moreover a separate Vacuum that is a space beyond the World which some do call an Imaginary space in which God hath not indeed produced but nevertheless can produce something Of this we will speak in the Second Part which we now Begin The Second Part of Physick In which is Treated of Coelestial Things which happen above Man. THE World in General is a Theatre of the Wonderful things of God and a Collection of all things which he hath produced whereof the World is the Lowest and least Noble but the Heaven the most High and the most Noble We do now here propose to speak of this Coelestial World and of all those things which are above us CHAP. I. Of the Immense Spaces which are without the Heavens DESCARTES hath absolutely concluded that there is no space without the Heavens because all are full of Matter and that the World is not encompassed about with Bounds and Limits by way of a Circumference Aristotle and his Followers affirm That the World is bounded by the Exterior and Convex part of the Heavens and beyond that there are void and imaginary Spaces in which there is nothing Real Gassendus and his Disciples are of the same Opinion concerning the Limits and Circumference of the World but he denieth that there are imaginary Spaces without the Heavens and he says indeed that they are Vacuums and yet nevertheless that they are real and this is it which he calls a Separate Vacuum The Opinion of Renatus Descartes is intollerable because the World is limited in its being as well as in its duration that is to say by a fluid space or by time it is therefore limited in respect of place which is a permanent space which it possesses even to the Circumference that is to the Convex Part of the Heaven otherwise the World would be Infinite and absolutely immensurable in its extension and indeed if the World had not Limits in respect of time or that the instant wherein it begun could not be found out it would be Eternal In like manner if we acknowledge no end of the World's extension we may say it is immensurable But if the whole World be immense and indefinite as Descartes would have it if it hath neither Figure nor Extream Parts it must evidently follow that it is Infinite for that which in all its parts is real or hath any part which we cannot count its last is absolutely and actually Infinite in its extension But if Descartes will play with the word Indefinite and say indeed that the World is Indefinite because it hath no end in its extension but yet from thence it does not follow that it is Infinite I would ask him to tell me the difference betwixt an Infinite Line and an Indefinite one and also between the immensity of God and the Indefiniteness of the World for if the World is Indefinite the same thing may be said of it that Trismegistus said of God to wit that it hath neither Centre nor Circumference whence it follows that this World Occupies all Spaces and that it is immoveable nor can it be moved out of its place and that God cannot Create another World without Destroying this because there is no Room in which God Almighty might place it All which Consequences are inevitable and the Principle of it more than rash The Opinion contrary to the former which is Gassendus's and which we embrace is more firm and agreeable to Reason for it teaches That this World is limited in respect of Place and that it hath both a Circumference as well as a Centre beyond which there are void Spaces in which God Almighty could produce another or more Worlds greater or equal to this of ours wherein we dwell if he pleased From this most true Opinion it is concluded That God fills by his Immensity all infinite Spaces and that he is really in them and that He is no ways limited by the Circumference of the Heavens and that He can there produce another World remote from this of ours and according to this Hypothesis this distance or that interval will have its dimensions although void and immaterial yet mensurable From thence it is concluded That since space is as indeed it is immutable and immoveable it is the proper place of Bodies actually or potentially as they do or do not exist for if a Body be in it the space is filled otherwise there is a Vacuum as we suppose beyond the Heavens where there are no Bodies so that I say that the place and extension of Bodies is a permanent space in like manner as time the measure of the duration of things is a fluid space CHAP. II. Of the Heavens and their Nature ALL that can be said of the Heavens and their Nature relates to their Substance Figure Number and Motion The Substance of them is the same with that of the Inferiour World for there are not two sorts of matter essentially distinct and all Material Bodies are equally solid and impenetrable in that the essence of matter consists And although there be some kind of difference between Terrestrial and Coelestial Matter it cannot yet notwithstanding be thence concluded that they are of a several Nature because all the diversity proceeds from this that the Atoms of the Coelestial Matter are more subtile than the Atoms of the Terrestrial Matter and more exact more moveable and more perfect in respect of their Figures and the more perfect Bodies compounded of them and their Mass better united and lastly the whole Body more compleat This Doctrine may be illustrated by the Example of Letters for those which Compose a Word and which are accurately delineated and written do not differ from those which Compose the same Word and are ill delineated and written the first nevertheless are better more exact and more elegantly formed which happens in respect of the same Hand which makes them according to the difference of the Pen or Ink or the Design of the Writer who makes longer or rounder or after any fashion he pleases I say therefore that the Heavens which declare the Glory of God differ as much from the Earth as a Printed Book from a Manuscript Atoms like Letters are the same in both which although they are of the same Author do not agree in their Figure and shape because Almighty God would have it so in order to the Fairness and Beauty of the World. The Figure of the Heavens appears round to us This Figure is most perfect and therefore accounted most fit for Motion and nothing perswades us to affirm the contrary but on the other hand all things perswades us that the Figure of the Heavens is round since it encompasses the Earth which is round And since we observe the Stars to have their Nocturnal Risings and Settings which could never happen if the Heavens were not Round The Number of the Heavens cannot easily be found out there are some who say there are Eleven others reckon Nine but the greatest
part conclude that there are only Three that is to say the Heaven of the Planets which they say is wholly Fluid in which they swim like Fishes in the Water the next that follows according to this Opinion is the Firmament altogether Solid where all the Fix'd Stars are placed like so many Golden Nails or Diamonds set in Blue but the third is the Imperial Heaven the Seat of the Happy partly Solid and partly Fluid because the blessed Bodies ought to dwell in a place where they may move and freely breath the Air of Paradise This Opinion seems the rather to be embraced by me because it is most consonant to the Holy Scripture wherein we read that the Apostle Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven whereupon from thence he testifies that he was lifted up into Paradise Lastly the motion of the Heavens is uncertain For it is a received Opinion that the Heaven of the Planets or at least the Planets themselves are moved about the Earth as also the Firmament with the Fix'd Stars But others teach us that the Firmament as well as the Sun is immoveable and the Planets together with the Earth as being a Seventh Planet are wheeled about the Sun. This we examine in the following Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Stars and their Substance AS Mettals and Stones are the Ornaments of the Terrestrial World so are Stars of the Coelestial some of which are called Fixed Stars keeping always the same place other wandring Stars or Planets always changing place and in their Reciprocal Conjunctions and Oppositions coming nearer or going further of the first are fixed to the Firmament or Starry Heaven the others to the Heaven of the Planets The Substance of the Fixed Stars and Planets is of the same Matter with the Heavens and the Earth for there are not two first Matters but there are many differences to be found amongst the Compounds of the first Between these Compounds there are Degrees of Nobility even as we see upon Earth that Gold is more Noble more perfect and more precious than Silver Silver than other Mettaline Bodies Rubies and Diamonds than other Precious Stones In the same manner it is in the Heavens where the Sun which is the most perfect of the Planets and each Star hath its particular splendour which doth not happen from the diversity of matter but from its depuration which consequentially arises from its distance from terrestrial and opake Bodies How many different Pictures can one and the same Painter make out of the same Colours only by a different disposition of them how many different sorts of Books can there be made out of the same Syllables and Words by Transposing of them what then hinders but that we may grant the Author of Nature power to make out of so many Atoms diversly disposed so many Bodies differing in Elegancy and Clarity as are the Stars or Planets The matter therefore is the same of the Heaven and the Earth of the Dirt under our Feet and the Stars above us Whereupon a certain Ancient and Eminent Philosopher said that the things above are like the things below and so on the contrary And we know very well that Gold as Precious and Beautiful as it is is of the same Matter with Lead and there is nothing requisite to the making of Gold besides the depuration of the Atoms which are its first Matter I do here endeavour to deliver an Idea of the Substance of the Stars upon an Experiment grounded upon melted Mettals and yet flowing in the Crusible for Gold falling into Aqua-fortis is like a black Powder Silver dissolved with the same Aqua-fortis and precipitated by Sea Water or separated by the means of Copper-Plates is reduced into a Calx or White or Greyish Earth Tin calcined becomes yellow like Oker likewise Lead Calcined becomes yellow white black and red as we will Copper is turned into Verdigrease or into a yellow and red Powder and in like manner Iron into a red powder called Crocus Martis where by the way it appears how Compound Bodies become different and vary without the change of their first matter by an only separation and division of their Parts Corpuscles or Atoms Yet if you take these Mettals so Calcined each by it self and put them into a Crusible in a Melting Furnace with a strong Fire this Powder will return into Mettal again and shine and sparkle in the Fire you see then that the same matter is in a threefold different state for being a solid Body it is afterwards reduced to a Powder and then again it is turned into a fluid matter melting and sparkling in the Fire And this is the thing from whence I frame the Idea which I promised concerning the Fixed Stars and the Planets for nothing better represents the Nature of the Sun and its Substance than Melted Gold flowing in a great Crusible nor nothing better represents the Fixed Stars than the same Gold melted in lesser Crusibles there is nothing more like the Moon than Silver melting in a Crusible The same thing may be said of Lead in respect of Saturn and of Tin in respect of Jupiter and of Copper in respect of the bright and sparkling Venus So also Iron melted with the Matter which Fluxes it leaves an Idea of the Planet Mars yet without this Mineral which Fluxes it better shews its refulgent redness So it may be truly said that the Sun is like melted Gold and the Moon like melted Silver and so of Saturn and the rest CHAP. IV. Of the Magnitude of the Stars and their Figures SInce the Substance of the Stars is like melted Mettal it may be likewise concluded that the same is likewise round because a melted Mettal is always round unless it be hindred by the Mould in which it is cast or by the Crusible in which it is melting and since there is nothing that compels Stars to assume another Figure than that which is Natural to them and which is the most perfect of all Figures which is most agreeable to the first matter out of which they are made by the Author of Nature we ought to grant that they are round As to their Magnitude Astronomers represent them to be immeasurable and they take their Hypothesis from the Rules of the Opticks and from the experience of those great Optick Tubes the Invention of which is attributed to Campanella but the Restoration and improvement of them to Anthony de Reïta as appears by his Book Entituled Oculus Enoch Eliae The Sun is commonly taken to be an hundreed and sixty and six times greater than the Earth and the Earth to be three times as big as the Moon and the other Stars are some bigger and some lesser I would not dwell long upon a matter so far above us especially when I consider the weakness of all those things which Astronomers tell us concerning them and the dissention which is amongst the most Learned about them Epicurus is quite of another
in general THE Earth as hath been said is a Planet habitable having three Motions The First of these is about its own proper Centre which is not the Centre of the World for the Circle of the Earth is Excentrick This motion is impressed upon it by the Solar Vortex as a greater Wheel carries a less along with it and this is called its Diurnal motion Another is about the Sun as the Centre of the World to which it is Concentrical and requires a Years time to return to the same point and this arises likewise from the Solar Vortex for the Earth being driven on by the Flux of the Centre of the Universe cannot be moved about its proper Centre without sensibly making an Excentrick Circle And from this two-fold Motion of it arises the other third viz. from one Pole to the other in the space of one six Months and returning back again in the space of six other which happens because it can go no farther nor pass the Tropick unless it recedes from the Solar Circle for here it hath only the Latitude of the Ecliptick For if it should recede it must ascend too for whatsoever recedes from the Centre of the Universe in respect of that ascends and so likewise from its proper Centre The Earth in all these motions carries the Water along with it for they both make but one and the same Globe which is altogether exact and regular on the Seas part but less accurate on the Earth's part by reason of the Vales and Mountains And though it be true that the Earth does not seem to us to be of a round Figure yet it is proved by Experience for that teaches us that the last part of the Ship which can be seen by those on shoar is the top of the Mast and the first Things they on Ship-board see as they approach their Haven are the tops of Towers From whence it may evidently appear that the Sea is as it were a Belly and eminence which insensibly is lifted up into a convexity that so with the Earth it may constitute one entire Globe Earth and Water are two immediate Principles of all Compounds which are to be seen in this lower Region of the World yet notwithstanding not they but Atoms are the first Elements as it is said else-where There is moreover a lesser number of Vacuities in Terrestrial than in Aqueous Bodies and this is the Cause that the Earth is more solid and the Water more fluid that is to say less solid than the Earth CHAP. II. Of Terrestrial Inanimate Bodies in general THere is nothing Simple but God an Angel the Rational Soul Atoms and a Vacuum God is essentially Simple in a simplicity of Essence Power and Act for whatsoever is in him is an act his Essence is no ways compounded nor his Power idle nor his Action ever interrupted An Angel is simple in respect of essence but his power is not always in act nor his action at least the same without intermission The Rational Soul which is a Spirit laid in pledge or at least a Physical Compound with an Organical Body is simple because it hath neither Integral Physical nor contained parts but it self is a Physical Part saving only that its powers are often idle and its actions are changed and interrupted A Vacuum is simple for since it is neither a Spirit nor Matter nor any thing else but a capacity of receiving a Body and it hath an essential emptiness it cannot be called simple but for as much as it cannot suffer composition by reason of its imperfection Lastly Atoms are simple because they are indivisible and the first Elements of Bodies out of which all compound Bodies are framed I acknowledge no other Elements no other substantial material forms in Bodies for they are not only unnecessary but impossible Yet it doth not follow from thence that the diversity which occurs between Bodies constituting the World and which are the Compounds of the lower World is no other than meerly accidental and not at all essential for according to our Principles we determine one composition to be substantially distinguished from another by Atoms which are the first Principles of its composition and essentially by the manner of composition that is by the disposition and ordination of its Atoms Corpuscles and all its parts They who conclude that there is no Physical Compound without a substantial form think Matter alone with its diverse Figures and in all its dispositions cannot possibly be the Cause of the special Properties which we observe in every one Body and that therefore a form distinct from Matter is required to produce qualities proper to every one compound Body As for Example Earth is in its Nature dry and Water is cold which could not happen unless Earth did obtain a substantial form which is dryness and Water such a one as Cold requires This is that form which restores dryness to the Earth and Cold to the Water when they are put out of their Natural State and condition to wit by introducing moisture into the first and heat into the latter This Objection how strong so ever it may seem is nevertheless but vain for we say that neither the moisture of Water nor the dryness of Earth are Accidental Qualities so that this ought to gravel none but those who acknowledge Accidental Qualities distinct from Matter Ours is quite another Opinion and our Language quite otherwise For we firmly conclude That all Compound Bodies which are in the World are compounded of Matter every thing else being excluded and that all contingent changes in them arise from Matter newly added or taken away or changing place or by some confused Atoms or Corpuscles brought thither from else-where or lastly by the more notable parts changing place or other ways disposed by the Action of external Agents CHAP. III. Of the various Qualities to be observed in Compound Bodies THere is a difference betwixt the Qualities of Simple Elements which are Atoms and the Qualities of Bodies compounded of them for the First as well as Atoms are immutable and incorruptible the others as well as the compound Bodies are mutable and fleeting For indeed Propriety follows the Nature of that Being of which it is the propriety So that if Atoms are immutable by their solidity the same must be said of their Qualities but Bodies compounded of many distinct Parts are forced to be changed as often as their parts change places or are wholly separated That which is corrupted as well as that which is generated De Novo is a Composition for as corruption is a division of substance so generation is a composition of it To Explain this Opinion There is nothing more commodious than the example of Syllables and Words For truly Letters are immutable indeed and according to their different place they vary a Syllable or Word without changing their figure substance and essence remaining always the same in what state or disposition soever they are placed
the Creator and necessity of Nature and some only by accident and the power and plenty of Matter encompassing them So the Atoms shut up in the Heart that they may give motion to it and to the whole Body were incarcerated at the beginning of its formation or rather being cast into seminal Bands when God created it afterwards they are translated out of this first Prison where they had little or no motion into another where they enjoy a more free and wandring motion as shall be more fully discoursed of in the following Chapters The third thing that flows from this Principle is That these same Atoms are the Cause of Motion and Life and that there is more of action and more of Life where these are in greater plenty and number provided the Corporeal Machine be disposed to motion For one of the principal Springs being broke the vital Atoms lose their action the greatest part of them exhale and withdraw themselves and others wandring about continue Vagabonds without any order or method So that it is necessary that the parts of a Compound Body should be disposed in some Order which when wanting the vital Atoms exert no motion but this order of parts would be to no purpose unless the vital Atoms were present to give them motion The same thing we observe in a Clock where an integrity and just disposition of the Wheels are required together with the force of a Spring to set all the Wheels in motion Although there be a great proportion and likeness between living Natural Bodies and these artificial Machines yet nevertheless there is a great difference between them for Atoms are Natural Springs and exist Originally in the seed out of which the Body is produced and they themselves are the Artificers of the Machines which give encrease to it and dispose the Parts of it in such manner that they may there exercise their motions and this is that great Artifice of Nature which operates by seeds produced from God which exceeds all that ever Art can devise CHAP. II. Of the Differences of Lives THe difference of Lives are only known by the difference of Vital Actions of which there are four kinds to wit the Mettallick Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Man the little World enjoys a Life under which all others are comprehended and chiefly in him we observe a vegetative Life as in Plants and a sensitive as in Brutes besides which two kinds of life He possesseth a third of his own which is a rational Life He is nourished that is and grows like Plants he is begotten of another he is sensible as an Animal and he speaketh and reasoneth as a Man all these different operations which we see in Man perswades us to consider him especially and to begin with the life of Plants which seems less considerable than the sensitive and rational and which comprehends under it their generation growth and nourishing which three are equally conspicuous in Man as in Plants though in a more noble and more eminent manner CHAP. III. Of the Vegetative Life common to Man and Plants THe Life of Plants appears from their growth which supposeth Nutrition and both these suppose a Birth and this implies a Generation For whatsoever grows in a vital manner and by Nature is nourished so likewise whatsoever is nourished hath a birth and every thing that is born is begotten We will therefore begin to speak of Man's generation and of the first forming of him The Generation we here speak of is the production of a thing out of Seed under this generation are comprehended Conception and Birth as Separation and Death are included in the Corruption of things This is that which is not found in the Works of Nature whose conception is made in the mind of the Artificer and its Formation depends upon his hand but all that is external to the work which may be afterwards broken and divided when in the mean time it cannot be said that we take away Life from it or bring Death upon it So that whatsoever is Begotten to speak properly Lives and whatsoever lives is produced out of Seed Now Seeds are created from the beginning and by the Author of Nature ingrafted into every Plant and kind of Tree bearing fruitful Seed So we see that there is a perpetual propagation and encrease of individuals in every Species in the Earth as well as in the Waters and in the Air. All and the only difficulty remains in explaining the Nature of this Seed and the manner of its propagation These two are Mysteries in Nature which seem to surpass all humane reason Nevertheless I will give you my meditations of them And first of all I suppose we may consider Seed in general and as it is to be found as we have said in Mettals Plants Animals and Man. For after this manner being looked upon in general it is nothing else but a Medium disposed by God to the propagation of these four several kinds in the World so that one Substance as to its kind produces its like in the same kind as Mettal is produced from Mettal and a Plant from another Plant c. From whence appears the fanciful Folly of Chymists who strive to multiply Mettals without a Mettallick Seed and to produce Gold without its peculiar Seed For the same thing that in general Seed is in respect of the four named generals the same in special is Seed in respect of the individuals which are produced of it For indeed to produce Plants the Seed is only to be sought for in the vegetable Kingdom So in like manner to produce Corn Seed is required that is a grain of Corn to produce an Apple there is need of the kernel of an Apple or at least a Sien of it which contains in it part of the Spirits and seminal Corpuscles which insinuate themselves into the wild Stock of the Tree in which they are ingraffed or inoculated and produce the same effect that a grain does which is thrown into Earth fit to receive it This is that vegetative Seed which we here speak of and in this regard we consider Man as he is partaker of the life of this Species and begotten out of Seed Nevertheless we are to distinguish the two substances in Man viz. the material part which is his Body and his spiritual part which is his Soul Created by God whereas the other is begotten So that we here speak of Man onely as he is a material Compound without medling with his Soul which is immortal These things being supposed I turn me to the two difficulties which I have obliged my self to explain and I design them a peculiar Chapter CHAP IV. Of the Nature of Seeds and of their Propagation THe Learned Fernelius affirms that Seeds contain an Astral and Coelestial Spirit but Galen that they contain something Divine These great Wits have spoken most wisely and have considered the seminal Spirit as a thing surpassing the Capacity of our Spirits
in Ward-Robes and they who frequently Visit those that are Sick of the Plague do not use Woollen Garments but Linnen ones to which the contagious Particles do less adhere From this Doctrine it appears that Smells are little Bodies which issue out of all Compound Natural Bodies especially Living ones by reason of their frequent agitation and which have Pores more open than Bodies not animated Besides it appears that these Corpuscles do never go out of Bodies in greater number than when they are a dissolving after which manner a smell exhales out of Gold and Silver dissolved excelling that of Musk and Amber From Antimony dissolved an Oyle is drawn of a very grateful smell and by another way a Sulphur is drawn out not to be endured for its stink And by the help of these Odoriferous Corpuscles Dogs Hunt Hares and find out their forms and by this means they discover their Masters foot-steps It is an argument that this is done by the help of these Corpuscles because they are dissipated by Wind and hindred by Dew and Experience teaches that those that handle Musk carry the smell of it a long while about them From whence it is known that these very small Bodies are adhering and that they have hooked Figures and that they do please and tickle according to that proportion which they have with the Organs CHAP. XIV Of Tast and its Object TAST is a Sense Natural and proper to Animals and by the help of that they distinguish Savours making a difference between the grateful and the ingrateful The Organ of this sense is the Tongue and Palat and it is done by the help of Spongy Flesh and of Nerves which terminate in the Tongue and â—arry the Animal Spirit to the Organ and the Savour to the imagination Savour the Object of Tast consists in certain saline Corpuscles of Aliments or other Bodies out of which they come and pleasantly or unpleasantly vellicate the Tongue and Palat according as their Figure is more or less rough and pungent or smooth and round and more or less adequetated to the Organ Since Savours are Corpuscles of Salt it follows that they differ according to the diversity of Salts to wit that they are sharp sweet bitter sowre and the like according to the Nature of the Salt that bears rule in their Composition and according to the quality of Corpuscles coming from elsewhere which change the Natural Savour of things as Wine by the addition of Water loseth both its strength and Savour although in this condition it is more grateful to some than when pure Wine From whence we know that the diversity of Tasts does not proceed from the sole diversity of Savours but also from the diversity of the Organs and hence it is that all people do not relish alike one and the same thing nor have all People a Tast equally delicate from whence it comes that some are delighted with those Meats that others abhor The Organ also is sometimes so ill disposed and the Tongue burdned with so great a quantity of ill Humours that things of the most grateful Savour seem insipid as also things not very sweet seem bitter which thing happens in a double and a continual Tertian Ague by reason of the dominion of Choler CHAP. XV. Of Feeling FEELING is a general Sense extended throughout the whole Body and is made by the help of Membranes such as the Skin the Scarf Skin and the Skin that covers the Bones called Periostium and others that are internal and this sole sense distinguishes every thing that by its contiguity brings pleasure or Pain The Object of it is Hot and Cold Soft and Hard Moistness and Dryness Concerning these different qualities of a Body we have treated elsewhere excepting Heat and Cold as which are not Physical accidents but two particular Bodies Heat is a heap amassing or flowing together of sharp pointed Corpuscles which penetrate into solid Bodies and do there cause a Division and do dissolve the more perfect Bodies and this is what we call to be set on Fire and to be burnt For Fire does not burn Wood but by dissolving nor dissolves it but by burning Cold is an heap amassing and flowing together of Atoms and Corpuscles of a blunt and plain Figure and hence it is that Cold does not penetrate into the Body but with pain and torment as also it excites a frequent motion of the Parts or shivering Besides there are not wanting some Particles so gross as to stop up the Pores of the Body and to drive the Heat into the inward parts which we call Antiperistasis by reason of which the included Heat becomes stronger which is the Cause why the Heat of the Stomach in Winter time is greater than it is in Summer and why Wells are warm and reak like Smoak For the same Reason Heat being shut up in our Bodies by the external Cold sometimes such like fumes are raised up in the Brain which are not without a great deal of danger Feeling is several ways performed and first of all by application where Body is moved to Body and Hand to Hand by penetration in making a solution of that which was whole as a Needle pricking the Hand Secondly Feeling is made by separation one Body coming out of another which if occasioned by Nature is always accompanied with pain as in non-Natural ejections Thirdly this Sense appears in the motion of those Bodies which are contained by others for sometimes they move themselves with so great force and do so press rend and tear that they excite pains not to be endured as in violent Head-aches the Pleurisie and pains of the Gout and Cholick CHAP. XVI Of the Speech Pulse and Breathing of Man. VOICE is common to all perfect Animals as well as Men but so is not Speech or an articulate Voice Brutes express their sense of things by Natural Voices and Men their interiour Speech to wit Thoughts by outward Speech as its Interpreter And this is done by the motion of the Tongue as also of the Air after a certain manner driven to and fro between the Teeth and the fluctuating windings and turnings of the Throat This motion is natural and voluntary For Discourse or Speech is an expression of an action of the Soul to wit of Thought But this Thought cannot be outwardly made manifest without the command of the Will or the strength or weakness of the Imagination The dilatation and contraction of the Lungs as also the action of the Muscles of the Breast serve to the formation of Speech and a Voice becomes sweet and harmonious when the Lungs and the aforesaid Muscles act methodically as also when the Air is duly reflected repelled and interrupted by the passages and turnings and windings of the rough Artery and where the Corpuscles of this Natural little Tongue are less rough and more free from strange Bodies The Diaphragm Stomach and Belly move when we speak and follow the motion of the Lungs and the
A NEW TREATISE OF Natural Philosophy Free'd from the INTRICACIES OF THE SCHOOLS Adorned with many Curious Experiments both Medicinal and Chymical AS ALSO With Several Observations useful for the Health of the Body LONDON Printed by R. E. for J. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal. Exchange in Cornhill 1687. LICENSED October 28. 1686. ROBERT MIDGLEY INDEX THe First Part of Physick wherein is treated of the Causes and Principles of Nature CHAP. I. Of the Efficient Cause and of its Essence and Differences CHAP. II. Of the First Cause CHAP. III. The Perfections of the First Cause CHAP. IV. Of Second Causes and their Actions CHAP. V. Of Accidental Causes CHAP. VI. Of Sympathy Antipathy and the Effects depending thereupon CHAP. VII Experiments about Iron and the Loadstone CHAP. VIII An Explication of many other Effects which are commonly attributed to Sympathy CHAP. IX Of Portative Remedies commonly called Amulets of Quick-Silver Gold Silver and Copper CHAP. X. Of Natural Phoenomenas which are attributed to Antipathy CHAP. XI Of Emeticks Sudorificks and Specificks CHAP. XII Of Poysons and Toxicks CHAP. XIII Of Sublimate Arsenick and other kinds of Poysons and their deadly Effects CHAP. XIV Of Antidotes CHAP. XV. Of the true Causes of our Diseases CHAP. XVI Of the Causes of our Health CHAP. XVII Of Formal Exemplary and Material Causes CHAP. XVIII Of the First Matter CHAP. XIX Of Atoms and their Nature CHAP. XX. The Properties Magnitude Figure Weight and Motion of Atoms CHAP. XXI The Difficulties arising from the Doctrine of Atoms CHAP. XXII Of a Disseminate Congregate and Separate Vacuum according to Gassendus CHAP. XXIII Of a Congregate Vacuum against Aristotle and Cartesius The Second Part of Physick wherein is treated of the Coelestial World and of those things which are above Man. CHAP. I. Of the immense Spaces which are without the Heavens CHAP. II. Of the Heavens and their Nature CHAP. III. Of Stars and their Substance CHAP. IV. Of the Figures and Magnitude of Stars CHAP. V. Of the Motion of the Stars CHAP. VI. The System of the World according to Ptolomy Examined CHAP. VII The System of the World according to Copernicus Examined CHAP. VIII Of the Motion of the Earth CHAP. IX Of the Sun the true Centre and Heart of the World. CHAP. X. Of the Moon and its Changes CHAP. XI Of Planets Comets and the Fixed Stars CHAP. XII Of Meteors in the Air. CHAP. XIII Of Winds Tempests and Whirl-winds CHAP. XIV Of Thunder Lightning and the Thunderbolt CHAP. XV. Of Aurum-Fulminans which imitates Thunder CHAP. XVI Of Hail Snow Frost c. CHAP. XVII Of the Rainbow Halones and Parrhelis CHAP. XVIII Of the Air its Substance and Qualities The Third Part of Physick of those things which are beneath Man viz. of the Earth and Terrestrial Things which are called Inanimate CHAP. I. Of the Earth and Water in General CHAP. II. Of Terrestrial Inanimate Bodies in General CHAP. III. Of the various Qualities observed in Compound Bodies CHAP. IV. Of Special Qualities which arise from the Composition of Bodies CHAP. V. Of the Quantity Weight and Figure of Compound Bodies CHAP. VI. The Difference betwixt Natural Artificial and Compound Bodies CHAP. VII Of Mettals and their Formation CHAP. VIII Of Gold the King of Mettals CHAP. IX Of Silver Copper and other imperfect Mettals CHAP. X. Of Lead Tin and Iron CHAP. XI Of Quick-Silver Arbor Diana or the Silver Tree CHAP. XII Of Minerals CHAP. XIII Of Salts CHAP. XIV Of Subterranean Fires aend Earthquakes CHAP. XV. Of Waters and their Differences CHAP. XVI Of the Sea its Ebbing and Flowing and of the Saltness of the Sea-Water CHAP. XVII Of Springs and Rivers The Fourth Part of Physick Of those things which are in Man and of Man himself as he is a Compound Physical and Animate Body CHAP. I. Of Life in General CHAP. II. Of the difference of Lives CHAP. III. Of the Vegetative Life common to Man and Plants CHAP. IV. Of the Nature of Seeds and their Propagation CHAP. V. Of Nutrition which is common to Plants and Brutes as well as Man. CHAP. VI. How and with what Food an Embryo is nourished in the Womb 'till the time of its Nativity CHAP. VII How a Man is nourished after he is Born. CHAP. VIII The Sensitive Life of Man and other Animals CHAP. IX Of Seeing its Organ and Object viz. Light. CHAP. X. How illustrated Objects are visible CHAP. XI Of Hearing its Organ and Object CHAP. XII Particular Questions about Hearing CHAP. XIII Smelling its Organ and Object CHAP. XIV Of Tast and its Object CHAP. XV. Of Feeling CHAP. XVI Of Speech the Pulse and Breathing of Man. CHAP. XVII Of the Motion of the Heart CHAP. XVIII Of the irregular motion of the Heart in Animals and in Feavers CHAP. XIX Of the Circulation of the Blood. CHAP. XX. Of the inward Senses and the inferiour Appetite CHAP. XXI Of Sleep want of Rest and Death CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals CHAP. XXIII Of the Rational Soul and its Powers NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OR Natural Science FREED FROM The Intricacies of the Schools THE desire of Knowledge is natural to Man Curiosity is inseparable from his Spirit neither is he ever at rest until he hath attained to the perfect knowledge of things that is until he becomes a Wise Man. Science is the Knowledge of things by their Causes therefore there is no Man Wise who is ignorant of the Original Principles and Causes of all things occurring to him and since it is impossible for any Man in this Life to attain to a clear distinct and an undubitable knowledge of all things therefore there is no Man that is absolutely Wise Those who have the Reputation of being Wise and Excellent Philosophers have obtained that preheminence in regard they are less ignorant than others Sciences differ according to the diversity of Mens Conditions and Professions The Noble Man is conversant and wise in the Art of War the Physitian in the Precepts of Medicine and the Advocate in matters of Law and Right but all these Sciences nay Theology it self cannot subsist without Philosophy especially without that part of it which we call Physick or natural Science The First Part of Physick wherein is Treated of the Causes and Principles of Nature BY Nature is understood the Universe composed of Heaven and Earth and all that is found between both this is the Object of Physick this every natural Philosopher ought to know and because this Knowledge cannot be obtained without knowing the principles and causes of things hence it is evident that a Natural Philosopher ought to use his utmost endeavour to enquire into the principles and causes of Nature and of all things which happen in this World. I shall not examine here whether there be any difference betwixt a Cause and a Principle for every principle after its manner I conceive to be a cause of that thing whereof it is the principle and no Man
so by the dissolution of the parts the compound would cease which is plainly inconsistent with that Idea which we have of God who is simple in his Nature Independent and every way Incorruptible The first cause is not only One and without its like in its Essence but also one sole and without a second in that action by which the world was produced And for this reason this action is called Creation supposing nothing but meer nothing out of which all things were made by the only power of God without the help of any other having either the quality of an Agent or a Subject The world being produced by this first cause remains subject to the will and pleasure of it And in the same manner as it was produced by the sole act of this first cause so it is preserved in the same State by the sole influence of the same cause who as it did not want any other second cause in the Creation of the Universe so neither doth it stand in need of any assistance in the conservation of it Being and Nothing are so opposite to one another that the Philosophers always had it for a Maxim That out of nothing nothing could be made which is to be understood only in reference to second causes and not in respect of the first whose power is infinite and who can do what he pleases this power in the creation of the Universe was not applyed according to the extensiveness of its activity because it pleased God to terminate the being qualities and number of second causes which are created The Creation was no necessary action for the first Cause did not Create the World but at such a Time in such a Place and in such a Manner as seemed good to it self so it made all those things with the highest Liberty there being no other cause either equal or superior to it self who was able to compel perswade animate or incite it to the Creation of the world The World it self could not terminate a necessary action because it could not be Eternal for every thing that is of necessity is eternal neither had it ever a beginning nor can it have an end because it is against the nature of a created being which is limited in its qualities and duration no less than in its natural Substance If the first cause was free in the Creation of the world thence it follows that all things were made by direction of reason and understanding and by consequence according to a certain Idea and Rule But because the first cause operates after an independent manner it could not have the Type of its production any where else but from it self neither could it act by a rule distinct from its own being so God is not only the efficient but the exemplary cause of all things For the same reason it may be said That the first Cause which is God is the final cause of all things for when he as an intelligent and free cause produced the World he did propose to himself an end answerable to his Dignity that is himself and his own proper Glory so that the first cause is necessarily the ultimate end of all its effects CHAP. IV. Of second Causes and their Actions ALL Creatures are called second Causes because they depend upon the first neither do they operate but by the Command and Impression of the first this First or Universal Cause does act Uuniversally with particular Causes but after a manner agreeing with the Nature of every particular thing and according to the power which was given it when it was created which does not alter the Nature of the Causes nor the necessity or Liberty of their actions This power of acting which is granted to second Causes is not a quality different from their Nature and Being So the Power which the Atoms have of moving themselves doth not differ from the Atoms themselves the power of burning or heating doth not differ from the Fire to which it is inherent unless it be in the manner of our conceiving things and of speaking of them according to our conceptions So it is of an Action which terminates from the cause to the effect and which is nothing else than a certain relation or an actual subordination which is found betwixt the cause and the effect This action is never without motion or to say better action and motion is one and the same thing thence it is that a thing rests when it is without action and then it begins to move it self when it begins action so according to three ways of acting there are found in the nature of things three kinds of motion The first is made without Sense or Reason which we may see in Stones Mettals Plants and the Heavens The second kind of motion is made by sense and knowledge as are seen in all living Creatures The third kind joins Reason to Sense as we observe in man acting by Phancy who proposes an end to himself distinguishes between Good and Evil and hath the liberty of prosecuting the several Objects presented to his view either with love or hatred As an action is not indeed distinct from the cause acting nor from the effect which it doth produce so motion doth not differ from the thing moved or from the thing which moves it but both of them Is accordingly as they change their condition or cease to rest which from the Creation was never done without a certain local motion of the whole or some part thereof so the notion of rest is opposite to the notion of mutation and action as well as motion CHAP. V. Of Accidental Causes THere are many causes which are called Accidental Causes for properly speaking they are not true causes which sort of causes happens four manner of ways first a Musitian draws a Picture not as he is a Musitian but as a Painter so that the Art of Painting is the true cause of this work And as the Art of Singing contributes nothing here since it falls out by chance that the Art of Singing and the Art of Painting meet together in this Man and since the Art of Singing is no way requisite for the making of the Picture in this respect we may say that the Musitian is only an accidental cause of the Picture which he hath drawn Secondly a remote or indirect cause is called an accidental cause as when we say that the Sun is the cause of darkness because darkness is occasioned by the absence of the Sun Mirth is the cause of Sadness and Peace arises from War As a Man endeavouring to save his Friend whose Life is in danger and thereby unwillingly exposing him to a certain death is the indirect or accidental cause of his death As he who perswades his Friend to cross the Seas whereby he is cast away Thirdly an opposite cause which produces an effect quite contrary to that which it ought to produce is an accidental cause as it was with the subjects of such
or that they are altogether stopped in their motion by a condensation of those alluminous matters whence the Gout becomes knotty and incurable CHAP. XIII Of Sublimate Arsenick and other sorts of Poisons and the deadly Effects which proceed from them THere are two sorts of Sublimate the one corrosive the other sweet The first is a most violent Poison The other is a most excellent Remedy for Worms in Children however it is not without some malignity and therefore it is given but in very small Doses and as to the first fortified by the Corrosive Spirits of Salt and Vitriol the least quantity of it cannot be administred without inconveniency nay Death it self In this place we are to enquire wherein doth that Poison which is so powerful consist for as soon as Sublimate is swallowed down it produces Ulcers Blisters and excoriation in the Tunicles or Coats of the Ventricle they â—re seized with an inflammation over-run with a Gangreen and unless a good Antidote be taken as I shall shew hereafter death it self is the consequence of it but let us see by what malignity that Sublimate produces these deadly Effects and wherein the force of this Poison doth consist That we may be able to comprehend this Truth and discover wherein the malignity of this Poison doth consist it is to be supposed That Sublimate is an artificial Poison being a Compound of the most subtile Particles of Quick-silver Salt and Vitriol sublimated together in the form of Crystal or white Powder like Sugar So that the Venomous and Corrosive Sublimate is made neither of Quick-silver Salt or Vitriol alone and apart but there ought to be the Spirit of Salt and Vitriol to separate the Quick-silver and that though before it was fluid like water is to be reduced into dry Earth which is done by reason that these two Spirits do separate the Mercury in the sublimation and in some manner kill it and do penetrate it as if they were Poison to the Quick-silver it self they corrupt it and force it to change its disposition because they divide it and reduce its Corpuscles into small stings whence it is that they are so sharp penetrating and Corrosive Which doth not happen if the Quick-silver be sublimated by it self for then it ascends in its own fluid and gliding Nature and in this manner it may be taken inward without any danger and also when the Sublimate is sublimated with Crude Quick-silver This being supposed I conclude That Sublimate is a Poison which suddenly operates in our Body to the destruction of it because its Corpuscles are reduced into Stings like the Corpuscles of Fire Salt and Vitriol which does sharpen the Corpuscles of the Quick-silver wherefore they produce the same effects in the Body as Fire or the Caustick Stone swallowed do for it presently burns every thing that it touches and Ulcerates the whole Stomach Gullet and all the Parts through which it passes because its Corpuscles being so sharpened do penetrate and dart thro' like flames of Fire therefore Antipathy hath nothing to do in this place no more hath that feigned Maligne and Occult Quality as the less learned would fain alledge All that is observed concerning this Subject ought to be ascribed to the Disposition subtilty and figure of the Corpuscles which renders them Corrosive and burning The same thing may be said of Arsenick except only that Arsenick is the work of Nature and Sublimate that of Art for in truth Arsenick is a perfect Mineral which is found in the Earth and Sublimate is prepared by Artists in sublimatory Vessels The Effects of Arsenick as well the White as the Red is near the same with those of the Sublimate and both of them by right may be ranked amongst the most prompt and violent Poisons in respect of the sharp and penetrating Particles whereof they do consist There is nothing which disappoint these Effects except proper Antidotes made use of in time which change this disposition and blunt the sharpness of those Corrosive Corpuscles Nevertheless by special preparations those Venomous Corpuscles may be taken away both from the Sublimate and the Arsenick And by our fortifying and changeing of the Compound a most excellent Remedy for the health of Man may be made of the most pernicious Poison as the Triacle is made of Vipers Flesh which is the best Antidote as we shall see in the following Chapter CHAP. XIV Of Antidotes ART together with Nature supplies us with as many sorts of Antidotes as there are Poisons The Viper no less than the Scorpion carries its Antidote if the Serpent begins to creep out of the Earth Nature affords us the Leaves of Ash which buds at the same time to heal its bite the same ground which bears a Thora hath also near an Anthora which is its Antidote There are also external Antidotes which do avert the Plague and preserve the Body from the Conragion as we said before speaking of Amulets where we did declare how this may be done and how the Body may be preserved from every Malignant Air without any fictitious Sympathy or Antipathy Antidotes are general and special or specifick they are general which resist every Poison they are particular which are appropriated only to certain Poisons That it may be rightly explained how Antidotes do work upon Poison and how they hinder its operation we must suppose that all Poisons and Toxicks are reducible to two kinds the first doth consist of emancipated Atoms which are properly Poisons under the second are comprehended Toxicks as Sublimate and the like and that consists in sharp penetrating cutting Particles such as the Particles of Fire which Burn Ulcerate and Tear the inward parts of the Person who takes them These things being supposed it will be no hard matter to explain the Nature of Antidotes Having made this difference between Poisons and Toxicks it is certain that there are Antidotes against Poisons and that they are diverse according to the diversity of the Toxicks Hence we see that Triacles of all the Antidotes which we have is most proper and most specifick against the Poison of Vipers because Triacle is made of Vipers flesh and the emancipated Atoms proceeding from it finding the Particles of that Flesh sit to receive them do adhere to them and are imbodied with them and in this manner losing their motion they lay aside their malignity and remain fixed and quiet in the same Condition as they were before their emancipation they can no longer offend the Heart or effect any Division of it so it is in the case of Pestilent Poisons which we draw as we suck in the Air wherein after a great Contagion these emancipated Atoms are found and with whom they enter into our Bodies Triacle and Cordial Confections are commonly used whose Corpuscles are disposed and figured in such a fashion as that the Pestiferous Atoms running through all the Parts of our Body are connexed with and do wholy adhere to them whence there is a
of Atoms but upon the insolidity of a Vacuum he takes an Atom to be indivisible because it is solid but that that Solidity and Bodies likewise are not Divisible unless by reason of the void spaces which are found in them and which do desert the Interval by which the Body may be divided 'till we come to those Bodies which having no Vacuum within them can be divided by no Natural Cause because a Vacuum having neither solidity nor any power of resisting is the Passive Principle of every Physical Division By a Vacuum I understand the intermediate space betwixt the Parts And as that which has not a passive Principle of Motion is immoveable so also that which hath not a Passive Principle of Division is indivisible And that we may wholly silence all the Cartesians I do affirm an Atom to be indivisible because there is no interval in it by which means some Agent may divide it in the same manner that they deny that God is able to remove the Universe because they say there is no other place wherein it can be posited which I would willingly grant them if there was no place without the World. It is necessary that they should agree with Gassendus if there be no interval in an Atom The Question is If three Atoms be placed together in Order whether the middle one doth touch the other two which are on both sides of it This being supposed it must have two sides and two several Faces I also ask whether an Angel being immediately placed betwixt two Angels together with a third in a straight Line of three Foot long whether one of them be touched by one on this side and by the other on the other side And since there is the same difficulty it requires also the same Answer But I answer directly and say That all these for Example square sides of an Atom and their Faces are not Parts Physically distinct but only simple Beings and Physically Indivisible as the Philosophers do Teach that there is in Man a principle of Sense and a Principle of Reason though these two are but a simple Being and indivisible like an Atom and the sole difference doth consist in the respect of their divers Effects and of our Spirit which finds an interval where really indeed there was none CHAP. XXII Of the Disseminate Congregate and Separate Vacuum of Gassendus THe Doctrine of a Vacuum is contrary both to the Doctrines of Aristotle and Cartesius the First was of Opinion that it was impossible that Naturally there should be a Vacuum because saith he the Universal Nature is against it The other Ridicules this Fear of Nature though notwithstanding he teaches that there can be no such thing as a Vacuum in Nature Gassendus on the other side affirms three sorts of Vacuums the First of which he calleth a Dispersed Vacuum which he saith must necessarily be in all Bodies and this Doctrine he endeavours to prove by Motion which cannot be done but in a Vacuum For that truly no Body can be moved in a space that is taken up by another Body because there is no penetration of Bodies and therefore cannot be moved but in a void space The Cartesians do endeavour to elude this difficulty by saying that there is a yielding subtile and fluid matter which is not able to resist the Motion of a solid Body forcing the same But that this is but a flight evasion a poor shift appears from hence that this matter is uncapable of yielding unless it were filled with small empty Pores which are dispersed thorow which being condensed and pressing themselves together do suffer it to yield and when it is condensed so far that there is no Vacuum it yields no farther but it resists Natural Agents though of great force So we see air condensed and compressed in an Iron Tube doth resist a Staff which we endeavour to thrust into it therefore air which is a matter apt to yield ceases to be so when there are no more Vacuums dispersed in it neither can Bodies enter into it without a peneration of the Dimensions whence it appears that there is no such thing as a yielding Matter and that every Matter in its Nature is equally solid and resisting To this Demonstration I add further That not so much as a Gnat cou'd in the least move it self unless there was a Vacuum in the Air which is a matterâ— of it self apt to yield but that at the same time the Region of the Air nay and the Heaven it self must be in motion because if all things be full of bodies the Gnat cannot be moved but by driving the ambient Air which Air also drives the next and that again the next and so in a right line to Heaven it self and if the World according to Cartesius's Doctrine had no bounds this motion wou'd have an infinite continuance which wou'd be a thing both absurd and ridiculous in the highest degree This Philosopher did believe that he was able to elude this Reason by supposing this motion not to be in a right-line but Circular but besides that the Air is not moved but in that manner that it is driven and that indeed it is forced in a right line but not circularly as it is supposed it ought to be moved it is most certain that this circular motion by altogether supposing all Privation of a Vacuum in this Element is impossible For if there be no Vacuum all things are Full If Full the first part of this supposed Circle cannot be moved because it finds no place through which it can be moved Therefore it ought to remain immoveable with all other things which are in the Universe unless there were a Vacuum through which it might commence its motion Gassendus builds the Truth of these small dispersed Vacuums upon the truth of the figures of Atoms and their angles because Angles cannot but leave void spaces in Bodies as we see a great many Grains of Corn do leave void spaces in the Bushel wherein they are contained and do touch one the other I confess that these Vacuums are replenished with Air but Vacuums which for the same reason are amongst the smallest parts of the Air or Atoms can be replenished with no matter and if they be replenished with it I do demand whether the parts of this subtile matter have figures which if they have they cannot be united and joyned together without a Vacuum which if they have not neither have they Extension nor are they material according to the very Principle of the Cartesians To all that has been said we may joyn an Experiment about the rarefaction and condensation of bodies and the confirmation of disseminate Vacuums for Example take a Glass-Phial with a long neck which being well heated put it into a Vessel full of Water so that the end of the neck of the Vial may go a little way into it we shall certainly see that the water presently ascends to a certain height
Opinion for he says that the true Magnitude of the Sun and Stars is not much greater than they appear to us because says this Philosopher since we see them to have Natural Colours it follows then that we see them in their just Magnitude and he adds that we never see Objects in their true Magnitude but when we discern their Colour Figure and Circumference He endeavours to prove this his Opinion by the Example of fire which we behold truly as it is greater or lesser accordingly as it Flames and after this rate fixed Stars would not be much greater than they appear The same thing may be said of the Planets also because they are less remote from us than the Fixed stars I should not much dislike this Opinion if it were not rejected by the whole World and that the Shades Paralaxes and Eclipses evince the contrary Therefore we embrace the most received Opinion and positively affirm That the most experienced with the help of all their Optick Tubes are not able to delineate the true and just Magnitude of the Planets much less of the Fixed Stars whose shadow is small and they a great way distant from the Earth CHAP. V. Of the Motion of the Stars ARISTOTLE endeavouring to avoid or shun all the difficul 〈…〉 which occur in great plenty concerning the Motion of the Heavens thought he was easily able to explain it together with its swiftness and regularity by the help of an Intelligent Mover sent by God as an Adjutant Form to move push on direct and order the Heaven and each Planet in all their Motion This Doctrine seems to be at once both very easie and very clear for if Heaven and the Planets have really a kind of motion of which there is no doubt there is nothing more easie than to have recourse to an Angel who by Gods Command is the mover and directer of it But we should sooner agree upon the Point by having recourse to God the Author of Nature and saying that He as the first Author hath impressed this motion upon the Heaven and the Stars from the beginning of the World and that he doth continually conserve it as the First Cause by his general concurrence without using the Ministery of Angels to perform it which would be no more necessary than to assign a helping Angel to the motion of Animals and the Vegitation of Plants which no â—an will go about to do unless he deligns to make himself ridiculous ¶ This Opinion supposes the Earth to be in the Center of the World immoveable and that the Heavens are wheeled about this Center upon the two Poles of the World The Asserters of this Opinion do affirm That the Imperial Heaven is fixt and immoveable of a round or square Figure and that the Firmament observes the motion of the Primum Mobile and by the impression of it is rapidly moved from East to West together with the Fixed Stars which it violently carries along with it As to the Planetary Heaven they who affirm it to be Fluid do also teach us that the Planets do likewise in this vast space move with the like liberty that Fish do in the Water or Birds in the Air excepting only that the motion of the Stars is regular and that of Fish and Birds is not They who make to be as many Heavens as there are Planets or that every Planet hath its Orb are forced to confess that either their Heaven is fluid or if it be solid that there are passages and ways through which they are carried and to explain these appearances they are under a necessity of feigning certain Circles which they call Epicicles or Excentrix from whence arises unexplicable confusions whilst others say that these Circles are only imaginary But they who affirm the Sun to be immoveable in the center of the World who conclude that the Earth is in its place a Seventh Planet and hath a Motion round it as well as the rest and that the Firmament and the Fixed Stars which are annexed to it and implanted in it and seen with their Orbs to wheel round over our heads to be like the Sun equally immoveable are forced to explain the motion of the Planets and find no little difficulty in explicating their appearances we will enquire into those which are chiefly built upon truth by examining first those two most Famous Systems of the World I mean that of Ptolomy and Copernicus CHAP. VI. Ptolomy's System of the World Examined PTOLOMY and Aristotle with their Followers affirm the Earth to be in the Centre of the World immoveable encompassed round with Air which they think is next environed with Fire and so in order there are Orbs of the Moon Mercury Venus the Sun Mars Jupiter Saturn and of the Fixed Stars encompassing one the other called the Firmament then the Ninth Heaven which they call the Chrystaline and lastly the Primum Mobile which by its incredible rapidity carries all the other Heavens with it from East to West This Opinion seems to me to be absurd because it supposes the Heavens and especially the Primum Mobile to be of an immense Magnitude so that the Earth would be but a point in respect of Heaven Yet Ptolomy will have these immense Bodies and vast Machines to be moved round this point of Earth which seems little consonant to reason which dictates to us that little Bodies are much more readily moved round greater than great Bodies round less and we commonly say when we are roasting Meat that the Meat must turn round to the Fire and not the Fire turn round it It is therefore more commodious and more consonant to Reason that the Earth which is only like a point or a Gnat should be moved round the Heavens than the Heavens should turn round about it Most wisely therefore hath the Creator of the Universe disposed things in such a manner that the Reasons of them are conspicuous every where that we may say that God does not only produce Works which are good in their substance but also that he hath done good unto all that he hath made that is exactly in Number Weight and Measure Besides this General Reason which destroys and over-turns the Opinion of Ptolomy and Aristotle we may take another from the incredible rapidity of the Heavens motion about the Earth for if their Opinion be true in this Hypothesis and according to the reckoning of Astrologers we must confess that the distance of the Primum Mobile from the Earth is above an hundred thousand Miles from whence may be computed the greatness of this Heaven and the manner of its motion that it should perform and compleat its Circle in the space of twenty four hours whereas all People agree in this viz. That the Earth compleats forty Miles in every hour when in the mean time its Circle is but a point in respect of the Primum Mobile We must conclude therefore that its swiftness is incomprehensible and that every one point
this motion of the Earth by more Natural Reasons I say therefore and suppose that the Sun is immoveable in the Centre of the World and yet notwithstanding that like a Wheel it turns round about its proper Centre and this is that motion which is called Circum-Rotation and by this motion it disperses on all sides on every part these Corpuscles which produce Light and Heat These Corpuscles compose that great Vortex which is about the Sun and which with it is carried round and moves the Earth which is plac'd in the same Vortex with it like as a Stone is moved by the motion of a rapid Stream and this same Vortex carries other Planets along with it accordingly as they are more or less immerged in it According to this explication one may fancy the Sun to be like the wheel of a Clock which moves that which is next to it another way for when one Wheel is moved towards the right the other which it carries with it must of necessity be moved towards the left So whilst the Sun by its Circum-Rotation is moved from East to West the Earth must likewise be moved from West to East The other motion of the Earth is that which is called Annual or half-yearly and which arises from the Libration of the Solar Body and of the Vortex which drives the Earth from the part of the Pole and makes it daily go a degree farther and so the Annual as the Diurnal motion each day declines one degree onely from a Parallel from whence arise the vicissitudes of days and Seasons But if the Earth returns by the same steps as I may so say it happens because the Sun by its daily Libration drives it on from one part and then after six Months assuming an opposite Libration it draws it back for Three Months and for the other three Months which makes up Six it drives it forwards so that the Rotation and the Libration of the Sun makes a double or a triple motion of the Earth without the former's changing either its place or its Centre All that we have hitherto said according to the mind of these Authors doth not as yet satisfie a Spirit curious to know the truth So here are other difficulties remaining which must be taken away by more sensible and more Natural Reasons First Though we affirm the Sun to be immoveable and the Earth to be wheeled round about it or though we affirm the contrary there remains nevertheless that we give an account not only of each of these motions but also of the motions of the other Planets It is demanded what is the internal or external Cause of the Earths motion If it be answered that the Sun by its Libration is the Cause of it as we have said and as our Opinion is it remains that we demonstrate the Cause whether internal or external that gives the Sun this motion By means of which being librated from one side for Six Months it is also librated for as many from the other side and by this so regular motion it sometimes draws the Earth towards it and sometimes drives it from it as we shall see in the following Chapter what can be said about this Matter CHAP. IX Of the Sun the true Centre and Heart of the World. THe Sun being placed in the Centre of the World is like the Heart inspiring Life into all things and presiding over all the Works of Nature whatsoever even as the Heart in an humane Body is the Principle of its Life and all its motions this is that admirable Machine which without being moved out of its place moves the Spirits Humours and all the parts of our Bodies in like manner the immoveable Sun by his double motion shakes and moves the Earth as well as the rest of the Planets One only difficulty remains in explaining the motion of the Heart in the Microcosme and of the Sun in the Macrocosme But being about to treat else-where of the Earths motion we will here only speak of the Suns motion which I call a wheeling of it round about the Earth and afterwards we will speak of its Libration Elsewhere we have said the Sun to be not only of the same Nature with Gold but to be Gold indeed melted in the Centre of the World and Cupellated by the Fire of the fix'd Stars which are every where about it No wonder therefore that it is wheeled round like melted Gold in a Crusible and there sparkling and purified That this Hypothesis which will bring no little light to many things may be better comprehended I will bring an Experiment to confirm this Doctrine which seems new indeed but nevertheless it cannot be denied to be built upon the foundation of indubitable Experience I say therefore that if you take Gold and put it into a great Crusible with Lead Copper or other Mettals and make a Fire every where round it these Mettals will be melted together and compose a sparkling smoaking Bath this Bath or melted Matter is in perpetual motion and so soon as the matter is made hot it wheels round its Centre without intermission It would be much more conspicuous if this melted Matter in the Centre of the World were equally distant from all the points of its circumference for this being supposed no man will deny this melted Matter fixed in the Centre of the World and Fire being put to it every where and on all sides to remain in fashion as in a Crusible and to have the same motion of Circum-rotation and Libration which we attribute to the Sun. All the Obstacle we meet with at first sight consists in this to wit how this solar melted Matter can remain suspended not falling down on any part Secondly By means of what Fire it remains always melted Thirdly How it comes to pass that since Gold so soon as it is cupellated or refined remains in the Crusible in a fix'd Mass yet the Sun which is like to this Gold is neither fixed nor stands it still immediately but being wheeled perpetually round its Centre it continues in motion and is Librated in the Cupel without any intermission To the first of these difficulties I answer that we ought not to stand upon it because they who place the Earth in the Centre of the World do teach us that if a great hole were made through the Earth even as far as our Antipodes and if a Mill-Stone were thrown into it it would stop in the middle which is affirmed to be the Centre of the World and there remain suspended for to move forwards either way would be to ascend The same thing may be said likewife of Water or other Liquids which would remain suspended If therefore the Sun be in the Centre of the World why should it seem a wonder that it should remain there so suspended since that may serve him instead of a Cupel As to the other difficulty which belongs to the Fire I answer that there is no want of that because
Nature Solid is resisting and impenetrable to another and if all things were so filled with Atoms as that there should be no Vacuum all things would be hard and impenetrable nor would softness fluidness or liquidness be found in any Body but there would be every where hardness and an impenetrable resistency but a Vacuum which alone does not resist as it is more or less mixt with Bodies renders them less resisting more soft more liquid and more fluid to which may be added the figure of Atoms which is more or less fit for Motion and which admits of more or less intervals or Vacuities CHAP. V. Of the Quantity Weight and Figure of Compounds THe same three Properties which constitute the Essence of Atoms are found likewise in Compound Bodies Atoms have a certain quantity or grossness and obtain also weight and Figure but they differ only in respect of their Figures This magnitude or grossness of Atoms which we find out by reason only is visible to the Eye in compound Bodies The quantity or grossness of compound Bodies arises from the addition and gathering together of Atoms and of little Bodies which are thus formed of them which again is lessened by taking away the same Atoms or little Bodies Besides this General Cause of greatness magnitude and grossness we yet acknowledge two others viz. an Exteriour and an Interiour the first of these regards Artificial Compounds where the Artificer as an External Cause encreaseth or diminisheth Matter as he thinks fit But it is otherwise in Natural Compounds whose Magnitude and thickness arises from the magnitude of Corpuscles and their grossness and from the figure of the Atoms determining Bodies to such or such a magnitude So that each Tree Fruit and Animal obtains a Natural and determinate magnitude and grossness in respect of the magnitude and grossness of the little Bodies and the figure of the Atoms contained in their Seeds Hence it is that Giants beget Giants nor do Dwarfs ever come from Tall Parents But if in either kind the individuals are unequal to their Sires it happens accidentally by reason of hindrances caused by contrary Agents or by a defect or an excess of Matter or lastly by an intromission of many strange Bodies which in some particular individuals produce this irregularity Figure is the propriety of Bodies which if they be artificial the Artificer is the Cause of determining it according to his purpose either by adding or taking away some particles or small Bodies but if the compound Bodies are Natural they obtain their Natural figure which depends upon the figure of Atoms and Corpuscles After the same manner water is round because all the Atoms of which it is made are round The Weight of Bodies arises from Matter that is Atoms for that Body in which there are Ten hundred thousand Millions of Atoms is heavier than another in which there is not so great a number provided the Vacuities are equal or the Air it self being in their Pores be in an equal quantity But if you take two Bodies of the same Magnitude and Extension That precisely will be more heavy wherein more Atoms and lesser Vacuities are found and consequentially the Other more light The Motion of compound Bodies proceeds from external Agents driving them on with a greater or lesser force and the easiness or difficulty of the same motion proceeds from the figures of Atoms and of all Bodies and from the inclination which they receive from half emancipated Atoms which agitate all Bodies So we see that round Bodies are more easily moved upon a plain and again those that are pointed more easily enter into the Pores of others But this pointed figure is sometimes occasioned by the Artificer although not altogether from his hand for it is confest that he cannot make an absolute perfect point out of a Matter whose Atoms are all of them round From whence it appears that the Figure and Position of Atoms doth very much contribute to this but if a Body Naturally ends in a point as fire does it is because all the Atoms of which it consists are all of that Figure CHAP. VI. The difference between Natural and Artificial Compounds THose who reject Atoms and are the Asserters of substantial and accidental forms imagine with themselves that according to our Opinion there cannot be an essential difference assigned between Natural and Artificial Compound Bodies because say they they both consist of the same Atoms and are alike made from them three ways viz. by Addition Detraction and Transposition after the same manner as it comes to pass in the composition of Words Sayings and Discourses which are made by a various addition detraction and transposition of Letters This is the very same Example which we have brought nor do we desire any other for from hence it is manifest how from the same Letters without the addition of any thing else Words and discourses essentially different are framed And after the same manner out of the same Atoms Nature formeth Compounds essentially different so that there is no need at all either to admit or have recourse to either substantial or accidental forms which are plainly useless in Nature We may here observe and add further That all Letters are not fit to Compose the Name of KING By a parity of Reason all Atoms are not fit to make Gold so that all things are not made of all But as by the help of twenty four Letters we express a great number of different and contrary things so after the same manner Nature out of the same Atoms Composes Mettalline Bodies Plants and Animals by adding taking away and transposing of Atoms yet not indifferently but such and such Atoms of such and such a figure for all Atoms are not fit to enter into the composition of all kind of Bodies From hence is the First difference between Natural and Artificial Compounds I mean from this addition of Atoms unknown to the Artificer yet which Nature hath known rightly how to chuse so the Artificer makes an Arrow out of all sorts of wood but Nature does not make this wood out of all kinds of Atoms Secondly Artificial Compounds depend upon an intelligent Cause which in its mind conceives an Idea and end of its operation whereas the works of Nature depend upon a necessary Cause which operates without any Idea Thirdly Art takes perfect and compound Bodies and gathers them together as a Builder collects and gathers the Materials out of which he frames a House whereas on the other hand Nature first divides Bodies and takes those Atoms which are left after dissolution and fits them to the work it designed and out of them by the addition of some others which it meets withal and which are in state of freedom it produces new Compound Bodies There is a difference therefore betwixt Mixtion and Composition as there is betwixt the combination of Gold and Silver and the generation of these Mettals whether in the bowels of the Earth
run downwards For to say that Water will seek after its proper Centre is to flye back again to an Occult Cause and to renounce our Principles I conclude therefore that the Atoms Corpuscles and drops of Water are of a perfect round Figure and since they have a certain inclination without hindrance nothing can keep them back but that without interruption they do and will drive one another forward even to the World's End. The Fourth Part of Physick Of those things which are in Man and of Man himself as he is a Compound Physical Animated Body WE are now come at length to our Fourth and last part of Physick wherein according to what we proposed we are to speak of the things which are in Man whom now we consider as a Body animated Which compels us to speak of the Soul and of Life in general and afterwards descending to special we will explain the Life of Man as he is rational and we shall endeavour by Natural Reasons to prove the immortality of his Soul. CHAP. I. Of Life in general LIfe as we have said elsewhere appears only by action and motion So those Beings which have most of action and motion obtain also most of Life And we say a Man is dying when there is but little motion left in him and dead when it is quite abolished Every motion is not a vital motion for that it may be so it must be Internal of the thing that acts and proceed from a Principle that is not external Wherefore the motion of a Stone that is thrown into the Air is not a vital motion because it comes from an external Cause to wit from the hand of him that throws it I say further that it must be the motion of a Compound Body if it be a vital motion and for this Cause the motion of Atoms is not so because they are simple and indivisible beings neither capable of Life nor Death And for as much as Atoms are not Compounds tho' they compound Bodies so they are not said to live in the least although without their impression and ministery there is no Life nor no motion in the Bodies we speak of Life therefore is an action and motion of a Compound and Organical Body arising from an internal and seminal Principle And in this sense Mettals may be said to possess a certain kind of Life since they obtain a certain motion of vegetation by which they grow and we may determine this motion to arise from an internal and seminal principle though it be abstruse enough and the Organs of Life scarcely appear so that it is a very difficult matter to distinguish them in Plants and in some Animals as in the Fish called a Muscle and in Oysters which are nevertheless endowed with a more perfect life than Mettals and Plants We shall in the following Discourse tell you wherein this Life consists and how Mettals and Plants dye as well as other living Creatures There is a great difference between Life and the Principle of it tho' not in like manner between Life and motion or vital action For Life is the action and motion of divers Beings gathered by Nature together and united after such a manner as that the parts of it move one another as we see in Machines and what the Pullies and Springs are in these the same are the Spirits in Natural Compound Bodies that is the most swiftly moving Atoms From this Doctrine is collected first of all That there are Atoms more swift and fuller of Motion than others by reason of their subtilty and figure such as are Coelestial Fiery and Luminous Atoms to wit such as Heaven the Stars Fire Heat and Light are compounded of This we judge by the compound Bodies that are made and framed out of them For humane Spirits instructed with material Senses is not able to penetrate into the essence of Atoms and their special difference But we determine that the Atoms out of which Heaven the Stars and Light are made have Figures and activities greater more perfect and more fit for motion than those that compound cold and heavy Bodies although when the thing is well considered it may arise from their greater liberty and more perfect Figure Secondly according to our Principles we must say That the Vital Spirts so called are nothing else but a certain number of Atoms free from all composition and such whose Figure and condition renders them unfit for service and slavery This Doctrine supposeth that there are two sorts of Atoms in Nature some of which like Common-People are destined to Imprisonment Service and Bonds but others like Nobles to liberty and command over others Now those whose Lot it is to be like the Commons are made to compose the Machines of our Bodies and they are such as entangle one another and are linked and bound together in the formation of Bodies whereas those which cannot be bound nor undergo Slavery are destined to move the whole Machine of our Bodies as not being fastned to any part but running through all parts and bestowing every where motion sense and disposition These are what are called Vital Spirits because they bestow Life that is motion These Atoms therefore are not Life but the Principles and Authors of it Sometimes Atoms that Compound Bodies get out of Service and as often as occasion offers and Bodies â—uffer division are emancipated for in all separations and corruptions of Bodies some Atoms do flye away and like the first seek to recover Liberty and when it happens that these Fugitive Atoms are mingled together with those that are essentially free from thence arise conflicts in our Bodies and from These Ill dispositions and our Diseases which there is no help to be hoped for nor any cure unless these rebellious and emancipated Atoms are restored to their first confinement or else driven out of the Body that so by this means the Spirits may remain pure and altogether free in their motion and not be interrupted by these irregular Atoms which are the common disturbers of Nature and Health And for as much as some Atoms continually flye out of those Bodies which we use for nourishment by reason of divers degrees of Corruption which they are forced to undergo before they can be changed into our substance So it is certain that there is always in us some principle of a Disease to be found and that we never in this World enjoy a perfect Health and that those are only most healthy who are less sickly than others As I have said elsewhere that there are no Men absolutely wise but that they that are called wise are less ignorant than others But moreover if Captive Atoms are sometimes free'd by emancipation so on the other hand those which are not used to be detained are sometimes incarcerated and involved with others nor can they stir beyond the limits of their Prison And there are some which in like manner are so included with others by the Providence of
luminous substance The particulars belonging to the composition of the Eye Anatomy will teach Let us speak something of the Object of Sight and first of Colour Colour which Bodies exhibit to us is nothing else but light reflected and interrupted by the Angles of the Atoms and the very small Cavities in the extremities of Bodies as also a diverse reflection and refraction of that Light upon which the variety of Colours depends Experience favours this Doctrine for Galls being broke and thrown into artificial or Natural Vitriolated-Water give a black colour like Ink and hereby is known whether Waters contain any high of Vitriol Iron or Copper For Mineral-Waters when they pass through an Iron Mine by an addition of Galls grow black but others not and this blackness is not any Physical and accidental quality produced in Water by the throwing in of Galls which are not black but this change arises only from a new position of Atoms and Corpuscles whereby the Rays of Light are bended and broken after a new manner The same thing happens if you mix Minium which is red in its own Nature with Wine-Vinegar for that will turn white and the yolk of an Egg mixt with Turpentine looks altogether like a white kind of Cream Now in all these and other Experiments nothing happens besides a perturbation of Atoms which take a new place and reflect or refract Light after another manner without any production of any new Accident Nor is Light any accident or Physical Quality as the Disciples of Aristotle will have it but a real effusion and spreading of Corpuscles which flow from the substance of the Sun and upper Stars and more or less penetrate through the empty spaces of the Air as the Air is more rarified or more condensed It will be convenient to remember here that we place the Sun in the Centre of the World and say that the Sun is of one and the same substance with Gold Gold melted and purified and that its glittering and rayes is properly that which we call Light and which is reflected upon all the Bodies of Planets amongst which the Earth only is supposed habitable these Sun-Beams are nothing else than that which we call Light so Light is a certain thing compounded of the Atoms of Gold by a mutual connection amongst themselves bound together and which tye all the parts of the World to their Centre the Sun. From whence it is easily gathered how all things act by vertue of the Sun and that the Sun it self also is an helper that Man be produced from Man. The truth of this our Doctrine appears from those things which we brought from Monsieur Bezancon's Experiment Light therefore is of the same Nature with Gold and the Sun and is therefore Gold or the Sun rarified and Air in the day-time is full of this dispersed Gold so that in breathing we draw in some Atoms of this rarified Gold which brings Life to us in bringing to us the Principle of Natural Heat and radical moisture No wonder that Aurum Potabile is of so great esteem and sought for by every illustrious personage to restore Health But since true Aurum Potabile is scarce by reason of the defect of a solvent and of a Natural and Radical Vehicle God provides for this by giving us Light which we take in by the Air which serves instead of a Vehicle to it Light therefore is our Life and preserves it and we say of a Man that is dead that his Light is extinguished and of a Man tha lies confined in a Dungeon that he dwells amongst the Dead Upon the occasion of this Sentence which I have thought fit to confirm I observe that Light is the Universal Spirit of the vulgar varying according to the Subject it meets withal and that the same is that famous dissolvent from which only or by the addition of common Gold may be made the Universal Medicine But for as much as to the obtaining this effect there is required that this Light be made liquid and out of it be made a living Water and Stream or Rain of Gold which few can perform From hence it is that few possess this supream Remedy I observe Secondly that Light excites the seminal Spirit which is of the same Nature and is contained under divers Seeds and divers coverings and that the same light produces in us and reproduces those Spirits which are called Vital and Animal and which are nothing else than Luminous Corpuscles which are always in motion whilst they take Air and together with the Air the Light annexed without which their motion ceaseth We see also that a Man dyes for want of Air and by the hindrance of respiration and these Spirits are more dulled by Night than by Day and so do partly fail in the Body the Light failing And unless there did still continue some Luminous and Solar Spirit in the Air or if the Stars did not afford a sufficient quantity of it in the Night in the Night it were impossible we should be able to escape Death Besides we may observe that by this Light which penetrates and creeps through the Bowels of the Earth Mettals are produced for it is their Seed lying invisibly hid in their Bodies We may say likewise that every Living thing receives Life from this Light so that we live by Gold only we subsist by the benefit of Gold and all things are filled with Gold that is with the Sun rarified and expanded through all things through all the most secret places and through our very Hearts whose motions will cease when the Light of the Sun and other Stars shall cease whose motion will likewise cease at the end of all Ages By the help of this Doctrine we understand what the Antients meant when they said all was full of Jupiter and Gold and that the Commerce of Heaven and Earth was bound together with a Golden Chain That the Universal Medicine cannot be extracted but out of the water of the Beams of the Sun and Moon By this means also we comprehend the truth of the saying about Apollo and his Golden hairs and we shall know that which the Philosophy of the Antients could not explain to wit from whence the motion of the Spirits in our Bodies proceed and in what the Life which we enjoy does properly consist And so even the new Philosophy will no less Labour in explaining the Essence of Life unless it follows these our Principles As many as shall have been sufficiently illustrated by this Light will here find a Secret for the Nobility by which for many years they will be able to preserve Health and Vigor beyond the ordinary term I say enough of this thing to move Illustrious Wits as being enlightned People to enquire into the Nature and Effects of the Light and Colours which we see which the Sun produceth in the Rainbow and in the Peacocks Tail where by the help of a Microscope a thousand Golden threeds are
seen Nor is there any reason why we should stand amazed at the sight of these Colours since they are nothing else than Light reflected and refracted wherein all Colours are contained as I have said for it is of the same Nature with Gold out of which all Colours may be produced although the yellow only is apparent They who have divers ways dissolved Gold and Mercury or crude Gold have there found all of them as many Colours as ever they had seen and many more Colours than they knew CHAP. X. How Illustrated Objects are seen ARISTOTLE and his Scholars will have Vision to be made by certain Qualities commonly called the Intentional Species which as is reported joyn the visive power that is the Eye with the Visible Object and the Powers represent the Object These Species according to this Opinion are discernable and are in the Air as in their proper subject but this is not to be endured for if these are accidents and have Air for their Subject the Air being changed by the least breath of wind the accident would pass from one Subject to another which is refractory to the Principles of these Philosophers These species bring in a great many other difficulties which relate to their Nature Production Propagation in the Air Eduction Extension and Reception into the Eye all which cannot be solved without captious contensions and when all shall be throughly canvased no body will be e're the wiser from whence it happens that all these accidents which are neither Bodies nor Spirits I am forced to send back to School with their Doctors Some believe Vision is made by an emission of visual Rayes out of the Eyes but neither will this Opinion subsist in as much as it supposes that to see an Object ten Leagues distant from us it is of necessity that the Eye should send Corpuscles thither and even to the very Heavens to see the Stars there Gassendus would have vision made by the Species or Figure of the Object composed of Corpuscles or most subtile Atoms proceeding from the Object and received by the Eye But it cannot be conceived that a Man placed in the midst of a Plain can continually emit without diminution Corpuscles from every part or that these Corpuscles can be in the Air without perturbation and confusion at the same time whilst other Objects emit an infinite number of theirs and all this transmitted in a right Line through the vacuities of the Air from whence it follows that through one and that a little space of a Vacuum in the Air that vast number of Atoms or Corpuscles must pass without penetration and confusion Gassendus answers that the difficulty arises from this that we do not enough conceive the subtilty of Atoms nor the rapidity of their motion This reason does not satisfie since we know that the Vacuities of the Air are not greater than Atoms How then can a thousand Atoms of Matter pass in a right Line through one only Vacuum no bigger than one single Atom without penetration This difficulty besides some others hath moved some Philosophers to say that the Eye is a natural seeing-Glass endued with such a convexity as those Glasses have which are put into perspectives by which we see things a great way distant These Philosophers say that Light wherein is contained every kind of divers Colours as it is determined upon the Objects by the angles of the Atoms does also comprehend all kind of Objects too and represents them with all variety of Colours according to the divers determination of the Objects Or to say more truly that Light represents it self to the Eye as it is determined by Objects and it is certain we see nothing but Light and Colour that is Light with its determination and when we distinctly see an Object its extention and Figure that proceeds from nothing else than that we see Light determined by the dimensions and circumstances of the Object The Nature of Light therefore is solely to be considered and it will no ways hinder but that we shall avoid all the difficulties of the others by embracing an Opinion which rests upon truth which very well and with the consent of all conceives that Light is seen by it self nor is there need of any Species to see Light and since we to speak properly do not see the Objects but Light the Object of Sight there is no necessity that the Object should transmit Accidents or Corpuscles as if Light could not be seen of it self From this Doctrine that which appears new follows that Light is to be considered in a threefold State and first of all in the Quality of the Object secondly in the Quality of the Term. The first state is Light determined by the Object the second is Light expanded in the air the third is Light received by the Eye and represented with all its determinations And this is it which we call the Image of the Object in the Eye as it were in a Glass In prosecuting this subject we might have treated of the reason why we see Objects by the help of perspective Glasses multiplying their Figure or by Microscopes a new invention by the help of which many things are discovered which before lay hid such as are Worms in Wine Vinegar Gnats in Water and Dew as also Pores in Glass and a thousand little Animals in Seeds But of these I shall say nothing now since I have done it already in a little peculiar Tract which I will Print the first opportunity where the application of the Principles of my Physick will be seen to explicate more illustrious things which are discovered by the help of Microscopes if the Reader pleases to spend his time to see and judge of what I say concerning these things CHAP. XI Of Hearing its Organ and Object THe Organ of Hearing is the Ear composed of a Cartilage and hollowness's wherein the air insinuating it self by its motion causeth sound Besides these external and apparent Particles there are others also internal which are composed of Membranes as also some little Bones and included air the auditory Nerve doth also run down thither that it may bring the Animal Spirit necessary to all the Operations of the Senses The Object of Hearing is Sound to wit the motion of two or more Bodies mutually meeting one another and as no Body that wants Heat and Light is the Object of Sight so no Body that wants motion can be the Object of Hearing Or rather as Light alone without the intervention of any other Medium is the Object of Sight so is motion the Object of Hearing so that there is no necessity to have recourse to the pretended Quality which is commonly called Sound nor to any intentional Species no nor so much indeed as to Corpuscles sent out a great way off I say therefore that as Light is seen by it self and Truth immediately and without any other intermedium is known by it self so Motion is apparent of it self
without the pretended Qualities of Aristotle or Corpuscles of Gassendus except those of the Air which are in motion For they being wanting or stirred up by an opposite motion little or very little is observed of it The motion therefore of Bodies is the Object of Sounds but there is a necessity for a fluid Body to be present that it may be violently moved to and fro which happens in irregular Sounds or with Method and Measure as in Musick and the use of Instruments This Fluid Body is sometimes intercepted by two Solid Bodies and is forced to go back with violent motion CHAP. XII Particular Questions concerning Hearing THe first Question is concerning the Penetration of Sounds and it is asked How it comes to pass that a Sound constant in Motion can more easily penetrate through a thick Wall than through Glass or Water I answer that the thickest Walls have great Cavities into which the Air insinuates it self or lies shut up in them whilst they are Building After which manner without doubt it is shut up in Guns made of melted Brass which is the cause that when they are tryed they sometimes burst asunder which hapned about two Months ago at Niverina in a Field near St. Germans Air therefore is more easily shut up within Walls whilst they are Building than in Guns whilst they are casting And this included Air receives its motion from the external Air and communicates the same with that which is found in the Breech or adverse part of the Gun. Which thing does not happen in Glasses which have but very small pores into which the External Air cannot enter only Light and the most subtile Air enjoying this priviledge From hence it follows that Bodies which have none or but very small Vacuities and contain no Air or but very little are more surd and less resounding as Gold and Lead however Lead is more surd than Gold although it hath more frequent vacuities but they are less regular for since it is endowed with more Pores than Gold it ought to give a greater sound than Gold. For to the making a sound it is not sufficient that the Body contains Air but that the Air be so bound up that it cannot sind a way out and as to the sound of Bells that depends upon the Air intercepted between the Clapper and the Bell and wandring round the compass of the Bell before it can get out and drive on other Air yet so as that it presupposes Air shut up in the Pores of the Mettal The second Question regards the propagation of Sound or the sound of Bells and Guns are heard a great way off But the reason of this is not difficult to be given for the Air violently driven on because it is easily moved gives a sound according to its motion greater or lesser and because the motion of Air is not momentaneous so the sound likewise is not in a moment brought to the Ears Certainly the Air that is impelled drives on other Air on every side until that circular motion ceaseth as we see when a stone is thrown into a Pool the water is moved in circles This motion in respect of Sight is not in the Air we see the stroak ere we perceive the sound for Light is determined in a moment nor does a contrary wind hinder Light as it doth sound for Light does not depend upon the motion of the Air and the Light of the Air is fixed in the same manner as the Centre of the World from whence it draws its Origine to which it is firmly and immoveably annexed at least that it be not condensed and grow thick The third Question regards the repetition of Sound and is called Eccho and it is nothing else than a repercussed and reflected motion of the Air by hard Bodies or retained and renewed by other Air shut up in the Cavities of Bodies and if there are many Cavities in a streight Line there are made many reflections and the Eccho is multiplied and that more or less distinctly as the reflections are more or less perfect and the Ear more or less distant from the angle of reflection which is always formed right forwards and is streight unless there be some hindrance and hath always a certain and determined Distance Fourthly it is asked how it comes to pass that the strings of two Harps Tuned alike although they be distant two or three paces from one another the one being struck the other will give a sound I answer that the air of one being struck into motion does by its motion excite the motion of the other which is constituted in the same state or tuned alike For here to alledge Sympathy would be nothing else but to flye to the Sanctuary of Ignorance Fifthly It is asked Why some sounds are sweet and very pleasant and others on the other hand harsh and displeasing It is answered that this proceeds from a diverse motion and from the ruggedness and smoothness of Bodies as also from the smiteing of the Air that is driven to and fro Sixthly it may be enquired from whence the noise in the Ears proceed and it is answered that this inconvenience proceeds from a motion of the interior Air against Nature which sometimes happens from the breaking in of foreign Corpuscles or from the solution and emancipation of some Atoms or from the Pulse of the Arteries or motion of Vapours which striking against the Drum of the Ear make that humming noise of the Ears Lastly it is asked why some People hear better than others and we may answer that this proceeds from the impurity of the interior Air For not to say any thing of those that are born deaf or have their Organs ill formed or have no interior or included Air or of Old Men in whom this Air is dissipated or of those whom a kind of thick humor falling upon the Organ after a long Disease makes Deaf or who are wounded or have an Imposthume in their Ears I say that those who have most of this interior and purer Air have their Ears more accurate and their Hearing more distinct if withal the Auditory Nerve be well Composed CHAP. XIII Of Smelling its Organ and Object SMELLING is an action by which we perceive and distinguish Smells the external Organ is the Nostrils the internal are some glandulous and spongy parts like Teats which descend from the Brain to the Nostrils or the Olfactory Nerve or Odours which affect the Spirits contained in the Nerve and move them and these Spirits being moved and stirred up carry the sense of the Odor to the common sense The Object of Smell are Odours in quality not distinct from Bodies but are rather Atoms or sulphurous Particles going out of Bodies their Figure is hooked and adhering from whence it comes to pass that they adhere like Oyle or fatness and are preserved a long time in Chests among Cloaths especially Woollen ones And therefore contagious Particles lye hid for many Years
Muscles of the Breast The Pulse is nothing else but a percussion of the Arteries upon the variety of which the difference of Pulses depends The Cause of the Pulse according to Aristotle is the Natural heat of the Heart according to Galen it is the moving faculty according to Harvey this motion of the Heart and Pulse of the Arteries depends upon the circulation of the Blood which we will examine in the next Chapter Breathing comprehends two actions Inspiration and Respiration by the action of the first the Lungs receive the external Air and by the help of the last they drive it out The first is made by a dilatation of the Lungs and Breast as also by the motion of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are opened like a pair of Bellows and are by that means filled with Air the second is made by a pressing downwards of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are unlocked and the Air driven forth Breathing conduces to the tempering the heat of the Heart and to the exciting and preserving Natural heat besides it conduceth to the forming the Voice to perceiving Smells to expelling Excrements and dissipating the fumes of the Blood and lastly to produce vital Spirits in promoting their motion by which it happens that we dye when breathing ceaseth or when we take our last Breath CHAP. XVII Of the Motion of the Heart THat I may rightly explain the motion of the Heart I suppose it is moved by two different motions the first of which is Natural the second against Nature That resembles the motion of Machines and Clocks which are moved by help of Strings and Wheels So the Heart is the principal and chief Wheel of this animated Machine and moves and drives on all the others and takes its motion from the weight and impression of certain Fiery and Coelestial Atoms which like the Silk-Worm are shut up in the Seed and its covering and which give motion to it until they flye away from it which slight of the Atoms Death follows and an end of motion The Authors of the circulation of the Blood deduce the motion of the Heart from the Bloods entring into it saying that the Heart is opened by the motion commonly called Diastole the Blood entring into the Heart and that by the motion commonly called Systole the Blood returns back and this returning is the Cause of those two motions but it is more reasonable to say that the motion of the Heart hath its Principle in its self for it is Vital and the passing through of the Blood is rather an effect than a Cause of this motion for the Heart opens it self before the Blood enters in nor does the Blood go out but as it is driven by the opened Heart The second motion of the Heart is accidental and against Nature and proceeds from the intemperies of the Blood that passeth through the Heart and which impresseth this febrile motion whether as being more hot and subtile than it should be or having certain foreign Corpuscles mixed with it or being too thick and viscous or else offending in quantity it overwhelms the Heart and hereupon depends the difference of motions contrary to Nature as also the difference of Pulses and Feavers from hence proceeds the palpitation of the Heart intermitting Pulses Convulsions Suffocations and sudden Death And it is commonly said that the Life is in the Blood nor does any thing hinder why we should not say that Death is in it too when it is corrupted or very sharp and corroding or unfit for motion and containing such like Bodies as lie hid in Venoms and Narcoticks The motion which is observed in the Hearts of Animals taken out of their Bodies as for Example that of a Viper which continues a long while does not disanul Circulation but only lets us see that Circulation is not the Cause of the Natural motion of the Heart and if you stretch it never so far it is only its condition which makes it continue and keeps the same in its Natural state Whatsoever we say concerning the Heart and its motions does not make up that Idea which we conceive in our mind nor does it satisfie the mind of the Reader who expects we should explain from whence this motion of the Heart while it is in its natural state proceeds and what is the Cause of its immoderate motions That I may therefore satisfie the Reader I Affirm the Natural Motion of the Heart to be in the motion of the Vital Spirits shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart where they are detained by little Membranes made firm by the interweaving of Fibres and of thin threads so that they cannot escape out since the Pores of these membranes have a Figure opposite to the Pores of those Spirits or Vital Atoms And seeing that Atoms enjoy an actual motion and which can no more be separated from their Essence than Intelligence from an Angel or separated Soul or the Inclination from the Will it follows that they are always in motion and by their motions by turns dilate the Heart This Doctrine supposes what has been said of Vital Spirits being as it were the internal Principles of Life and Motion as also of the essential and proper motion of Atoms and of Bodies compounded of Atoms but it is convenient that we remember that we have said that motion is Natural to Atoms and that God who hath created them essentially moveable preserves their motion and moveable Nature in the same action that he Created them Besides it may be convenient to remember that there are such a sort of Atoms which may be detained and constitute the parts of a Compound Body and others which are not Naturally such yet may be shut up such as those are which we have said are shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart of Living Creatures And these indeed are shut up by the decree of the Creator and the determination of the seminal covering The Comparison of an Angel and the Rational Soul seems to contribute much to the illustrating this Doctrine An Angel is a certain indivisible spiritual thing and an Intelligence free from Matter and the Rational Soul is no less a certain indivisible Spiritual thing endowed with Understanding and Will as an Angel yet they differ in this that theSoul is consined or as being a part of the Compound can be consined by a material Body whereas an Angel neither is nor can be confined which notwithstanding does not hinder but that it may be shut up into a Body as it were an assisting Form yet it hath not any respect to an internal and substantial Form. Besides I look upon an Angel and consider it under the notion of Atoms naturally free and the Rational Soul under the notion of those which are subject to confinement It is true that a Rational Soul going out of this Dungeon or Physical Prison by reason of the Corruption of the Body which permits it a free exit is
like to an emancipated Atom which being free from the bonds of the Composition never returns thither again unless that be restored to its pristine or to a better condition CHAP. XVIII Of the Irregular Motion of the Heart in Animals and of Feavers I Cannot but say something of the inordinate motions of the Heart stirred up by divers Feavers and from that Occasion discourse of the difference of Feavers their Causes and Remedies Feavers are either Diary viz. an inordinate motion of the Spirits which are agitated and disturbed by emancipated Atoms or they are Hectick which attack the Fleshy and Solid Parts And these Feavers are excited by emancipated Atoms which insinuate themselves into the substance of our Bodies and are the Cause that the Corpuscles of the Radical Moisture are driven away and exhaled by reason of which the Body is sensibly dryed The other Feavers consist in the Humours and in their fermentation and ebullition and when this fermentation never remits the Feaver is continual where it keeps its periods by turns it is an intermitting Feaver and it is called either a Quotidian where it comes every day or a double Tertian or Quartan as Phlegme Choler or Melancholly predominate When it comes one day and not the next it is a Tertian when it remits for two days it is a Quartan when it rages for two days together and remits the third it is a double Quartan And all these Fits or redoublings are owing to emancipated Atoms or relaxed Corpuscles which provoke move and stir up this or that humour which cannot be done without an agitation of the Heart and a manifest Pulsation of the Arteries That which in this Subject is difficult to be explained consists in the regular Fits and intermission of Feavers that is to say what is the beginning and what the Cause of this Flux and Reflux and of this periodical Motion and State of Rest and how it comes to pass that Phlegme ferments daily Choler but every other day and Melancholly after two days of rest Physitians say this motion proceeds from the diversity of humours and that Phlegme has its motion and fermentation every day Choler every other day and Melancholly every fourth day But the Physical Philosopher examines this difficulty more nearly and the Sick Person has reason to rest satisfied when the Physitian knowing the Quality of the Feaver administers Remedies which evacuate the offending humours and prohibit the generation of the new and by this means the Cause being taken away they raise him up and restore him to health The Physical Philosopher who enquires into the true Causes of the motions in Nature and does not like the Physician precisely respect the Health of this or that Person but endeavours to discover the truth of all things supposeth first that there is no humour in our Bodies which goes on from Rest to Motion unless it be stirred up by some Agent and Mover So it is questioned what may be that Principle by which Choler after twenty or twenty-four hours rest is stirred up and what should excite the fermentation of Melancholly after it has sat down quietly and unmoved two days or there abouts Physicians who are truly Philosophers and ought to be so teach us that in a Cachochymick Body there is always a new generation made of these sort of humours and when they are already arrived to a due state of plenitude some sooner than other some and sometimes where there is a complication many of them go on together to a fermentation and that all this proceeds from the different Nature of humours and their more easie or more difficult motion as also from a greater or lesser quantity of one or more humours But it may also be asked what is the Principle of this agitation or fermentation in that State of Plenitude and for what Cause these Febrile motions are so very regular and periodick Here and every where we will speak Bona Fide and without a Fallacy and say according to our Principles that the Atoms asserting their Liberty with every dissolution of the Aliment Chyle and Blood as we have said elsewhere do by their sharp-pointed Figures tear the Internal Membranes and Tunicles of the Stomach and Intestines as also excite those horrours and tremblings at the beginning of the Fit and which are longer or shorter and more or fewer according as their Figures are more or less aculeated and rugged or smooth and orbiculate According to this Principle we may say that the Atoms from the first digestion of the Stomach challenging to themselves a Liberty and being weary of the covering of Phlegme and Salt-water do daily stir up this agitation but those which in the dissolution of Chyle withdraw themselves from servitude and which abound with a Sulphurous Water which we commonly call Choler do stir up a motion more slow by a day than the former and as many as are emancipated after the third Concoction and dissolution of the Aliments and are wrapped up in adust Blood or that black Excrement which they call Melancholly do produce this Febrile motion two days slower than the first according to these different dissolutions Where we must first of all take notice that the shakeings in the motion of these differing humours are not equal nay not in the very Fits of one and the same Feaver proceeding from one and the same Cause but which hath different degrees of activity To which thing besides what we have said the Quality of the Food given to the Sick Person in the time of the intermission doth much contribute Secondly the Fits of one and the same Feaver are not so very regular but that they frequently are perceived sooner or later as the Atoms the disturbers of Health are sooner or later set at liberty To which thing the regimen of the Sick persons manner of Living does not a little contribute Hence it follows in the Third place That the true Remedy of intermitting Feavers doth consist First in an order of Living Secondly in an evacuation of peccant or strange humours which hinder retard or interrupt or precipitate the digestion of Aliments which must be well observed by an experienced Physitian and Lastly the Parts which serve to the first Concoction are to be strengthned because their faults and defects can never be corrected afterwards Moreover if it shall happen that there are some emancipated Atoms as without doubt there are more or less of them in all Bodies they are to be expelled by transpiration or their Figures to be inverted by Remedies called Febrifuges For Experience teacheth us that there are some of those sort of Remedies very profitable which are administred with extraordinary good success and which are not fruitlesly administer'd by me And I have now some of these sorts of Remedies found out by me and administered which in one day have Cur'd the Quartan and double Quartan I speak the truth but I should injure the truth if I should go so far as to say