in the precedent Diagram So that the Principle which he would Entitle to the Law of Nature does more concenter with the Tenent of a Philosophical Renegado out-law'd by her regulr Ordainments than could be expected from the Pen of Des-Cartes I endeavour'd to be as piquant as I might be in my Remark on this Subject because he owns it for a main foundation on which he Erects not a few of his ensuing Discussions The Third Law that he gives to Nature is That any one Substance meeting with a Stronger loseth nothing of its Motion by its Occurrence to one of greater strength but lessens its Motion by as much as it Transfers to the other Here he continues a perpetual War amongst the Subjects of Nature and with that exorbitant violence that he allows Victory to the Stronger on all considerations Whereby he Interprets the ordinary Course of Things tending to the Universal Preservation and Conduct of Nature no other than so many Hostilities Executed by the Strong against the Weak If Bodies are alter'd by the movable Effects of Rarifaction and Condensation they are not so Mov'd or Produc'd by a preternatural and varied Violence but rather usefully Convey'd and Dispos'd to such Receptacles of Nature where their Beings were wanted and could not be supply'd without the convenient Alterations of Material Things The like may be said of Generation and Corruption Incident to all Elementary Compositions And tho' Nature in some Sense may have the Artribute of Perpetuity there can not be the same permanency allow'd to Particulars within her Dominion whereby they might be equally Everlasting with her self which would level her Incessant Prerogative in common with her Subjects or imply the Dissolution of her superlative Dominion Too profound to be fathom'd by the most skilful Brain of Man or be disorder'd by any Speculation inconsistent with her Perfections Which had this Author requisitely consider'd he would not have enterpriz'd the Imbroyling of her Rule with so many turbulent Diversities or Anarchical Violence that may be Imputed to his Principles as they derogate from her operative Contrivements and Motion of Things in Reference to their due continuations and apt disposure agreeable to the Capacities of their Existence But notwithstanding he has frequently Catechis'd Nature according to the Model of his invented Principles and especially in this Place where he attempts to enact Laws as if Confirm'd by the touch of her Scepter As also to present his Reader with several subsequent Rules by which he would be understood to have prevented what might be
apparent Place of a Star tho' the best Geometrical Method in order to its Calculation is very uncertainly found by accurate Astronomers when apply'd to Comets and notoriously evident if compar'd their Observations which are so exceedingly Discrepant that even to Infinite Degrees and Miles their Computations differ as they Relate to the Magnitude and Distance of Comets from the Earth All which may be egregiously apprehended if conferr'd the Observations of Famous Tycho with other Learned Astronomers that were before and after him of Eminent Reputation To which may be added the ocular Experience of Ages past whereby 't is assur'd that Comets together with their blazings are Dissipated and Extinguish'd when they nearly approach to the Ecliptick or Equator Which is contrary to the Motion of the Planetary Luminaries that regularly Move in respect of those Circles about the Sun from whose Beams they receive the brightness of their Splendors So that Comets either in Place Nature or Motion can be no other than elevated Meteors and therefore of no Similitude with or Derivation from Celestial Substance or at all Compos'd by such unexplicable Methods as are Instanc'd by the Scheme Diagrams and Notions of Des-Cartes Lastly the Matter of Comets may be indisputably Affirm'd elementarily Mixt and obnoxiously Distemper'd and Compos'd from the malevolent Effects that too frequently are consequent to their Appearance As Plagues Famine Destruction of Cattle by killing Diseases scarcity of Grain and the like And sometimes superlatively omnious as they presage the Death of some Prince Whose Period as Ptolemy is quoted by Albertus Magnus is most especially signified when a Morning Comet is in the Sign that did Ascend at his Nativity In Summ that Comets are terribly Prodigious and extraordinary Prognosticks dispens'd from Above or as severe Emblems of the displeasures and punishments of Heaven inflicted on the Iniquities of Kings and Subjects are no less true than signally Recorded by credible Historians Of which wonderful Examples together with their portentous Attributes I find nothing said in this Treatise by this Author tho' otherwise perhaps too far inquisitive of the Production and Nature of Things however Remote from common Understanding And here I would Close my Remarks on the Third Part of his Philosophy were not I oblig'd to Note or indeed Reprehend his Conclusion in which he infers in Confirmation of his former Doctrine That the Planets although inclin'd to Circular Motion never perfect any such Movements either in Longitude or Latitude To which I Reply by a necessitated Reiteration being not desirous that his Conclusion should have the better of my Pen by which I have judg'd or rather prov'd his Premises taxable Wherefore I thus briefly repeat my former Assertion which was That the Attributing in his Method of imperfect Motions to the Planets by contriving their Movements in Figures not exactly Circular was an erroneous lessening of the Perfection of Providence which could not but ordain to the most Refin'd Existencies of Stars and Planets such Movements as might be comprehended by the most absolute of Figures which must be the Circle Because there cannot be otherwise so useful a Computation of their Motion as is Demonstrated by many celebrated Astronomical Observators by whom the new Mode of confining the Planetary Motions to an Oval or Ellipsis was never thought o◠or wanted by them Nor can I apprehend how the Account of our Days and 〈◊〉 could be so commodiously render'd as by Circular Motion they are computed Which might be some Reason why judicious Euclid did not mention in any Part of his Elements the Ellipsis or any sort of Curv's frequently found in the Schemes and Diagrams of Des-Cartes as either certainly to be Enumerated or Geometrically explicable Whereas in his Third and Fourth Book he demonstrates Circular Commensurations and also such Lines as usefully relate or may be apply'd to them 'T is said of Plato who being ask'd what God did Answer'd that he exercis'd Geometry as by Man might be consider'd the Proportions of his Conduct and Motion of his Works But had Des-Cartes been so Interrogated he must have Reply'd according to his Hypothesis That the irregular Figures Schemes and Delineaments that abundantly replenish his Diagrams ought to be receiv'd as the Geometry of Heaven However inconsistent with the soundest Notions that Men can have of the Conduct Order and Motions above us Other Objections might have been Inserted as due Reflections on the Idea's Principles devis'd Theories and Problems of this Author which to deal freely with my Reader have more reference to the boundless Sphere of Fiction than to any common Place of Science or methodical Probation Wherefore I have been thirftily cautious and I presume not Indiscreet by separating such Things from other of his Imaginations on which I could more commodiously ground my Remarks and thereby facilitate their Use to publick Understanding An Instance not improperly Annex'd to the Close I give to the Third Part of the Philosophy of Des-Cartes REMARKS On the Fourth Part of the New PHILOSOPHY OF DES-CARTES Of the Principles of the EARTH PART IV. WITH no small Labour and Diligence according to the best of my Understanding I have thoroughly Inspected and carefully Contracted my Remarks to such Particulars as I judg'd of most familiar Consideration to whomsoever should peruse what I have Written And as in my precedent Tractaets I omitted such Maxims Arguments Premisses Conclusions Schemes and Diagrams of this Authos which I conceiv'd rather obscure Repetitions or posingly Compos'd than obviously perspicuous to the Apprehension of the Reader an Oversight that ought to be highly avoided by a judicious Writer The same rational Method or separating of divers complicated Tenents Assertions and pretended Proofs of this otherwise Learned Frenchman from what I have more Compendiously and I presume usefully Inserted I shall continue in this Fourth Part of my Observations on his Philosophical Principles The Works of his Composing that I have to do with being so frequently intermix'd with divers Modalities by him Propos'd and Invented that neither concenter with Old or New Probabilities that should the ablest Pen-man undertake to Paraphrase or Comment on them 't were much the same as the attempting to explicate one Solecism by alledging another 'T is said of Lucretius That he was the first of Philosophical Poets and it may be as pertinently Affirm'd of this Author that he is the first of Fictitious Philosophers The main Bulk of whose Treatises for the most part are rather thicken'd by his affected Imaginations than rational Conjectures deducible from Rules of Science which in divers Places of his Writings however indulgent to his Devisings he is so ingenuous as to acknowledge but with this confident manner of excuse That he supposes his Inventions ought to be more allowable than whatsoever can be urg'd against them which I have as I believe and shall endeavour farther to disprove And thus I proceed to consider his Hypothesis of the Being and Production of the Earth In the first
Fluid Substances exceedingly thinn'd whilst others were as nimbly thicken'd As if the Hands of Nature had been busily imploy'd in kneading of their Clusters till thoroughly condens'd Yet grants them so insipidly temper'd that by no proper Term Naturally or Philosophically Intelligible he determines them either light or heavy as he distinguishes their Elements from whatsoever is Elementarily Compos'd And thus according to his Method he imagines That Nature made her first Entrance out of the Closet of Chaos and having not thoroughly wash'd her Face he supposes some of her Spots might afterwards visibly remain in the Figure and Substance of both Sun Moon and Earth If next he had been ask'd on what account he attributes Spots to the Luminary of Day or Night together with the Terrene Sphere of our Being that are within no compass of reasonable Apprehension he must have return'd a motly Answer Since undeniable That whatsoever is capable of Spots as its propriety must be naturally colour'd and therefore of a mixt Elementary Composition by reason that nothing can be observably spotted but is also colour'd by mixt Ingredients and consequently the Object of Sight But the Sun and Moon were never held by found Opinion Elementarily Constituted wherefore not of any of his suppos'd Elements no more than 't is possible to conceive how Air could be alterative or operate on Air or Water on Water without partaking of Elementary Mixtures A Truth confirm'd by Experience in every Thing that is Thinn'd Thicken'd Ascends or Descends as sure as Earth is more ponderous than any of the other Three Elements ordain'd by Providence to exert all such Operations of Nature as are with clearest Evidence understood by us From whence may be concluded that the seeming Spots in the Sun or Moon are no other than meteorous Exhalations or Vapours that interpose betwixt the Luminaries and the Eye of the Beholder as surely as we frequently discern more or less clear in Appearance the Sun and Moon and therefore no Spots Inherent in their Substance As for the Spots that he annexes to the outward Complexion of the Earth what Man ever heard of any of their Colours except of such Things as have Being and Growth on her Surface as Trees Plants Men Women Beasts Grain and such other Things as might from Causes be produc'd How to Reply had he been thus Interrogated I dare Answer for him he could not have told And thus I come to the farther Examination of his Third Element by which he undertakes to Exspand the Original of all Things within the Compass of the Earth To which purpose I will briefly Summ the Order and Materials by which he forms his Phaenomena's of the Earth's Production All which he supposes were produc'd of the Fragments of a certain Thinn and Fluid Composition which he Entitles The primary Element of Nature These Imaginary or Globuli Fragments proceeding as he derives them from Spots in the First Element and descensively operating on the next term'd by him a Second Element they confus'dly and exceedingly disorder'd in Motion and Figure tended downward from their first sublime Height till at last they became more congeriously Thick suitable to the grossness of the Earth's Composure and Settlement where it now remains So very intricately obscure or vainly perplex'd does this conceited Monsieur debase the original Wisdome and Conduct of Nature both as to her own Establishment and the Production of her Works which could never be so disproportionably and irregularly effected by the prudent Diligence and Intendment of her Operations Which as this Author commits them to her peculiar Conduct I do not see why they should not have been by her Management as highly refin'd and continu'd as he delivers the Materials of her first purest Celestial Element And consequently of them so sublimately ordain'd have produc'd the Substance of Man and Woman that being exalted to a Superior Room in the Etherial Heaven the Eyes of Beauty might have there shin'd instead of Stars now beheld of the first Magnitude And next to these why should she not have gradually Illuminated the Substance of Animals with all other Materials and Plants that being naturally cleans'd from such Terrestrial Ingredients Alterations and Mixtures that are now in them they might have remain'd splendent Parts above instead of being Revolv'd and whirl'd in globuli's or dispers'd Fragments of Nature downwards untill they clos'd in a Lump that compleated the Earth in Figure disposition of Parts and Situation suitable to the Opinion of this Author Such Queries may not be unfitly urg'd against his total Hypothesis with all its Appurtenances to which I add these palpable Objections First that it is egregiously preposterous if not an Impeachment or lessening of the Dignity of Nature supposing that by her voluntary Actings she debas'd the superiority of her Existence by crumbling of her Materials into innumerable Bits or Particles in all kinds of impurer Substance and next dispose them by a rambling or giddy Progression so grossly to meet as they might constitutively finish and sustain the small inferior Bulk of the Universe call'd Earth or rather denominated the spurious Daughter of Nature if so engender'd by her actual consent Whereas contrarily 't is the inseparable Attribute of Nature intentionally to Conserve whatsoever depends on her Regalia's in its proper and utmost Perfection And although that by such Elementary Compositions and Mixtures as are understood by us she is necessitated to vary her Conduct as Things are in course Generated or Corrupted in order to produce such Existencies that could not be continu'd in themselves and therefore Providentially convertible into other Beings Yet she constantly preserves her most genuine Progression which is that nothing shall so alter as not to have Matter and Form incident to their Corporeal Proprieties Not unlike a Sovereign Ruler within whose Dominions there is no period of his numerous Subjects by Death because enough are begotten that succeed them But no such Procreation could be consistent or produc'd as an Elementary Triplicity is devis'd by Des-Cartes and not at allaccomplish'd or season'd with such natural Ingredients as are the Elementary Adjunct to Bodily Existences But rather of such a simplicity and incommunicable Qualification that 't is as reasonable to imagine That Earth should proceed from meer Air or Water from Fier as that his imperfect and uncompounded Elements should by their Vortices and Globuli arrive to any Corporeal Production Because the Principles of all Things could be no other than Contarrieties and therefore Elementary Insomuch that had not Providence otherwise dispos'd natural Operations than are contriv'd by this Author neither the Heavens above however excellent and refin'd their Essence or the Earth we possess with all its Appurtenances could have been effected The next Objection is briefly thus Suppose it were conceded That his Hypothesis relating to the Constituting of the Earth's Existence were allowable could it be conceiv'd that the diversities of Being and Motion which he annexes to his Particles
of Nature should be either operative or motional before the Sun Stars World or any Elementary Composition a main Cause of Motion Version and Alteration of Bodies as naturally they ought to be understood did really Exist Because nothing can Move upwards or downwards but what is Corporeally mixt and therefore consisting of Commensurable Parts whose Movements must be gradually computed by Time Nature's unerrable Accountant But by the Incomprehensible Phaenomena's of this Author the World was fill'd with temporary Motions before it or Time was or could be summ'd by computable Progression of any Thing that could be its porportionable Measure according to his Suppositions Which Impossibility is so disregarded by this Writer that Time were his Notions true might have continu'd some thousands of Ages before it could be understood to have Being or his small Globuli Circumvolv'd by their Vortices could have constituted and fill'd the local Situation of one Mile of Earth with all its Materials from top to bottom with their diminutive Particulars Which Absurdities if well consider'd might have deterr'd as Learned a Person as Des-Cartes from posing his Intellect with so many unexplicable Imaginations whereby he would assimulate however far above Thought the stupendious Consistence of the World to miraculous Systems invented by his Brain As for the Elements that he undertakes to deliver as the first Principles whereby the Earth was Constituted which as I have already prov'd are neither Philosophical or Natural he tells us in his 13th Particular That the more Solid or thicker of them are not always Inferior in Place or Motion to those that are thinner the Reason he gives is That notwihstanding they are uniformly Revolv'd they so adhere to one another by the Irregularities of their Figures that the Globuli of one Element cannot extricate themselves from the Compulsions upwards or downwards of another This Gentleman who had no otherwise differenc'd his principal Materials by which he would Constitute the Structure of the Earth than as the Parcels of his small Globuli were more or less extended begins now in effect to grant them Elementarily mix'd as every Thing must be that is Thinner or Thicker than another or different in Weight and Measure But so as by his turbulent Vortices the lighter were mingled with the heavier in such a complicated manner that they could neither Ascend or Descend as they ought to have done by their Qualifications But gives no certain reason why they might not always have continu'd so Intermingled and Confus'd and therefore never have separated from one another Since he determines no Cessation of the impetuous Movement of them caus'd by his whirling Vortices How then could the Earth be Compos'd or Constituted by such Irregular Particles of Nature that neither by their Motion or different Temperatures could be disincumber'd from one another and consequently so exactly Embodied as might compleat the total Substance of the Earth In his 14th and 15th Particulars he undertakes to Describe what he means by diversities of Bodies which he supposes form'd in that which he denominates his Third Region of the Earth and these he believes might be produc'd as the Globe of the Earth distinguish'd into three Regions having been devolv'd towards the Sun and the Vortex in which it was before taken from it variety of Bodies were distinguish'd in it Whose Productions he designs to explain afterwards but first he delivers three or four Axioms on which they depend The First is the general Motion of his Celestial Globuli The Second is their Gravity The Third Light The Fourth Colour His First Position I am oblig'd to reflect on and more severely could it be avoided than I am willing to do out of the respect that I have to this Learned Author But having Geometrically prov'd by what I have Written on the Third Part of his Philosophy That there can be no Motion either Diurnal or Annual to be Attributed to the Earth the Copernican way instead of the Sun I cannot but add That it is far more egregiously Supposititious that the imperfect Agitation of his Globuli which he Inserts in the Page I write of should perform their Annual or Diurnal Motion about the Sun correspondent to his Imaginary System It being highly improbable that such different Particles which he defines Globuli both in Substance Bigness Quantity and Measure as also irregularly Moving by his Concession should compleatly finish the Diurnal or yearly Motion of the Sun because not to be thought that they could Revolve suitable to any Figure Geometrically computable And therefore impossible even to Absurdity the fictitious Circumvolution that he appropriates to his Region of Globuli than if without them he directly had Asserted the Motion of the Earth Because the Earth allow'd by the Learned to be Circularly Form'd is more capable of Revolution than that such diminutive Substances as are disagreeably Compos'd both in Quantity and Figure should so perfectly unite their Movements as exactly to Represent or Conspire with the Earth's Motion in the room of the Sun either Hourly Dayly or Yearly appertaining to Ecliptical Circulation In order to which performance of his devis'd Globuli he makes yet more gross their Incomprehensible Phaenomena's by Affirming That they incline to Move in a streight Line tho' he grants them not figuratively such as if Things could be propense to Move directly if naturally oblique in Proportion and Figure Notwithstanding that 't is impossible that whatsoever Moves should describe any other Superficies or Figure than is suitable to its Corporeal Parts Nor can any Thing be said in a proper Sense to incline to Move in a streight Line but as it must be either upwards or downwards according to the Nature of its Gravity or Levity To be plain the most favourable Salvo that can be apply'd to this Broken Head of his Hypothesis is that he judges it safer for his manner of Copernicanism to substitute his whirl'd Globuli as Assistants by their Movements to the Motion he allows the Earth Because as I conceive he might apprehend that Objections to be made against the Earth's Revolution as also that by such an Hypothesis the Situation of Countries and the Elevation of the Pole must infallibly alter as has been already demonstrated might be rebated or not so unanswerably Alledg'd Tho' to Men of competent Apprehension the Absurdities are the same whether the Earth alone or his Globuli and the Earth in any Kind Intrigue or conjoyn their Circulations Can a Man that has season'd his Intellect with the least Relish of Mathematical Principles conceive it possible for the confus'd Phaenomena's of Vortices and Globuli mention'd by Des-Cartes to absolve the mean or equal Motion which Astronomy assures is annually consummated in the Ecliptick Or that the ponderous Structure of the Earth should be so regularly elevated from her Center as that any Point of its Superficies or its Vortices and Globuli in the Sense of this Author might at one time have an Apogaeon
States it is because those Celestial Globuli find more Passages into a watry Drop than into the Circumjacent Air And by that means as near as may be Move in right Lines or in such as most approximate unto direct lineaments whence it is manifest in his Opinion That such Globuli that are in the Air are less motionally hinder'd as they meet with a watry Drop according to the continuance of their Motions in a streight Line or nearest unto it if that Drop of Liquor be exactly spherical than if it had taken any other Figure But if any Part of the Superficies of that Drop be extended beyond a spherical Figure the Celestial Globuli by their more forcible discursions made in the Air more strenuously assault the watry Drop than were it other Substance and immediately thrust it downwards towards the Center The Reader I presume will excuse me if in this Place and some others of his Writings I deliver the Notions of this Author in more uncouth Accents than I would willingly commit to his Perusal It having been my care no less than necessary Diligence to render as genuinely as might be his Latin Expressions into English If my Remarks on his precedent Praticular had any sharp Allusion dress'd in a plain and familiar Application I cannot rebate on this occasion the point of their tendencies Wherefore if prov'd by me in the foregoing Head tho' by a comical Similitude that his Hypothesis had inebriated his Globuli I may as judiciously Assert That his Sense in the Particular I now Treat of may be by no extravagant Similitude term'd unnatural or Philosophically and Mathematically Intoxicated unless I could Affirm in his behalf that his Globuli which as he supposes might by the force of their whirling Vortices so dispose their Materials to the Constituting of the Earth that the very Grapes that caus'd drunkenness in the Head of the Patriarch Noah were engender'd by some of their giddy Compositions And as sure as the Earth is now in Being Nature might be deem'd out of her Wits if according to his disorderly Process she could be thought to Design the Production of the earthly World Or what can be more improbable than the Tale he tells of his Celestial Globuli converting of liquorous Drops hanging in the Air into round Figures And what Reason does he give why no better than as he supposes That his Globuli may find more passage in watery Drops than in the circumjacent Air But does not common Experience confute this Imagination Let a strenuous Hand fling a smooth Peeble-Stone into the Air and afterwards into Water will it as soon pass any Part of the Superficies of Water as of the Air Or will it not the Water being of a more condense Substance than Air have proportionably a longer Motion and Passage by the ressistance of its thicker Body than might be given by the Tenuity of the Air A Truth so practically evident that it could not be unknown to many of the young Contemporaries at School with Des-Cartes wherefore I wonder to find him of a contrary Opinion here As little concentring in any kind with sound Principles are the Proprieties that he annexes to his Globuli which if in their Motion engaging with any Part of a watry Drop that is extended beyond a spherical Figure they immediately with greater force assail it and by compulsion enforce it towards its Center But if any Part of it be nearer its Center than another his Celestial Globuli contain'd in that watry Drop forthwith imploy their utmost Force to expell it from its Center and next altogether concur to make one spherical Drop Here by a perverse Contradiction he notoriously thwarts the surest Maxims of Philosophy as they pertinently Relate to the Nature and Motion of Corporeal Beings Nor is there any Thing more irrational if not Philosophically absurd than to define as he does globulous Materials and debar them of Motion natural to their Figures It being not possible to imagine that whatsoever is rotund should be more propense to Move in a streight Line or the nearest unto it than in a circular Revolution If a Ball be let fall from the Hand will it it not rotundly Move suitable to its Figure And could this Author imagine That a Demonstration so experimentally obvious would be wav'd by any Principle of his Geometrically Inconsistent or that the exactness of Things circularly Mov'd of all others most perfect should incline to deviate from their Centers Or if that were granted is it at all probable that they could have freer migrations according to this Author through any one of his suppos'd watry Drops than in the tenuous Substance of the Ambient Air Which being done they are in his Sense sometimes compulsively enforc'd towards their Centers if their Figures be not absolutely spherical but if exactly round as forcibly remov'd from their Centers And thus he Implicates if not so crosly Involves Contradictions that he determines the operations of Nature more consonant to the exerting of a Step-dame's Arbitrary Conduct than suitable to the comely Effects by which she regularly produces the Motion and Being of Things All which must be conceded as Principles of Nature incident to her Rule and regular Intention as surely as some of her Materials are more substantially heavy or lighter than others and will therefore have a natural Recourse upwards or downwards to their Centers accordingly Wherefore it may be admir'd in what Fit or Heat of Fancy the Brain of this Monsieur was Inveigled when by so many perplex'd Words as also opposite Terms and Methods he did in a manner angrily Impose the Limitations of his Measures on the stupendious Productions of the Works of Nature Insomuch that his Maxims if soberly consider'd signifie little other than a design'd Rape committed on the Grandeur of her Figure and Beauty together with the providential Facility by which she compleats and preserves her Legitimate Conduct and Operations So that his Invented Elements with all his Diagrams of Vortices and Globuli seem fictitiously devis'd or appertaining to the Imaginary System of some other World since not at all probable that they could belong to the Composure of this But enough has been in this Place and occasionally before I believe satisfactorily Inserted on this Subject that it were impertinently tedious if more be added There remains one Particular that ere I conclude on this Head requisitely deserves a considerable Remark because it Includes a very curious and subtil Mathematical Problem Which he thus expresses the Angle of Contact by which the Tangent Line touches a Circle and by which only it is distant from a right Line is less than any Rectilineal Angle whatsoever and in no Curve Line besides the Circle is every where equal Wherefore he Affirms That a streight Line cannot more equally and less every where inflect or bend from its Points than when it degenerates into a Circular I have read in the History of Algebra written by Dr.
REMARKS On the NEW PHILOSOPHY OF DES-CARTES In Four PARTS I. Of the Principles of Humane Knowledge II. Of the Principles of Material Things III. Of the Principles as they relate to the Visible World IV. Of the Principles of the Earth Done by a Gentleman Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere Causas Virgil. LONDON Printed by J. Gardyner and Sold by Richard Ellison in the Pall-Mall near St. James's House M DC C. THE AUTHOR'S EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO HIS Royal Highness THE PRINCE OF DENMARK PRINCES Great Sir of superlative Esteem have to their Glory promoted the Excellencies of Science and are accordingly conspicuous in Records of Fame If they have been Illustrious in their sphere the Court they have not judg'd themselves greater under a Canopy of State than when their Grandeur has Flourish'd with the Incouragement and Growth of the Arts of Knowledge And tho' Princes as to the conduct of their Affairs may by their Prudence select their proper Ministers and Courtly observance of such on whom they confer the Grace of Officiary Dignities 'T is not to be denied That Science without other Courtship than its own Merit ought to be an especial Favourite of the Soul and chiefly so valu'd by the most Eminent of Men. A Motive of such high Importance that it caus'd the Great Alexander to declare That he had rather be a Prince of Science than Commander of the vast Dominions Possess'd by him And doubtless he in great part made good the Expression both as to his own Abilities and the Improvements he receiv'd from his Tutor Aristotle whose Learned Works had never been so far diffus'd in the World had they not been incourag'd and assisted by the Countenance and Power of his famous Pupil The next great Example was Julius Caesar who is mention'd by Plutarch as a Parallel in Valour and Warlike Conquest 's to the Mighty Alexander but far surpassing the conduct of his Arms and Counsels of State as to the perpetual Memorial of his Glory and Erudite Accomplishments Men famous in Mathematical Science were Authoris'd by him to amend the then Erroneous computation of the Sun 's Annual Revolution to which at this Day in the Julian Year we own our Calendar and the Month of July dedicated to his everlasting Renown in the Year that was Rectified by his Imperial Command A work transcending the greatest of his Earthly Fame as to the height of the Sun the Sovereign of Light his Name is exalted in Story If the Great Julius Caesar from his Soveraign Dignity and vast Ingenuity of Mind was signally accomplish'd to patronise so sublime a Performance what could recompence the Deserts of such famous Persons who were his subservient Assistants or as it were the Ministers of Heaven in order to give the Sun 's Ecliptick Year a renovated Conduct and Glory Of which Persons Sosigenes a Mathematician of Aegypt is chiefly mention'd But were his Astronomical Abilities compar'd with admir'd Tycho who was of Noble Extraction in the same Nation where the many great Predecessors of your Royal Highness had Dominion and Birth 't is not to be doubted that the accurate Skill and Observations of Tycho the Dane had exceeded Sosigenes the Aegyptian And possibly had he been consulted might have furnish'd the World with a more perfect Computation of the Year than is either the Julian or Gregorian Account His admirable Skill Vigilancy and Experience imploy'd Twenty Years in Astronomical Science did in a manner Crown his vast Endeavours There being no Observations at this Day that can compare with those made by unparallell'd Tycho And 't is not improbable amongst his Astrological Predictions were they known to us that he signally Presag'd the happy Alliance of Your Royal Highness both to the Danish and English Throne And how in future Time you would be no less a Favourer and Promoter of the Excellencies of Mathematical Learning than any of Your Monarchial Predecessors Nor can the extraordinary Dignity be unknown to Your Royal Highness by which that Science does beyond all others advance the Elevation of the Eyes and Heart in order to the Divine Contemplation of the wonderful Movements and Beings of the Celestial Orbs however far distant from us If the Sun Revolves in his Diurnal Circumference more than Sixteen Millions of English Miles to what admirable tho' less proportion does then amount the Period he makes in every Hour and Minute of Time Insomuch that it may be Affirm'd that by Astronomical Calculations in a high Measure we are Divinely taught to be more perspicuous Admirers of the Heavenly Works and Conduct of the Almighty than otherwise could be discern'd by us Which wonderful Movements of the Sun Planets and Stars together with the Benignities of Heaven incident to their Illuminations Causes and Effects are to our Admiration with such a stupendious Facility Dispos'd and Ordain'd above that it can be attributed to no other Original than the Operations of Incomprehensible Providence But of what Substance and Manner of Existence the Celestial Luminaries together with the Incommensurable Orbs Height and Distances in which they Revolve may be defin'd are Thoughts that have been the inextricable Astonishment of Learned Pens as they have been pos'd to determine the Nature of their Essence and other Proprieties Notwithstanding it appears That by Writers of Refin'd Judgments the Sun Moon and Stars with whatsoever may be denominated the Orbs above are deem'd in a manner by them either spiritual Appearances or equivalently such for want of other extrordinary Epithet or Definement suitable to the Nature of their Essence and Motion by reason that their Substance does not admit any visible Change or Alteration in them Which would be perceptible were they not essentially distinct from all Elementary Compositions These Instances in brief I thought fit to present to Your Royal Highness as preparatory to Your Inspection of such Particulars as I have Written in this Book on the Philosophy and Mathematical Passages Inscrib'd by Des-Cartes Which are Humbly Dedicated to the perusal of Your Royal Highness by Your Most Dutiful Humble Servant ED. HOWARD THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Dignity of Philosophical Science has always been Celebrated by the most Eminent of Men in all its Capacities For as Men are endu'd by the Gifts of the Mind above all other Animated Creatures Philosophy does by its Excellency highly advance the useful Speculations and Comprehension of one Man superior to another If Princes or Supreme Magistrates it wonderfully Improves the Conduct and Prudence of their Rule and fits their subordinate Ministers with such signal Qualifications as naturally lenifie the course Ignorance of vulgar Men and Attract their Obedience Tho' Iron be a harsh and rugged Metal the Loadstone can affectedly draw it And doubtless Philosophical Knowledge when duely Communicated has a more compleat and genuine Sympathy on the Souls of Men as it usefully displays the benign and facile Conduct of Providence in disposing the Government and Contexture of the Universe with its
given already of Snow Dissolv'd by Rarifaction to Water which when Snow was but Water Congeal'd So that it cannot be properly said to have a new Body but alter'd to the Fluid Substance which it had before The like may be Affirm'd of Lead or other Materials that when melted and enlarg'd by Extension do not lose the Denomination of the same Corporeal Substance in which Sense Lead when Dissolv'd is as truely Lead as it was in its precedent Existence Examples might be added on this Subject did the Reply that I have made require farther Illustration wherefore I proceed to his next Point which he thus States Quantity and Number differ only in Reason from the quantitative or number'd Thing This Position he procceds to Explicate by Affirming That the whole Nature of Corporeal Substance may be consider'd as contian'd in the space of ten Feet altho' we attend not the Measure of any such Number of Feet And by Converse saies he the Number Ten may be understood as well as a Quantity of so many Feet although we are regardless of its Determinate Substance Here the gentile Monsieur renews his Address to his Mistress of Thought under the Notion of Idea Which he endeavours to Compleat by such a refin'd Mode of Philosophical Courtship That like a Platonick Lover he separates Sense from the Motives he Endears But I presume that his Amour has met with divers coy Reprimands from Reason the most Celebrated Mistress and Beauty of the Understanding And 't is no presumption I conceive if I Attribute a rational Success to my Pen which has more than often refell'd the Cartesian Idea in divers preceding Discussions Wherefore I might refer my Reply to what I have already Written Did not the respect that I have to the Abilities of this Author tho' none to his Mistakes oblige me to prolong my Inspection together with an earnest Desire of being convinc'd might I find Cause from his Proposals But instead of meeting with any Motives of his sufficient to reconcile me to his Assertions I may justly observe an Erroneous Relapse to his former Principles And thus in his 8th Particular that occasions my Debate He supposes That the whole Nature of Corporeal Substance contain'd in a space of Ten or any Number of Feet may be understood without any Computation of it as locally Commensurable and this to be accomplish'd by a sole Idea of the Mind in his Opinion But is it possible to promote meer Thought by an Insensible Act suitable to the purpose he intends it Can a Man that never understood how a Plain Superficies may contain Body or is produc'd according to his Example to a space of Ten Feet Conceive or Delineate such a Figure without knowing that it is Compleated by Multiplying of 5 by 2 Should a Mathematical Tutor Inform his Pupil That it would be sufficient for his Instruction if by Mental Speculation he Imagin'd that there was in Nature such a Thing as a Plain Superficies tho' he did not apprehend that Longitude and Latitude were its Numerical Proprieties Could Science be Improv'd by such an Impertinent and Idle Idea that can signifie nothing either to Theory or Practice On the contrary every Man must be as competently Intelligent as was this Author of the Qualifications of Lines that appertain to superficial Content and as certainly too as the Dimensions of any Number of Acres may be figuratively Included in a Square or Parallelogram or he will profit little on this Question by Reading of Des-Cartes Who next proceeds to inform us That notwithstanding 't is a certain Truth and so I think too that nothing can be taken from Quantity or Extension but the Substance to which they belong must also be Leslen'd And convertibly not the least Part of Substance can be exempted but as much of Quantity and Extension will be taken from it This Opinion of his he alledges as opposite to the Tenent of others of whom he saies there are some that consider Corporeal Substance as distinct from its Quantity Which Conception of theirs causes them confusedly to think that the same Substance may be term'd Incorporeal Whether there was ever Man of such a wilde Imagination may well be question'd Since nothing can be more absurd than to Imagine That Substance might remain in any Kind Substance without its proper Quantity and next notwithstanding that Contradiction or as he calls it confusion of Thought to suppose the same Substance Metamorphos'd by a mysterious Way of Thinking to Incorporeal which is no less contradictory to the natural Being and Definition of Substance than if a Man should determine that Body could cease to be Body Because Substance is inseparable from Quantity as its Corporeal Propriety and therefore by no Notion or Object of Sense can be deem'd Incorporeal But notwithstanding that the Incomprehensible Idea of Incorporeal Substance is reprov'd by Des-Cartes as Notionally Confus'd the Sense that he delivers in the 64th Particular of his First Part or Treatise of Humane Cognition is ally'd to the same Absurdity as may be observ'd from my Remarks on that Head Where he supposes That Cogitaion and Extension may be consider'd as Modalities of Substance because as he Affirms The Humane Mind may have diversity of Thoughts by which the Cogitative Substance as he Defines it may at one time Imploy its Idea of Things clearly distinguish'd without the Assistance of the Senses at another operate in Conjunction with the sensible Parts of the Body Is not this such a manner of Idea as would render the Thinking Substance of the Mind with or without Quantity as pleases the Thinker Which little differs from the Irrational Notion of Incorporeal Substance if any Thing by excluding of Quantity might be possibly Imagin'd substantial From whence it may be inferr'd That the Criticisme offer'd by Des-Cartes in this Place in order to refell the Opinion of others does considerably reflect on his own And thus I proceed to such of his Particulars as occasion my Remarks which I shall Insert no oftner than the Subject requires In his 11th Head he reminds us of the Idea that we may have of Body by the Example he gives of a Stone from which we may reject all that is not Essential to the Nature of Body As if a Stone be melted or pulveris'd it does not therefore cease to be Corporeal We may also reject Colour because we frequently observe Stones that very pellucidly shine as if they were without Colour And so we may reject Gravity Lightness Heat and Cold with All other Qualities because they are either not consider'd in the Stone or being Chang'd the Corporeal Nature of the Stone is not alter'd with them Here methinks he makes a great Pudder to little purpose or no other than to prove that which no Man ever deny'd If there can be any Thing more Experimentally manifest than That Substance by what means soever varied or Chang'd will still retain Quantity as its Corporeal Propriety not to be separated
will as compleatly replenish the same Compass or Space as if it had been fill'd by the others before The last Example given by me ought to be understood of a preternatural or violent Motion enforc'd by the Hand of Man or other Accident by which a Substance that might be precedently in its proper Sphere or Place of Rest is forcibly dispossess'd of its Room by some other when Nature to prevent Vacuity her main Abhorrence supplys the Place of the Body Irresistibly Remov'd with another Substance Which in her natural Method is never effected by her ordinary Alterations caus'd by Generation Corruption Rarifaction Condensation and the like or by which the more Weighty Body is Expell'd by the Lighter No more possible then that the Earth or any Part of it should mount from its Center unto the Ambient Air above it Wherefore the general Maxim of Des-Cartes by which he would Infer the Transition of Bodies into the Vicinities and-Spaces of others is no less absurd than contradictory to the Establish'd Course and Laws of Nature in order to her Preservation of Things either as they Move or Rest Which should 〈◊〉 otherwise admit or according to this Author there must be a Confus'd Interruption if not a Penetration of Bodies Philosophically impossible not only of those that surround the Earth we Inhabit but also of the Celestial Luminaries that Immensely Move above our Heads if they Revolv'd into higher or lower Vicinities and Orbs than are naturally their own So perplexedly Inconsistent is the Opinion of this Writer with the Beings of whatsoever the World contains As Incompatible to common Understanding is the Notion that he delivers in his 26th Particular where he undertakes to prove That there is not more Action requir'd to Motion than to Rest Which seems at first sight a Paradox of a Novel Edition But had he seriously consider'd after the Inscribing of this Sentiment and next had been ask'd whether his Pen had not been more commodiously Inclos'd in his Desk and his Hand in his Pocket than acttually Imploy'd when he Writ this uneasie Sense he would have clearly distinguish'd betwixt Motion and Rest as Words that Imply their difference both in Name and Nature And 't is some wonder that Des-Cartes who largely abounds with Fanciful Niceties should have so narrow a Perception as not to discern the broad Contrariety that Interprets Motion and Rest sensibly opposite To which purpose Aristotle defines Rest as the privation of Motion in whatsoever is naturally apt to Move Wherefore the proper tendency that Things in Motion have to acquiesce in their genuine Place is render'd by some Philosophers as their final Perfection Because nothing can be said to Move but it does also to its utmost Power expedite its Innate Propensity to be sedate in its due Station If a Stone falls from any considerable Height Experience assures that it swiftest Moves when nearest to the Earth the Center of its Being But of its self incapable of Active Movement when it comes to its resting Place all which is Heterogeneous to the Doctrine of this Author who allows to the Acquiesence of any Thing no less Motion than it had when it Mov'd The Instance he gives is Because we perswade our selves that our Bodies at our Will Move and Rest for no other Reason than that they adhere to the ground in being heavy And continues to say That our Corporeal Weight and other Causes not Animadverted by us resisting the Motion that we would incite in our Members effect our Fatigues or Weariness whilst we Impute more Action or greater Force to Instigate our Motion than to cause it to Cease Here he creates an Idea not unlike to the Poetical Fable of Ixion's embracing of a Cloud instead of Juno for what can be more obscure to sensible Conception than to Infer as he does That the Body by suspending of its Motion does as indefatigably Move as when tir'd by Action Which is much the same as if he had undertook to prove that 't is possible for a Man to feel as uneasie a Movement sitting still as when he was weary of Walking Nor is the Weight of the Animated Body as to it self or as it may be Diseas'd by Motion the only Cause of the Appetite it has to be reliev'd or eas'd by Rest but as Nature compells it in being ponderous to promote its lowest Acquiescence in its Immoveable Place Essentially Center'd in the Bosome of the Earth as the Body has Room or Capacity to Descend Nor would its Motion till thither arriv'd be Impedited or Fatigu'd by the Labour of its Corporeal Parts any more than a Stone as it falls downward can be weary of the Motion of its Substance So totally Irresistible is the Power of Nature that no longer appropriates either Rest or Life to any Individual Thing than is necessarily consistent with its Place and Being If by her Indulgence she has Impower'd Mankind and other Animated Creatures with Corporeal Faculties and Parts whereby they may diversly Execute their Local Movements as her gracious Distinction and necessary Endearments peculiarly conferr'd for the convenient Support and continual Subsistence of Living Individuals 't is contrary to the gross Allay of their Bodily Compositions Thus the Body of Man or Animal may Move on the Surface of the Earth or by the extraordinary Energency of Life be exalted towards a Mountain's top when their Corporeal Substances could they depart from the Conduct of Life would with far more Acceleration tumble downwards Let a Man of the most expert and vigorous Agility take a Leap upwards his Person shall come to the ground by swifter and easier Degrees than his Activity by its utmost Force could Ascend Wherefore 't is no painful Action as this Author Insinuates by which a living Substance acquires its Rest but rather a natural and Irresistible Motion that inclines it to attain its proper Residence Which proceeds from no other Cause than the Quantitative Magnitude and Weight that Imposes the Descent of every Corporeal Thing as near as it can be promoted to the Inferior Place of its Repose If a Feather falls from any Height allowing for the hinderance that its Levity may receive from the Commotion of the Air it will Descend no less proportionably to its Weight than a Lump of Lead must do if dropt from the same Altitude And this is Mathematically certain because no Substance whatever can be said to Move but as it has Commensurable Parts These Examples are sufficient to Totter his Arguments on the Fund he erects for them Of which there remaineth One that he concludes this Head with and in his Sense very apposite to his purpose I wish that I had so found it because I love not to Dispute where it can reasonably be avoided His Words are these There is as much Action requir'd to the Removing of a Ship that stands Still on Water any Length Forward as it is to Move it as far Backward From whence he would conclude That a
Corporeal Substance in being Mov'd from and to the Place where it Rested before is equally Active Who could have expected that a Notion so Counter to direct Sense should be Inscrib'd by Des-Cartes Since 't is not the Motion of the Ship as he puts the Case but the force of Hands that compells its Movement from and to the Place where it remain'd before And therefore a pretty kind of Supposition or if Term'd a Ridicule the Application might well be excus'd by which he would Intrigue his Reader to be Conceited with him that any Corporeal Thing might Philosophically Move tho' naturally it did not Move at all Which perfect Contradiction to approv'd Reason and Principles of Science is very apparent in the Example he gives of the Ship enforc'd to Remove which of it self might have stood Still or contrarily had it not been supported by Water would have sunk in being ponderous as far downwards as it could Descend Which gives us a sound Assurance That the Proprieties of Motion and Rest of old determin'd will not be discompos'd by the Novel Institutions of this Author whereby he would Change the very Grammatical Construction in the Words of Motion and Rest by Converting their Significations into meer Modalities or diversified Actions of the Thing Moving or as it ceases to Move But had it been demanded of him Whether if suppos'd he were fast-a-sleep when he Dream't of this Tenent his Body had no less Action than as if he had Imagin'd it to be really Walking or Running I believe he would have otherwise distinguish'd Motion and Rest than fancy'd by him in this Treatise Nor is the Similitude Incompatible with the Explanation he offers at the End of the Page I write of where he tells us That by Motion is to be understood Corporeal Transition or as he calls it Translation out of the Vicinity of Contiguous Bodies into the next Approximation of others but not out of one Place into another Which is allowable if apply'd to the fix'd Capacities of Nature as potentially she may be Imagin'd to Circumscribe every Individual Substance tho' not in common Understanding actually True Because no Corporeal Thing can properly Move unless its Commensurable Place does Remove with it In which Sense no Substance can be conceiv'd to Move into the Vicinity as he Terms it of another but it must necessarily carry its Bodily Space and Comprehension with it No otherwise than a Man can be said to step into his Neighbour's Ground out of his own and not Transfer with him the Inseparable Space that before Circumscrib'd his Body tho' the Ground that contain'd his Person could not Remove with him into his Neighbour's Yet nothing can be deduc'd from any of these Instances that Implies That Rest and Motion are equally Active and not Contrarieties or only different Modalities according to him of whatsoever does Move or cease its Motion But if his Idea of Corporeal Movement be follow'd to the Vicinity unto which he guides it 't is possible it might have acquiescence there since he undertakes not to prove that it actually Mov'd after it came thither Other Particulars I find of his relating to his preceeding Notions of the Motion of Bodies and to which he has annex'd the delineating of a few Schemes or Diagrams But finding in them no Demonstrative Proof or other concernment than what I have before Discuss'd or Answer'd I therefore avoid the perplexing my Reader with such obscure Diversities which in my Judgment he delivers on this Subject or as extravagantly distant from either Philosophical or Mathematical Certainty as Fiction is from Truth And thus I come to his 31st Head which I had also omitted had I not observ'd that he there attempts to unvail more speciously his Mysterious Idea than he had formerly done The Proposition he endeavours to prove is That in one and the same Body there may be Innumerable diversities of Motion Notwithstanding he grants That no Individual Body can be understood to have more than one proper Motion because as he Affirms it must be understood when Moving to recede from several Bodies resting contiguous to it However it may participate of Innumerable Motions if it be part of other Bodies that have diversities of Motion The Example he gives is Of a Man walking in a Ship having a Watch in his Pocket the Wheels of the Watch Move but by one proper Motion but participate of another whilsi being Conjoyn'd to the Person that walks they compose one Part of Matter and another as they are Adjoyn'd to the Ship as also to the Ship fluctuating on the Water and likewise as it is joyn'd to the Sea and lastly as it is so to the Earth if the whole Earth be Mov'd To which if Reply'd That in the entrance he makes into this Particular he starts an Argument against himself the Consequence will make it good For although it be true That all Corporeals whether Animate or Inanimate of ponderous Compositions have a natural and direct Inclination to Move downwards but not their sole motional Property A Man by the Power and Faculty that enables him locally to Move can step upwards as well as downwards and by innumerable Actions and Motions of his Parts can abundantly vary his Postures together with his Feet Limbs and Fingers Impowr'd with useful diversities that admirably proceed from the Provendential Support that is to wonder bestow'd on Humane Life which could not without those accomplishments conveniently Subsist To which purpose enough has been Inserted in my precedent Remarks But as to the other Part of this Head where he insists instead of other Proof on the Example he gives of the Instrumental Movement of the Wheels of a Watch in the Pocket of a Man as participating of the Motion of the Person and also of the Ship Is sufficient without troubling my Reader with other of his Instances of like signification to terminate my Reply Which briefly is thus The Argument he offers is neither rationally or Philosophically applicable to what he Asserts if consider'd That the Motion of the Parts and Wheels of the Watch are totally Artificial and therefore cannot be naturally Contiguous to the Motion of the Man or Ship No more than Invention attain'd by Art can be certainly deem'd the Method of Nature that allows no participation to the Motion of Things but as they are genuinely dispos'd and influenc'd by her proper Conduct Which cannot be equivalently Counterfeited by Humane Artifice no more than 't is possible for the Brain of Man to create a Fabrick suitable to the Structure of the World together with the Innumerable Materials and their distinct Capacities and Operations contain'd by it A Speculation of such undeniable Excellency That had it been thought on by Des-Cartes his Reason and Abilities in Science had otherwise dispos'd the Credit of his Pen than to have Inserted the Incongruous Comparison by which he would Parallel in his Sense of Motion the Performance of Art with the Action produc'd
Alledg'd against them All which I inpected with the clearest Eye of my Understanding being no less desirous that my Pen should have been convinc'd by his than he endeavours the Estimation of his own But finding by the strictest Inquisition I could apply to his offer'd Probations That I was led into a Wilderness of Notions out of which no Thought of mine could give me Passage I concluded That it would be no small ease to my Reader and my self if I omitted such of his Intricate Discussions and delineated Schemes as might have perplex'd the utmost Diligence of the considerate Peruser For which I have in some Part his own consent as may be seen in his 53d Particular where he acknowledges that his precedent Rules as to the Nature and Motion of Corporeal Substances are not easily understood And where there is not a facility of Perception relating to the intended purpose it can have no other Construction than Impertinent or Trivial or at least not worth a labour'd Explanation And thus I pass to his Conclusion where I observe in general That he is more confident of his Premisses than was to be expected from so Ingenious a Writer In the Assertion he closes with he delivers this Affirmation That no other Principles are admitted by him than are both Physical and Mathematical Certainties because by them not only all the Phaenomena's of Nature are explain'd but also Certain Demonstrations given from them If this peremptory Assurance be true the Author of these Remarks has taken no small pains to little purpose but if not so the commendation he has bestow'd upon his Undertaking will be as little to his advantage as the Indulgent Applause usually is that Men Attribute to their peculiar Wit or Science To which I might Reply without disrespecting this Author or the Modesty that becomes my Pen That I am not more in the Right than he is in the Wrong wheresoever I have differ'd from him either on the Philosophical or Mathematical Account As in reference to both I may without Ostentation Aver That his Idea's Propositions and Allegations as they are tax'd by me are rather Improbabilities if not fictitiously introduc'd by him than naturally Ally'd to Proof or the Being of Things For tho' Mathematical Operations cannot be Refin'dly Contemplated but as they have an Immaterial or Spiritual Eminency relating to the proportionable Dimensions which they unerrably give to whatsoever may be regularly Defin'd of substantial Existence Yet by a distinct Excellence partake not at all of Matter howsoever Commensurated by them And thus may a Proposition in Euclid be prov'd if only in Thought delineated But when apply'd to any Material Being the Substance unto which it Relates must as really and in the same manner Exist as is suitable to the Certainty of its Demonstration But not to be so understood by the Doctrine of Des-Cartes who sets Nature at Work as he fancy 's her Operations Insomuch that a Substance cannot directly Move towards its proper Place of Being but he conceives it more or less obstructed by some other Body or whirl'd in a Line of a different Denomination to another Point of the Compass or not to be Imagin'd whether Much of the same Similitude with the Figure of the Stone in the Sling as it is inserted in the preceding Diagram All which exorbitant Modalities and Motions of Things as he supposes them to Act as they are either Hard Flexible Condens'd or Fluid are rather singular Fictions or forcible Contrarieties Complicated by his Brain than concentring with the prone Facility of Natural Operations Absolutely Inconsistent by a Philosophical Maxim with the prodigious and continual Violence impos'd on Causes and Effects as by this Author is devis'd the Conduct of Nature Yet after all he is no less confident than to Affirm that his Philosophical Hypothesis is Mathematically Certain in every Consideration Which without other rebuke to the Phrase of his Boasting is as far from being prov'd by Rules of Science as Fiction may be from undoubted Truth Or as if he had undertook to have delineated out of Euclid a Coat for the Moon that should have demonstrably fitted her Figure in every Change of her Appearance If I have dealt freely with Des-Cartes where his Notions and Proofs were questionable 't is agreeable to his Example who spares no Author where he thought him Taxable Tho' I have been favourable in not extending my Exceptions so far as I might have taken occasion Which I hope the Reader will excuse or think himself oblig'd because I Entertain'd him with no more Words than I thought sufficient to give a Period to my Remarks on the Second Part of the Philosophy of Des-Cartes REMARKS On the Third Part of the New PHILOSOPHY OF DES-CARTES As they Relate to the VISIBLE WORLD PART III. IF admirable even to extasie of Thought by what manner of natural Operation or superlative Act of Providence the Humane Composition in Soul and Body was Originally produc'd to that transcendent Degree That his Intellectual Faculty by lineal Descent and Right continues him an absolute Monarch of Understanding in Reference to the Government of himself and other Creatures 'T is highly incumbent on Man to be not only gratefully considerate of his being such but also to acknowledge his utmost Celebration of the Supreme Cause of his wonderful Existence Which mighty Consideration ought to transport the Prospect of Thought far beyond the Excellency conferr'd on Mankind in Soul and Person Which can be but narrowly compar'd with the vast complex of the Universal World and the Innumerable Wonders surrounded by it Wherefore if the best Inspection made by the Humane Intellect in Contemplating the manner of its rational Being be pos'd by its own Riddle above its Power to unfold How stupendiously must then be Involv'd the most elaborate Attempt of Man's Understanding when to the peculiar Wonder that is Exerted from his own Existence he adds the Innumerable Miracles conspicuously visible in the Structure of the Universe And what is yet more Transcendent the admirable Author of what we are and all we behold seems Envelop'd from the Eye by his wonderful Fabrick and Works If the Learned Des-Cartes in the beginning of this Treatise seems not a little fond of his own Applause by signifying to his Reader That he has Invented certain Principles by which he conceives That Nature is unveil'd in her as yet unknown Recesses He is far more modest in his subsequent Expressions where he bows the Knee of his Philosophy to the Infinite Power Amplitude and Beauty of the Works of the Almighty Concluding withall That it is highly requisite to avoid all such confident Imaginations whereby we might undertake by uncertain Suppositions to limit Omnipotent Power or Abstract in any Kind from its Incomprehensible Performance This Conclusion I submit to but cannot approve the confidence of his Introduction contain'd in the Entrance he makes into this Paragraph as the Reader may perceive by the Remarks I have made
Page and entrance he makes into his Fourth Part of his Philosophical Treatise he transfers the Principles which he had apply'd to the Constituting of Superior Beings in his Third Part to the original Forming and Existence of the Earth we Inhabit Which in his First Paragraph according to his design'd Imagination in Substance is thus Let us feign saies he That the Earth was primarily Constituted solely of the Matter of the first Element which has been mention'd by me in the Third Part of his Philosophy as was the Sun tho' much less as likewise to have a vast Vortex or whirling Substance about her the Center of which Vortex was the Center of the Earth But as some Particulars or Globuli as he calls them were channell'd or hollow'd and some but not all very diminutive of that First Element they adher'd and so were converted into the Matter of the Third Element which I likewise noted in the foreg-oing Tractate and from thence first of all were the opacous Spots engender'd on the Superficies of the Earth resembling those we behold continually to generate and dissolve about the Sun And next tells how such Particulars were Thinn'd or Condens'd Ascending and Descending some to Etherial Parts some to the Higher others to the Lower Region of the Air As also how the thicker of their opacous Spots cover'd and darken'd the whole Surface of the Earth Thus I have briefly summ'd his Sense the doing of which has caus'd such a wonderful Confusion in the utmost extent of my Intellect that I cannot there find room for the whirling of his Vortices and Globuli Or were the Brain of Man as big as the Earth it might prove too small for the comprehensive Understanding of his Hypothesis By which he displays his Scene of Chaos together with the diffusion from its Womb of such Particles or Seeds of Nature That by their Motions and continu'd Involutions and Revolutions Thin or Thicken without the operative concurrence of Heat Cold or any other Elementary Quality untill a sufficient quantity of them meet in a Lump that might produce the Figure and Magnitude of the Earth But from what shadow of Reason or Philosophical Authority could Des-Cartes fancy That either the Universe or Earth part of the whole might be Constituted or any ways generated by Motion unless of Bodies Compos'd of such Elements that are common to our Apprehensions Because nothing if not so temper'd is capable of Motion or computable by Time the natural Propriety of Motion and therefore not of such Chimerical Maaterials or unqualified Particles of Nature as he numbers in the actings of his devis'd Triplicity of Elements Which if granted 't were in effect to Assert That Motion Time and the Elements we usually understand and by which we subsist were operative and original Causes of the World's Existence So that the Earth together with Mankind and whatsoever it contains might have had in the Opinion of this Author a capacity of subsisting or wonderfully forming it self without a miraculous Creation Nor can his Supposition be excus'd by alledging That the Almighty might Ordain the Fabrick and Structure of the Earth by any Motion of Substances that were not Elementary Because impossible to conceive any other temperature of Things that could be motionally capacitated to produce other Beings But of what Composition or how establish'd the Heavens above are Thoughts too remote and spiritual as I have prov'd by Learned Authority in the precedent Treatise to be definitively reach'd by the Humane Intellect Notwithstanding which sublime Consideration the Earth is plac'd by Des-Cartes above and instead of the Sun as a Planet according to the Copernican System in as lofty a Room as is the Orbite betwixt Mars and Venus In answer to which enough I believe has been objected in the former Third Part But now having suppos'd the Matter of the Earth before intermingled with that of the Heavens he tells us how the Materials of the Earth delaps'd or slipt from above towards the Inferior Place according to his Phaenomena of the Sun and next distinguishes the Earth into three Regions The First of these which he calls the most Inward he supposes to contain so much of the Matter of the First Elements not otherwise there Moving or of other Nature than as it was in the Sun except that its Substance was less pure But thinks that the Earth in passing from the Sun and surely in his Sense upwards because by his Hypothesis he has preferr'd the ministerial Situation of the Terrene composition much Superior to Phoebus the King of Illuminating Beings as also that it continually became spotted and could not be purg'd or clear'd of them From whence saies he I am easily persuaded That the Earth was then full of the Third Element did not it follow that she could not if at that time so solid be so near the Sun he means downwards as now she is To which purpose he has devis'd a Right-worshipful Scheme but left by me to the Inspection of such as have no other Imployment for their Eyes The Second Element of the Earth he determines opacous and thickly Substantiated as consisting of divers Minute Particles that appertain'd to the first Element And this in his judgment Experience assures by the Spots in the Face of the Sun which excepting their refin'dness and subtility are the same with those of the Earth Yet notwithstanding hinder the Light that would else more appear in the Sun But concludes after some offer'd Reasons which I do not mention because I think 'em Irrational That these two Elements have little to do with us because no living Man ever ascended to their Stations But by what Authority does he present us with a Theory of Things that he confesses no Body could ever be assur'd of And for that Reason I might pass from them with no less neglect than the Man who reading an Inscription at Athens that was Dedicated to the unknown God thought it had little to do with his Contemplation And no more my concern what this Author delivers here these Elements having been sufficiently I doubt not Remark'd by me in the Third fore-going Part of his Philosophy Notwithstanding I will briefly add something avoiding if possible Reiteration of Words on the same Subject already written Or only by way of Interrogation were Des-Cartes present desire to be inform'd in what Mint of Nature he Coin'd these Elements and as her Bank-stock Pay's them off in Parcels to his Reader In doing of which he introduces and a while continues the original Empire of Nature in Power and Credit numerously attended by very inconsiderable Subjects which he calls petty Globuli surrounding her Throne and immediately committed to the Government and disposal of revolving Vortices that whirl'd them without any orderly Method or Proportion either East West South or North or sometimes only upward to the height of Heaven and as soon precipitately downward by which medly of Motion he conceives abundance of their
Wallis who mentions the controverted Question concerning the Angle of Contact made by a streight Line where it touches the Circle but in his Opinion thinks it nothing if not a right Angle in being perpendicular to the peripherial Point of the Circle because not otherwise numerically Computable He also Inserts his Disceptation as I remember by Letters that pass'd betwixt him and a certain Learned Person who undertook to defend against him the Determination of the famous Mathematician Clavius in whose Judgment the Angle of Contact was properly something tho' not Commensurable and therefore not otherwise definable than as being less than any acute Angle whatsoever which I take to be the more probable Opinion By reason that it could not be denominated Angular without it appertain'd to something tho' but of general or tacit Application And thus in the Judgment of Euclid the Angle of Contact has a singular Attribute where it touches the periphery of the Circle but not otherwise accountable or to be summ'd by Number The Reason is that in every Circle whether equal or unequal the Point in the Circumference touch'd by a right Line will be the same in all of them because no other Line can fall between the Point of Contact in any of their Peripheries And could it be Commensurable it would be of one Equality Whereas contrarily in every direct Figure or where two right Lines touch one another the Angle they make may be Geometrically lessen'd by any intervening Line or Lines that meet in the Angular Point But not so to be understood of the Angle of Contact which has no proportion in its self if compar'd with any other figurative Angle To which purpose the Learned Proclus signally Determines That the Point in the Circle where the Angle of Contact meets with a streight Line is mixtly Compos'd of a direct Line and the Curviture of the Circle and therefore not Commensurable by any distinct Line that can be numerically computed So that the Angle of Contact may be well Term'd singular by reason it has no proportional Similitude or Quantitative Propriety correspondent to any other Angular Delincament And the more Admirable because the wonderful Extent and Power of Geometry computatively Explains by the vastness of its Science all other Angles Mathematically qualified except that which is lineally annex'd to the touch of the Circle And what is yet more wonderful the tangent Line that Includes and makes the Angle of Contact is perfectly Commensurable tho' not the Angle where it touches the Circle a Geomemetrical Secret that has not a little perplex'd if not pos'd the Pens of famous Mathematicians Or this Proposition may be thus demonstrated the Angle at D made by the prickt Line D C in the Triangle A D C is a right Angle as is always the Angle in the Semicircle therefore the Angle A C D is less than a right Angle tho' it may be allow'd greater than any acute Angle and the Angle at C made by the tangent Line less than any acute Angle that can be given Otherwise the Point where the tangent Line touches the Circle could not be in that Point singular as before demonstrated So that in the Triangle A C D if D be a right Angle the Angle at C must be less than a right Angle because in every plain Triangle the three Angles are but equal unto two Right Which confirms the former Demonstration And from which may be concluded that of what demonstrative Quantity the Angle of Contact does actually consist is as yet conceal'd from Geometrical Inquisition Or not to be discover'd untill a certain Proportion can be found betwixt a streight and a curve Line which perhaps may never be Demonstrated If not as impossible as to prove a Curve commensurately distinguish'd from a Curve I confess I am not a little beholding to this Learned Monsieur for the occasion he has given me to discuss I conceive not unsatisfactorily to the Judicious the Question concerning the Angle of Contact so much controverted by Celebrated Geometricians And which by a certain fineness in Science is more pertinently apply'd to the purpose he would intend it than any Mathematical Proposition Theorem or Diagram of his that I have met with But I cannot thank him for the Conclusion he deduces from thence or because he takes it for granted That a streight Line by reason of the near approximation that it has to the Circle in the Point of Contact never less inflects from every of its Points than when it degenerates into a circular Figure By which Inference he does highly disparage the Contexture and Theory which he devises for the Motions of his Vortices and Globuli in order to their material compleating of the Universal World If their Motions in any kind tending to a direct Line be allow'd to degenerate when from that manner of Movement they convert to circular Revolution Which were all one as to charge the motional Exactness and Conduct of Nature providentially dispos'd with Mistake or Imperfection relating to her Operation and Works Because no figurative Motion can be imagin'd so absolutely compleat excellent and of certain continuance as is circular Movement By reason that no Part of a Circle can be Term'd its Beginning or End Whereas contrarily no Motion can be made in a streight Line but must have separate intervall'd and terminated Parts Which enough disproves the Allegation of this Author as sure as that by Geometrical Dignity and Proof the Circle has a superlative perfection above all other Figures And were it not to be so acknowledg'd there is little reason why the Wisdom of Providence should annex the admirable Computation of Days and Years to circular Revolution But so much has been said by way of Confutation in my former Remarks on this Subject that I need not renew them here Nor is it requisite that I should farther reflect on his elaborate Expressions Draughts Schemes and Delineations by which he undertakes to confirm the Motion of Things in order to the Constructure of the Universe together with the Being of the Earth since I doubt not I have refell'd his total Hypothesis on which his Principles are grounded Wherefore I shall pass from all of them to the Entertaining of my Reader with some especial Thoughts relating to the Original of the World and Earth we inhabit as are Ancient or Modern of most erudite Reputation I. Concerning the Magnitude of the Universal World the Questions are Whether it be Infinite or Finite materially replenish'd or not II. As to its Duration or Continuance Whether it had any temporary Beginning or eternally Constituted III. As to Number Whether it be one or numerously Existing Tho' as to Number there can be no Controversie if the World be granted Infinite because there can be but one Infinite IV. Another grand Querie is From what Cause or Matter was the World Originally Compos'd V. And next From whence or in what manner that Cause and Matter did proceed
the Magnetical Needle as it experimentally relates to different Points of the Compass may in Summ be referr'd to what this Author cites from our Country-man the Learned Gilbert who chiefly imputes the Cause of the diversities to some Inequalities or alterable Tempers in the Superficies of the Earth Or because there are more Load-stones in some Parts of the terrene World than in other To which may be added agreeable to the Opinion of Des-Cartes that in some Seasons more Iron is digg'd out of the Earth and convey'd to distant Places or Regions for publick and private Uses Which might contribute much to the changeable Variations of the Magnetical Needle as they have been by Learned Observators at several times differently Computed Upon the whole Matter tending to the great Secret of the Needle touch'd by the Magnet I find not that the Inferences above mention'd are more passable with me than any Allowance of mine correspondent to the Opinion of this Author of Poles in the Earth or Affinity with them in the Load-stone or Virtue on that account conferr'd by him on the Needle Wherefore I judge that I may with founder confidence adhere to the Reasons and Observations precedently offer'd by me than on any determination of the Magnetical Secret tender'd by this Writer The Maxims and Principles of Des-Cartes being so entirely deduc'd and connected by him that if one of his Particulars be Answer'd he gives no labour to his Opposer to have to do with more Which I confess I take for a favour tho' possibly against his Intention And should I have been more Elaborate in my pursuit or Conviction of his Tenents as I perceive them perplex'dly deliver'd and entangled both in the Sense Method Figures and Schemes by which he does in a manner no less pose himself than his Reader my Replications would have been no less ungrateful to a Judicious Peruser than if I had elaborately undertaken by one obscurity to manifest another So that I may safely conclude that the occult Quality in reference to the Magnet with all its Proprieties is not more darkly reserv'd by Nature than 't is envelop'd in the Writings of Des-Cartes Nor need I repeat that if I have render'd Invalid his First main Particular by proving as I have done neither the Earth or Magnet has any such Poles or Motion Incident to his Hypothesis I may undoubtedly alledge that his other Positions are totally Ineffectual And thus I pass to his 184th Particular where he mentions some other Things as Jet Rosin Wax Vitriol and the like to which he annexes in resemblance of the Magnet a Propriety whereby they Attract other diminutive Bodies But of these not having made such perfect Experiments as might render them clearly Intelligible or grounded no less evidently in his Judgment than he has signified by the Composition and Motions of Things deducible from his supposed Elements already disprov'd by me He does to as little purpose Instance their Names and Natures And therefore require no farther Discussion It being my essential Design to limit chiefly my Remarks to such Heads and Places of his Tractates that I judge usefully conducing to the Improvement of Science or whatsoever by the Humane Mind would be most desirably understood To which purpose I will take occasion from the hint he delivers of his Intention to compleat this Fourth Part of his Philosophy wherein he has given after his manner the Earth a Formation and Being together with divers Things relating to its external and internal Comprehension by adding his Treatments of the Original Production of Animals Plants and Mankind The last of which I shall principally insist on tho' wav'd or deferr'd by him in his 188th Particular to some future Treatises of which he was not fully resolv'd or at that time furnish'd with leisure or thoughts proper for his design'd Enterprise on those Subjects Yet I find that the Substance of what he omits here and especially that of the Original of Humane Production is to be read in the 29th Page of his Distertatio de Methodo or the right use of Reason in order to the Investigation of the Truth of Science Which I conceive was written before the Principles of his Philosophy or indeed an Epitome for the most part of what is to be found in them Wherefore I shall briefly select from thence so much of his Method tending to the primitive Existence of Mankind as also by what Cause or operation individual Man was originally Constituted in his admirable Form and more than wonderful Intellectual Capacity The Summ of all which he comprehends in these Words viz. That God did form the first Being of the Humane Body in all things correspondent to what it is now both in the External structure of Members as also in the Internal and Organical Parts produc'd out of the same matter by which is meant by Des-Cartes his first Element as before remark'd by me The method by which he supposes that God compleated the primary formation of Man he takes to be no other than a corporeal substance without either Sensitive or Animated Proprieties or such as are observable in Plants or Beasts but only endu'd in the Heart with a kind of Fire without light which he compares to a Hay-rick distemperately warm before it is thoroughly dry or the calefaction that is in new Wine before separated from its Dregs But how he comes to give an Existence to Fire in the original production that he confers on the Humane Body is no less contradictory to Sense than if he had Affirm'd that Flame could be infus'd into any Corporeal Thing without its Illuminating Capacity True it is that Hay ill-digested will smoak in the Stack or Mow and if not prevented set the whole on Fire And likewise experimentally certain that New Wine will ferment untill cleans'd by its Operation the latter by reason of its predominant Quantity of Moisture not capable of being inflam'd as will the former that by prevalent dryness opposing of its Moisture smoaks and burns by degrees unless hinder'd the Hay's distemper'd Substance And is it not a mean conceited Similitude offer'd by Des-Cartes by which he would render the Corporeal Figure of Original Man as distemperately Consistent tho' the immediate Manufacture as he dilivers it of the Omnipotent Yet being so far effected could have no other Representation than as the Material Composition might be Imagin'd to fumigate or Smoak at the Nose and Mouth in resemblance to the distemperatures of Hay and Wine mention'd by him yet not potentially operative either by Rarifaction or Condensation tho' impossible to be suppos'd where any Thing is capacitated to Evaporate Thicken or Harden that it should not be naturally endu'd with suitable Qualifications Which is grosly deny'd by this Author as he conceives That Fire might be so diffus'd by the Act of God into the Substance and Composition of Original Man that it might be destitute of its proper Effects either as to Alteration or Diminution of the
Matter that contain'd it And if so he must be very obscurely conceited that would imagine a blind Fire uselessly Constituted in the first Humane Body by Omnipotent Power The Material Substance out of which he concludes the primary Being of Man's Corporeal Shape and Proportion is doubtless abstracted by him from his primary invented Element and which he denominates the sole Materiality of whatsoever the World contains But that Element according to his Definition being exceedingly Fluid and Tenuous and no room left by reason of its plenary Existing for any other Thing or Substance throughout the Universe as I have precedently mention'd 't is very Incompatible with common Understanding that this simple Matter and therefore incapable to produce any other Substance different from its own should by Des-Cartes be presum'd if pardon'd the Expression to fill the Hands of the Almighty in order to Constitute the total World withall it s admir'd Particulars in a natural Method Which seems no less Improbable than if a Man should undertake by grasping of Air to make it of as solid a Substance as is the Flesh and Bones of Man But waving that Absurdity as also that Fire without Light was originally convey'd by God according to his Supposition into the then unliving Heart of Man only to warm that principal Part If Fire could be thought so to reside contrary to its elementary Nature and consuming Propriety untill this Author imagin'd the whole Humane Body first Animated by the infusing of the Soul by the Act of the Almighty What could be imply'd by it more than that Fire was Ineffectually dispos'd into the lifeless Heart of Man by Divine Appointment yet not at all operative otherwise than by impertinently warming of the Part without either vegetative or sensitive Heat as he defines it Which were all one as to conceive That the Omnipotent seem'd to do something by an extraordinary Method tho' nothing farther Excellent in reference to the Original Figure of Man's Corporeal Being than if a skillful Statuary had Compos'd the likeness of the Humane Body in any Material Substance Wherefore the Fable of Prometheus tending to his forming of Man out of Elementary Ingredients not a little resembles the devis'd Part of the Almighty as it is deliver'd by this French Philosopher with this difference that Prometheus is said at once to compleat by a Celestial Expedient his Artificial Man whereas several Operations are allow'd by Des-Cartes even to the Work of the Omnipotent tending to the primary Production of the Humane Body and Soul Nor do I preceive That this Author if allow'd the fineness of his Invention does more sublimely Celebrate the introducing of the Soul of Man into his imaginary Material Machine than is Divinely Attributed to the Fable of Prometheus the Son of Iapetus in the Metamorphosis of Ovid where 't is thus Express'd Natus Homo est sive hunc divino semine fecit Ille opifex rerum mundi melioris origo Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto Aethere cognati retinebat semina coeli Quam satus Iapeto mistam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem moderantum cuncta deorum This Fable may be taken as an Imitation of Providence by the Artifice of Prometheus Who having moulded the Statue of Man could not perfect his Work untill he had stole Celestial Fire and by conveying it into the Material Figure which he had Compos'd the Life and Soul of Man was at once produc'd Which was very agreeable to the Religion of the Ancients which Celebrated their Gods and Goddesses in the Form of Men and Women and Ensoul'd them wth no greater difference compar'd with Mankind than as they allow'd to their Deities Immortal Reason and Life To which Ovid seems refin'dly to allude in one of his Elegies where as a sublime Encomium of the excellency of the Faculties and Gifts incident to the Humane Soul he derives its Descent from above by Affirming That Sedibus aethereis spiritus ille venit This Expression of the Poet is not more Poetical than Admirable as he intends the Soul to the Perfection Reason and Conduct evidently discernable in Stars the shining Ornaments of Heaven But should the Soul be suppos'd originally Infus'd by God as a thinking Substance into the Body of Man suitable to the Imagination of Des-Cartes and not absolutely capacitated to discharge it self from the innate Depravations and prone Allurements of the Senses 't were some disparagement to its Accession to the Body by the Gift and Ordainment of Divine Providence Yet such an uncertain and complicated Soul is by this French Writer appropriated to the Body of Man where in some Actions he makes it a meer thinking Substance but in the sensible execution of Thought he allows it Co-operative and inseparable from the Senses And this to the utmost force of his Brain he Asserts in the 187th Particular of this Part I Treat of where he delivers these Words The nature of the Mind is such that by it alone may be apprehended divers Corporeal Motions as also Sensations in many respects The Example he gives is of Words spoken or written which may affect us with Troubles Griefs Perils Sadness or the like as also how their contrary Accents in reference to Content Pleasure and Satisfaction are verbally understood by us Which signifies no more however he strains his Inferences than that there is an Inseparable Concomitancy of the Contemplations of the Mind and their applications to the Senses If I open a Book and view in it a whole Page of Letters by a meer superficial Inspection of what is there Written or Printed I can understand nothing but if I Conster those Words as their tendency and meaning Imply I am soon Intelligent whether they relate to Sorrow Gladness Pain or Grief either as to my self or any other Person Because I am perfectly apprehensive of their Motives Causes and Effects as they sensibly Incite my Conception of them The Reason is plain if consider'd the reciprocal Allowance and Reference that any one of our Senses has to another it being as easie for me to determine by seeing a Bone or Lump of Flesh at distance that they are really such as if they had been touch'd or handled by me If I hear of an Arm or Leg by any means sever'd from the Body of Man the Connexion that the Senses have with the Imagination as undoubtedly assure me of the manner of the Wound Grief and Part cut off as if I had occularly beheld it Not that I can directly judge the Quality or full extent of the Pain that is not distinctly felt by my self Yet as the Part is an Object of Sense and in which I as well as another Man may be in the same kind grievously Afflicted 't is very possible that by a natural Sympathy which is reciprocally Conferr'd on the sensitive Parts of the Bodies of Men I may in effect be as sensibly Intelligent of the Pain or Grief in any Member of another