collected from our former Discourses of the Gratefulness and Offensiveness of Sensible Objects yet shall we here fâ—rther illustrate the same by certain Analogies and Similitudes When a Nettle is objected to a mans Hand why doth He withdraw it from the same Not upon the account of any Antipathy in his hand to the Nettle because being bruised or withered no Childe but will boldly handle it but because the Nettle is pallizado'd with millions of small stings or prickles which like so many Darts wounding the the skin cause a pain therein and so the man for avoidance of harm catcheth his hand from it as an injurious object Why likewise doth the Nose abominate and avoid stinking Odours whenever they are brought neer it Is it not because such Foelid and Offensive Odours consist for the most part of such sharp and pungent Particles as holding no Correspondence to the pores and contexture of the Odoratory Nerves are no sooner admitted but they in a manner scratch wound and dilacerate the Sensory And may we not conceive those disproportionate Particles of the ungrateful Odour to be as so many small Lances or Darts which offer the same injury to the Mammillary Processes of the brain that the Prickles of a Nettle offer to the skin Certainly as the Nettle strikes its Darts into the skin and not into the Nayles of a mans hand because those are of too close and firm a Contexture to admit them so doth an offensive Odour immit its painted and angular Particles into the tender smelling Nerves and not into the skin because its Contexture is more Compact than to be capable of Puncture or Dilaceration thereby Lastly Why doth the Eye abhor and turne from Ugly and Odious Objects Is it not only because the Visible Species emitted from such Bodies doth consist of Particles of such Configurations and Contexture as carry no proportion to the particles and contexture of the Optique Nerves but striking upon the Retina Tunica instantly wound and exasperate the slender and tender filaments thereof and so cause the Eye for fear of farther injury to close or avert it self And are not those Acute and Disproportionate Particles composing the visible Species worthily resemblable to so many small Prickles or Lancets which though too subtile to wound the Skin Nostrils or other parts of the body whose Composure is less delicate do yet instantly mis-affect and pain the Optique Nerves whose singular Contexture doth appropriate to them the Capacity of being sensible of that compunction Now putting all these Considerations into the scale together and ponderating them with an equal hand we shall find their weight amount to no less than this that as every Sympathy is displayd by certain Corporeal though Invisible Organs comparated to Attraction and Amplectence so is every Antipathy by the like invisible Organs comparated to Repulsion and Sejunction which is what we Assumed Hence may we without much difficulty extract more than a Conjectural judgement What are the First and General Causes of all Love and Hatred For look what kind of Motions whether Grateful or Ungrateful are by the Species impressed upon the Nerves peculiarly inservient to that sense by which the Object is apprehended the very same are continued quite home to the Brain and therein accordingly move and affect the Common Sensory so as that according to the Pleasure or Offence of the Perception there is instantly excited an Affection either of Prosecution of the thing by whose species that pleasant motion was Caused and that is the Hint and Ground of Loving and Desiring it or of Aversation from it and that is the Ground of Hating and Declining it Nay the same may be well admitted also for the Cause Why things A like in their Natures love and delight in the Society each of other and on the contrary Why Unlike Natures abhor and avoid each other For as those which are Consimilar in their Temperaments affect each other with Congenerous and Grateful Emanations So doe those of Dissimilar mis-affect each other with Discordant and Ungrateful And therefore it is no longer a wonder that men Love or Dislike each other commonly at first interview though they scarce know why nor can we longer withold our Assent to that unmarkable Opinion of Plato that Similitude of Temperaments and so of Inclinations is not only the Cement but Basis also of Amity and Friendship SECT II. FRom this General Disquisition into the Reasons of All Sympathy and Antâ—patâ—y to 〈◊〉 most of those Proprieties which by Phâ—losophers are 〈◊〉 as stupendious and Absconâ—ite are uâ—uâ—lly referred we must â—â—vance to the Consideration of Partâ—cular instâ—nâ—es that by the Solution of Singulaâ—s we may afford the greâ—ter 〈◊〉 to mens Curiâ—sity and â—â—ve so many Oppoâ—tunities of examining tâ—e Verisimility of our former Thesis that all such Effects the knowledge of wâ—ose causes is generally 〈◊〉 of are produced by Subâ—â—aâ—tial and Explicable Means Anâ— in order herâ—unto we shall according to the method of the no less 〈◊〉 than Judicious â—racastorius de Sympath Antipath Rerum Distinâ—uâ—sh All Occult â—ualities into General and Special subdividing the Generall into 1 the Conspiration of the Parts â—f the Universe and 2 the Iâ—flux of Caelestial upon Sublunary Bodies and the Speciall into such as Concern 1 Inanimates 2 Insensibles 3 Sensibles To the FIRST GENERAL ORDER viz. the Conspiration and Harmony of all Parts of the Universe Philosophers unanimously adscribe the Avoidance of Vacuity whereupon many are the Secrets that are presumed to ensue as the Ascention of Heavy Descent of Light Bodies the Sejunction of Congenerous and Sociable Natures the Conjunction and Union oâ—â—iscordant and Unsociable and the like Irregular and Praeposterous Effects But as for all these Secrets we have long since declared them to be no Secrets but the most ordinary and manifest operations of Nature â—or in our Exâ—mination and Solution of all the Apparences in the late 〈◊〉 Experiment of introducing a Vacuum in a Tube by Water or Quick-silver invented by Torriâ—â—ius we have at large proved that Nature â—â—th not abhor any but Sensible or Coacervate Emptiness nor that neither 〈◊〉 or upon the necessity of an absolute Plenitude of all places â—n the â—niverse but by Accident only and that either in respect of the natural Confluxibility of the parts of Fluid Bodies such as Aer and Water which causeth them with great velocity to flow into the parts of Space â—eâ—erted by a body passing thorow them or of the Repugnancie of admitting twâ— bodies into one and the same place at the same time their Solidity prohibiting the penetration of ones dimensions by the other Wherefore 〈◊〉 no man henceforth account the Conspiration of the Parts of the Universe to be an Occult Quality or so much stand amazed at all or any of thâ—â—e Phaenomena which arise from Natures Aversion from Vacuity 〈◊〉 as if they had some Extraordinary Lawes and Constitutions particularly oâ—dained for their production and belonged
Emission of certain Igneous or Lucid Spirits from the Organ to the Object supposing the Eye to be a kind of Glass Lantern illustrate and illustrating the Visible by its own Light 5 PLATO though He likewise avouched the Emanation of Corporeal Effluviaes from the Object doth not yet allow them to arrive quite home at the Eye but will have them to be met half way by rayes of Light extramitted from the Eye and that these two streams of External and Internal Light encountring with some Renitency reciprocal do recoyl each from other and the stream of Internal Light resilient back into the eye doth communicate unto it that particular kind of Impression which it received from the stream of Extradvenient Light in the encounter and so the Sentient Faculty comes to perceive the adspectable Form of the object at which the Radius of Internal Light is levelled This we judge to be sense of his words in Timaeo circa finem tertiae partis Simulachrorum quae vel in speculis oboriuntur vel in perspicua laevique cernuntur superficie facilis assecutio est Nam ex utriusque ignis tam intimi quam extra positi Communione ejusque rursus consensu congruentia qui passim terso laevique corpori accommodatus est necessariâ— haec omnia oriuntur quam ignis oculorum cum eo igne qui est è conspecto effusus circa laeve nitidumque Corpus sese confundit 6 EPICURUS tacitely subverting all these foundeth the Reason of Vision not in any Action of the intermediate Aer as the Stoicks and Aristotle nor in any Radious Emanation from the Eye to or toward the Object as the Pythagoreans Empedocles and Plato but in the Derivation of a substantial Efflux from the Object to the Eye 7 And as for the opinion of the excellent Monsieur Des Cartes which with a kind of pleasant violence hath so ravisht the assent of most of the Students of Physiology in the praesent Age especially such as affect the accommodation of Mechanick Maxims to the sensible operations of Nature that their minds abhor the embraces of any other those who have not heedfully perused his Dioptricks may fully comprehend it in summary thus For Sensation in Common He defines it to be a simple Perception whereby a certain Motion derived from a body conveniently objected communicated by Impression to the small Fibres or Capillary Filaments of a Nerve and by those in regard of their Continuity transmitted to the Tribunal or Judicatory Seat of the Soul or Mind which He supposeth to be the Glandula Pinealis in the centre of the Brain and there distinctly apprehended or judged of So that the Divers Motions imprest upon the slender threads of any Nerve are sufficient to the Causation of divers perceptions or that we may not eclipse his notion by the obscurity of our Expression that the Impulse or stroke given to the Nerve doth by reason of the Continuity of its parts cause another Motion in all points answerable to the first received by the External Organ to be carried quite home to the Throne of the Mind which instantly makes a respective judgment concerning the Nature of the Object from whence that particular Motion was derived In a word that only by the Variety of Strokes given to the External Organ thence to the filaments of the Nerve annexed thereto thence to the Praesence Chamber of the Soul we are informed of the particular Qualities and Conditions of every Sensible the variety of these sensory Motions being dependent on the variety of Qualities in the Object and the variety of judgments dependent on the variety of Motions communicate And for the sense of Seeing in special He conceives it to be made not by the mediation of Images but of certain Motions whereof the Images are composed transmitted through the Eye and Optick Nerve to the Centrals of the Brain praesuming the Visible Image of an Object to be only an exact representation of the motions thereby impressed upon the External Sensorium and accordingly determining the Reason of the Minds actual Discernment of the Colour Situation Distance Magnitude and Figure of a Visible by the Instruments of Sight to be this 1 The Light desilient from the adspectable Body in a direct line called by the Masters of the Opticks the Axe of Vision percusseth the diaphanous fluid Medium the Aether or most subtile substance by Him assumed to extend in a Continuate Fluor through the Universe and so to maintain an absolute Plenitude and Continuity of Parts therein 2 The Aether thus percussed by the Illuminant serving as a Medium betwixt the Object and the Eye conveyeth the impression through the outward Membranes and Humors destined to Refraction to the Optick Nerve most delicately expansed into the Retina Tunica beyond the Chrystalline 3 The Motion thus imprest on the outward Extreme of the Optick Nerve runs along the body of it to the inward Extreme determined in the substance of the Brain 4 The Brain receiving the impression immediately gives notice thereof to its Noble Tenent the Soul which by the Quality of the stroke judgeth of the Quality of the Striker or Object In some proportion like an Exquisite Musitian who by the tone of the sound thereby created doth judge what Cord in a Virginal was strook what jack strook that string and what force the jack was moved withall whether great mean or small slow or quick equal or unequal tense or lax c. This you 'l say is a Conceit of singular Plausibility invented by a Wit transcendently acute adorned with the elegant dress of most proper and significant Termes illustrate with apposite similes and praegnant Examples and disposed into a Method most advantageous for persuasion and we should betray our selves into the Censure of being exceedingly either stupid or malicious should we not say so too but yet we dare not so sacred is the interest of Truth allow it to be more then singularly Plausible since those Arguments wherewith the sage theâ—2 â—2 chap. of His Treatise of Bodies hath long since impugned it are so exceedingly praeponderant as to over-ballance it by more then many moments of Reason nor could Des Cartes himself were He now Unglorified satisfie for his Non-Retractation of this Error after his examination of their Validity by any more hopeful Excuse then this that no other opinion could have been consistent to His Cardinal Scope of Solving all the Operations of Sense by Mechanick Principles Now of all these Opinions recited we can find after mature and aequitable examination none that seems either grounded on so much Reason or attended with so few Difficulties or so sufficient to the verisimilous Explanation of all the Problems concerning the Manner of Vision as that of Epicurus which stateth the Reason of Vision in the INCURSION of substantial Images into the Eye We say FIRST Grounded on so much Reason For insomuch as it is indisputable that in the act of
Because though the Tube be made of Brass Steel or any other Metal whose conteâ—ture is so close as to exclude the subtlest aer yet shall the Experiment hold the same in all Apparences and particularly in this of the deflux of the Quicksilver to the altitude of 27 digits 2 Because if the desert Cavity were replete with aer the incumbent aer could not rush in to the Tube at the eduction of its lower end D out of the restagnant Mercury and Water with such violence since no other cause can be assigned for its impetuous rushing into the Tube but the regression of the compressed parts of the ambient aer to their natural laxity and to the repletion of the violent or forced Vacuity Since if the whole Space in the Tube were possessed i. e. if there were as many particles of Body as Space therein doubtless no part of place could remain for the reception of the irruent aer Secondly As for that most subtile and generally penetatrive substance AETHER or pure Elementary Fire which some have imagined universally diffused through the vast Body of Nature principally for the maintenance of a Continuity betwixt the parts thereof and so the avoidance of any Vacuity though ne're so exile and minute we do not find our selves any way obliged to admit that the Desert Space in the Tube is repleted with the same untill the Propugnators of that opinion shall have abandoned their Fallacy Petitio principii a praecarious assumption of what remains dubious and worthy a serious dispute viz. That Nature dâ—th irreconcileably abhor all vacuity per se. For until they have evinced beyond controversie that Nature doth not endure any Emptiness or solution of Continuity quatenus an Emptiness and not meerly ex Accidenti upon some other sinister and remote respect their Position that she provided that subtile substance Aether chiefly to prevent any Emptiness is rashly and boldly anticipated and depends on the favour of Credulity for a toleration Nor is it so soon demonstrated as affirmed that all Vacuity is repugnant to the fundamental constitution of Nature Naturam abhorrere Vacuum is indeed a maxim and a true one but not to be understood in any other then a metaphorical sense For as every Animal by the instinct of self-conservation abhors the solution of Continuity in his skin caused by any puncture wound or laceration though it be no offence to him to have his skin pinkt or perforated all over with insensible pores so also by the indulgence of a Metaphor may Nature be said to abhor any great or sensible vacuity or solution of Continuity such as is imagined in the Desert Space of the Tube though it be familiar nay useful and grateful to her to admit those insensible inanities or minute porosities which constitute a Vacuum Disseminatum We say by the indulgence of a Metaphor because we import a kind of sense in Nature analogous to that of Animals And tollerating this Metaphorical Speech that Nature hath a kind of sense like that of Animals yet if we allow for the vastity of her Body can it be conceived no greater trouble or offence to her to admit such a solution of Continuity or Emptiness as this supposed in the Desert space of the Tube then to an Animal to have any one pore in his skin more then ordinarily relaxed and expanded for the transudation of a drop of sweat This perpended it can seem no Antiaxiomatisme to affirm that nature doth not abhor Vacuity per se but onely ex Accidenti i. e. upon this respect that in Nature is somewhat for whose sake she doth not without some reluctany admit a Coacervate or sensible Vacuity Now that somewhat existent in Nature per se in relation to which she seems to oppose and decline any sensible Vacuity can be no other then the Fluxility of her Atomical Particles especially those of Fire Air and Water And for ought we poor Haggard Mortals do or can by the Light of Nature know to the contrary all those vast spaces from the margent of the Atmosphere whose altitude exceeds not 40 miles according to Mersennus and Cassendus perpendicular up to the Region of the fixed Stars are not only Fluid but Inane abating only those points which are pervaded by the rayes of the Sun and other Celestial Bodies But why should we lead the thoughts of our Reader up to remote objects whose sublimity proclaims their incertitude when from hence only that the Aer is a Fluid substance it is a manifest direct and unstrained consequence that the immediate cause of its avoidance of any sensible or coacervate Vacuity is the Confluxibility of its Atomical particles which being in their natural contexture contiguous in some though not all points of their superficies must of necessity press or bear each upon other and so mutually compel each other that no one particle can be removed out of its place but instantly another succeeds and possesses it and so there can be no place left empty as hath been frequently explained by the simile of a heap of Sand Now if the Confluxibility of the insensible particles of the aer be the immediate and per se Cause of its avoidance of any aggregate sensible solution of Continuity we need no farther justification of our position that Nature doth oppose vacuity sensible not per se but only in order to the affection of Confluxibility i. e. ex Accidenti Again should we swallow this praecarious supposition of the Aether with no less pertinacity then ingenuity asserted by many Moderns but professedly by Natalis in both his Treatises Physica Vetus Nova Plenum experimentis novis confirmatum and admit that Nature provided that most tenuious and fluid substance chiefly to praevent Vacuity yet cannot the Appetite of our Curiosity be satisfied that the Desert space in the tube is replenished with the same prenetrating through the glass untill they have solved that Apparence of the violent irruption of the ambient Aer into the orifice of the tube so soon as it is educed out of the subjacent liquors the Quicksilver and Water by the same Hypothesis Which whether they have done so as to demonstrate that the sole cause of the Aers impetuous rushing into the canale of the Tube and prodigiously elevating the ponderous bodies of Quicksilver and Water residuous therein is not the Reflux of the incumbent aer by the ascention of the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel compressed to too deep and diffused a subingression of its insensible Particles to recover its natural laxity by regaining those spaces from which it was expelled and secluded and to supply the defect of this reason by substituting some other syntaxical to their hypothesis of the Aether which shall be more verisimilous and plausible this we ought to refer to the judgment of those who have attentively and aequitably perused their Writings Lastly as for the third thing supposed to replenish the Desert space
any other part of the Medium toward which the Light is not reflected and 〈…〉 He have no reason why He should not account both those Difâ—â—â—ent Colours to be True the Reflection of light which varieth the Apparition according to the various Position of the eye in several parts of the Medium nothing diminishing their Verity If so why should not those Colours created by the Prism be also reputed Real the Refraction of Light which exhibiteth other Colours in the objected Bodies than appear in them without that Refraction nothing diminishing their Reality By way of COROLLARY let us here observe that the Colours created by Light reflected from objects on the Prism and therein twice refracted are Geminated on both sides thereof For insomuch as those Colours are not appinged but on the Extremes of the Object or where the supâ—rfice is unequal for if that be Plane and Smooth it admits only an Uniform Colour and the same that appears thereon when beheld without the Prism therefore are two Colours alwayes observed in that Extreme of the Object which respecteth the Base of the Triangle in the Glass and those are a Vermillion and a Yellow and two other Colours in that extreme which respecteth the Top of the Triangle and those are a Violet blew and a Grass green And hence comes it that if the Latitude of the Superfice be so small as that the extremes approach each other sufficiently near then are the two innermost Colours the Yellow and Green connected in the middle of the Superfice and all the four Colours constantly observe this order beginning from the Base of the Triangle a Vermillion Yellow Green and Violet beside the inassignable variety of other Intermediate Colours about the Borders and Commissures We say Beginning from the Base of the Triangle because which way soever you convert the Prism whether upward or downward to the right or to the left yet still shall the four Colours distinguishably succeed each other in the same method from the Base however all the rayes of Light reflected from the object on the Prism and trajected through it are carried on in lines parallel to the Base after their incidence on one side thereof with the obliquity or inclination of near upon thirty degrees and Refraction therein to an Angle of the same dimensions that issuing forth on the other side they are again Refracted in an Angle of near upon 30 degrees and with the like obliquity or inclination These Reasons equitably valued it is purely Consequent that no other Difference ought to be allowed between these Emphatick or as the Peripatetick False Colours and the Durable or True ones than only this that the Apparent deduce their Creation for the most part from Light Refracted in Diaphanous Bodies respectively Figurated and Disposed and sometimes from light only reflected but the Inhaerent or True as they call them deduce theirs from Light variously Reflexed in opace bodies whose superficial particles or Extancies and Cavities are of this or that Figure Ordination and Disposition Not that we admit the Durable Colours no more than the Evanid to be Formally as the Schools affirm Inhaerent in Opace bodies whose superficial Particles are determinately configurate and disposed to the production of this or that particular species of colouâ—â— and no other but only Materially or Effectively For the several species of Colours depend on the several Manners in which the minute particles of Light strike upon and affect the Retina Tunica and therefore are we to conceive that opâ—â—e Bodies reflecting Light do create Colours only by a certain Modification or Temperation of the reflected light and respondent Impression thereof on the Sensory no otherwise than as a Needle which though it contain not in it self the Formal Reason of Pain doth yet Materially or Effectively produce it when thrust into the skin of an Animal for by reason oâ— its Motion Hardness and Acuteness it causeth a dolorous sensation in the part perforated To diminish tâ—â— Difficulty yet more we are to recognize thâ—t the First Matter or Catholique Principles of all Material Natures are absolutely devoyd of all Sensible Qualities and that the Qualities of Concretions such as Colour Sound Odour Sapor Heat Cold Humidity Siccity Asperity Smoothness Haâ—dness Softness c. are really nothing else but various MODIFICATIONS of the insensible particles of the First Matter relative to the vaâ—ious Organs of the Senses For since the Orgâ—ns of the Sight Hearing â—asting Smelling and Touching have each a peculiar Contexture of the insensible particles that compose them requisite it is that in Concretions there should be various sorts of Atoms some of such a special Magniâ—â—â—â— Figure and Motion as that falling into the Eye they may conveniently move or affect the Principal Sensory and therein produce a sensation of themselves and that either Grateful or Ingratefull according as they are Commodious or Incommodious to the small Receptaries thereof for the Gratefulness or Ingratefulness of Colours ariseth from the Congruity or Incongruity of the particles of the Visible Species to the Receptaries or smâ—ll Pores in the Retina Tunica Some in like mâ—nner that may be convâ—nient to the Organ of Hearing Others to that of smelling c. So that though Atoms of all sorts of Magnitude Figure and Motion contexed into most minute Masses arrive at all the Organs of Sense yet may the Eye only be sensible of Colour the Ear of Sound the Nostrils of Odour c. Again that Colour Sound Odour and all other sensible Qualities are 〈◊〉 according to the various situation order addition detraction transposition of Atoms in the same manner as Words whereof an almost infinite â—ariety may be composed of no more then 24 Letters by their various sitâ—â—tion order addition detraction transposition as we have more copâ—â—â—sly discoursed in our precedent Original of Qualities SECT III. TO descend to Particulars It being more than probable that the various species of Colours have their Origine from only the various Manners in which the incident particles of Light reflected from the exteriours of Objects strike and affect the principal sensory it cannot be improbable that the sense of a White Colour is caused in the Optick Nerve when such Atoms of light or rayes consisting of them strike upon the Retina Tunica as come Directly from the Lucid Fountain the Sun or pure Flame or Reflexedly from a body whose superficial particles are Polite and Sphaerical such as we have formerly conjectured in the smallest and hardly distinguishable Bubbles of Froth and the minute particles of Snow And as for the perception of its Contrary Black generally though scarce warrantably reputed a Colour we have very ground for our conjecture that it ariseth rather from a meer Privation of Light than any Material Impression on the sensory For Blackness seems identical or coessential with Shadow and all of it that is positively perceptible consisteth in its participation of Light which alone
Thomas Iordanus de pestis phaenomen tr 1. cap 18. and Sennertus out of Nich. Polius in Haemerologia Silesiae in lib. de peste cap. 2. Which prodigious Effects clearly proclaim the mighty energy of their Causes and are manifestoes sufficient that Odours justly challenge to themselves those Attributes which are proper onely to Corporiety nor can ought but downright ignorance expect them from the naked Immaterial Qualities or imaginary Images of the Peripatetick 3 The Manner of the Odours moving or Affecting the Sensory can never be explained but by assuming a certain Commensuration or Correspondency betwixt the Particles amassing the Odour and the Contexture of the Olfactory Nerves or Mammillary Processes of the brain delated through the spongy bone For 1 it is Canonical that no Immaterial can Operate upon a Material Physically the inexplicable activity of the Rational Soul upon the body by the mediation of the spirits and that of Angelical essences excepted 2 Though an Odour diffused through the aer chance to touch upon the hands cheeks lips tongue c. yet doth it therein produce no sensation of it self because the Particles of it hold no proportion to either the pores or particles of which those parts are composed but arriving at the organ of smelling it cannot but instantly excite the Faculty therein resident to an actual sensation or apprehension of it in regard of that correspondency in Figure and Contexture which the particles of it hold to the pores and particles of the Odoratory Nerves Certainly as the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves is altogether different from that of the Tongue and so the minute bodies of them as well as the small spaces intercepted among those minute bodies in all points of their superficies not contingent are likewise of a dissimilar configuration from the particles and intercepted vacuola of the Tongue so also is it necessary that the small bodies which commove and affect the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves be altogether dissimilar to those which commove and affect the contexture of the Tongue since otherwise all objects would be in common and the Distinction of senses unnecessary Now lest we should seem to beg the Quaestion that the sensation is effected in the Odoratory Nerves only by the Figures of the particles of an Odour and that the variety of Odours depends on the variety of impressions made on the sensory respective to their various figures and contextures this is not obscurely intimated in those formerly recited words of Epicurus Molecularum sive Corpusculorum quaedam perturbate ac discrepanter quaedam verò placide ac leniter seu accommodatè se habere ad olfactus sensorium The substance whereof is this that because the particles and Contexture of some Odours are such that they strike the sensory roughly and discordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Ingrateful and on the contrary because other Odours have such particles and such contextures as being smooth in Figure strike the sensory gently evenly and concordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Grateful and desiderable We might have introduced Plato himself as lighting the tapor to us in this partâ—cular insomuch as He saith in Timaeo that the sweet sort of Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de mulcere quâ inseritur amicabiliter se habere doth softly stroke and cause a certain blandishment in the sensory but that the kinde of noysom or stinking Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in a manner Exasperate and wound it To this Incongruity or Disproportion betwixt offensive smells and the composure of the Odoratory Nerves the profound Fracastorius plainly alludeth in his proportionalitèr autem se habent odores quorum ingratissimus est qui Fâ—tidus appellatur quique abominabili in saporibus respondet nam hic ex iis pariter resultat quae nullam habent digestionem nec rationem mistionis sed confusionem èmultis fere ac diversis qualia fere sunt Putrescentia in quibus dissoluta mistione evaporatio diversorum contingit de sympath antipath cap. 14 importing withal that the reason why the stink of corrupting Carcasses is of all other most noysom is because the odours effuming from them consist of heterogeneous or divers particles If you had rather hear this in Verse be pleased to listen to that Tetrastich of Lucretius Non simile penetrare putes primordia formâ In nares hominum cum taetra Cadavera torrent Et cum Scena Croco Cilici perfusa recens est Araque Panchaeos exhalat propter odores Upon which we may justly thus descant As the hand touching a lock of wool is pleased with the softness of it but grasping a Nettle is injured by that phalanx of villous stings wherewith Nature hath guarded the leaves thereof so are the Nostrills invaded with the odour of Saffron delighted therewith because the particles of it are smooth in figure and of equal contexture but invaded with the odour of a putrid Carcase they are highly offended because the particles thereof are asper in figure and of unequal contexture and so prick and dilacerate the tender sensory Moreover whereas there is so great variety of individual Tempeâ—aments among men and some have the Contexture of their odoratory Nerves exceeding dissimilar to that of others hence may we well derive 〈◊〉 Cause of that so much admired secret Why those Odours which are not onely grateful but even highly cordial to some persons are most odious and almost poysonous to others Infinite are the Examples recorded by Physicians in this kinde but none more memorable than that remembred by Plutarch lib. 1. advers Coloten of Berenice and a certain Spartan woman who meeting each other instantly disliked and fainted because the one smelt of Butter the other of a certain fragrant Ointment However the rarity of the Accident will not permit us to pass over the mention of a Lady of honor and eminent prudence now living in London who doth usually swoon at the smell of a Rose the Queen of sweets and sometimes feasts her nose with Assa faetida the Devils Turd as some call it than which no favour is generally held more abominable and this out of no Affectation for her wisdom and modesty exclude that praetence nor to prevent Fitts of the Mother for she never knew an Hysterical passion but in others in all her life as she hath frequently protested to me who have served her as Physician many years Again as this Assumption of the Corporiety of an Odour doth easily solve the Sympathies and Antipathies observed among men to particular smells so likewise doth it yield a plain and satisfactory reason why some Brâ—â—t Animals are pleased with those Odours which are extremely hateful to others Why Doggs abhorr the smell of Wine and are so much delighted with the stink of Carrion as they are loath to leave it behind them and therefore tumble on it to perfume their skins therewith Why a Cat so much dislikes
conspurcatus attrectaret nisi incredibili voluptatis aestro percita essent Genetalia And let us but abate the temptation of this sense and libidinous invitement of it praeambulous to the act of Congression and we shall soon confess that so magnified delight of sensuality to be no other than what the noblest of Stoicks Marcus Antoninus defined it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the attrition of a base entrail and the excretion of a little snivel with a kind of convulsion as Hippocrates describes it This is that Fidus Achates or constant friend that conserves us in our first life which we spend in the dark prison of the womb ushers us into this which our improvidence trifles away for the most part on the blandishments of sensual Appetite and never forsakes us till Death hath translated us into an Eternal one For when all our other unconstant senses perish this faithful one doth not abandon us but at that moment which determines our mortality Whence Aristotle drew that prognostick de Anim. lib. 3. cap. 13. that if any Animal be once deprived of the sense of Touching death must immediately ensue for neither is it possible saith He that any living Creature should want this sense nor to the being of it is it necessary that it have any other sense beside this In a word this is that persuasive sense and whose testimony the wary Apostle chose to part with his infidelity and to conclude the presence of his revived Lord. That painful sense on the victory of whose torments the patient souls of Martyrs have ascended above their faith That Virtual and Medical sense by which the Great Physician of diseased nature was pleased to restore sight to the blind agility to the lame hearing to the deaf to extinguish the Feaver in Peters Mother-in-Law stop the inveterate issue in his Haemorhoidal Client unlock the adamantine gates of death and restore the widows son from the total privation to the perfect habit of life 2 That some Qualities are sensible to the Touch which yet are common to the perception of other senses also for no scholler can be ignorant of that Division of sensibles into Common and Proper and that among the Common are reckoned Motion Quiet Number Figure and Magnitude according to the list of Aristotle 2 de Anim. cap. 6. 3 and principally That the Qualities of Concretions either Commonly or Properly appertaining to the sense of Touching are to be considered in their several Relations to the Principles on which they depend First some result from the Universal matter Atomes in this respect that they intercept Inanity or space betwixt them and of this original are Rarity and Density with their Consequents Perspicuity and Opacity Secondly Some depend on the Common Materials in this respect that they are endowed with their three essential Proprieties Magnitude Figure Motion and that either Singly or Conjunctly 1 Singly and either from their Magnitude alone of which order is the Magnitude oâ— Quantity of any Concretion and the Consequents thereof Subtility and Hebetude or from their Figure alone of which sort is the Figure of every thing and the Consequents thereof Smoothness and Asperity c. or only from their Motivâ— Virtue of which kind is the Motive Force inhaerent in all things in thâ— General and that which assisteth and perfecteth the same in most things the Habit of Motion and particularly Gravity and Levity 2 Conjuncâ—ly from them all of which production are those commonly called the â—our First Qualities Heat Cold Dryness Moysture as also those which â—râ— deduced from them as Hardness Softness Flexility Ductility and all others of which Aristotle so copiously but scarce pertinently treateth in his fourth book of Meteors and lastly those by vulgar Physiologist named Occult Qualities which are also derivative from Atoms in resâ—â—ct of their three essential Proprieties and among these the most eminent and generally celebrated is the Attractive Virtue of the Loadstone Now on each of these we intend to bestowe particular speculation allowing it the â—â—me order which it holds in this scheme which seems to be only a faithful Transsumpt of the method of Nature and we shall begin at Rarity and Density 1 Because nothing can be generated but of Atoms commixt and that Commixture cannot be without more or less of the Inane space inâ—â—rcepted among their small masses so that if much of the Inane space 〈◊〉 intercepted among them the Concretion must be Rare if little Dense of meer necessity 2 Because the Four First reputed Qualities Heat Cold Dryness Moysture are posterior to Rarity and Density as appears by that of Aristotle physic 8. cap. 16. where according to the interpretation of Pacius He intimates that Heat and Cold Hardness and Sofâ—ness are certain kindes of Rarity and Density and therefore we are â—o set forth from them as the more Common in Nature and consequently the more necessary to be known a Generalioribus enim tanquam notioribus ad minus Generalia procedendum is the advice of Arist. physic 1. cap. 2. SECT II. COncerning the immediate Causes of Rarity and Density in Bodies divers Conceptions are delivered by Philosophers 1 Some observing that Rare bodies generally are less and Dense more Ponderous and that the Division of a body into small parts doth usually make it less swift in its descent through aer or water than while it was intire have thereupon determined the Reason of Rarity to consist in the actual division of a body into many small parts and on the contrary that of Density to consist in the Coadunation or Compaction of many small parts into one great continued mass But These considered not that Chrystal is not more rare though less weighty proportionately than a Diamond nor that the Velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference of their several Densities as their inadvertency made them praesume there being sundry other Causes besides the Density of a body assignable to its greater Velocity of motion in descent as the Heroical pen of Galileo hath clearly demonstrated in 1. Dialog de motu and our selves shall professedly evince in convenient place 2 Others indecently leaping from Physical to Metaphysical speculations and imagining the substance of a body to be a thing really distâ—nct from the Quantity thereof have derived Rarity and Density from the â—â—veral proportions which Quantity hath to its substance as if in Rarefaction a Body did receive no mutation of Figure but an Augmentation and in Condensation a Diminution of its Quantity But the excessive subtility or rather absolute incomprehensibility of this Distinction doth evidently confess it to be meerly Chimerical as we have formerly intimated in our discourse concerning the proper and genuine notions of Corporiety and Inanity 3 A Third sort there are who having detected the incompetency of the first opinion and absolute unintelligibility of the Second judiciously desume the more or less of Rarity in any body
spiritual or more tenuious parts thereof Now what more praegnant Argument than this can the most circumspect desire in order to their Conviction that the Faculties of an Animal we exclude the Rational Faculty of man from the sphere of our assertion arâ— Identical with the Spirits of it i. e. the most subtile most free and most moveable or active part of its materials For though the spirits are by vulgar Philosophers conceived to be only the Primary Organ or immediate Instrument which the Faculty residing in one part occasionally transmits into another yet to those Worthies who have with impartial and profound scrutiny searched into the mystery hath it appeared more consentaneous that the spirits are of the same nature with the Faculty and not only movent but Instrument nor can it stand with right reason to admit more than this that as water in the streams is all one specifically with that in the fountain so is the Faculty keeping its court or chief residence in one part of the body as it were the Fountain or Original from whence to all other parts inservient to the same function the diffusion of spirits is made in certain exile rivolets or what more neerly attains the abstrusity Rayes like those emitted from the Sun or other fountain of light And what we here say of the Faculties of Animals holds equal truth also concerning those of Inanimate Concretions allowing a difference of proportion But here ariseth a considerble Difficulty that at first view seems to threaten our Paradox with total ruine and this it is if the Faculties of Concretions be not distinct in essence from their spirits or most agile particles how then can there be so many various Faculties coexistent in one and the same concretion as are dayly observed for in an Apple for example there is one Faculty of affecting the sight another of affecting the taste a third affecting the smell Concerning this therefore we give you this solution that the coexistence of various Faculties in one Concretion doth depend upon 1 the variety of multiforme particles of which the whole Concretion doth consist 2 the variety of particles and special contexture of its divers parts 3 the variety of External Faculties to which it happens that they are applied To keep to our former Example in an Apple t is manifest there are some particles in which consisteth its faculty of affecting the smell others in which consisteth its faculty of affecting the Tast for the Experiments of Chymistry demonstrate that these different particles may be so sequestred each from other as that the tast may be conserved when the smell is lost and the smell conserved when the taste is abolished And in an Animal it is no less evident that the organ of one sense hath one peculiar kind of contexture the organ of another sense another and finally that when we shall referr the Faculties of Odour and Sapour which are in an Apple to the Faculties of smelling and tasting in Animals they become subject to a further discrimination Since the same particles which move the smelling shall create a sweet and grateful odour in respect of one Animal and an offensive or stinking in respect of another and in like manner those particles which affect the Taste shall yeild a most grateful and desireable Sapour to one Animal and as odious and detestable a one to another Ought we therefore to account that Faculty of an Odour which is in an Apple either Single or Multiplex If we would speak strictly it is Single Absolutely Respectively Multiplex And thus indeed may we affirm that in the General or absolutely an Apple is Odorous and Sapid but Comparatively and in Special that it is fragrant or foetid sweet or bitter As for that Appendix of a Faculty which not only Philosophers but the People also name a HABIT Experience daily teacheth that there are some Faculties in Animals especially which by only frequency of acting grow more prompt and fit to act and upon consequence that that Hability or promptness for action is nothing but a Facility of doing or repeating that action which the same Faculty by the same instruments hath frequently done before And as to the Reason of this Facility though it arise in some measure from the Power or Faculty it self or the Spirits as being accustomed to one certain motion yet doth it chiefly depend upon the Disposition of the Organs or instruments which the Faculty makes use of in the performance of its proper action For because the Organ is alwayes a Dissimilar or Compound Body consisting of some parts that are crass and rigid we are to conceive it to be at first somewhat stubborn and not easily flexible to such various motions as the Faculty requires to its several operations and therefore as when we would have a Wand to be every way easily flexible we are gently and frequently to bend it that so the tenour of its fibres running longwise through it may be here and there and every where made more lax without any sensible divulsion so if we desire to have our hands expedite for the performance of all those difficult motions that are necessary to the playing of a Lesson on the Lute we must by degrees master that rigidity or clumsiness in the Nerves Tendons Muscles and joints of our fingers yea in the very skin and all other parts of our hands Thus also Infants while they stammer and strive again and again to pronounce a word clearly and distinctly do no more than by degrees master the stiffness and sluggishness of their tongues and other vocal organs and so make them more flexible and voluble and when by assuefaction they have made them easily flexible to all the motions required to the formation of that idiome then at length come they to speak it plainly and perfectly The same is also true concerning the Brain and those Organical parts therein that are inservient to the act of Imagination and by the imagination to the act of Discourse For though the Mind when divorced from the the body can operate most readily and knows no difficulty or impediment in the act of Intellection as being Immaterial and so wanting no organs for the exercise of its reasoning Faculty yet nevertheless while it is adliged to the body and its material instruments doth it remain subject to some impediment in the execution of its functions and because that impediment consisteth only in the less aptitude or inconformity of its proper organs therefore the way to remove that impediment is only by Assuefaction of it to study and ratiocination And from this Assuefaction may the Mind be affirmed to acquire a certain Habit or Promptitude to perform its proper Actions insomuch as by reason of that Habit it operates more freely and expeditely but yet in stricter Logick that Habit ariseth chiefly to its Organs as may be inferred only from hence that the Organs are capable of increment and decrement and
Conclude therefore 〈…〉 discover no Reason against us of bulk sufficient to obstruct the 〈◊〉 oâ— our Conception that the Fluidity of Fire Flame Aer and all â—â—quid substances whatever cannot well be deduced from any other 〈◊〉 but what we have here assigned to Water and Metals dissolved 〈◊〉 when we consider that is equally consentaneous to conceive thâ—â—â—â—ery other Fluid or Liquid body is composed also of certain specially â—â—â—â—igurate Granules or imperceptible particles which being only 〈◊〉 in some points of their superficies not reciprocally Cohaerent 〈…〉 intercept various inane spaces betwixt them and be therefore easily 〈◊〉 dissociable externally terminâ—ble and capable of making the body appâ—â—â—ntly Continuate as Water it selâ— And as 〈…〉 other General Quality FIRMNESS or STABILITY since 〈◊〉 mâ—st have Contrary Causes and that the solidity of Atoms is the 〈◊〉 of all solidity and firmness in Concretions well may we understand 〈◊〉 be radicated in this that the insensible particles of which a â—irme 〈◊〉 is composed whether they be of one or diverse sorts i. e. 〈◊〉 or dissimilar in magnitude and figure do so reciprocally compâ—â—â— and adhaere unto each other as that being uncapable of rowling 〈◊〉 each others superfice both in respect of the ineptitude of 〈◊〉 figures thereunto and the want of competent inane spaces among them they generally become uncapable 〈◊〉 without extream 〈◊〉 of Emotion Dissociation Diffusion and so of Terminatio◠〈◊〉 any other superfice but what themselves constitute If it 〈…〉 Enquired Whence this reciprocal Compâ—ession Indissociability 〈◊〉 Immobility of insensible particles in a Firme Concretion doth 〈◊〉 proceed we can derive it from Three sufficient Causes 1. The 〈◊〉 small Hamulâ— Uncinulive Hooks or Clawes by which Atoms of 〈…〉 superficies are adapted to implicate each other by mutual 〈◊〉 and that so closely as that all Inanity is excluded from betwixt 〈◊〉 â—â—mmissures or joynings and this is the principal and most frequent 〈◊〉 of stability 2. The Introduction and pressure of Extranâ—ou◠〈◊〉 which invading a Concretion and wedging in both themselves 〈…〉 intestine ones together and that cheifly by obverting the◠〈…〉 or superficies thereunto cause a general Compression and 〈…〉 of all the particles of the mass And by this way doth 〈…〉 Water and all Humid Substances for since the Atoms of 〈…〉 and those of Water octahedrical as is most 〈…〉 those of Cold insinuating themselves into the 〈…〉 by obversion of their plane sides to them they 〈…〉 particleâ— thereof and so not permitting them to be 〈…〉 fluidity and make the whole mass Rigid and 〈…〉 Hither also may we most congruously referr the Coagulation of milk upon the injection of Rennet Vinegre juice of Limons and the like Acid things For the Hamous and inviscating Atoms whereof the Acid is mostly composed meeting with the Ramous and Grosser particles of the milk which constitute the Caseous and Butyrous parts thereof instantly fasten upon them with their hooks connect them and so impeding their fluiditie change their lax and moveable contexture into a close and immoveable or Firme while the more exile and smooth particles of the milk whereof the serum or whey is composed escape those Entanglings and conserve their native Fluidity This may be confirmed from hence that whenever the Cheese or Butter made of the Coagulation is held to the fire they recover their former Fluidity because the tenacious particles of the Acid are disentangled and interrupted by the sphaerical and superlatively agile Atoms of fire 3. The Exclusion of introduced Atoms such as by their exility roundness and motion did during their admistion interturbe the mutual Cohaesion and Quiet of domestique ones which compose a Concretion Thus in the decalescence of melted metals and Glass when the Atoms of fire which had dissociated the particles thereof and made them Fluid do abandon the metal and so cease to agitate and dissociate the particles thereof then do the domestique Atoms returne to a closer order mutually implicate each other and so make the whole mass Compact and Firme as before Thus also when the Atoms of Water Wine or any other dissolvent which had insinuated into the body of Salt Alume Nitre or other Concretion retaining to the same tribe and dissolving the continuity of its particles metamorphosed it from a solid into a fluid body so that the sight apprehends it to be one simple and uniforme substance with the Liquor we say when these dissociating Atoms are evaporated by heat the particles of the Salt instantly fall together again become readunated and so make up the mass compact and solid as before such as no man but an eye-witness of the Experiment could persuade himself to have been so lately diffused concorporated and lost in the fluid body of Water SECT II. BY the light of the Praemises it appears a most perspicuous truth that HUMIDITY is only a certain Species of Fluidity For whoever would frame to himself a proper and adaequate Notion of an Humâ—r or Humid substance must conceive it to be such a Fluid or Fluxile body which being induced upon or applied unto any thing that is Compact doth adhare to the same per minimas particulas and madify or Humectate so much thereof as it toucheth Such therefore is Water such is Wine such â—s Oyle such are all those Liquors which no sooner touch any body not Fluid but either they leave many of their particles adhaerent only to the superfice thereof and this because the most seemingly polite superfice is full of Eminences and Cavities as we have frequently asserted and so moisten it or penetrating through the whole contexture thereof totally Humectate or wett the same But such is not Aer such is not any Metal fused such is not Quick-silver nor any of those Fluors which â—hough they be applied unto and subingress into the pores of a Compact body doe yet leave none of their particles adhaerent to either the superficia◠〈◊〉 internal parts thereof but without diminutâ—â—n of their own quantity 〈◊〉 off clearly and so leave the touched oâ— pervaded body unmaâ—ified 〈◊〉 â—â—humectaâ—e as they found it On the other side it is likewise manifest that SICCITY oâ— ARIDITY is only a certain species of Firmness or stâ—bility because a Dry or 〈◊〉 â—ubstance is conceived to be Firm or Compact only insomuch as it is 〈◊〉 of all moisture Of this sort according to vulgar conception may 〈◊〉 account all Stones Sand Ashes all Metals and whatever is of so firme a constitution as containâ— nothing of Humidity either in it superfice 〈…〉 which can be extracted from it or iâ— extracted is not capable 〈◊〉 moistning any other body but not Plants nor Animals nor Minerals 〈◊〉 any other Concretionâ— which though apparently dry to the sense doth 〈◊〉 contâ—in some moisture within it and such as being educed is capable of 〈◊〉 another body We say â—ccording to Vulgar Conception because not Absolutely for though 〈◊〉 be opposed to Humidity not as an
therefore ought we 〈…〉 examination â—f the nature of Hardness and Softness 〈…〉 Consequents Flexility Tractility 〈◊〉 c. where that of â—â—â—mness and 〈◊〉 ends that so we may by explicating their Cognation when menâ—â—oneâ— in a general sense manifest theâ—r Differences when considered in a Special and praecise and so prevent the otherwise imminent danger of aequivocatâ—on To come therefore without farther circumambage to the discuisition of the proper nature of each of these Qualities according to the method of their production conforming our conceptions to those of Aristotle who â—4 Meteor 4. defines Durum to be Quod ex superficie in seipsum non â—edit and Molle to be Quod ex superficie in seipsum cedit and referring both to the cognizance of the sense of Touching we understand a HARD body to be such whoâ—e parâ—icles are so firmely coadunated among themselves and superfiâ—e is so conâ—inued â—s that being prest by the finger it doth not yeeld thereto nor haâ—◠〈◊〉 â—uperfice at all indented or depressed thereby such â—s a stone and on the conâ—rary a SOFT one to be such as doth yield to the pressure of the finger in the superfice and that by retrocession or giving back of the superficial particles immediately prest by the finger versus profundum towards it profound or internal such as Wax the Flesh of Animals Clay c. For the chief Difference betwixt a Fluid and a Soft body accepted in a Philosophical or praecise not a Poetical or random sense consisteth only in this that the Fluid when prest upon doth yield to the body pressing not by indentment or incavation of it superfice i. e. the retrocession of it superficial particles which are immediately urged by the depriment toward its middle or profound ones which are farther from it but by rising upwards in round and equally on all sides as much as it is deprest in the superfice and a Soft doth yield to the body pressing only by retrocession of it superficial inwards toward it central particles so that they remain during and sometimes long after the depression more or less lower than any other part of the superfice Which being considered Aristotles judgement that Softness is incompetent to Water must be indisputable because t is evident to sense that Water being deprest in the superfice doth not recede towards its interior or profound parts as is the property of all soft things to doe but riseth up in round equally on all sides of the body pressing and so keeps it superfice equally and level as before As for the Fundamental Cause of Hardness observed in Concretions it must be the chief essential propriety of Atoms Solidity and upon consequence the Original of its Contrary Softness must be Inanity For among Concretions every one is more and more Hard or less and less soft according as it more and more approacheth to the solidity of an Atom which knowes nothing of softness and on the other side every thing is more and more soft or less and less hard according as it more and more approacheth the nature of Inanity which knowes nothing of Hardness Not that the Inane space is therefore capable of the Attribute of Soft as if it had a superfice and such as could recede inwards upon pression but that every Concretion is alwayes so much the more soft i. e. the less hard by how the more it yields in the superfice upon pressure and this only in respect of the more of Inanity or the Inane space intercepted among the solid particles whereof it is composed It need not be accounted Repetition that we here resume what we have formerly entrusted to the memomory of our Reader viz. that touching the deduction of these two Qualities Hardness and Softness the provident Atomist hath wonn the Garland from all other Sects of Philosophers for supposing the Catholike materials of Nature to be Atoms i. e. Solid or inflexible and exsoluble Bodies he is â—urnished with a most sufficient nay a necessary Reason not only for the Hardness or Inflexibility but also for the Softness or Flexibility of all Concretions insomuch as it is of the essence oâ— his Hypothesis that every compound nature derives its Hardness only from the â—olidity of its materials and softness only from the Inane space intercepted amonâ— its component particles in respect whereof each of those particles is moveable and so the whole Aggregate or mass of them becomes flexible or devoid of rigidity in all its parts and consequently yeelding in that part which is pressed But no other Hypothesis excogitable is fruitful enough to afford a satisfactory nay not so much as a meerly plausible solution of this eminent and fundamental Difficulty for those who assume the universal matter to be voyd of Hardness and so infinitely exsoluble i. e. not to be Atoms though they may indeed assign a sufficient reason why some Concretions are soft yet shall they ever want one to answer him who demands why other Concretions are Hard because themselves have exempted Atoms from whose solidity all Hardness ariseth to Concretions And this most easily detecteth the gross and unpardonable incogitancy of Aristotle when He determined the Hardness and Softness of Concretions to be Absolute Qualities for since Atoms alone are absolutely void of all Softness and the Inane space alone absolutely void of all Hardness and all Concretions are made up of Atoms nothing is more manifest than that Hardness and Softness as attributary to Concretions are Qualities meerly Comparative or more praecisely that Softness is a Degree of Hardness and consequently that there are various Degrees of Hardness according to which Concretions may be said to be more or less Hard and such as are hard in respect of one may be yet soft in respect of another that is more hard or less soft As for the praecise Manner how the several Degrees of Hardness and Softness result from Atoms and Inanity commixt we need not much insist thereupon since the production of each degree may be easily and fully comprehended from our praecedent explanation of the Causes of Fluidity and Firmness For though Softness be observable in bodies endowed with Firmness or Influxibility yet because the degrees of Firmness are also various and proceed from the more or less Arresting or Impeding of Fluidity and so that the thing consist of Atoms more or less Coarctated moveable among themselves and dissociable each from other from whence alone doth the yeeldingness of it in the superfice arise therefore is it necessary that in Firme things the same is the cause of Softness which in Fluid things is the cause of Fluidity Nor is the Difference betwixt their productions other than this that to Softness specially and strictly accepted are required Atoms somewhat Hooked and so Retentive each of other as not to be wholly dissociated or to permit a manifest abruption or breach of continuity upon pressure but to strict Fluidity it is not requisite that
and Diffusive than those we conceive emitted from Vines to Wines of many Aromaticks are usually diffused in serene weather especially in respect of such Persons and Bruit Animals as are exquisite in their sense of smelling Hath it not been observed that the Flowers of Oranges have transmitted their odours perfect and strong from great Gardens to the nostrils of Mariners many leagues off at Sea nay so far that some Sailers have discovered land by the smell of them when their longest Perspectives could not reach it Doe not we frequently observe that Ravens will scent a Carcass at mâ—ny miles distance and fly directly to it by the Chart of a favourable wind Nay are not there good Historians that assure us that Eagles in Italy have sometime received an invitation by the nose to come and feast on the dead bodies of men in Africa Here since we are occasionally fallen upon the large Diffusion of some Odours especially to sage and unpraepossessed Noses we shall take the advantage of that Hint to advertise you of a Vulgar Error viz. that Waters distilled of Orange Flowers and Roses become wholly Inodorous and Phlegmatick at the time of the Blooming and Pride of those Flowers upon their trees For really those distilled Waters are not in themselves during the season of the Flowers from which they were extracted less fragrant than at other times but because in the season of those Flowers they diffuse their odours so plentifully through the Aer and praepossess the nostrils as that the odours of the Waters being somewhat less quick and strong are less perceived than at other times when the Aer is not imbued with the stronger and fresher odours nor the olfactory Nerves praeoccupied And this may be inferred from hence that when the season of those â—lowers is past and the smelling organ unoccupied the Waters smell as fragrant as ever For as to the Assuefaction of the sense of smelling to particular odours good or bad we need not say much of that since Experience doth daily confirme that the sense is scarce moved and affected by the same odour though closely praesented after Custom hath once strongly imbued it with the same SECT III. IN the THIRD and last Division of Special Occult Qualities or such as are vulgarly imputed to Sensible Creatures the Pens of Schollars have been so proâ—use that should we but recount and with all possible succinctness enquire into the Verity and Causes of but the one Half of them our Discourses would take up more sheets of Paper than are allowed to the Longest Chancery Bill wherefore as in the former so in this we shall select and examine only a Few of them but such as are most in vogue and whose Reasons is â—udiciously accommodated suffice to the Solution of the Rest. 1 The Antipathy of a Sheep to a Woolf is the common argument of wonder and nothing is more frequent than to hear men ascribe it to a provident instinct or haereditary and invincible Hatred that a Lamb which never saw a Woolâ— before and so could not retain the impression of 〈◊〉 harme done or attempted by him should be invaded with horror and trembling at first interview and run from him nay some 〈…〉 the secret so far as to affirme the Antipathy to be Equall on both 〈◊〉 Concerning this therefore we observe that the Enmity is not Reciprocal For He that can be persuaded that the Woolf hates the Sheep only because he worries and preys upon him and not rather that the Woolf loves the sheep because it is a weak and helpless Animal and its sâ—eth is both pleasant and convenient food for him we shall 〈…〉 persuade Him that Himself also hates a sheep because he 〈…〉 pallate and stomach delighted and relieved with Mutton Nor as the 〈◊〉 on the sheeps side Invincible for ourselves have see◠〈…〉 by Custom to so great familiarity with a Woolf that 〈…〉 with him and bleat as after the Dam when the 〈…〉 of the room and the like Kindness have we 〈…〉 betwixt a Lamb and Lyon of the Lord Generall 〈…〉 Sion house and afterward publikely shewed in Londâ—n 〈…〉 Fear which surpriseth the Lamb at first sight of a 〈…〉 to arise from any Hereditary Impression derived from the 〈…〉 Bothâ— as well because all Inbredd or traduced 〈…〉 as that none of the Progenitors of the Lamb 〈…〉 saw or received any impression of injury from a 〈…〉 in England Besides in case they had and though 〈…〉 that some Beasts are afraid of men and other Beasts 〈…〉 memory of some Harme received from some man 〈…〉 the Idea of him that did the Harme 〈…〉 upon the table of the Memory and being freshly 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 whenever the sense brings in the 〈…〉 not likely that the same Idea should be propaâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 after so many hundred removes 〈…〉 Individual to the whole species throughout the 〈◊〉 The Cause 〈…〉 why All Sheep generally are startled and oâ—â—ended 〈◊〉 sight 〈…〉 seems to be only this that when the Woolf converts his eyes 〈…〉 pleasing and inviting object and that whereupon 〈…〉 his Imagination he instantly darts forth 〈…〉 of subtle Effluvia's which being part of 〈…〉 his newly formed Idea of dilaniating and devouring 〈…〉 â—omposed serve as Forerunners or Messengers of destruction to the 〈…〉 bâ—ing transmitted to his Common Sensory through his optiâ—k nerveâ— most highly misaffect the same and so cause the sheep to fear anâ—â—nâ—â—avour the praeservation of his life by flight This receives sufficient Confirmation from hence that not only such Aversions as arise from the Contrariety of Constitutions in several Animals 〈…〉 commonly observed to produce those Effects of Fear Trembling and flight from the objects from which offensive impressions are derived by the mediation of disagreeing Spirits or Emaâ—ations but even the seeing them in a passion of Anger or Fury doth suddainly cause the like For violent Passions ever alter the Spirits and Characterize them with the idea at that time most praevalent in the Imagination of the Passionate so that those spirits issuing from the body of the Animal in the height oâ— Passion and insinuating themselves into the brain of the other Animal contrariâ—y 〈◊〉 must of necessity highly disgust and offend it Which is the most likely Reason that hath hitherto been given Why Bees seldom sting men of a mild and peaceful disposition but will by no means endure not be reconciled to others of a froward cholerick and waspish nature The same so may serve to answer that common Quaere Why some 〈…〉 persons having tuned their spirits to the highest key of 〈…〉 have daunted not only fierce Mastiffs but 〈…〉 other Wild and ravenous Beasts meerly by 〈…〉 put them to flight by the Artillery of their 〈…〉 Eyes And the Key wherewith we have unlockt the secret 〈…〉 and Woolf will also open those like Antipathies supposed to be betwixt the Dove and Falcon the Chicken and Kite and all other weak Animals and such as use to make
Curiosity concerning the Reason of the Coâ—tion of the Loaâ—â—â—one and Iron and therefore it imports us to superadd thereunto so mâ—â—â— of the Speculations and Observations of our Modern Magnetâ—â—â—an Auâ—â—ors Gilbert Cabeus Kircher Grandamicus c. who have with more profound scrutiny searched into and happier industry discovered 〈…〉 the mystery as may serve to the enlargement at least iâ— not the full 〈◊〉 of our satisfaction And in order hereunto to the enâ— Peripicuity 〈◊〉 Succâ—â—ctness may walk hand in hand together through our whole 〈◊〉 Discourse we are to compose it of sundry OBSERVâ—BLES 〈◊〉 as may not only conduct our Disquisitions through all the 〈◊〉 and serpâ—â—â—â—ne wayes of Magnetism and acquaint us with the seveâ—â—â— Laws oâ—â—â—gnetick Energy but also like the links of a Chain sustain eacâ— othe◠〈◊〉 a continued series of mutual Dependency and Connexion The FIRST OBSERVABLE is that as well the Loadstone as its beloved Mistress Iron seems to be endowed with a Faculty that holds some Analogy to the sense of Animals and that principally in respect of Attraction For 1 as an Animal having its sensory invaded and affected by the species of a grateful object doth instantly desire and is accordingly carried by the instruments of Voluntary motion to the same so likewise so soon as a lesser or weaker Loadstone or piece of Iron is invaded and percelled with the species of a greater or more potent one it is not only invited but rapt on toward the same by a kind of nimble Appetite or impetuous tendency 2 As sensible objects do not diffuse their species of Colour Odour Sound c. to an Animal at any distance whatever but have the spheres of their Diffusion or transmission limitted so neither doth the Loadstone nor Iron transmit their Species or Emanations each to other at any distance whatever but only through a determinate interval of space beyond which they remain wholly insensible each of others virtue 3 As a sensible object that is convenient and grateful doth by its species immitted into the sensory of an Animal convert dispose and attract the Soul of the Animal and its soul being thus converted disposed and attracted toward that object doth by its Virtue or Power carry the body though gross and ponderous along to the same exactly so doth the Loadstone seem by its species transfused to convert dispose and attract towards it the as it were soul or spiritual substance of Iron which doth instantly by its power or vertue move and carry the whole mass or grosser parts of it along to an union with the same Certainly it would not easily be believed that a thing so exile and tenuious as is the Sentient Soul of an Animal which is only Flos substantiae the purer and subtler part of its matter should be sufficiently potent to move and from place to place transfer so ponderous and unweildy a mass as that of the Body unless our sense did demonstrate it unto us and therefore why should we not believe that in Iron there is somewhat which though it be not perfectly a Soul is yet in some respects Analogous to a Soul that doth though most exile and tenuious in substance move and transferr the rest of the mass of Iron though ponderous gross and of it self very unfit for motion All the Difficulty therefore which remains being only about the Manner How the Sentient Soul of an Animal is affected by and attracted toward a Grateful Object let us conceive that the sensible species being it self Corporeal and a certain Contexture of small particles effluxed from the object such as do gently and pleasantly commove and affect the Organ of Sense being once immitted into the Sensory doth instantly move the part of the Soul which is also Corporeal and a certain Contexture of small particles inhaerent or resident in that Organ and evolving the particles of the Soul converted perchance another way and turning them about toward that part from whence themselves are derived i. e. toward the object it doth impress a kind of impulse upon them and so determine and attract the soul and consequently the whole Animal toward the object For admitting this Conception we may complete the Parallelism intended thus as the particles of a sensible species transmitted from a grateful object and subingressing through the organ into the contexture of the Soul or Sentient part thereof do so sollicite it as that it becomes converted toward and is carried unto that particular object not without a certain impulse of appetite so do the particles of the Magnetical species subingressing into the Soul of the Iron so evolve its insensible particles and turn them toward the Loadstone as being thus sollicited it conceives a certain appetite or impetus toward the same and which is more forthwith resalutes it by diffusing the like species toward it For as if the Iron were before asleep and unactive it is awakened and excited by this exstimulation of the Magnetical Species and being as it were admonished what is the propriety of its nature it sets it self nimbly to work and owns the Cognation But by what other way soever it shall be explicated How an Animal is affected by and rapt toward a sensible object by the same way may it still be conceived how Iron is affected by and rapt toward a Loadstone For albeit as to divers other things there be no Analogy betwixt the Nature and Conditions of an Animal and those of Iron yet cannot that Disparity destroy the Analogy betwixt them in point of Alliciency or Attraction here supposed Which well considered Scaliger had no reason to charge Thales Milesius with ridiculous Madness for conceding the Loadstone and Iron to have Souls as Dr. Gilbert lib. 2. de Magnet cap. 4. hath observed before us The SECOND that forasmuch as betwixt the Loadstone and its Paramour Iron there is observed not only an Attraction or mutual Accession or Coâ—â—ion but also a firm Cohaesion of each to other like two Friends closely entwined in each others arms and that this Cohaesion supposeth reciprocal Revinction which cannot consist without some certain corporeal Instruments that hold some resemblance to Lines and Hooks hence 〈◊〉 it warrantable for us to conceive that the species diffused from the Loadstone to the Iron and from the Iron to the Loadstone are transmitted by way of Radiation and that every Ray is Tense and Direct in its progress through the intermediate space like a small thread or wire extended and this because it consisteth of Myriads of small particles or Atoms flowing in a continued stream so that the praecedent particles are still urged and protruded forward in a direct line by the consequent after the same manner as the rayes of Light flowing from a Lucid body the Cause of whose Direction must be their Continued Fluor as we have formerly Demonstrated at large We may further conceive that as the rayes of Light do pass through a Perspicuous body so do the
and Contexture of the Particles of his tongue and è contra To which we shall only add that the Reason why to men in Feavers the sweetest things seem bitter is only this that the Contexture of the Particles of the Tongue being altered as well by the intense Heat of the Feaver as the infusion of a Bilious Humour into the pores thereof those things whose Particles being formerly accommodate appeared in the species of sweetness are now become asymbolical and inconvenient to the particles of the tongue and therefore appear Bitter Nor is Aristotles reprehension of Democritus of weight enough to Counter-encline our judgment his chief Objections being rather Sophistical than Solid and so no sooner urged than dissolved His First is of this importance if the particles of Sapid Objects were Figurate according to Democritus Assumption then would the sight as a Sense far more acute in perception deprehend their various Figures rather than the Taste but the Sight doth not discern them Ergo. Which is soon expeded by Answering that it is not in the jurisdiction of one sense to judge of objects proper to another nor is the quaestion about the Figures as they are in themselves i. e. without relation to the sense but as they produce such a determinate Effect on the sensory of which the Tasting is the sole and proper Criterion For Qualities are to be reputed not so much Absolute and constant Realities as simple and Relative Apparencies whose Specification consisteth in a certain Modification of the First General Matter respective to that distinct Affection they introduce upon this or that particular Sense when thereby actually deprehended His Second of this Insomuch as there is a Contrariety among sensible objects of all kinds but none among Figures according to that universally embraced Canon Figuris nihil esse Contrarium if the Diversity of Sapours were derivative from the Diversity of Figures then would there be no Contâ—â—riety betwixt Sapours but Sweet and Bitter are Contraries Ergo. Which is soon detected to subsist upon a Principle meerly precarious for we are yâ—t ignorant of any reason why we should not account an Acute Figure the Contrary to an Obtuse a Gibbous the opposite to a Plane a Smooth the Antagonist to a Rough an Angular the Antitheton to a Sphere c. His Third and most considerable of this Because the variety of Figures is infinite at least inassignable therefore would the variety of Sapours if their distinct species were dependent on the distinct species of Figures be aequally infinite but all the observable Differences of Saâ—ours exceed not the number of Eight at most Ergo. Answer should we allow Aristotles distinction of Sapours to be genuine yet would it not follow that therefore there are no more Specifical Subdivisions of each Genus because from the various commistions of those Eight Generical Differences one among another an incomprehensible variety of Distinct Sapours may be produced Besides is not that Sweetness which the tongue perceives in Hony manifestly different from that of Milk that of Sugar easily discernable from both that of Canary Sack different from that of Malago that of an Apple distinguishable from that of a Plumm that of Flesh clearly distinct from all the rest yet doth that Genus of Sweet comprehend them all On the other side is the Amaritude of Aloes Coloquyntida Rhubarb Wormwood c. one and the same or the Acerbity of Cherries Prunes Medlars c. identical no man certainly dares affirm it Why therefore should we not write our names in the Catalogue of those who conceive as great variety of Tastes as there is of Sapid objects in Nature Or since the Experiments of Chymistry have made it probable that all Sapours derive themselves from Salts as from their Primary Cause why may we not concede so many several sorts of salts and so many possible Commistions of them as may suffice to the production of an incomprehensible variety of Sapours And this gives us occasion to observe that Nature seems to have furnished the Tonge with a certain peculiar Moisture chiefly to this end that it might have a General Menstruum or Dissolvent of its own for the eduction of those Salts from hard and drye bodies and the imbibition of them into its spongy substance that so it might deprehend and discern them CHAP. IX Of Rarity Density Perspicuity Opacity SECT I. HAving thus steered through the deepest Difficulties touching the proper objects of the other Senses the Chart of Method directs us in our next course to profound the particular natures of all those Qualities which belong to the apprehensive jurisdiction of the Sense of TOUCHING either immediately or relatively But before we weigh Anchor that we may avoid the quicksands of too General Apprehensions and draw a Map or Scheme of all the Heads of our intended Enquiries thaâ— so we may praepare the mind of our Reader to accompany us the more easily and smoothly it is requisite that we advertise 1 That the Attribute of Touching is sometimes in Common to all Bodies 〈◊〉 well Inanimate as Animate when their superficies or extremes arâ— Contingent according to that Antithesis of Lucretius Tactus Corporibus cunctis intactus Inani Sometimes in Common to all Sensâ—â— insomuch as all Sensation is a kind of Touching it being necessaâ—â— that either the object it self immediately or some substantial Emâ—nation from it be contingent to the Sensory as we have apodictically declared in our praecedent considerations of Visible Audible Odoâ—â—ble and Gustable Species Sometimes and in praesent Proper to thâ— Sense of Touching in Animals which however it extend to the Perâ—â—ption of Objects in number manifold in nature various and frequâ—â—â—ly even repugnant whereupon some Philosophers have contumaâ—iously contended for a Plurality of Animal Touchings others gone so high as to constitute as many distinct Powers of Touching as thâ—re are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Differences and 〈◊〉 of conditions in Tangibles doth yet apprehend them all 〈◊〉 one and the same common reason and determinate qualification after the same manner as the sight discernes White Black Red Green c. all sub communi Coloris ratione in the common capacity of Colours And this is that fertile sense to whose proper incitement we owe our Generation for had not the Eternal Providence endowed the Organs official to the recruit of mankind with a most exquisite and delicate sense of Touching the titillation whereof transports a man beyond the severity of his reason and charmes him to the act of Carnality doubtless the Deluge had been spared for the First age had been the Last and Humanity been lost in the grave as well as innocence in the fall of our first Parents Quis enim per Deum immortalem concubitum rem adeo faedam solicitaret amplexaretur ei indulgeret quo Vultu Divinum illud Animal plenum rationis consilii quem vocamus Hominem obsaenas mulierum partes tot sordibus