certain special Faculty or Virtue for a Cause to that motion praesumed and such must be their inhaerent Gravity or the tendency of weight Now in respect to either of these three last Proprieties Atoms may be conceived to admit of difference among themselves for in regard of Magnitude some may be greater then others of Figure some may be sphaerical others cubical some smooth others rough c. and of Gravity some may be more and others less ponderous though this can cause no degrees of Velocity or Tardity in their Motion it being formerly demonstrated that two bodies of different weights are aequally swift in their descent To these 4 Essential Attributes of Atoms Empiricus hath superadded a Fifth viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Renitency or Resistence But by his good leave we cannot understand this to be any distinct Propriety but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something resilient from and dependent on their solidity which is the formal reason of Resistence besides we may confound their Renitency with their Gravity insomuch as we commonly measure the Gravity of any thing by the renitency of it to our arms in the act of Elevation Which may be the reason why Aphrodisaeus lib. 1. Quest. cap. 2. enumerating the proprieties of Atoms takes no notice at all of their Gravity but blends it under the most sensible effect thereof Resistence The specifical are such as belong to Atoms of particular sorts of Figure as Smoothness Acuteness Angularity and their Contraries Asperity Obtuseness Orbicularity c. These in the dialect of Epicurus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cognatae Proprietates Now all these Proprieties both Generical and Specifical or Originary and Dependent are truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch 1. adv Colot calls them Congenial and inseparable Other Proprieties there are adscriptive to Atoms such as their Concurse Connexion Position Order Number c. from which the Qualities of Compound Bodies do emerge but since they are only Communia Accidentia Common Accidents or as Lucretius Atomorum Eventa the fortuitous Events of Atoms considered as complex and coadunated in the Generation of Concretions and not in the intire simplicity of their Essence and consequently seperable from them therefore may we hope that our Reader will content himself with our bare mention of them in this place which is designed for the more advantagious Consideration of only the Essential and Inseparable SECT II. Concerning the Magnitude of Atoms MAgnitude and Atoms though two terms that make a graceful Consonance to ears acquainted with the most charming harmony of Reason may yet sound harsh and discordant in those of the Vulgar which is accustomed to accept Magnitude only Comparatively or as it stands Antithetical to Parvity and therefore it concerns us to provide against misapprehension by an early advertisement that in our assumption of Magnitude as the first essential Propriety of Atoms we intend not that they hold any sensible bulk but that contrary to Insectiles or Points Mathematical they are Entities Quantitive simply i. e. Realities endowed with certain corporeal Dimensions though most minute and consisting in the lowest degree of physical quantity so that even those of the largest size or rate are much below the perception and discernment of the acutest Opticks and remain commensurable only by the finer digits of rational Conjecture And somewhat the more requisite may this Praemonition seem in respect that no meaner an Author then Theodoret hath through gross inadvertency stumbled at the same block of ambiguity For in Serm. 4. therapâ—ut He positively affirms that Democritus Metrodorus and Epicurus by their exile Principles Atoms meant no other but those small pulverized fragments of bodies which the beams of the Sun transmitted through lattice Windows or chincks make visible in the aer when according to their genuine sense one of those dusty granules nay the smallest of all things discernable by the eyes of Linceus though advantaged by the most exquisite Engyscope doth consist of Myriads of Myriads of thousands of true Atoms which are yet corporeal and possess a determinate extension To avert the Wonder impendent on this nice assertion and tune our thoughts to a key high enough to attain the Verisimility thereof We are first to let them down to a worthy acknowledgment of the exceeding Grossnesse and Dulnesse of our Senses when compared to the superlative Subtility and Acuteness of Nature in most of her Operations for that once done we shall no longer boast the perspicacity of our Opticks nor circumscribe our Intellectuals with the narrow line of our sensible discoveries but learn there to set on our Reason to hunt where our sense is at a loss Doubtless the slender Crany of a Pismire contains more distinct Cellules then that magnificent Fabrick the Eschurial doth rooms which though imperceptible to the eye of the body are yet obvious to that of the mind since no man can imagine how otherwise the Faculties of sense and voluntary Motion can be maintained a perpetuall supply of Animal or aâ— Dâ— Hâ—rvâ—â— will have them Vital spirits being indispensably necessary to the continuation of those actions and therefore there must be Elaboratories for the praeparation and confection Treasuries for the conservation and various Conduits for the emission and occasional transvection of them into the Nerves and Muscles of that industrious and provident Animal The due resentment of which praegnant Instance is alone sufficient to demonstrate the incomputable degrees of distance betwixt the sensible Capacity of man and the curious Mechanicks of Nature and make the acutest of us all call for a Table-book to enroll this Aphorism Ubi humana industria subtilitasque desinit inde incipit industria subtilitasque Naturae The wings of our Arrogance being thus clipt let us display those of our Discoursive Faculty and try how near we can come to deprehend the Magnitude i. e. the Parvity of Atoms by an ingenious Conjecture Consider we first that an exquisite Artist will make the movement of a Watch indicating the minute of the hour the hour of the day the day of the week moneth year together with the age of the Moon and time of the Seas reciprocation and all this in so small a compass as to be decently worn in the pall of a ring while a bungling Smith can hardly bring down the model of his grosser wheels and balance so low as freely to perform their motions in the hollow of a Tower If so well may we allow the finer fingers of that grand Exemplar to all Artificers Nature to distinguish a greater multiplicity of parts in one Grain of Millet seed then ruder man can in that great Mountain Caucasus nay in the whole Terrestrial Globe Consider we with Magnenus that one grain of Frankinsense being fired doth so largely diffuse it self in fume as to fill a space in the aer more then seven hundred millions of times greater then it possessed before combustion For to the utmost dispersion
not digress into a full examen of the nature of Rarefaction and Condensation especially since the Syntax of our Physical Speculations will lead us hereafter into a full and proper consideration thereof Of the nature of the other ingredient of the Universe INANITY there are several Descriptions 1 Epicurus names it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Region or Space and a Nature that cannot be touched thereby intimating the direct Contrariety betwixt the essential notion of Corporiety and Inanity which Antithesis Lucretius plainly expresseth in that Verse Tactus coporibus cunctis intactus Inani 2 Cleomedes describes a Vacuum to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex sua natura incorporeum adding for furrher explanation siquidem est incorporeum tactumque fugit neque figuram habet ullam neque recipit neque patitur quicquam neque agit sed praebet solummodo liberum per seipsum corporibus motum it is incorporeal because it cannot be touched hath no figure of its own nor is capable of any from others neither suffers nor acts any thing but only affords free space for the motion of other bodies through it 3 Empiricus 2. advers Physic. descanting upon Epicurus description of Inanity saith Natura eadem corpore destituta appellatur Inane occupata verò à corpore Locus dicitur pervadentibus ipsam corporibus evadit Regio the same Nature devoid of all body is called a Vacuum if possessed by a body 't is called a Place and when bodies pervade it it becomes a Region And 4 Aristotle 3. Physic. 7. defines a Vacuum to be Locus in quo nihil est a Place wherein no body is contained Now if we faithfully extract the importance of all these several Descriptions of Inanity we shall find them to concurr in this common Notion As according to vulgar sense a Vessel is said to be empty when it being capable of any doth yet actually contain no body so â—ccording to the sense of Physiology that Place that Region or that Space which being capable of bodies doth yet actually receive or contain none is said to be a Vacuum or Emptiness Such would any Vessel be if upon remove of that body whereby its capacity was filled no other body the Aer nor ought else should succeed to possess it or such would that Space be which this Book that Man or any other Body whatever doth now actually replenish if after the remove of that Tenent neither the circumstant Aer nor ought else should succeed in possession but it should be left on every side as it were limited by the same concave superficies of the circumambient wherein the body while a Tenent was circumscribed and included Of the Existence of Bodies in the World no man can doubt but He who dares indubitate the testimony of that first and grand Criterion SENSE is regard that all Natural Concretions fall under the perception of some one of the Senses and to stagger the Certitude of Sense is to cause an Earthquake in the Mind and upon consequence to subvert the Fundamentals of all Physical Science Nor is Physiology indeed more then the larger Descant of Reason upon the short Text of Sense or all our Metaphysical speculations those only excluded which concern the Existence and Attributes of the Supreme Being the Rational Soul of man and Spirits the Cognition of the two former being desumed from proleptical or congenial impressions implantate in or coessential to our mind and the belief of the last being founded upon Revelation supernatural other then Commentaries upon the Hints given by some one of our External senses Which Consideration caused Epicurus to erect these two Canons as the Base of Logical Judicature 1 Opinio illa vera est cui vel suffragatur vel non refragatur sensus evidentia 2 Opinio illa falsa est cui vel refragatur vel non suffragatur sensus evidentia That Opinion is true to which the Evidence of Sense doth either assent or not dissent and that false to which the evidence of Sense doth either not assent or dissent By the suffragation or Assent of the Evidence of Sense is meant an Assurance that our Apprehension or Judgment of any Object occuring to our sense is exactly concordant to the reality thereof or that the Object is truly such as we upon the perception of it by our sense did judge or opinion it to be Thus Plato walking far off towards us and we seeing him conjecture or opinion as confidently as the great distance will admit that it is Plato whom we see coming toward us but when by his nearer approach the great impediment of Certitude Distance is removed then doth the evidence of sense make an Attestation or suffragation of the verity of our opinion and confirm it to be Plato whom we saw The Non-refragation of Sense intends the Consequution of some Inevident thing which we suppose or praesume to be with reflection upon something sensibly evident or apparent As when we affirm that theâ—e is a Vacuum which taken singly or speculated in its own obscure nature is wholly inevident but may be demonstrated by another thing sufficiently evident viz. Motion for if no Vacuum no Motion since the Body to be moved must want a Place wherein to be received if all Places be already full and crouded Hence comes it that the thing Evident doth not Refragari to the Inevident And thus the Suffragation and Nonrefragation of the Evidence of sense ought to be understood as one Criterion whereby any Position may be evicted to be true Hither also may be referred that Tetrastick of Lucretius lib. 1. Corpus enim per se communis deliquat essâ— Sensus quo nisi prima fides fundata valebit Haud erit occultis de rebus quò referentes Confirmare Animi quicquam ratione queamus That Bodies in the World existent are Our Senses undeniably declare Whose Certitude once quaestion'd we can find No judge to solve nice scruples of the Mind It remains therefore only that we prove 1 That there is a Vacuum in Nature 2 That there is in the Universe no Third Nature besides that of Body and Inanity CHAP. IV. A Vacuum in Nature SECT I. IN order to our more prosperous Evacuation of that Epidemick Opinion Vacuum non dari in rerum natura that there is no Vacuity or Emptiness in the World it is very requisite that we praemise as a convenient Praeparative this short advertisement Among the speculations of many Ancient Physiologists and especially of Aristotle 4. Physic. 6 we find a Vacuum distinguished into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secundum naturam Eternaturam a Vacuum consistent with and a Vacuum totally repugnant to the fundamental constitutions of Nature According to which proper distinction we may consider a Vacuum 1 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disseminatum Interspersed or of so large diffusion as variously to interrupt the Continuity of the parts of the World 2 As
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coacervatum Coacervate or separate from all parts of the World such as the Ultramundan Space is conceived to be Now if we respect the First consideration or acception of a Vacuum the Quaestion must be An detur vacuum Disseminatum Whether there be any small Vacuity in nature or more plainly Whether among the incontinued particles of Bodies there be any minute insensible Spaces intermixed which are absolutely empty or unpossessed by any thing whatever If the second then the doubt is to be stated thus An detur vacuum intra mundanum Coacervatum Whether within the World for of the extramundane Inanity the difficulty is not great as may be collected from the contents of our Second Chapter praecedent there can be any great or sensible Vacuity such as we may imagine possible if many of the small or interspersed Vâ—cuities should convene and remain in one entire coacervate Inanity Concerning the First Problem we cannot state the Doubt more intelligibly then by proposing it under the analogy of this Example Let a man intrude his hand into a heap of Corn and his hand shall possess a certain sensible space among the separated Grains his hand again withdrawn that space doth not remain empty but is immediately repossessed by the mutuall confluent grains whose Confluxibility not impeded causeth their instant convention And yet betwixt the Grains mutually convened there remaine many intercepted or interposed Spaces or Intervalls unpossessed by them because the Grains cannot touch each other so secundum totas superficies according to all parts of their superficies as to be contiguous in all points Exactly thus when any Body is intruded into Aer Water or any such rare and porous nature betwixt whose incontinued parts there are many Interstices variously disseminated it doth possess a certain sensible space proportionate to its dimensions and when that Body is withdrawne the space cannot remain empty because the insensible or atomical particles of the Aer Water c. agitated by their own native Conâ—luxibility instantly convene and repossess it And yet betwixt the convened particles of which the Aer and Water and also all porous Bodies are composed there remain many empty spaces analogous to those Intervalls betwixt the incontingent Grains of Corn so minute or exiguous as to be below the perception and commensuration of sense Which is the very Difficulty concerning which there are so many Controversies extant as their very Lecture would be a Curse to the greatest Patience However we conceive our selves sufficiently armed with Arguments to become the Assertors of a Vacuum Disseminatum or empty Intervals betwixt the particles of Rare Porous or Incontinued Bodies Our First Argument is that Reason given for a Vacuum by Epicurus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nisi esset Inane non haberent Corpora neque uti essent neque quo motus suos obirent cùm moveri ea quidem manifestum sit Unless there were a Vacuum Bodies could have neither where to consist nor whither to be moved and manifest it is that they are moved Which solid Reason though seemingly perspicuous hath in it so many recesses of obscurity as may not only excuse but efflagitate a cursory paraphrase First we are to observe that in the theory of Epicurus the Notions of Inanity and Locality are one and the same essentially but not respectively i. e. that the same space when replenished with a Body is a Place but when devoid or destitute of any Tenent whatever then it is a Vacuum Secondly that Aristotle did not sufficiently profound the Quiddity of Place when He taught that the Concave superficies of the Circumambient did constitute the Essence thereof For when it is generally conceded that the Locus must be adaequate to the Locatum it is truly praesumed that the internal superficies of the Circumambient or Place ought to be adaequate to the external superficies of the Locatum or Placed but not to its Profundity or Internal Dimensions And since it is of the formal reason of Place that it be Immoveable or uncapable of Translation for otherwise any thing might at one and the same time be immote and yet change place it is evident that the superficies of the Circumambient is not Immoveable since it may both be moved the Locatum remaining unmoved and è contrà persist unmoved when the Locatum is removed And therefore the Concave superficies of the Circumambient may indeed obtain the reason of a Vessel but not of a Place And upon consequence we conclude that the Space comprehended within the superficies of the Circumambient is really and essentially what is to be understood by Place Since that Space is adaequated perfectly to its Locatum in all its internal Dimensions and is also truly Immoveable in regard that upon the remove of the Locatum it remains fixt unchanged unmoved in the same state as before its occupation it persevers after its desertion And when the Body removed possesseth a new Space the old Space is instantly possessed by a new Body Thirdly that this argument desumed from the Evidence of Motion was proposed by Empiricus advers Geometr more Syllogistically thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si Motus est Inane est atqui Motus est est ergo Inane If there be Motion there must be â—â—anity but Motion there is therefore there is a Vacuum That there is Motion is manifest from sense And as for that memorable Argument of Zeno against Motion though we judge that he affected it more for the singularity then solidity thereof and only proposed it as a new Paradox to gain some credit to Scepticism of which he was a fierce Assertor and that no man did ever admit it to a competition with the Authority of his Sense yet since many have reputed it indissoluble we conceive the solution thereof must become this place Motus non potest fieri per spatium quodvis nisi priâ—s mobile pertranseat minus quam majus sed quamcunque assignes partem alia est minor alia minor in infinitum Ergo non potest fieri motus numquam enim incipiet No Motion can be made through any space whatever unless the Moveable first pass through a less before a greater space but what part of space soever you shall please to assign still there will be another less part and another less then that and so up to infinity therefore can there be no motion at all since it can never begin at a space so little as that no less can remain Solution The Fallacie lyeth in the Minor which we concede to be true ratione Mathematica in the Mathematical acceptation thereof and so no solution can be satisfactory to the Argument unless we admit an infinite Divisibility in the parts of a Continuum But deny it ratione Physica in the proper Physical acceptation and so we may solve the riddle by proving the parts of a Continuum not to be divisible ad infinitum and Motion is
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
Diaphanous bodies for their transition or Plato who defined Colour or Light disguised to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Efâ—luentem quandam Flammulam or of Democritus and Epicurus both which are well known to have been grand Patrons if not the Authors of that opinion that Light is corporeal we judge it alone sufficient to demonstrate the Corporiety of Light that the Attributes thereof are such as cannot justly be adscribed to any but a Corporeal Entity Such are 1 Locomotion for manifest it is that some substance though most tenuious is deradiated from every Lucidum to the eye of the distant Spectator nor is a Bullet sent from the mouth of a full charged Cannon with the millionth part of such velocity as are the arrows shot from the bow of Apollo since the rayes of the Sun are transformed from one end of the heavens to the other in a far less division of time than a Cannon Bullet is flying to its mâ—â—k 2 Resilition for the rayes of light are sensibly repercussed from all solid bodies on which they are projected and that with such pernicity or rapid motion as transcends by inassignable excesses the rebound of a Cannon Ball from a Rock of Adamant 3 Refraction for our sense confirms that Light is ever refracted by those Bodies which allow its rayes a passage or through-fare but not an absolute free and direct one 4 Coition or Union or Corroboration from bodies either reflecting or transmitting many rayes to one common point of concurse where they become so violent as to burn any thing applied 5 Disgregation and Debilitation from the didaction of its rayes reflected or trajected so that those which before during their Union were so vigorous as to cause a conflagration being one distracted become so languid as not to warm 6 Igniety since Light seems to be both the Subject and Vehicle to Heat and those speak incorrigibly who call Light Flame attenuated Which we shall less doubt if we consider the natural Parallelism betwixt Flame and Water Light and a Vapour For as Water by Rarefaction or Attenuation becomes a Vapour so may we conceive Flame by Attenuation to become Light circumfused in the aer and as a Vapour is nothing else but Water so rarefied into small discontinued particles as that it doth scarce moisten the body on which it is impacted so is Light nothing else but Flame so dilated by Rarefaction that it doth hardly warm the body it toucheth Lastly as a Vapour how finely soever rarefied is still substantially Water because only by the Coition of its difâ—used particles it returns again to Water as in all distillations so must we account Light however rarefied to be still substantially Flame because only by the Coition or Congregation of its dispersed rayes it is reducible into absolute Flame as in all Burning-glasses These Attributes of Light considered it is not easie for the most praevaricate judgment not to confess that Light is a Corporeal substance and the Rayes of it most tenuious streams of subtle Bodies since it is impossible they should be deradiated from the Lucid Fountain with such ineffable pernicity transmitted through the Diaphanum in a moment impacted against solid bodies repercussed corroborated by Unition debilitated by Disgregation c. without essential Corpulency Notwithstanding this apodictical evidence of the Corporiety of Lighâ— the refractary Peripatetick will have it to be a meer Quality and objects 1 That his master Aristotle impugning the doctrine of Democritus Epicurus and others who ascribed Materiality to Light defined it to be meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perspicui an act of the Perspicuum To this we answer 1 That though Aristotle thought it sufficient barely to deny that light is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ullius corporis Efâ—luxum and to affirm it to be Energian perspicui ut perspicuum yet will the judicious discover it to be rather an ambage to circumvent the incircumspect than a demonstration to satisfie the curious For though Philopouus 2. de Anim. 7. willing to conceal or guild over his Masters error interpreteth his Perspicuum actu or illustrate Nature and so Light to be a kind of Chord which being continuedly interposed betwixt the object and the eye causeth that the Colour thereof posited beyond the Medium doth affect and move the eye to the act of intuition yet hath He left the Reason and Manner of this supposed Act of the Perspicuum on the eye the chief thing necessary to satisfaction involved in so many and great Difficulties as proclaim it to be absolutely inexplicable 2 That albeit we deny not Illumination to be meerly â—ccâ—dental to opace Bodies yet therefore to allow the Light wherewith they are illuminate to be an Accident and no Substance is a manifest Alogie And to affirm that the Aer Water or any Diaphanous body is the subject of Inhaesion to Light is evidently incongruous because every Medium is simply Passive and remains unmoved while the Light pervades it and how can Light pervade it if it be not Corporeal or how can the rayes thereof conserve their Tensity and Directness in the Aer while it is variously agitated by wind and other causes if they were not absolutely independent thereupon 3 What Aristotle saith concerning the Propagation of the species of Light even to infinity in all points of the Medium besides its incomprehensibility is absolutâ—ly inconsistent to the Pernicity of its motion which is too rapid and momentany to proceed from a fresh Creation of Light in every point of the medium since the multitude of fresh productions successively made would râ—quire a far longer time for the transmission of the light of a candle to the eye of a man at the distance of but one yard than our sense demonstrates to be necessary to the transmission of the light of the Sun from one end of Heaven to the other 2 That by allowing Light to be Corporeal we incurr the absurdâ—ty of admitting two Bodies into one and the same place Which is soon solved by reflecting on what we have formerly and frequently said concerning Inanity interspersed and observing what we shall God willing say of those eminent Qualities Rarity and Perspicuity from either of which it may be collected how great a Multitude of Pores are in every Rare and Perspicuous Body which remain tenantable or unpossessed 3 That from the Corporiety of Light it must follow that a Body maâ— be moved in an Instant But he hath not yet proved that the motion of Light is instantaneous and we have that it is not but only Momentany i. e. that Lighâ— is moved in a certain space of time though imperceptible yet divisible and not in one individual point or Instant 4 That the Rayes of Light are Invisible in pure Aer and by consequence Immaterial Solut. Their Invisibility doth not necessitate their Immateriality for the Wind which no man denies to be Corporeal is invisible
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
a vast diversity of words which cannot be enumerated by fewer then 39 câ—phers viz. 295232799039604140847618609643520000000. Tantum Elementa quâ—unt permutato ordine solo What Arithmetician can compute the several special ways of composition whereof that incomprehensible variety of Figures which as we have frequently assumed Atoms may bear is easily capable 2 That as the Image of Mercury cannot be carved out of every stone or every piece of wood nor words fit for reading or pronunciation arise from every commistion of Letters so in Natural Concretions is it impossible that all things should be made of all sorts of Atoms or that all Atoms should be equally accommodate to the constitution of every species of Concretions For though Atoms of the same figure and magnitude may by their various transposition adjection ablation compose things of various forms or natures yet are they not all indifferently disposed to the composition of all things nor can they be connected after one and the same manner in divers things Because to the composition of every thing in specie is required such a special disposition in the Atoms which compose it as that they must appose to themselves such other Atoms as are congruous and suitable to them and as it were refuse the society and combination of others that are not And hence is it that in the Dissolution of every Concretion the consimular or like Atoms always consociate together and expede themselves from the Dissimilar and incongruous CHAP. II. OF MOTION SECT I. CErtainly the Great Galilaeo did most judiciously and like himself to lay the foundation of his incomparable Enquiry into the most recondite mysteries of Nature in the Consideratin of the Nature of MOTION and severe Examination that we may not say subversion of Aristotles Doctrine concerning it Becâ—use Motion being the Heart or rather the Vital Faculty of Nature without which the Universe were yet but a meer Chaos must also be the noblest part of Physiology and consequently the speculation thereof must be the most advantageous Introduction to the Anatomy of all other parts in the vast and symmetrical Body of this All or Adspectable World Again if Motion and Quiet be the principal modes of Bodies Existing as Des Cartes in princip philosoph part 2. sect 27. seems strongly to assert if Generation Corruption Augmentation Dâ—minution Alteration be only certain species or more properly the Effects of Motion as our immeâ—â—â—tely praecedent Châ—pter cleerly imports and that we can have no other Cognizance of the conditions or qualities of sensible objects but what results from our perception of the Impulses made upon the organs of our senses by their species thither transmitted assuredly the Physiologist is highly concerned to make the contemplation of Motion its Causes Kinds and Universal Laws the First link in the chain of all his Natural Theorems And truly this we our selves had not endeavoured had not our firm resolution to avoid that ungrateful prolixity which must arise from the frequent Repetitions of the same Notions in the solution of various natural Apparences and our design of insensibly praeparing the minde of our 〈…〉 the graâ—ual insinuâ—tiâ—n of all both Câ—uses and Effects o◠〈…〉 as they stood in relation to this or thâ—t particulâ—r sensible 〈◊〉 â—nd principally to Visibles and the Gravâ—tation of Bodies not only incâ—â—ed but by a necessity of Method almost constrained us to make that the Heâ— or Fringe which otherwise ought to have been the First Thread in this rawe and loosely contexed Web of our Philosophy Nor indeed can we yet praevent all Repetitions for our praesent Thâ—orem being Physicomathematical and such as must borrow some light by way of Reflection from â—â—ndry observables occasionally diffused upon several of our Discourses praecedent we need not despair of a Dispensation for our Recognition oâ— a few remarkable passages directly relating thereunto and especially of these Three Epicuâ—ean Postulates or Principles The FIRST that 〈◊〉 Adam or Radical and Primary Cause of all motion competent to Concretions iâ— the inhaerent Gravity of their Materials Aâ—oms whether the 〈◊〉 be moved spontaneously or violently i. e. by it self or another The Reason of its spontaneous or self-motion may be thus conceived Whilâ— Atomâ—â—re by their own inamissible propensity to motion variously agitated and â—umultuous in any Concretion if those which are more moveaâ—â—â— and agile then the rest so conspire together in the course of their tendency as to discharge their united forces upon one and the same quarter o◠〈◊〉 body containing them and so attempt to disengage themselves towarâ—â—â—â—t region then do they propel the whole body toward the same region transferring the rest of their leâ—s active associates along with them It being hâ—â—hly consentaneous that motion may be expressed first in the singular Atomâ— themselves then in the smallest masses or â—nsensible Combinations of Atoms and successively in greater and greater till the sensible parts of 〈◊〉 and at length the whole bodies â—hemselves participate the motion anâ— undergo manifest agitation as Lucretius in lib. â—â— hath with lively Arguments asserted And this certainly hath far a stronger claim to our assent than that fundamental Position of Aâ—istotle that the First Princâ—ple of motion in any thing is the very Formâ— of the thing moved For unless He shall give us leave by the word 〈◊〉 to understand a certain tenuious Contexture â—f most subtile and most active Atoms which being diffused through the body oâ— mass consisting of other less subtile and in respect of their greater compaction together or 〈◊〉 close reciprocal revinction less active Atoms doth by tâ—e impression 〈◊〉 its force or Virtue motive upon the whole or any sensible part thereof become the Principle of motion to the whole body we say unless he 〈◊〉 be pleased to allow us this interpretation we shall tâ—ke the liberty to 〈◊〉 â—hat it is absolutely incomprehensible For that the Forme of a thing accepted according to His notion of a Forme should be the Proto-cause or 〈◊〉 of its motion is unconceivable since according to the tenour 〈◊〉 Aristotles doctrine the Forme must be educed out of the Matter or power of the Matter that constituteth or amasseth that thing and consequently 〈◊〉 the Forme must owe as well its very Entity or Beâ—ng as 〈…〉 onely to the matter it self which yet He describeâ— to be something 〈◊〉 nothing meerly Passive and devoiâ— of 〈…〉 How therefore can it appear other than a 〈…〉 Contradiction to any man whose intellect is not eclipsed by reaso◠〈…〉 of it s proper Organ that that Matter which in 〈…〉 of Moving should nevertheless be able 〈…〉 and potent Activity upon the Form supposed to be absolutely distinct from matter Doubtless the Forme doth not derive that Motive Virtue from the Qualities inhaerent in the matter forasmuch as those Qualities as even the Aristoteleans themselves furiously contend are but the meer Results of the Power of the matter Nor from the Efficient because â—hey account
I have no more reason to doubt that so transcendent a Charity as is diffused through and surrounds your perfect Soul can be large enough to dispense with the Rudeness of the Ceremonies and Poverty of the Offering where you are satisfied of the sincere Respects and unalterable Fidelity of his Heart who tenders it than I have to fear that the World should not most readily confirm my judgement that your Deserts have rightfully entitled you to all the Demonstrations of Honour and Reveâ—ence that can possibly be given to you The Chief part therefore yea the whole of my present Duty is only humbly to Beg your benigne Acceptance of this Dedication as the Best Expression I was able to make of those profound sentiments which as well your Goodness in General to others as your Particular Favours to my self have impressed upon my Soul And this I now do upon the Knees of my Heart and solemnly vow that as I esteem a perfect Friend the greatest Treasure of my life so I do and ever shall account you the most perfect of Friends That I shall confess my self to have lost not only all Piety but all Humanity also when ever I shall willingly lose any the least opportunity of serving you and that your own Good Angell I speak familiarly but at the same time believe you to be under the Tuition of a Legion of Good ones cannot more fervently desire your complete Happiness than Incomparable Madam Your Eternal Servant W. CHARLETON London the 20 of Iuly An. Dom. 1654. THE CONTENTS SERIES AND ORDER OF THE WHOLE BOOK BOOK THE FIRST CHAP. I. All Modern Philosophers reduced to four general Orders and the principal causes of their Dissention pag. 1. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe principal Sects of the ancient Grecian Philosophers only enumerated pag. 1 2 The same revived among the Moderns with encrease 2 3 Who are reduced either to the Pedantique or Female Sect. 2 4 Or to the Assertors of Philosophical Liberty 3 5 Or to the Renovators 3 6 Or to the Electors 4 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe principal causes of the Diversity of Philosophical Sects and the chiefest among them the Obscurity of Nature 5 2 The Imperfection of our Understanding 5 3 The Irregularity of our Curiosity A paradox 6 CHAP. II. That this World is the Vniverse pag. 9. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Ambition of Alexander in affecting the Conquest less vain then that of many ancient Philosophers in affecting the Knowledge of a Multitude of Worlds 9 2 A reduction of those Philosophers to four distinct Sects respective to their distinct perswasions and the Heads of each Sect nominated 9 3 The two main pillars on which the opinion of a Plurality of Worlds was anciently erected 10 SECT II. The Redargution ARTIC 1 THe Question stated to be concerning the real Existence not the possibility of an Infinity of Worlds 11 2 Because the supposed Infinity of the Extramundan Spaces is no impossibility ibid. 3 Because an Infinity of Bodies is also possible as to the Omnipotence of God ibid. 4 The Error of concluding the Esse from the Posse of an Infinity of Worlds 12 5 The first main Pillar of a Plurality of worldâ— subverted ibid. 6 The second Pillar found sophisticate and demolished 13 7 A Plurality of Worlds manifestly repugnant to Authority Divine 14 8 And Human. ibid. 9 The result of all the Demonstration of the Authors Thesis That this World is the Universe ibid. 10 Extramundane Curiosity a high degree of Madness 15 CHAP. III. Corporiety and â—nanity p. 16 SECT I. ARTIC 1 BOdy and Inanity the two general Parts of the Vniverse 2 Three the most memorable Definitions of Corporiety extant among Physiologists recounted and examined ibid. 3 Four Descriptions of the nature of Inanity by Epicurus Cleomedes Empericus Aristotle 17 4 Their importance extracted and what is the formal or proper notion of a Vacuum 18 5 The Existence of Bodies in the World manifest by Sense whose Evidence is perfect Demonstration ibid. CHAP. IV. A Vacuum in Nature p 21. SECT I. ART 1 The Distinction of a 〈◊〉 into â— Natural and 2 Praeternatural and the one called Disseminate the other Coâ—cervate 21 2 The nature of a Dissemiâ—â—te Vaâ—uity explained by the Analogy of a heap of Corn. ibid. 3 The first Argument of a Disseminate Vacuity desumed from the evidence of Motion in General and Aristotles error concerning the Essence or Place concisely detected and corrected 22 4 Motion demonstrated by Sense and Zeno's aenigmatical Argument for an Vniversal Quiet dissolved 23 5 The Consequution of the Argument if no Vacuum no Motion illustrated 24 6 An Objection that the â—ococession of some Bodies depends on their â—arity or Porosity not on a Disseminate Vacuiâ—â— praevented ibid. 7 No beginning of Motion without Inanity interâ—â—ersed 25 SECT II. ARTâ—C 1 A Second Argument of a Vacuity Disseminate collected from the reason of Rarefaction and Condensation ibid. 2 The eminent Phaenomenon â—f an Aerosclopet or Wind Gun solved by a Vacuity Disseminate among the incontiguous quoad totas superficies parts of aer 26 3 Experiment of an Aeolipile or Hermetical Bellows attesting a Vacuity Disseminate ibid. 4 Experiment of a Sulphurate Tapor included in a Glass Vial partly 〈◊〉 with Water of the same importance 27 5 No Combustible in Aer and so the opinion of the Aristoteleans that the Extinction of Fâ—ame imprisoned is to be charged on the Deâ—ect of Aer for its sustentation grosly errâ—neous 28 6 A fourth singular and memorable Experiment of the Authors of Yâ—e at the nose of a large Reverberatory Furnace charged with Ignis rotae evidencing a Vacuity interspersed in the Aer 29 7 An inference from that Experiment that Aer as to its General Destination is the Common Receptary of Exhalations ibid. 8 A second Illation that the Aer doth receive Exhalations at a certain rate or definite proportion which cannot be transcended without prodigious violence 30 9 The Existence of Inane Incontiguities in the Aer confirmed by two considerable Arguments ibid SECT III. ARTIC 1 THat Water also contains Vacuola empty Spaces demonstrated 31 2 From the Experiment of the Dissolution of Alum Halinitre Sal Ammoniac and Sugar in Water formerly sated with the Tincture of Common Salt ibid. 3 The verity of the Lord Bacons Assertion that a repeated infusion of Rhubarb acquires as strong a virtue Catharâ—â—ical as a simple infusion of Scamony in equal quantity and why 32 4 Why two Drachms of Antimony impraegnate a pint of Wine with so strong a vomitory Faculty as two ounces ibid. 5 Why one and the same Menstruum may be enriched with various Tinctures ibid. SECT IV. ARTIC 1 TWo other Arguments of a Vacuity Disseminate inferrible from 1 the difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity 2 the Calefaction of Bodies by the penetration of igneous Atoms into them 33 2 The Experiments vulgarly adduced to prove no vacuity in nature so far from denying that they confess a Disseminate one
ibid. 3 The grand Difficulty of the Cause of the Aers restitution of it self to its natural contexture after rarefaction and condensation satisfyed in brief ibid. CHAP. V. A Vacuum praeternatural p. 35. SECT I. ARTIC 1 WHat is conceived by a Coacervate Vacuity and who was the Inventer of the famous Experiment of Quick-silver in a Glass Tube upon which many modern Physiologists have erected their perswasion of the possibility of introducing it 35 2 A faithful description of the Experiment and all its rare Phaenomena 36 3 The Authors reason for his selection of onely six of the most considerable Phaenomena to explore the Causes of them 37 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe First Cardinal Difficulty 37 2 The Desert space in the Tube argued to be an absolute Vacuum coacervate from the impossibility of its replâ—tion with Aer ibid. 3 The Experiment praesented in Iconism 38 4 The Vacuity in the Desert Space not praevented by the insinuation of Aether 40 5 A Paradox that Nature doth not abhor all vacuity per se but onely ex Accidenti or in respect to Fluxility ibid. 6 A second Argument against the repletion of the Desert space by Aether 41 7 The Vacuity of the Desert space not praevented by an Halitus or Spiritual Eâ—â—lux from the Mercury for three convincing reasons 42 8 The Authors Apostacy from the opinion of an absolute Coacervate Vacuity in the desert space in regard of ibid. 9 The possibility of the subingression of light ibid. 10 Of the Atoms or insensible bodies of Heat and Cold which are much more exile and penetrative then common Aer 43 11 Of the Magnetical Eâ—â—lux of the Earth to which opinion the Author resigns his Assent 44 12 No absolute plenitude nor absolute Vacuity in the Desert Space but onely a Disseminate Vacuity ibid. SECT III. ARTIC 1 THe second Difficulty stated 45 2 Two things necessary to the creation of an excessive or praeternatural Vacuity ibid. 3 The occasion of Galilaeos invention of a Brass Cylindre charged with a wooden Embol or Sucker and of Torricellius invention of the praesent Experiment ibid. 4 The marrow of the Difficulty viz. How the Aer can be impelled upward by the Restagnant Quick silver when there externally wants a fit space for it to ciâ—culate into 46 5 The solution of the same by the Laxity of the Contexture of the Aer ibid. 6 The same illustrated by the adaequate simile of Corn infused into a Bushel ibid. 7 A subordinate scruple why most bodies are moved through the Aer with so little resistence as is imperceptible by sense 47 8 The same Expeded ibid. 9 A second dependent scruple concerning the Cause of the sensible resistence of the Aer in this case of the Experiment together with the satisfaction thereof by the Gravity of Aer ibid. SECT IV. ARTIC 1 THe State of the Third Difficulty 48 2 The Solution thereof in a Word ibid. 3 Three praecedent positions briefly recognized in order to the worthy profounding of the mystery of the Aers resisting Compression beyond a certain rate or determinate proportion ibid. 4 The Aequiponderancy of the External Aer pendent upon the surface of the Restagnant Mercury in the vessel to the Cylindre of Mercury residuous in the Tube at the altitude of 27 digits the cause of the Mercuries constant subsistence at that point 49 5 A convenient simile illustrating and enforcing the same 50 6 The Remainder of the Difficulty viz. Why the Aequilibrium of these two opposite weights the Mercury and the Aer is constant to the praecise altitude of 27 digits removed ibid. 7 Humane Perspicacity terminated in the exterior parts of Nature or simple Apparitions which eluding our Cognition frequently fall under no other comprehension but that of rational Conjecture ibid. 8 The constant subsistence of the Mercury at 27 digits adscriptive rather to the Resistence of the Aer then to any occult Quality in the Mercury 51 9 The Analogy betwixt the Absolute and Respective Aequality of weights of Quick-silver and Water in the different altitudes of 27 digits and 32 feet 52 10 The definite weights of the Mercury at 27 digits and Water at 32 feet in a Tube of the third part of a digit in diametre found to be neer upon two pound Paris weight ibid. 11 Quaere Why the Aequilibrium is constant to the same point of altitude in a Tube of a large concave as well as in one of a small when the force of the Depriment must be greater in the one then the other 53 12 The solution thereof by the appropriation of the same Cause which makes the descent of two bodies of different weights aequivelox ibid. SECT V. ARTIC 1 THe Fourth Capital Difficulty proposed 54 2 The full solution thereof by demonstration ibid. 3 The same confirmed by the theory of the Cause of the Mercuries frequent Reciprocations before it acquiesce at the point of Aequipondium ibid. SECT VI. ARTIC 1 THe Fifth Principal Difficulty 55 2 Solved by the Motion of Restauration natural to each insâ—nsible particle of Aer ibid. 3 The incumbent Aer in this case equally distressed by two contrary Forces 56 4 The motion of Restauration in the Aerâ—extended to the satisfaction of another consimilar Doubt concerning the subintrusion of Water into the Tube if superaffused upon the restagnant Mercury ibid. 5 A Third most important Doubt concerning the nonapparence of any Tensity or Rigidity in the region of Aer incumbent upon the Restagnant Liquors ibid. 6 The solution thereof by the necessary reliction of a space in the vicâ—â—â— region of Lax aer equal to that which the Hand commoved possesseth in the region of the Comprest 57 7 A confirmation of the same Reason by the adaequate Example of the Flame of a Tapour ibid. 8 2 By the Experiment of Urination ibid. 9 3 By the Beams of thâ— Sun entring a room through some slender crany in the appearance of a White shining Wand and constantly maintaining that Figure notwithstanding the agitation of the aer by wind c. 58 10 4 By the constancy of the Rainbow to its Figure notwithstanding the change of position and place of the cloud and contiguous aer ibid. 11 Helmonts Dâ—lirium that the Rainbow is a supernatural Meteor observed ibid. SECT VII ARTIC 1 THe sixth and last considerable Difficulty ibid. 2 The cleer solution thereâ—â— by the great disproportion of weight betwiâ—t Quick-silver and Water 59 3 A Corollary the Altitude of the Atmosphere conjectured ibid. 4 A second Corollary the desperate Difficulty of conciliating Physiology to the Mathematicks instanced in the much discrepant opinions of Galilaeo and Mersennus concerning the proportion of Gravity that Aer and Water hold each to other ibid. 5 The Conclusion of the Digression and the reasons why the Authorâ—â—â—cribes â—â—â—cribes a Cylindrical Figure to the portion of Aer impendent on the Restagnant Liquors in the Experiment 60 CHAP. VI. Of PLACE p. 62. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Identity Essential
of the inside of the Uvea Tunica 6 The Tunica Arachnoides 7 The Ciliary Filaments thereof 8 The Chrystalline 9 The Retina Tunica 10 The six Muscles viz. 1 The Direct as the Atollent Depriment Adducent Abducent 2 And Oblique as the 2 Circumactors or Lovers Muscles 173 to 177 3 Why the Situation of an object is perceived by the sight 177 4 The Reason of the eversion of the Image in the Amphiblestroides 178 5 The same illustrate by an Experiment ibid. 6 Why the Motion and Quiet of objects are discerned by the sight ibid. 7 Why Catoptrical Images imitate the motions of their Antitipes or Originals ibid. 8 Why the right side of a Catoptrical Image respects the Left of its Exemplar And why two Catoptrick Glasses confrontingly posited cause a Restitution of the parts of the Image to the natural Form 180 CHAP. IV. The Nature of Colours p. 182. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Argument duly acknowledged to be superlatively Difficult if not absolutely Acataleptical ibid. 2 The sentence of Aristotle concerning the Nature of Colours and the Commentary of Scaliger thereupon 183 3 The opinion of Plato ibid. 4 Of the Pythagorean and Stoick 184 5 Of the Spagyrical Philosophers ibid. 6 The reason of the Authors desertion of all these and election of Democritus and Epicurus judgement touching the Generation of Colours ibid. 7 The Text of Epicurus fully and faithfully expounded 185 SECT II. ARTIC 1 A PARADOX That there are no Colours in the Dark 186 2 A familiar Experiment attesting the Verity thereof ibid. 3 The Constancy of all Artificial Tinctures dependent on the constancy of Disposition in the superficial Particles of the Bodies that wear them 187 4 That so generally magnified Distinction of Colours into Inhaerent and meerly Apparent redargued of manifest Contradiction ibid. 5 The Emphatical or Evanid Colours created by Prisms no less Real and Inhaerent than the most Durable Tinctures 188 6 COROLLARY The Reasons of Emphatical Colours appinged on Bodies objected by a Prism 189 7 The true Difference of Emphatical and Durable Colours briefly stated ibid. 8 No Colour Formally inhaerent in objects but only Materially or Effectively contrary to the constant Tenent of the Schools ibid 9 The same farther vindicated from Difficulty by the tempestive Recognition of some praecedent Assumptions of the Atomists 190 SECT III. ARTIC 1 THe Nativity of White or the reason of its perception by the sight 191 2 Black a meer Privation of Light ibid. 3 The Genealogy of all Intermediate Colors ibid. 4 The Causes of the Sympathy and Antipathy of some Colours 192 5 The intermisâ—ion of small shadows among the lines of Light absolutely necessary to the Generation of any Intermediate Colour ibid. 6 Two eminent PROBLEMS concerning the Generation and Transposition of the Vermillion and Caerule appinged on Bodies by Prismes 193 7 The Solution of the Former with a rational Conjecture of the Cause of the Blew apparent in the Concave of the Heavens 194 8 The Solution of the Latter 195 9 The Reasons why the Author proceeds not to investigate the Causes of Compound Colours in Particular 196 10 He confesseth the Erection of this whole Discourse on simple Conjecture and enumerates the Difficulties to be subdued by him who hopes to attain an Apodictical Knowledge of the Essence and Causes of Colours ibid. 11 Des Cartes attempt to dissolve the chief of those Difficulties unsuccessful because grounded on an unstable Hypothesis 197 CHAP. V. The Nature of Light p. 198. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Clasp or Ligament of this to the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The Authors Notion of the Rays of Light ibid. 3 A Parallelism betwixt a stream of Water exsilient from the Cock of a Cistern and a Ray of Light emanent from its Lucid Fountain ibid PRAECONSIDERABLES 199 4 Light distinguisht into Primary Secondary c. 199 5 All Light Debilitated by Reflection and why ibid. 6 An Example sensibly demomonstrating the same 200 7 That light is in perpetual Motion according to Aristotle ibid. 8 Light why Corroborated in some cases and Debilitated in others by Refraction 201 COROLLARY Why the Figure of the Sun both rising and setting appears rather Elliptical than Sphaerical ibid. 9 PARADOX That the proportion of Solary Rays reflected by the superior Aer or Aether toward the Earth is so small as not to be sensible 202 10 That every Lucid Body as Lucid doth emit its Rays Sphaerically but as Visible Pyramidally ibid. 11 That Light is invisible in the pure medium 203 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe necessity of the Authors confirmation of the First Praeconsiderable 204 2 The Corporiety of Light demonstrated by its just Attributes viz. 1 Locomotion 2 Resilition 3 Refraction 4 Coition 5 Disgregation 6 Igniety 224 225 3 Aristotles Definition of Light a meer Ambage and incomprehensible 205 4 TheCorporiety of Light imports not the Coexistence of two Bodies in one Place contrary to the Peripatetick 206 5 Nor the motion of a Body to be Instantaneous ibid. 6 The Invisibility of Light in the limpid medium no Argument of its Immateriality as the Peripatetick praesumes ibid. 7 The Corporiety of Light fully consistent with the Duration of the Sun contrary to the Peripatetick 207 8 The insensibility of Heat in many Lucent Bodies no valid Argument against the praesent Thesis that Light is Flame Attenuated ibid. CHAP. VI. The Nature of a Sound p 208. SECT I. ARTIC 1 AN Elogy of the sense of Hearing and the Relation of this and the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The great Affinity betwixt Visible and Audible species in their representation of the superficial Conditions of Objects 209 3 In the Causes and manner of their Destruction ibid. 4 In their Actinobolism or Diffusion both Sphaerical and Pyramidal 210 5 In their certifying the sense of the Magnitude Figure and other Qualities of their Originals ibid. 6 In the obscuration of Less by Greater 211 7 In their offence of the organs when excessive ibid. 8 In their production of Heat by Multiplication ibid. 9 In their Variability according to the various disposition of the Medium ibid. 10 In their chief Attributes of Locomotion Exsilition Impaction Resilition Disgregation Congregation ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Product of the Praemises concerning the points of Consâ—nt and Dissent of Audible and Visible Species viz That Sounds are Corporeal 213 2 An obstruction of praejudice from the generally supposed repugnant Authorities of some of the Ancients expeded ibid. 3 An Argument of the Corporiety of Sounds 214 4 A Second Argument ibid. COROLLARY ibid. 5 The Causes of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is equally almost distant from the Sonant and Repercutient ibid. COROLLARY 2. 215 6 Why Concaves yield the strongest and longest Sounds ibid. COROLLARY 3. ibid 7 The reason of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is neer the 〈◊〉 and remote from the sonant ibid. COROLLARY 4. ibid. 8 Wâ—y 〈◊〉 Monophon rehearse so much the fâ—â—er syllables by how much neerer the audient is
altogether destitute of thesupport and warrantry of Reason For the Human Soul the only Creature that understands the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent Dignity of its Original by reflecting upon the superlative Idea which it holds of its Creator from the moment of its immersion into the cloud or opacity of flesh labours with an insatiable Appetence of Knowledge as the only means that seems to conduce to the satisfaction of its congenial Ambition of still aspiring to Greater and Better things and therefore hath no Affection either so Essential or Violent as the Desire of Science and consequently lyeth not so open to the deception of any Objects as of those which seem to promise a satisfaction to that desire And obvious it is from the words of the Text that the Argument which turned the sâ—ales i. e. determined the Intellect and successively the Will of our Grandmother Eve from its indifferencie or aequilibration to an Appetition and so to the actual Degustation of the Forbidden Fruit was this Desiderabilis est arboris fructuâ— ad habendam scientiam Besides though we shall not exclude the Beauty of the fruit transmitted by the sight to the judicatory Faculty and so allecting the Sensual Appetite from having a finger in the Delusion yet can we allow it to have had no more then a finger and are perswaded that in the syndrome or conspiracy of Causes the most ponderous and praevalent was the Hope of an accession or augmentation of Knowledge Since â—t cannot but highly disparage the primitive or innocent state of man to admit that his Intellect was so imperfect as not to discern a very great Evil through the thin Apparence of Good when the utmost that Apparence could promise was no more than the momentany pleasure of his Palate or Gust Or that the express and poenal Interdiction of God yet sounding in his ears could be over-balanced by the light species of an object which must be lost in the Fruition Nor is this Curiositie to be accused only of the First Defection from Truth but being an inseparable Annex to our Nature and so derived by traduction to all Adams posteritie hath proved the procatarctick Cause of many some contemplative Clerks would have adventured to say of All the Errors of our judgments And though we have long cast about yet can we not particular any one Vicious inclination or action whose Scope or End may not either directly or obliquely proximly or remotely seem to promise an encrease of Knowledge in some kind or other To instance in one which appears to be determined in the Body to have no interest beyond the Sense and so to exclude all probabilitie of extending to the Mind as to the augmentation of its Science Whoever loves a beutiful Woman whom the right of Marriage hath appropriated to another ardently desires to enjoy her bed why not only for the satisfaction of his sensual Appâ—tite because that might be acquired by the act of carnaliâ—y with some other less beutiful and Beuty is properly the object of the Mind but because that Image of Beuty which his eye hath transmitted to his mind being praesented in the species or apparition of Good and Amiabâ—e seems to contain some Excellence or comparitively more Good then what He hath formerly understood If it be objected that if so one enjoyment must satisfie that Desire and consequently no man could love what He hath once enjoyed since Fruition determineth Desire We Answer that there is no such necessitie justly inferrible when Experience assures that many times Love is so far from languishing that it grows more strong and violent by the possession of its Object The Reason is because the passionate Lover apprehending no fruition total or possession entire supposeth some more Good still in the object then what his former enjoyment made him acquainted withall And if it be replyed that the Lover doth in the perseverance of his Affection propose to himself meerly the Continuation of that Good which He hath formerly enjoyed we are provided of a sufficient Rejoynder viz. that whoso wisheth the Continuation of a Good considers it not as a thing praesent but to come and consequently as a thing which yet He doth not know for no man can know what is not Other Instances the Reader may be pleased to select from among the Passions tracing them up to their first Exciting Cause in order to his more ample satisfaction it being digressive and only collateral to our Scope Good thus being the only proper Object of our Affections for Evil exhibited naked i. e. as Evil never Attracts but ever Averts our Will or Rational Appetite as we have clearly proved in our Discourse of the Liberty Elective of mans Will if we mistake a real evil praesented under the disguise of a Good this mistake is to be charged upon the account of our Rational or judicatory Faculty which not sufficiently examining the Reality of the species judgeth it to be good according to the external Apparence only and so misguideth the Will in its Election Now aâ—ong the Causes of the Intellects erroneous judicature we have formerly touched upon its own Native Imperfection or Coecity and Praejudice the chiefest and most general is the Impatience Praecipitancy or Inconsiderateness of the Mind when not enduring the serious profound and strict examen of the species nor pondering all the moments of Reason whiâ—h are on the Averting part of the Object with that impartialiâ—y requisite to a right judgment but suffering it self at the first occursion or praesentation thereof to be determined by the moments of Reason apparent on the Attracting part to an Approbation thereof it misinformeth the Will and ingageth it in an Election and prosecution of a Falsity or Evil couched under the specious semblance of a positive Truth or Good Now to accommodate all this to the interest of our Paradox if Good real or apparent be the proper and adaequate object of the Intellect and the chief reason of Good doth consist in that of Science as the principal end of all our Affections then most certainly must our praecedent assertion stand firm viz. that our understanding lyeth most open to the delusion of such objects which by their Apparence promise the most of satisfaction to our Desire of Science and upon consequence by how much the more we are spurred on by our Curiosity or Appeâ—ence of Knowledge by so much the more is our mind impatient of their strict examen and aequitable perpension All which we dayly observe experimented in our selves For when our thoughts are violent and eager in the pursuit of some reason for such or such an operation in Nature if either the discourse or writings of some Person in great esteem for Learning or Sagacity or our own meditations furnish us with one plausible and verisimilous such as seems to solve our Doubt how greedily do we embrace it and without further perpension of its solidity and verity immediately judge it to
of Nature is included and that there is Nothing Quantitative but meerly Local beyond the Convex extremity or as Arist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substantiam quae est in ultima Coeli conversione the outside of the Empyraeum Thus much Aristotle though upon the conviction of other Arguments seems fully to have both understood and embraced when in positive terms He affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extra coelum neque est quicquam Corpus neque esse omninò potest de coelo l. 1. c. 9. As also whensoever He used those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vniversum Mundus as perfect synonymaes indifferently signifying one and the same thing which was most frequent not only to him but to Plato also and most of the most judicious sort of Philosophers If any Curiosity be so immoderate as to transgress the Limits of this All break out of Trismegistus Circle and adventure into the Imaginary Abyss of Nothing vulgarly called the Extramundan Inanity in the Infinity or rather Indefinity of which many long-winged VVits have like seel'd Doves flown to an absolute and total loss the most promising Remedy we can praescribe for the reclaiming of such wildness is to advertise that a serious Diversion of thought to the speculation of any the most obvious and sensible of sublunary Natures will prove more advantagious to the acquisition of Science then the most acute metaphysical Discourse that can be hoped from the groveling and limited Reason of man concerning that impervestigable Abstrusity of which the more is said the less is understood and that the most inquisitive may find Difficulties more then enough within the Little VVorld of their own Nature not only to exercise but empuzle them To which may be annexed that judicious Corrective of Pliny l. 2. Nat. Hist. c. 1. Furor est profectò furor est egredi ex hoc mundo tanquam interna ejus cuncta planè jam sint nota ita scrutari Extera Quasi verò mensuram ullius possit agere qui sui nesciat aut mens Hominis videre quae mundus ipse non capiat And that facete scoff of the most ingenious Mr. White in Dialog 1. de mundo That the Extramundan Space is inhabited by Chymaera's which there feed and thrive to Giants upon the dew of Second Intentions CHAP. III. Corporiety and Inanity SECT I. THE Universe or this adspectable World henceforth Synonymaes doth in the general consist of only two Parts viz. Something and Nothing or Body and Inanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naturam rerum esse Corpora Inane was the Fundamental position of Epicurus apud Plutarch advers Colot which his faithful Disciple Lucretius hath ingenuosly rendred in this Distich Omnis ut est igitur per se Natura duabus Consistit rebus quae Corpora sunt Inane The All of Nature in two Parts doth lye That is in Bodies and Inanity Concerning the nature or essence of a BODIE we find more then one Notion among Philosophers 1 Some understanding the root of Corporiety to be fixt in Tangibility as Epicurus apud Empericum advers Physic. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intellâ—gi Corpus ex congerie figurae magnitudinis resistentiae seu soliditatis ac impenetrabilitatis mutuae gravitatis that by Bodie is to be understood a congeries of figure magnitude resistence or solidity and impenetrability mutual and gravity To which Aristotle seems to allude in 4. Physic. 7. where He saith of those who assert a Vacuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they conceive all Bodies to be Tangible and Lucretius Tangere enim tangi sine Corpore nulla potest res Here we are per transennam to hint that the Authors of this Notion do not restrain the Tangibility of Bodies only to the Sense of Touching proper to Animals but extend it to a more general importance viz. the Contact of two Bodies reciprocally occurring each to other secundum superficies or what Epicurus blended under the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resistence mutual arising from Impenetrability 2 Others placing the Essential Propriety of a Body in its Extension into the three Dimensions of Longitude Latitude and Profundity Thus Aristotle Nat. Auscult 4. cap. 3. strictly enquiring into the Quiddity of Place saith most profoundly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanè Dimensiones tres habet longitudinem latitudinem altitudinem quibus omne Corpus definitur And thus Des Cartes princip Philos. Part. 2. Sect. 4. Naturam materiae sive Corporis 〈◊〉 universum spectati non consistere in eo quod sit res dura vel ponderosa vel colorata vel aliquo alio modo sensus afficiens sed tantum in eo quòd sit res extensa in longum latum profundum that the Essence of matter or a Body considered in the General doth not consist in its hardness weight colour or any other relation to the senses but only in its Extension into the three Dimensions And 3 Others by an excessive acuteness of Wit dividing the Substance of a Body from the Quantity thereof and distinguishing Quantity from Extension Of this immoderately subtle Sect are all those who conceived that most Bodies might be so rarified and condensed as that by Rarefaction they may acquire more and by Condensation less of Extension then what they have before in their native dimensions We say immoderately subtle because whoever shall with due attention of mind profound the nature of Rarefaction and Condensation must soon perceive that by those motions a Body doth suffer no more then a meer Mutation of Figure but its Quantity admits of neither Augmentation nor Diminution So as those Bodies may be said to be Rare betwixt whose parts many Intervals or Interstices repleted with no Bodies are interspersed and those Bodies affirmed to be Dense whose parts mutually approaching each to other either diminish or totally exclude all the Intervals or intercedent Distances And when it eveneth that the Intervals betwixt the distant parts of a Body are totally excluded by the mutual access convention and contact of its parts that Body must become so absolutely or rather superlatively Dense as to imagine a possibility of greater Density is manifestly absurd But yet notwithstanding is not that Body thus extremly Dense of less Extension then when having its parts more remote each from other it possessed a larger space in respect that whatever of Extension is found in the Pores or Intervals made by the mutually receing parts ought not to be ascribed to the Body rarified but to those small Inanities that are intercepted among the dissociated particles For instance when we observe a Sponge dipt in Liquor to become turgent and swell into a greater bulke we cannot justly conceive that the Sponge is made more Extense in all its parts then when it was dry or compressed but only that it hath its pores more dilated or open and is therefore diffused through a greater space But we may
praetium foret aliquam muscam admodum vegetam robustam v. c. Crabronem aut Vespam in tubo includere priusquam Mercurio impleretur ut post depletionem ad altitudinem 27 digit proximè videretur nâ—m in eo Vacuo aut si mavis aethere viveret ambularet volaret num Bombus à volante produceretur 3 Deducting the possibility of both these there yet remains a Third substance which may well be conceived to praevent a Coacervate Vacuity in the forsaken space of the Tube and that 's the MAGNETICAL EFFLUX of the Earth For 1 that the Terraqueous Globe is one great Magnet from all points of whose superfice are uncessantly deradiated continued Threads or beams of subtle insensible Aporrhaea's by the intercession whereof all Bodies whose Descent is commonly adscribed to Gravity are attracted towards its Centre in like manner as there are continually expired from the body of the Loadstone invisible Chains by the intercession whereof Iron is nimbly allected unto it is so generally conceded a position among the Moderns and with so solid reasons evicted by Gilbert Kircher Cartesius Gassendus and others who have professedly made disquisitions and discourses on that subject that we need not here retard our course by insisting on the probation thereof 2 That as the Magnetical expirations of the Loadstone are so subtle and penetrative as in an instant to transfix and shoot through the most solid and compact bodies as Marble Iron c. without impediment as is demonstrable to sense the interposition of what solid body soever situate within the orb of energy in no wise impeding the vertical or polory impregnation of a steel Needle by a Magnet loricated or armed so also the Magnetical Effluvias of the Globe of Earth do pervade and pass through the mass of Quicksilver contained both in the Tube and the Vessel beneath it and fixing their Uncinulae or hamous points on the Ansulae or Fastnings of the Quicksilver therein attract it downward perpendicularly toward the Centre is deduceable from hence that if any Bubbles of aer chance to be admitted into the Tube together with the Quicksilver that aer doth not ascend to the top of the Tube but remains incumbent immediately upon the summity of the Quicksilver as being in respect of its cognation to the Earth attracted and as it were chained down by the Magnetical Emanations of the Earth transmitted through al interjacent bodies and hooked upon it For we shall not incur the attribute of arrogance if we dare any man to assign the incumbence of the aer upon the Mercury to any more probable Cause It being therefore most Verisimilous that the Earth doth perpetually exhale insensible bodies from all points of its surface which tending upward in direct lines penetrate all bodies situate within the region of vapors or Atmosphere without resistence and particularly the masses of Quicksilver in the Tube and subjacent vessel we can discover no shelf that can disswade us from casting anchor in this serene Haven That the magnetical Exhalations of the Earth do possess the Desert space in the Tube so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity We said so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity thereby intimating that it is no part of our conception that either the Rayes of Light or the Atoms of Heat and Cold or the Magnetical Effluviaâ—s of the Earth or all combined together do so enter and possess the Desert â—pace as to cause an absolute Plenitude therein For doubtless were all those subtle Effluxions coadunated into one dense and solid mass it would not arise to a magnitude equal so much as to the 10th nay the 40th part of the capacity abandoned by the delapsed Mercury But fill it to that proportion as to leave only a Vacuity Disseminate such as is introduced into an Aeolipile when by the Atoms of fire entered into and variously discurrent through its Concavity the insensible Particles of Aer and Water therein contained are reduced to a more lax and open order and so the inane Incontiguities betwixt them ampliated And this we judge sufficient concerning the solution of the First Difficulty SECT III. The Second Capital Difficulty WHat is the immediate Remora or Impediment whereby the Aer which in respect of the natural Confluxibility of its insensible particles so strongly and expeditely praeventeth any excessive vacuity in all other cases is forced to suffer it in this of the Experiment The Solution Insomuch as the Fluidity or Confluxibility of the Atomical or insensible particles of the Aer is the proxime and sole Cause of Natures abhorrence of all sensible Vacuity as hath been proved in the praecedent Section Manifest it is that whosoever will admit a Vacuity excessive or against the rite of Nature must in order to the introduction or Creation thereof admit also two distinct Bodies 1 One which being moved out of its place must propel the contiguous aer forward 2 Another which interposed must hinder the parts of the circumstant aer propulsed by the parts of the aer impelled by the first movent from obeying the Confluxibility of their Figure and succeeding into the place deserted by the body first moved Which is the very scope that the profound Galilaeo proposed to himself when He invented a wooden Cylindre as an Embolus or Sucker to be intruded into another concave Cylindre of Brass imperviously stopped below that by the force of weights appended to the outward extreme or handle thereof the sucker might be gradually retracted from the bottom of the Concave and so leave all that space which it forsaketh an entire and coacervate Vacuum Upon which design Torricellius long after meditating and casting about for other means more conveniently satisfactory to the same intention He most happily lighted upon the praesent Experiment wherein the Quicksilver became an accommodate substitute to Galilaeo's wooden sucker and the Glass Tube to the Brass concave Cylindre The remaining part of the Difficulty therefore is only this relative Scruple How the Aer can be propelled by the wooden sucker downward or by the restagnant Quicksilver in the Vessel upward when externally there is provided no void space for its reception For indeed in the ordinary Translation of bodies through the aer it is no wonder that the adjacent aer is propelled by them since they leave as much room behind them as the aer propelled before them formerly possessed whereinto it may and doth recur but in this case of the Experiment the condition is far otherwise there being we confess a place left behind but such as the aer propelled before cannot retreat into it in regard of the interposition of another dense solid impervious body Upon which consideration we formerly and pertinently reflected when reciting some of those Experiments vulgarly objected to a Vacuum Disseminatum we insisted particularly upon that of a Garden Irrigatory shewing that the Reason of the Waters subsistence or pendency therein so
long as the orifice in the Neb remains stopped is the defect of room for the aer pressed upon by the basis of the Water to recur into upon its resignation of place because all places being full there can be none whereinto the inferior aer may recede until upon deobstruction of the hole above the circumjacent aer enters into the cavity of the Vessel and resignes to the aer pressed upon below and so the motion begins and continues by a successive surrender of places For though the aer contiguous to the bottom of the Irrigatory be not sufficient to resist the compressure of so great a weight of water by the single renitency of the Confluxibility of its atomical particles yet the next contiguous aer possessing the vicine spaces and likewise wanting room to recede into when compelled by the first aer aggravates the resistence which becomes so much the greater by how much the farther the pressure is extended among the parts of the circumjacent aer and by so much the farther is the pressure of the circumjacent aer extended by how much the greater is the pressure of the next contiguous aer and that pressure is proportionate to the degrees of Gravity and velocity in the body descendent Which is manifestly the reason why the water doth not descend through the perforated bottom of the Vessel viz. because the Gravity thereof is not sufficient to counterpoyse so diffused prolix and continued resistence as is made and maintained by the confluxibility of the parts of the circumambient aer successively uniting their forces Notwithstanding this seeming plenitude we may absolve our reason from the intricacy of the scruple by returning that though all places about the Tube are filled with aer yet not without some Laxity So though there be indeed no sensible or coacervate space wherein there are not some parts of the aer yet are there many insensible or disseminate spaces or â—oculaments variously interspersed among the incontiguous in all points particles of the aer which are unpossessed by any Tenent at all For the familiarizing of this Nicety let us have recourse once again to our so frequently mentioned example of a heap of Corne. When we have poured Corne into a Bushel up to the brim thereof the capacity seems wholly possessed by the Graines of Corne nor is there therein any space which sensibly contains not some Graines yet if we shake the bushel or depress the Corne the Graines sink down in a closer posture and leave a sensible space in the upper part of the bushel capable of a considerable access or addition The reason is that the Grains at their first infusion in respect of the ineptitude of their Figures for mutual contact in all points of their superâ—icies intercept many empty spaces betwixt them which dispersed minute inane spaces are reduced to one great and coacervate or sensible space in the superior part of the Continent when by the succussion of the vessel the Grains are disposed into a closer posture i. e. are more accommodated for mutual contingency in their ends and sides Thus also may aer be so compressed as the Granules or insensible particles of it being reduced to a more close or dense order by the sâ—bingression of some particles of the aer nearest to the body Compressing into the incontiguities of the next neighbouring aer may possess much less of space then before compression and consequently surrender to the body propelling or compressing leaving behind a certain space absolutely devoid of aer at least such as doth appear to contain no aer But this Difficulty Hydra-like sends out two new Heads in the room of one cut off For Curiosity may justly thus expostulâ—te 1 Have you not formerly affirmed that no body can be moved but it must compel the aer forward to suffer a certain subingression of its insensible particles into the pores or Loculaments of the next contiguous aer such as is requisite to the leaving of a space behind it for the admission of the body moved And if so how comes it that when most bodies are moved through the aer with so much facility and therefore cause the parts thereof before them to intrude themselves into the incontiguities of the next vicine aer with a force so small as that it is altogether insensible yet in this case of the Experiment is required so great a force to effect the subingression and mutual Coaptation of the parts of the aer The Cause seems to be this In all common motions of bodies through the liberal aer there is left a Space behind into which the parts of the aer may instantly circulate and deliver themselves from compression and so there is a subingression and Coaptation of only a few parts necessary and consequently the motion is tolerated without any sensible Resistence but in this Case of the Experiment in regard there is no place left behind by the Propellent into which the compressed parts of the aer may be effused necessary it is that the parts of aer immediately contiguous to the body Propellent in their retrocession and subingression compress the parts of the next contiguous aer which though they make some resistence proportionate to their measure of Confluxibility do yet yeild retrocede and intrude themselves into the incontiguities of the next contiguous aer and those making also some resistence likewise yeild retrocede and insinuate themselves into the Loculaments of the next which acts the like part upon the next and so successively So that a greater force then ordinary is required to subdue this gradually multiplied resistence successively made and maintained by the many circumfused parts of the aer and to effect that the retrocession subingression and coaptation of the parts of the aer be propagated farther and farther untill convenient room be made for the reception of the body Propellent 2 Whence do you derive this Resistence of the Aer From its Gravity For the Aer of its own nature is Heavy and can be said to be Light only comparatively or as it is less ponderous then Water and Earth nor can there be given any more creditable reason of the Aers tendency upward here below near the convexity of the Earth then this that being in some degree ponderous in all its particles they descend downwards from the upper region of the Atmosphere and in their descent bear upon and mutually compel each other untill they touch upon the surface of the Earth and are by reason of the solidity and hardness thereof repercussed or rebounded up again to some distance so that the motion of the Aer upwards near the face of the Earth is properly Resilition and no natural but a violent one Now insomuch as the Aer seems to be no other but a common Miscelany of minute bodies exhaled from Earth and Water and other concretious sublunary and proportionately to their Crassitude or Exility emergent to a greater or less
altitude it can be no illegal process for us to infer that all parts thereof are naturally endowed with more or less Gravity proportionate to their particular bulk whether that Gravity be understood to be as common Physiology will have it a Quality congenial and inhaerent or as Verisimility their conformity to the magnetick Attraction of the Earth And insomuch as this Gravity is the cause of the mutual Depression among the particles of aer in their tendency from the upper region of the Atmosphere down to the surface of the Earth we may well conceive that the Depression of the inferior parts of the aer by the superior incumbent upon them is the origine immediate from whence that Reluctancy or Resistence observed in the Experiment upon the induction of a praeternatural Inanity between the Parts thereof But a farther prosecution and illustration of this particular depends on the solution of the next Problem SECT IV. The Third Capital Difficulty WHat is the Cause of the Quicksilvers not descending below that determinate Altitude or Standard of 27 digits Solution The Resistence of the parts of the aer which endures no compression or subingress of its insensible particles beyond that certain proportion or determinate rate To profound this mystery of Nature to the bottom we are to request our Reader to endure the short recognition of some passages in our praecedent discourses 1 That upon the ordinary translation of bodies through the Aer the resistence of its insensible parts is so small as not to be discoverable by the sense because the subingression of its contiguous parts into the loculaments of the next vicine aer is only perexile or superficial and that we may safely imagine this superficial subingression not to be extended beyond the thickness of a single hair nay in some cases perhaps not to the hundreth part thereof So stupendiously subtle are the fingers of Nature in many of her operations But that the resistence observed in the present Experiment for the enforcing of a praeternatural Vacuum is therefore deprehensible by the sense because in respect of a defect of place behind the body propellent into which the parts of the aer compelled forward may circulate the subingression must be more profound and so the resistence being propagated farther and farther by degrees must grow multiplied and consequently sensible 2 That the Force of the body propellent is greater then the force of the next contiguous aer protruding the next and the force of the third protruded wave of the aer for a kind of Undulation may be ascribed to aer greater on the Fourth then that of the Fourth upon the Fifth and so progressionally to the extrem of its diffusion or extension so that the Force becomes so much the weaker and more oppugnable by how much the farther it is extended and dwindles or languishes by degrees into a total cessation 3 That as upon the succussion or shock of a Bushel apparently full of Corn is left a certain sensible space above unpossessed by any part or Grain thereof which coacervate empty space responds in proportion to those many Disseminate Vacuola or Loculaments intercepted among the incontingent sides of the Grains before their reduction to a more close order by the succussion of the Bushel so likewise upon the impulse of the aer by a convenient body is left behind a sensible space absolutely empty as to any part of aer which Coacervate empty space must respond in proportion to those many Disseminate spaces intercepted among the incontiguous parts or Granules of the aer before their reduction to a more close order or mutual subingression and coaptation of sides and points by the body compressing These Notions recogitated our speculations may progress with more advantage to explore the proxime and proper Cause of the Mercuries constant subsistence at the altitude of 27 digits in the Tube perpendicularly erected For upon the credit of their importance we may justly assume that upon the compression of the circumambient Aer by a small quantity of Quicksilver suppose only of two or three inches impendent in the concave of the tube can be caused indeed some small subingression of the particles thereof but such as is only superficial and insensible in respect the weight of so small a proportion of Quicksilver is not of force sufficient to propel the parts of the aer to so great a crassitude that the space detracted from the Aggregate of Disseminate Vacuities should amount to that largness as to become visible above the Quicksilver in the Tube since the quantity of the Quicksilver being supposed little the force of Reluctancy or Resistence in the parts of the aer arising from their inhaerent Fluidity must be greater then the force of compression arising from Gravity and therefore there succeeds no sensible Deflux of the Quicksilver But being that a greater and greater mass of Quicksilver may be successively infused into the Tube and so the compressive force of its Gravity be respectively augmented and thereupon the aer become less and less able successively to make resistence 't is difficult not to observe that the proportion of Compression from Gravity in the Quicksilver may be so equalized to the Resistence from Gravity in the Aer as that both may remain in statu quo without any sensible yeilding on either side Hence comes it that at the aequipondium of these two Antagonists the space in the Tube detracted from the Aggregate of minute Inanities disseminate in the aer is so small as not to be commensurated by sense and at the cessation of the Aequilibrium or succeding superiority of the encreased weight of the Quicksilver the parts of the Aer being compelled thereby to a farther retrocession and subingression the space detracted from the Aggregate of disseminate Vacuities in the aer becomes larger and consequently sensible above the Quicksilver in the upper region of the Tube This may be most adaequately illustrated by the simile of a strong man standing on a plane pedestal in a very high wind For as He by a small afflation or gust of wind is in some degree urged or prest upon though not so much as to cause him to give back because the force of his resistence is yet superior to that of the Wind assaulting and impelling him nor when the force of the Wind grows upon him even to an Aequilibrium is He driven from his station because his resistence is yet equal to the impulse of the wind but when the force of the Wind advances to that height as to transcend the Aequilibrium then must the man be compelled above the rate of his resistence and so be abduced from the place of his station so likewise while there is only a small quantity of Quicksilver contained in the Tube though by the intervention or mediation of the Quicksilver restagnant in the subjacent vessel it press upon the parts of the incumbent aer in some
to be exactly adaequate to the Locatum for the Dimensions of all Space possessed are in all points respondent to those of the body possessing there being no part of the body profound or superficial to which there is not a part of Space respondent in aequal extent which can never be made out from the mere superfice of the Circumambient in which no one of the Profound or Internal parts of the Locatum but only the superficial are resident Moreover hence also may we understand How Incorporeal substances as God Angels and the Souls of men may be affirmed to be in loco For when God who is infinite and therefore uncapable of Circumscription is said to be in Place we instantly cogitate an infinite Space which is more then we can do of Place if accepted in Aristotles Notion which imports either that God cannot be in any place or else He must be circumscribed by the contiguous superfice thereof which how ridiculous we need not observe For Angels likewise who dares affirm an Angel to be in a place that considers his Incorporiety and the necessity of his circumsciption by the superfice of the Circumambient if Aristotles Definition of Place be tolerable To excuse it with a distinction and say that an Angel may be conceived to be in a determinate place not Circumscriptivè but definitivè i. e. So Here as no where else is implicitely and upon inference to confess the truth of our assertion Since that Here designs a certain part of Space not the superfice of any circumambient For though you reply that an Angel being an incorporeal substance wants as well internal and profound Dimensions by which his substance may respond to Space as those superficial ones that respond to Place yet cannot that suffice to an evasion since if his substance hath any Diffusion in place as is generally allowed and though it be constituted in puncto as is also generally conceived nevertheless doth that Diffusion as necessarily respond to a certain aequal part of Space as a point is a determinate part of space This perhaps is somewhat abstruse and therefore let us conceive an Angel to be resident in some one point of that Inane Region circumscribed by the concave of the Lunar orb formerly imagined and then we may without any shadow of obscurity understand How his substance may respond to a certain part or point of the Inane Space so as He may be said to be Here not There in this but no other place but impossible it is to make it out How the substance of an Angel constituted in puncto of an empty space can respond to the superfice of a Body Circumambient because all Bodies formerly included in that sublunary Region are praesupposed to be adnihilated Lastly by the Incorporiety of Space we are praeserved from that Contradiction which Aristotle endeavouring to praevent praecipitated himself upon no small Absurdity viz. that the supreme Heaven or Primum mobile is in no Place For if we adhere to his opinion that place is the superfice of a body circumambient the Primum mobile being the extreme or bounds of the World we deny any thing of Corporiety beyond it and so exempt it from Locality but if we accept space to be the same without and within the world we admit the Primum mobile the noblest largest and most useful of all Bodies in the World to enjoy a Place proportionate to its dimensions and motion as adaequately as any other The necessity of which concession Thales Milesius well intimated when interrogated What Thing was greatest He answered Place because as the World contains all other Bodies so Place contains the World Reduced to these straights Aristotle among sundry other Sophisms entrusteth the last part of his Defence to this slight Objection If Place were a certain Space constant in three dimensions then would it inevitably follow that the Locatuus and the Locus must reciprocally penetrate each others dimensions and so the parts of each be infinitely divided which is manifestly absurd since Nature knows nor penetration of Dimensions nor infinity of corporeal division To this Induction we could not refuse the attribute of Probability no more then we do now of Plausibility had we not frequently praevented it and openly by our Distinction of Dimensions into Corporeal and Incorporeal and appropriating the last to Space For indeed the Fundamental Constitutions of Nature most irrevocably prohibite the substance of one Body to penetrate the substance of another through all its Dimensions but alas Place is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly and altogether Incorporeal and therefore may its dimensions Incorporeal be Coexistent or Compatient with the Corporeal Dimensions of any Body without mutual repugnancy the Spatial Dimensions not excluding the Corporeal nor those extruding the spatial This cannot be a diaphanous or aenigmatical to those who concede Angels to be Incorporeal and therefore to penetrate the Dimensions of any the most solid Bodies so that the whole substance of an Angel may be simul semel altogether and at once in the same place with that of a stone a wall the hand of a man or any other body whatever without any necessity of mutual Repugnancy Nor to those who observe the Synthesis or Collocation of Whiteness Sweetness and Qualities in the substance of Milk for as those are conceived to pervade the whole substance of Milk without any reciprocal repugnancy of Dimensions so are we to conceive that the Dimensions of Space are totally pervaded by the whole Body of the Locatum without Renitency CHAP. VII OF TIME AND ETERNITY SECT I. SOme Texts there are in the Book of Nature that are best interpreted by the sense of the Vulgar and become so much the more aenigmatical by how much the more they are commented upon by the subtile discourses of the Schools their over-curious Descants frequently rendring that Notion ambiguous complex and difficult which accepted in its own genuine simplicity stands fair and open to the discernment of the unpraejudicate at the first conversion of the aâ—â—es of the Mind thereupon Among these we have just cause to account TIME since if we keep to the popular and familiar use of the word nothing can be more easily understood but if we range abroad to those vast Wildernesses the Dialectical Paraphrases of Philosophers thereupon and hunt after an adaequate Definition beaâ—â—ng its peculiar Genus and essential Difference nothing can be more obscure and controversial This the sacred Doctor Auâ—ust 11. Confess 14. both ingenuously confessed and most emphatically expressed in his Si nemo 〈◊〉 me quaerat quid sit Tempus scio si quaerenti explicare velim nescio intimating that the Mind may indeed at first glance speculate the nature of Time by a proper Idea but so pale and fine a one as 〈…〉 a lively representation thereof 〈…〉 bold to list it among the most despeâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 Generalitèr To which we may annex 〈…〉 quoted by Stobaeus Eccl. Phys. 11.
less then in Opticks to allow a Term or point of Consistence to the Division of Quantity which yet in Geometry they hold capable of an infinite process We are provided of a most pertinent Example for the illustration of the whole matter The Geometrician Demonstrateth the Division of a Line into two equal segments to be a thing not only possible but most easie and yet cannot the Physiologist be induced to swallow it as really performable For He considers 1 That the superfice of no body can be so exactly smooth and polite as to be devoyd of all uneveness or asperity every common Microscope discovering numerous inaequalities in the surface of even the best cut Diamonds and the finest Chrystal Bodies whose Tralucency sufficiently confesseth them to be exceeding polite and consequently that there is assumable thereon no Line so perfectly uniform as not to be made unequal by many Valleculae and Monticulae small pits and protuberances frequently interjacent 2 That the Edge of no Dissecting Instrument can be so acute as not to draw a line of some Latitude 3 That should the edge of the acutest Rasor be laid on the foot of a Handworm which may be effected by the advantage of a good Magnifying Glass and a steady hand yet is that composed of many Myriads of Atoms or insensible particles of the First universal Matter And thence Concludes that no real Line drawn upon the superfice of any the smoothest Body can be practically divided into two Halfs so exactly as that the section shall be in that part which is truly the median to both extremes Since that part which appears to the sense to be the median and is most exiguous doth yet consist of so many Myriads of particles as that though the edge of the Rasor be imposed by many Myriads of particles aside of that which is truly in the middle yet will it seem to the eye still to be one and the same This duely perpended we have no cause to fear the section of an Atome though the edge of a knife were imposed directly upon it Since the edge must be gross and blunt if compared to the exility of an Atome so that we may allow it to divide an Assembly or Heap of Atoms but never to cut a single one Secondly We judge it expedient in some cases to accommodate suppositions Geometrical to Subjects merely Physical but to this end only that we may thereby acquire majorem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a greater degree of Acuteness or advance our speculations to more Exactness Thus the soul of the Mathematicks Archimed de Arenarum num supposed the Diametre of a grain of Poppy seed to consist of 10000 particles not that He conceived that any Art could really discern so vast a multitude of parts in a body of so minute circumscription but that by transferring the same reason to another body of larger dimensions He might attain the certitude of his Proposition by so much the nearer by how much the less he might have erred by neglecting one of those many particles Thus also is it the custom of Geometricians in order to their exactness in Calculations to imagine the Semi-diametre or Radius of any Circle divided into many Myriads of Parts not that so many parts can be really distinguished in any Radius but that when comparation is made betwixt the Radius and other right lines which in parts Aliquotal or such as are expressed by whole numbers do not exactly respond thereunto particles may be found out so exile as though one or the fraction of one of them be neglected yet can no sensible Error ensue thereupon And this in a word seems to be the true and only Cause why Mathematicians constantly suppose every Continuum to consist of Infinite parts not that they can or ought to understand it to be Really so but that they may conserve to themselves a liberty of insensible Latitude by subdividing each division of Parts into so many as they please For they well know that the Physiologist is in the right when He admits no Infinity but only an Innumerability of parts in natuaral Continuum Lastly if these Reasons appear not weighty enough to counterpoise the Contrary Persuasion we can aggravate them with a Grain of noble Authority For no meaner a man then Plato who seems to have understood Geometry as well as the Aegyptian Theuth the supposed Inventor thereof vide Platon in Phaedro and to have honoured it much more in a solemn Panegyrick 9. dialog de Rep. sharply reprehends Eudoxus Archytas Menaechonus c. for their errour in endeavouring to adjust Geometrical speculations to sensible objects subnecting in positive termes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby the good of Geometry was corrupted Lege Marsil Ficin in Compend Timaei cap. 19. CHAP. III. Atoms the First and Vniversal Matter SECT I. NO man so fit to receive and retain the impressions of Truth as He who hath his Virgin mind totally dispossessed of Praejudice and no Thesis hath ever since the Envy of Aristotle was so hot as to burn the Volumes of Democritus and most of the Elder Philosophers which might have conserved its lustre been more Eclipsed with a praesumption of sundry Incongruities then this noble one that Atoms are the First and Catholique Principle of Bodies Requisite it is therefore that this Chapter have Ianus like two faces one to look backward on those Impediments to its general admission the Inconsistences charged upon and sundry Difficulties supposed inseparable from it the other to look forward at the plenary Remonstrance of its Verity In obedience to this necessity therefore we advertise first that it hath proved of no small disadvantage to the promotion of the Doctrine of Atoms that the Founders thereof have been accused of laying it down for a main Fundamental that there are two Principles of all things in the Universe BODIE and INANITY importing the necessary Concurrence of the Inane Space to the constitution of Bodies complex as well as of Atoms This Absurdity hath been unworthily charged upon Epicurus by Plutarch in these words Principia esse Epicuro Infinitatem Inane and upon Leucippus and Democritus by Aristotle 1. Metaphys 4. in these Plenum Inane Elementa dicunt To vindicate these Mirrors of Science from so dishonourable an Imputation we plead that though they held the Universe to consist of two General Parts Atoms and Vacuity yet did not they therefore affirm that all things were composed of those two as Elementary Principles That which imposed upon their Accusers judgment was this that supposing Atoms and the Inane Space to be Ingenite and Incorruptible they conceived the whole of Nature to arise from them as from its two universal Parts but never dreamt so wild an Alogy as that all Concretions that are produced by Generation and subject to destruction by Corruption must derive their Consistence from those two in the capacity of Elements or Componentia For albeit in
quasdam in ipsis rebus maximè in Atomis dispositiones ad operandum ejusmodi spectra quae sunt quasi quaedam merae inanesque Cavitates superficiales soliditatisvè expertes tenuitates Neque praeterea repugnat fieri ex Corporibus extimis Effluxiones quasdam Atomorum continenter a volantium in quibus i dem positus idemque ordo qui fuerit in solidis superficiebusvè ipsorum servetur ut tales proindâ— Effluxiones sint quasi Formae sive Effigies Imagines Corporum à quibus dimanant Tales autem Formae sive Effigies Imagines sunt quas moris est nobis ut Idola seu simulachra appellitemus Ex lib. 10. Diogen Laertij versione Gassendi The importance of which and the remainder of his judgment concerning the same theorem may be thus concisely rendred Without repugnancy to reason it may be conceived 1 That in the University of Nature are certain most tenuious Concretions or subtle Contextures holding an exquisite analogy to solid bodies 2 That by these occurring to the sense and thence to the Mind all Vision and Intellection is made for they are the same that the Graecian Philosophers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine Imagines Spectra Simulachra Effigies and most frequently Species Intentionales 3 That among all the sundry possible wayes of the generation of these Species Visible the two primary and most considerable are 1 by their Direption from the superficial parts of Compound bodies 2 by their Spontaneous Emanation and Concretion in the aer and therefore those of the First sort are to be named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and those of the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 That those Images which are direpted from the extreams of solid bodies do conserve in their separated state the same order and position of parts that they had during their united 5 That the ineffable or insuperable Pernicity whereby these Images are transferred through a free space depends upon both the Pernicity of the Motion of Atoms and their Tenâ—ity or Exility For the motion of Atoms while continued through the Inane Space and impeded by no retundent is supposed to be inexcogitably swift nor are we to admit that when an Atom is repercussed by another directly arietating against it and afterward variously bandied up and down by the retusion of others encountring it these partial or retuse motions are less swift i. e. are performed in a space of time more assignable or distinguishable by thought then if they were extended into one direct simple or uninterrupted motion And for the second Fundament the extreme Tenuity of Atoms insomuch as these Images are praesumed to be no more but certain superficial Contextures of Atoms it cannot seem inconsequent that their Pernicity can know no remora And thus much of Epicurus Text and the competent Exposition thereof It succeeds that we examine the relation it bears to Probability refering the consideration of his spontaneous and systatical Images to the Last Section and reducing our thoughts concerning the Direpted and Apostatical which are indeed the proper subject of our praesent disquisition to four capital points viz. 1 their An sint or Existence 2 their Quid sint or proper Nature 3 their Unde or Production 4 their Celerity of Transmission Of the FIRST namely the EXISTENCE of Species Visible this is sufficiently certified by the obvious experience of Looking-glasses Water and all other Catoptrick or Speculary bodies which autoptically demonstrate the Emission of Images from things objected For if the object be removed or eclipsed by the interposition of any opace body sufficiently dense and crass to terminate them the Images thereof immediately disappear if the object be moved inverted expansed contracted the Image likewise is instantly moved inverted expansed contracted in all postures conforming to and so undeniably proclaiming its necessary dependence upon its Antitype Thus also when in Summer we shade our selves from the intense fervor of the Sun in green Arbours or under Trees we cannot but observe all our cloaths tincted with a thin Verdure or shady Green and this from no other Cause but that the Images or Species of the Leaves being as it were stript off by the incident light and diffused into the vicine Aer are terminated upon us and so discolour our vestiments Not as Magirus would solve it qualitate i. e. immateriali forma qua aer corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à folijs arborum viridibus imbuitur tingitur pingitur Comment in Phylologiam Peripat lib. 6. cap. 6. num 27. And thus are the bodies of men sitting or walking in a large room infected with the Colours of the Curtains or Hangings when the Sun strikes upon them Of which Lucretius thus Nam jacier certè atque emergere multa videmus Non solum ex alto penitusque ut diximus ante Verum de summis ipsum quoque saepe Colorem Et vulgo faciunt id lutea russaque vela Et serruginea cum magnis intenta theatris Per malos volgata trabeisque frementia flutunt Namque ibi concessum caveai subter omnem Scendi speciem patrum matrumque Deorumque Insiciunt coguntque suo fluitare Colore Ergo lintea de summo cum Corpore fucum Mittunt Effigias quoque debent mittere tenueis Res quaeque ex summo quoniam jaculantur utraeque c. Lib. 4. Upon which Reason also the admirable Kircher hinted his parastatical Experiment of Glossing the inside of a Chamber and all things as well Furniture as Persons therein contained with a pleasant disguise of grass Green Azure Crimson or any other light Colour for Black cannot consist in any Liquor without so much density as must terminate the Light only by disposing a capacious Vial of Glass filled with the Tincture of Verdegrease Lignum Nephriticum or Vermilion c. in some aperture of the Window respecting the incident beams of the Sun Art Magn. Lucis Umbrae lib. 10. part 2. Magâ—â— parastaticae Experimento 5. Concerning the SECOND viz. the NATURE of Images Visible we observe First that Epicurus seems only to have revived and improved the notion of Plato and Empedocles who positively declared the sensible Forms or Visible species of things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effluxiones quaedam substantiales in that He denominates them Aporrhea and defines them to be most thin and only superficial Contextures of Atoms effluxed from the superficial parts of Bodies and jugi sâ—uore by a continued stream emâ—ning from them into all the circumfused space Secondly that the Common Opinion most pertinaciously patronized by Alexander the Peripatetick and Scaliger with the numerous herd of Aristoteleaâ—s whom it is as easie to convert as nominate is that visible species are mera Accidentiae simple pure Accidents that neither possess nor carry with them any thing of Matter or Substance and yet being transmitted through a diaphanous Medium from solid objects they affect the organ of Sight
Causes why a Concave Glass whose Concavity consisteth of the segment of an Ellipsis reflecteth the rayes of the Sun in a more Acute Angle and consequently burneth both more vigorously and at greater Distance then one whose Concavity is the segment of a Parabola and why a Parabolical Section reflecteth them in an Angle more Acute and so burneth both at greater distance and more vigorously than the Section of Circle Especally if we familiarize this theory by the accommodation of these Figures Thus have we in a short Discourse not exceeding the narrow limits of a single Article intelligibly explicated the Cause of that so much admired Disparity in the Effects of Plane Convex and Concave Glasses as well Dioptrical or Trajecting the rayes of Light into the Aer beyond them as Catoptrical or Reflecting them back again from their obverted superfice And we ask leave to encrease our Digression only with this CONSECTARY Because the Rayes of Light and the rayes of visible Images are Analogical in their nature and flow hand in hand together into the Eye in the act of Vision therefore is it that to a man using a Plane Perspicil an object alwayes appears the same i. e. equal in dimensions and distinction of parts as it doth to his naked Eye by reason the Angle of its Extreams is the same in the Plane Glass as in the Eye But to a man using a Convex Perspicil an object appears Greater because the Angle of its Extreams is ampliâ—ied and through a Concave Less because the Angle is diminished In like manner the Image of an object reflected from a Plane Mirrour appears the same to the Spectator as if Deradiated immediately or without reflexion from the object it self because the Reflex Angle is equal to the Direct but the Image of an Object Reflected from a Convex Mirrour appears Less because the Angle of its Reflection is less than that of its Direction and from a Concave Greater because the Reflex Angle is greater than the Direct This may be autoptically Demonstrated thus If you admit the Image of a man or any thing else through a small perforation of the wall into an obscure chamber and fix a Convex Lens in the perforation with the Convex side toward the Light you shall admoving your eye thereto at Convenient distance observe the transmitted Image to be Amplified but receiving the Image on a sheet of white Paper posited where your Eye was you shall perceive it to be Minorated the Contrary Effect arising from a Concave Lens posited in the hole with its Concave side toward the Light And this because the Convex Congregating the rayes into the Pupill of the Eye and so making the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apparition Greater for the cause formerly exposited doth also Congregate them on the Paper and therefore the Image cannot appear Contracted or Minorated but on the contrary the Concave Disgregating the rayes from the Pupil and so making the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apparition less in the Retina of the Optick Nerve doth also Disgregate or diffuse them largely on all parts of the Paper and so the Image thereon received cannot but appear much Amplified SECT IV. HItherto we have in some degree of satisfaction explicated the Manner how by the Incursion of substantial Images deraâ—â—ated from the object to the Eye the Visive Faculty comes to apprehend the Colour Figure Magnitude Number and Distance of objects and therefore it remains only to the Complement of our present Designation that we explore the Reasons of the Perception of the Situation Quiet and Motion of objects by the sight To our more perspicuous solution of which notable Difficulty and to the illustration of many passages precedent in the two last Sections it must be confest not only ornamental or advantageous but simply necessary that we here Anatomize the whole Eye and consider the proper Uses of the several parts thereof those especially that are either immediately and primarily instrumental or only secundarily inservient to Vision But because the Axe of the Visive Pyramid is a perpendicular line beginning in the Extrems of the object and ending in the Amphiblestroides had the Eye been nailed or fixt in its orbita we must have been necessitated to traverse the whole Machine of the body for a position thereof convenient to Vision since it can distinctly apprehend no object but what lyes è directo opposite or have had this semi-rational sense whose glory builds on Variety restrained to the speculation of so few things that we should have received more Discomfort from their Paucity than either Information or Delight from their Discernment therefore that we might enjoy a more enlarged Prospect and read the whole Hemisphere over in one momentany act of Vision Nature hath furnished the Eyes with Muscles or Organs of agility that so they may accommodate themselves to every visible and hold a voluntary verlisity to the intended object Parâ—â—ula sic magnum pervisit Pupula Coelum And of these Ocular Muscles there are in Man just so many as there are kinds of Motion 4 Direct and 2 Oblique or Circular all situate within the Orbita and associated to the Optick Nerve and conjoining their Tendons at the Horny Membrane they constitute the Tunica Innomitata so named by Columbus who arrogates the invention thereof to himself though Galen lib. 10. de usu part cap. 2. makes express mention of it The First of the four Direct Muscles implanted in the superiour part of the Eye draweth it Upward whence it is denominated Atollens the Lifter up and Superbus the Proud because this is that we use in Haughty and sublime looks The Second situate in the inferiour part of the Eye and Antagonist to the former stoops the Eye Downward and thence is called Deprimens the Depressor and Humilis the Humble for this position of the eye speaks the Dejection and Humility of the Mind The Third fastned in the Major Canthus or great angle of the Eye and converting it toward the Nose is therefore named Adducens the Adducent and Bibitorius for in large draughts we frequently contract it The Fourth opposite both in situation and office to the former abduceth the Eye laterally toward the Ear and is therefore named Abducens and Indignatorius the scorning muscle for when we would cast a glance of scorn contempt or indignation we contract the Eye towards the outward angle by the help of this muscle If all these Four work together the Eye is retracted inward fixt and immote which kind of Motion Physitians call Motus Tonicus and in our language the Sett or Wist Look Of the â—blâ—que Muscles the First running betwixt the Eye and the tendons of the Second and Third Muscles by the outward angle ascends to the superior part of the Eye and inserted near to the Rainbow circumgyrates the Eye downward The Second and smallest twisted into a long tendon circumrotates the Eye toward
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
the Complexion of any two or more of them But here we are arrested by Two notable and to our praecedent theory seemingly inconsistent PROBLEMS which though of Difficulty enough to deserve the wealthy speculations of Archimedes do yet require from us at least a plausible Solution on the paenalty of no less than the loss of reputation and the posting up a Writ of Bankrupt against our reason by that austere Creditor Curiosity 1 How comes it that those two so discrepant and assymbolical Colours created by a Prism Vermillion and Caerule arise from Causes so Cognate the former only from the Commistion of a greater proportion of Light with a less of Shadows the Later from a less proportion of Light with a greater of Shadows 2 Why when those two Colours Emphatical Vermillion and Carule are by a Prism intermediate projected on a Wall or sheet of white paper beyond it from the light of a Candle if you put your eye in that place â—n which either of the two Colours is appinged so that another person conveniently posited in the same room may behold the same distinctly shining on the pupil of your eye yet shall you plainly and distinctly perceive the other Colour in the Glass For Example if the Vermillion appear on your eye you shall nevertheless clearly see a Caerule in the Glass and transpositively though your eye be manifestly and totally tincted with a Carule yet shall you see a Vermillion Touching the Former we shall adventure to desume the Solution thereof meerly from the Figure of the Prisme and determine the Reason on this only that the Rayes of Light arriving at the Base of the Triangle are trajected through it by a longer tract or way than those arriving at or nearer to the Top thereof and therefore the Glass being in that part most crass there must be more impervious particles obsistent to the Rayes of Light each one whereof repercussing its raye back again into the medium from the Glass causeth that the number of shadowes is multiplyed in that part of the object which the Base of the Triangle directly respecteth and consequently produceth a Caerule Tincture thereon Such as that not only by vulgar but many transcendently learned Heads adscribed to the Firmament which yet belongs rather to that vast many have said infinite Space betwixt it and our Terrestrial Globe being caused by the rayes of the Coelestial Lamps from swarms of minute bodies interposed thinly reflected toward our eyes For each of those impervious particles swarming in that immense space must repercuse a ray of Light deradiated from above and so by multiplying the number of shadows make the Firmament which otherwise according to probability would wear the mourning livery of Midnight appear totally invested in an Azure mantle This though meer Conjecture and indeed the subject is too sublime to admit of other than conjecture since St. Paul hath left us no observation concerning it in his rapture up into the third Heaven and the design of the Ganzaes is desperate hath in it somewhat more of reason then that confident conceipt of Athanas. Kircherus Art Magn. lucis umbrae lib. 1. part 3. cap. 3. de Chromatismis rerum naturalium Medium inter utrumque Caeruleum proximum viz. à nigro seu tenebroso colorem ad jucundissima illa Caelorum spatia inoffenso visu contemplanda Natura providentissima mundo contulit c. that the Providence of the Creator chose this Azure Tincture to invest the Firmament withal as the middle colour between the two Extreams White and Black that so our sight might not when we speculate that universal Canopy be either perstringed with the excessive lustre of the one nor terminated by the absolute opacity of the other Because if the natural Colour of the Firmament were Azure as He praesumes then would it by reason of the vast Space betwixt it and our sight and the repercussion of the greatest part of the rayes of Light from our eye by those Myriads of Myriads of Myriads of small bodies replenishing that intermediate Space necessarily appear of some other colour the experience of Sea-men assuring that all Colours White and that of pure Flame retaining to Whiteness only excepted lose themselves in long trajection through the medium and that even Land which is but few degrees removed from Opacity appears to the first discovery like a blewish Cloud lying level to the Horizon It being certain therefore that by how much the farther any Colour recedeth from Whiteness by so much the less way it is visible which the Graecian intimates in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Albus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod procul videatur and that even the Earth an Opace body to Sea-men first Kenning it at large distance appears clad in a kind of obscure blewish Mantle it cannot bee dissonant to reason to conceive that the natural Colour of the Firmament cannot be Azure since it so appears to us and that it is rather Opace because it appears Azure when illustrate by the reflected Light of the Coelestial Luminaries Again because the rayes of Light incident on the Top of the Prism are trajected through it by a shorter cut or passage than those incident on the Base and so meet with fewer impervious and retundent particles the Glass being in that part thinnest therefore is the number of shadows much less in that part of the object which respecteth the Cone or Top of the Triangle than in that which confronts the Base and those few shadows which remain undiminisht being commixt with a greater number of lines of light are transformed into the species of a Vermillion Red. Such as that daily observed in the impure Flame of our Culinary Fires which having many particles of Fuligenous Exhalations commixt with its pure luminous particles that continuedly ascending avert as many rayes of light from the eye of the Spectator and so in some degree obnubulate it throughout doth therefore put on the semblance of Redness Or such as the Sun and Moon commonly wear at their rising when the minor part though many of their rayes are reâ—used and averted from our sight by the particles of dense vapours diffused through the spatious Medium However this may be disputed yet is it warrantable to conceive that the superficial Particles of all Bodies clad in either of these Liveries Vermillion and Caerule may have in their Contexture obtained such a Disposition as to reflect Light permixt with small shadows in that definite Temperation or Modification in which it usually arrives at the eye after its Trajection through a Prism when it thereupon impresseth the sense of a Vermillion or Caerule As for the Enodation of the Later Difficulty it is comprehended in the Reasons of the Former For it being certain that the Vermillion projected by a Prisme doth consist of a greater proportion of Light mingled with a less of Shadows and the Caerule on the contrary of a greater proportion of shadows
and as it sufficeth that we feel the Wind in its progress through the aer so also is it sufficient that we perceive Light in the illumination of Opace Bodies on which it is impinged and from which it is reflected Besides whoso maketh his sense the measure of Corporiety doth strain it to a higher subtility than the constitution of its Organs will bear and make many more spiritual Entities than can be found in the Universe nay He implicitely supposeth an Immaterial Being naturally capable of Incorporation meerly by the Unition of its dispersed particles since many rayes of Light congregated into one stream become visible 5 That the Materiality of Light is repugnant to the Duration of the Sun which could not have lasted so long but must have like a Tapour exhausted its whole stock of Luminous Matter and wincked out into perpetual night long since if all its Rayes were substantial Emanations according to our Assumption But this Refuge may be battered with either of these two shots 1 The superlative Tenuity of the Luminous particles continuâ—lly emitted from the body of the Sun is such as to prevent any sensible minoration of its orb in many 1000 yeers 2 If the Diametre of the Sun were minorated by 100000 miles less than it was observed in the days of Ptolomy yet would not that so vast Decrement be sensible to our sight since being in its Apogaeum in summer it doth not appear one minute less in Diameter to the strictest astronomical observation than in winter in its Perigaeum and yet Snellius Bullialdus and Gassendus three Astronomers of the highest form assure us that it is about 300000 miles more remote from us in its Apogaeum than Perigaeum 6 and Lastly That if Light were Flame then would all Light warm at least but there are many Lights actually Cold such as that in the Phospher Mâ—neralis or Lapis Phenggites of whose admirable Faculty of imbibing retaining and emitting a considerable light the excellent Fortunius Licetus hath written a singular Tract and Athanas. Kircherus a large chapter in Art magn Lucis Umbrae lib. â— part 1. cap. 8. in Gloworms the scales and shells of some Fishes among which the most eminent are those Dactyli mentioned by Kircher in libri jam citati part 1. cap. 6. in these words sunt Dactyli ostreacei generis qui vel manibus triti lumen veluti scintillas quasdam ex se spargunt quemadmodum Melitae in Sicilia Calabria Ligustici maris oris non sine admiratione à piscatoribus nautis instructoribus observasse memini in Rotten Wood c. Ergo c. Answer The Defect of actual Heat in these things doth arise in part from the abundant commistion of Gross and Viscid Humidity with those igneous Particles that are Collucent in them but mostly from the exceeding Rarety of those Luminous Sparks which being so thin and languid as to disappear even at the approach of a Secondary Light cannot be expected vigorous enough to infuse an actual warmth into the hand that toucheth them especially when experience attesteth that the Rayes of the Sun after two Reflections become so languid by Attenuation as they can hardly affect the tenderest hand with any sensible Heat And therefore unless it can be evinced that the disgregation of the parts of a Body doth destroy the Corporiety of it and that the simple Attenuation of Ligâ—t doth make it to be no Light we ask leave to retain our pâ—rsuasion that the existence of many lights which are devoyd of Heat as to the perception of our sense is no good Argument against the Igniety and Corporiety of Light CHAP. VI. THE NATURE OF A SOUND SECT I. IT was a hypochondriack conceit of Plato that all our Cognition is but Recognition and our acquired Inteâ—lection a meer Reminiscence of those primitive lessons the Soul had forgotten since her transmission from the sphere of supreme Intelligences and Immersion into the Opacity of Flesh. For Proper Science is proper only to Omniscience and not to have knowledge by infusion or acquisition is the attribute only of the Essence of Wisdom and a priviledge due to none but the Ancient of Dayes to have his knowledge derived beyond Antiquity but Man poor ignorant Thing sent to School in the World on the design of Sapience must sweat in the exploration and pursuit of each single Verity nor can he ever possess any science in this dark region of life but what he hath dearly purchased with his own anxious discovery or holds by inhaeritance from the charitable industry of his Fore-fathers And that the naked Mind of mâ—n endowed only with a simple Capacity of Science might by degrees adorn it self with the notions of whatever concerns his well-being either in this state of Mortality or that future one of Immortality hath the Bounty of his Creator furnished him with the Sense of HEARING a sense particularly and eminently ordained for Discipline For though we sing Hymns to the Eye for the Invention yet must we acknowledge a sacrifice of gratitude due to the Ear for the Communication and Diffusiâ—n of Arts and Sciences Quemadmodum aspectus ad viâ—ae dulcedinem â—ommoda â—st magis necessarius ita Auditus ad excipiendam artem scientiam sapientiam est accommodatior ille ad inventionem hic ad communicationem aptior est saith that accurate and eloquent Anatomist Iulius Casserius Placentinus in premio ad libr. de sens organ Thus much the antique Aegyptians intimated in their Hieroglyphick of Memory the figure of a mans Ear and the Philosopher exprest in his Character of the Hearing Auditus est sensus Disciplinae as also that Modern Ornament of Germany Sennertus in hypomn Phys. in this memorable sentence Aures in homine quasi porta mentis sunt per quam illi communicantur quae doctrina institutione de Deo alijs rebus necessarijs traduntur quaeque nullo alio sensu addisci possunt Now to bring you home to the scope of this not otherwise or unreasonable or unnecessary Elogy of the Hearing since the Relation betwixt the Sight and Hearing is so great as to the point of mans acquisition of Knowledge as that the one can be no more justly called the Discoverer than the other the Propagator of all Arts and Sciences it is evident we have made no undecent Knot in the Clue of our Method by immediately subnecting this Enquiry into the Nature of a Sound the adaequate and proper object of the Hearing to our praecedent speculations of the Nature of Vision Colours and Light Besides as these two Senses are Cousin-Germans in their Uses and Ends so likewise are they of near Alliance in their Objects there being no small nor obscure Analogy betwixt the nature and proprieties of a Visible Species and the nature and proprieties of an Audible Species or Sound For 1 As â—t is the property of Light transfigured into Colours to represent the different Conditions
the smell of Rue that she will avoid a Mouse that is rubbd with the juice thereof as Africanus in Geoponicis Why Mice are poysoned with the scent of Rododaphne or Oleander commonly named Rose-bay-tree as Apuleius and from him Weckerus de secretis Animal Why Serpents are driven from Gardens by the smell of Citroâ—s as Galen affirms when yet they solace themselves with that of Savin which our nose condemns Why Cocks cannot endure the breath of Garlick which is soveraign incense to Turkeys and pure Alchermes to their drooping yong ones Why Moths are destroyed by the fume of Hopps which is Ambre Grise to Bees as Mouffet de insectis For the Causâ— hereof wholly consists in the Similitude or Dissimilitude betwixt the particular Contexture of the Sensory and the Figures of the particles of the odour The Materiality of an Odour being thus firmly commonstrated the next Considerable is the Generation and proxime Efficient Cause thereof And herein Aristotle came neerer the truth than in his conception of the Essence of it for that Assertion of his Odorem gigni moveri beneficio Caloris that Heat conduceth both to the Generation and Motion or Diffusion of an Odour doth well deserve our assent For whether those minute Masses or small Concretions that constitute the body of an Odour be contained châ—â—fly in some sulphurous substance as the Dissolutions and Experimentâ— of Chymistry seem to conclude or ambuscadoed in any other consistenâ—â— whatever yet still is it manifest that they are deduced into act and sequesâ—â—ed from those dissimilar or heterogeneous bodies of Earth and Water 〈◊〉 surrund and oppress them and so becoming more at liberty and uniteâ— they more vigorously affect the sense and all this by the energy of Heat Hence comes it that all Fruits are so much more Fragrant by how much more Concocted and Maturated by the warmth of the Sun That all Aromaticks grow in Hot Climats That all smells are stronger in Summer than Winter as Plutarch observes lib. de Caus. Natur. cap. 25. where he enquires why in Frost wild beasts leave but a cold scent behind them when they are hunted That all odoriferous Druggs are Hot and suffer a perpetual exhaustion or expence of their halituous substance so that who so would conserve their Fragrancy must embalm them in Oyl or incorporate them with Gumms or other substance not easily evaporable according to the common practice of all Perfumers and Confectioners or immure them in close conservatories and that rather in great lumps than small fragments and in Cold rather than Hot rooms Hence it is also that all Botanicks hold it for an unquestionable Axiome Omnia Odorata esse calida so that some have undertaken to distinguish of the degrees of Heat in Plants and other Simples meerly by the vehemence or languor of their Odour and that Aristotle problem sect 12. quaest 12. affirms that all Odorous seeds are Calefactive because Heat is the Efficient of an Odour to which Galen also subscribes 4 de simpl medicament facul cap. 22. From the Nature Efficient of Odours we are conducted to their Difference or Distinct species which is an Argument involved not in the least Difficulties For since the imperfection of our sense of smelling is such that it is affectable only with the more vehement sort of them which are but few in comparison to those many which the sagacity of most Bruit Animals makes familiar to their deprehension and so we remain ignorant of the greatest part of them and did we know them yet should we be to seek for proper Appellatives to express their particular natures to deliver an exact Table of all their Distinctions is not only difficult but impossible Which Naturalists well understanding have been forced to the cleanly shift of transferring the distinct names of sapours over to the specifical Differences of Odours there being some manifest symbolism betwixt the two senses and no obscure Analogy betwixt the Conditions of their objects as Aristotle insinuates in his Affirmation Nullum corpus esse odoriferum quod non pariter saporiferum existat de sens sensil cap. 5. that all Odoriferous bodies are also saporiferous and in his definition of an olfactile or odorable object to be Quod sapidae siccitatis diluendae ac diffundendae vim sortitur Well may we therefore content our selves with the Discrimination of those kinds of Odours that fall under the Cognizance of our sense and those are Sweet Sower Austere Acerb and Fatt or Luscious as for Putrid or Faetiâ— Odours they have resemblance to Bitter Sapours because as Bitter things are oâ—ious and distastful to the pallate and no man swallows them without some horror and reluctancy so likewise doth the Nose never admit rotten and cadaverous smells without loathing and offence There is also another Difference of smells whereof one kind is either pleasant or unpleasant by Accident or upon Circumstance as the smell of Meats and Drinks is pleasant to the Hungry but offensive to the Full-gordged and this sort is in common as well to Beasts as Men the other is pleasant or unpleasant of their own Nature as the smells of Herbs Flowers Perfumes c. which conduce neither to the Excitement nor Abatement of Appetite unless they be admixt to meats or drinks to which Stratis alluded when taxing Uripides he said Cum lens coquitur unguenti nil infundito and this Difference is proper only to man Lastly Authors have divided Odours into Natural and Artificial or Simple and Compound the Latter whereof our Luxury and Delicacy have enhanced to such immoderate rates that the Confection of them is become an Arte and reduced to certain Dispensatories and set Praescripts and that Lady is not al-a-mode who hath not her Manuscript of Recipes for Perfumes nay every street hath its Myropolies or shops of sweets of all sorts Finally the Medium inservient to Odoration is either Aer or Water yet neither according to Essence but Infection or Impraegnation That â—he Aer is a convenient Convoy or Vehicle of an Odour no man did ever doubt and that water hath the like Capacity or perodorable Faculty though in an inferiour degree we may with Aristotle de histor Animal 4. cap. 8. conclude from the vulgar Experiment of betraying Fishes with perfumed Baites CHAP. VIII OF SAPOURS SECT I. THE Nature of SAPOURS the proper object of the Taste Aristotle de sens sensil cap. 4. concludes to be more easily Cognoscible than that of Odours Visibles or the Objects of the other Senses because as He praesumes the sense of Tasting in Man is more Exquisite than his Smelling Sight c. Whether his Reason be not praecarious we need not determine but it too nearly concerns us to affirm that the extreme slenderness of his doctrine touching the Essence and Principles of Sapours as well in General as Particular erected on that common imaginary base of Immaterial Qualities hath given us just occasion to suspect
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
several proportions which substance hath to Quantity Much more plausible were their Explication had they derived the Extension of a thing meerly from Space or Place because whenever any thing is said to be Extense the mind instantly layes hold of some determinate part of space referring the Extension of it simply and entirely to the Place wherein it is or may be contained and which is exaequate to its Dimensions nor is it indeed easie to wean the Understanding from this habitual manner of Conception Whereof if we be urged to render a satisfactory Reason we confess we know no better than this that by the Law of Nature every Body in the Universe is consigned to its peculiar Place i. e. such a canton of space as is exactly respondent to its Dimensions so that whether a Body quiesce or be moved we alwayes understand the Place wherein it is Extense to be one and the same i. e. equal to its Dimensions We say By the Lay of Nature because if we convert to the Omnipotence of its Author and consider that the Creator did not circumscribe his own Energy by those fundamental Constitutions which his Wisedom imposed upon the Creature we must wind up the nerves of our Mind to a higher key of Conception and let our Reason learn of our Faith to admit the possibility of a Body existent without Extension and the Extension of a Body consistent without the Body it self as in the sacred mystery of our Saviours Apparition to his Apostles after his Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dores being shut Not that we can comprehend the manner of either i. e. the Existence of a Body without Extension and of Extension without a Body for our narrow intellectuals which cannot take the altitude of the smallest effect in Nature must be confest an incompetent measure of supernaturals but that whoever allowes the power of God to have formed a Body out of no praeexistent matter cannot deny the same power to extend to the reduction of the same Body to nothing of matter again Which the most pious S. August Epist. 3. and yet this hinders not but a Body which is not actually divided into parts may be said to be Continued insomuch as it so appears to the sense which cannot discern the several Commissures of its particles Again forasmuch as Aristotle defines a Continuum to be that whose Parts are conjoyned by some Common mean or Term it is requisite we observe how far forth his definition is consistent with right reason We allow it to be true Physically so far forth as there are no two parts assignable which are conjoyned by some third intermediate part either sensible as in a magnitude of three feet the two extreme feet are copulated together by the third intermediate or Insensible as in the magnitude of two feet which are joyned together by some interjacent particle so small as to evade the detection of sense But if with Him we accept that Common Mean or Terme for a Mathematical Point or individual for He expresly affirms that the parts of a Line are copulated by a Point the parts of a Superfice by a Line the parts of a Body by a Line or Superfice t is plain that our Conceptions must be inconsistent with Physical verity because such Insectiles or Individuals are not real but only Imaginary as we have copiously asserted in our Discourse concerning the Impossible Division of a Continuum into parts infinitely subdivisible Besides who can conceive that to be a Caement or Glew to unite two parts into one Continued substance which hath it self no parts designable either by sense or reason Nor can any thing be rightly admitted to conjoyn two Bodies unless it hath two sides Extremes or faces one whereof may adhaere to one of the two Bodies the other to the other so as to make a sensible Continuity Concerning the Quality of a Body called FIGURE that which is chiefly worthy our praesent adversion is onely this that if Figure be considered Physically it is nothing but the superficies or terminant Extreames of a Body We say Physically because Geometricians distinguish Figures into Superficial or Plane and Profound or Solid but the Physiologist knows no other Figure properly but the Superficial because in strict truth the Profound or Solid one seems to Him to be rather the Magnitude or Corpulency of a thing circumscribed or terminated by its Figure than the Figure it self abstractedly intended Nay if we insist upon the rigour of verity the Figure of a Body is really nothing but the Body it self at least the meer Manner of its Extreme parts according to which our sense deprehends it to be smooth or rough elated or depressed This may be most fully evinced by only one Example viz. the figure made upon Wax by the impression of a Seal For that Figure really is nothing but the very substance of the Wax in some parts made more Eminent in others more deprest or profound according to the Reverse of its Type ingraven in some hard substance and that without Adjection or Detraction oâ— any Entity whatever And what we affirm of the Figure made in Wax by Sigillation is of equal truth proportionately if accommodated to any other Figure whatever noâ— doth it imply a Difference whether the Figure be Natural such as in Animals Vegetables Minerals or Artificial such as in Aedifices Statues Characters c. SECT II. THe 〈◊〉 of Magnitude and Figure in Concretions being thus 〈…〉 follows that we explore their Effects i. e. the Qualities which seem so immediately cohaerent to the Magnitude and Figure of Bodies as that reason cannot consigne them to more likely and probable Principles than the two First Proprieties of the Universal Matter Atoms The 〈◊〉 therefore of Magnitude are SUBTILITY and its 〈…〉 Not that the Emergency of a Great Body from Atoms the 〈◊〉 Exile or of a small body from great Atoms is impossibl◠〈…〉 formerly intimated but that a Body consisting of more Exil◠〈…〉 Aâ—omâ— hath a greater subtility or obtains a Faculty of penâ—â—â—ating the contexture of another body by subingression into the pores 〈…〉 â—hereoâ— and a body consisting of grosser Atoms must have more of 〈…〉 Hebeâ—ude and so hath not the like Faculty of penetrating the Coâ—â—â—xtures of other bodies by subingression into the mane spaces oâ— inteâ—â—â—â—â— betwixt their particles This may be Exemplified in Fire and 〈…〉 and Oyle Aqua Fortis and Milk c. We are 〈◊〉 now to learn the truth of that Chymical Canon Cuique 〈…〉 vel extrahendae eligendum esse idoneum menstruum quod 〈…〉 respondeat experience having frequently ascertained us that Aqu◠〈◊〉 which soon dissolves the most compact of bodies Gold will no◠〈…〉 Reâ—ine Pitch Wax and many other Unctuous and Reâ—inous 〈◊〉 which yeild almost at first touch to the separatory â—acuâ—ty 〈…〉 that Mercurial Waters expeditely insinuate into the substance of Gold dissolve the Continuity of its
which is vulgarly reputed the 〈…〉 Gravity and by Aristotle defined to be a Quality inhaerent in 〈…〉 Bodies whereby they spontaneously tend upward we understand it to be nothing a less Gravity and so that Gravity and 〈◊〉 are Qualities of Concretions not Positive or Absolute but 〈◊〉 Comparative or Respective For the same Body maâ— be 〈…〉 be Heavy in respect to another that is Lighter and Light 〈…〉 to another that is Heavier For Example let us compare a Stone Water Oyle and Fire which we have formerly annumerated 〈◊〉 Terrene Concretions one to another to the end that our 〈◊〉 may be both illustrated and confirmed at once Water we 〈◊〉 being poured into a vesâ—el immediately descends to the bottom 〈…〉 and if permitted to settle doth soon acquiesce but upon 〈◊〉 â—ropping of Stone into the same vessel as the Stone descends 〈◊〉 Water ascends proportionately to give it room at the bottom And Oyle infused into a vessel alone doth likewise instantly 〈◊〉 and remains quiet at the bottom thereof but if Water be poureâ—â—â—ereupon the oyle soon ascends and floats on the surface of the Water If the Vessel be repleat only with Aer the Aer 〈◊〉 therein but when you pour oyle into it the Aer instantly asâ—ends and resignes to the oyle Lastly thus Fire would be â—mmediately incumbent upon the surface of the Earth and there 〈◊〉 but that the Aer being circumstant about the superfice 〈◊〉 the Terrestriaâ— Globe and the more weighty body of the two 〈◊〉 extrude it thence by depressure and so impell â—t upwards 〈◊〉 make room for it self beneath And thus are all these bodies 〈…〉 and Light Comparatively or Respectively The 〈…〉 all is the Stone as being the most strongly attracted 〈…〉 Earth or is the least Light among them all as being 〈…〉 abduced from the Earth And Water which is Light 〈…〉 of the Stone is yet Heavy in compaâ—â—son of Oyle seu fumum rapi in sublime extrudi suum extra locum ideoque statim languesâ—â—re tanquam confessâ causâ violentiae quae terrestri materiae illata fuitâ— quapropter Levitatem non dari aut non esse Connaturalem hisce corporiubs Conclude also with Us that in the Earth indeed there are Direct Motions Upward and Downward but those Motions are proper only to the Parts as Gravity and Levity are likewise proper only to the Parts not to the Whole or Globe of the Earth CHAP. XII HEAT and COLD SECT I. THe Genealogy of those sensible Qualities of Concretions which arise from either of the three Essential Proprieties of Atoms in its Single capacity thus far extending it self here begins that other of those which result from any Two or All of the same Proprieties in their several Combinations or Associations Of this order the First are Heat Cold Humidity Siccity which though the Schools building on the fundamentals of their Dictator Aristotle derive immediately and solely from the 4 First Qualities of the vulgar Elements Fire Aer Water Earth yet because those reputed Elements are but several Compositions of the Universal matter and so must desume their respective Qualities from the consociated Proprieties of the same and because the original of no one of those Qualities can be so intelligibly made out from any other Principles therefore doth our reason oblige us to deduce them only from the Magnitude Figure and Motion of Atoms Concerning the First of this Quaternary HEAT we well know that it is commonly conceived and defined by that relation it bears to the sense of touching in Animals or as it is the Efficient of that passion or Acute Pain as Plato in Timaeo calls it which Fire or immoderate Heat impresseth upon the skin or other organ of touching yet forasmuch as this Effect which it causeth in the sensient part of an Animal is only special and Relative therefore ought we to understand its Nature from some General and Absolute Effect upon which that Special and Relative one depends and that is the Penetration Discussion and Dissolution of Concretions To come therefore to the Determination of its Essence by the explanation of its Original by Heat as from our praecedent Disquisition of the Origine of Qualities in General may be praesumed we do not understand any Aristoletâ—â—â— i. e. naked or Immaterial Quality altogether abstract from matter but certain Particles of matter or Atoms which being essentially endowed with such a determinate Magnitude such a certain Figure and such a 〈◊〉 Motion are comparated to insinuate themselves into Concrete Bodies to penetrate them dissociate their parts and dissolve their Contextur 〈◊〉 to produce all thus mutations in them which are commonly 〈…〉 Heat or Fire Not that we gainsay but Heat may be considered 〈…〉 or as it is a certain peculiar Manner without which a substanc◠〈…〉 which sense Anaximeneâ— apud Plutarch de 〈…〉 allowed to have spoken tollerably when he said 〈…〉 substantial but affirm only that it is not 〈…〉 independent upon matter â—as most have 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ought else in Reality but Atoms themselves 〈…〉 Concretions so of all their Faculties 〈…〉 Motion so all Action ought to be imputed 〈…〉 from which we derive this noble and most 〈…〉 be not Hot essentially yet do they deserve the 〈…〉 of Heat or Calorifick Atoms insomuch as they have 〈…〉 to Create Heat i. e. cause that Effect which consisteth 〈…〉 Discussion Exsolution Likewise those Bodies which 〈…〉 such Atoms and may emit them from themselves ought also to be 〈…〉 Hot insomuch as that by the emission of their Calorifick 〈…〉 empowered to produce Heat in other bodies and 〈…〉 Actually emit them i. e. give their Calorifick Atoms liberty 〈…〉 Motions after exsilition then may they be 〈…〉 or Formally Hot as the Schools phrase it but which 〈…〉 them within themselves and hinder their exsilition they are 〈…〉 To the First of these Differenceâ— we are to refer 〈…〉 Second not only all those things which Physicians call 〈…〉 such as Wine Euphorlium Peper c. but 〈…〉 combustion incalescence and the 〈◊〉 〈…〉 objected such as Wood Resine Wax 〈…〉 be conceived to contain igneous or Calorifick 〈…〉 or imprisonment in Concretions 〈…〉 so not produce Heat but immediately 〈…〉 or emption they manifest their nature 〈…〉 〈…〉 What kind of Atoms these Calorifick ones are and 〈…〉 Heat depends Democritus Epicurus 〈…〉 Atomists unanimously tell us that they are Exile in 〈…〉 in Figure most Swift in Motion And this upon 〈…〉 That they must be most Exile in bulk is 〈…〉 that no Concretion can be so compact and solid 〈…〉 find some pores or small inlets whereat to insinuate 〈…〉 of it and penetrate thorow its substance 〈…〉 a number as is required to the total dissolution of its Contexture as in the Adamant which as Naturalists affirm no Fire can demolish or dissolve 2. That they ought to be Spherical in Figure is probable yea necessary from hence that of all others they are most Agile
they suddainly engage in a general cumbustion and dissolving all impediments 〈◊〉 their liberty Hence also proceed all those Heats which are observed in Fermentation Putrifaction and all other intestine Commotions and Mutations of Bodies Hither likewise would we refer that so generally believed Phaenomenon the Warmness of Fountains Cellars Mines and all subterraneous Fosses in Winter but that we conceive it not only superfluous but also of evil consequence in Physiology to consign a Cause where we have good reason to doubt the verity of the Effect For if we strictly examine the ground of that common Assertion we shall find it to consist only in a misinformation of our sense i. e. though Springs Wells Caves and all subterraneous places are really as Cold in Winter as Summer yet do we apprehend them to be warm because we suppose that we bring the organs of the sense of Touching alike disposed in Winter and Summer not considering that the same thing doth appear Cold to a hot and warm to a Cold hand nor observing that oyle will be conglaciated in Winter in subterraneous Cells which yet appear warm to those who enter them but not in Summer when yet they appear Cold. Secondly by Motion External when a Sawe grows Hot by continuall affriction against wood or stone or when fire is kindled by the long and hard affriction of 2 dry sticks c. This is manifest even from hence that unless the bodies agitated or rubbed against each other are such as contain igneous Atoms in them no motion however lasting and violent can excite the least degree of Heat in them For Water agitated most continently and violently never conceives the lest warmth because it is wholly destitute of Calorifick Atoms Lastly as for the Heat excited in a body upon the Motion of its Whole whether it be moved by it self or some External movent of this sort is that Heat of which motion is commonly affirmed to be the sole Cause as when an Animal grows hot with running c. and a Bullet acquires heat in flying c. And thus much concerning the manner of Emancipation of our Calorifick Atoms The next thing considerable is their peculiar Seminarie or Conservatory concerning which it may be observed that the Atoms of Fire cannot in regard of their extreme Exility sphaerical Figure and velocity of motion be in any but an Unctuous and viscous matter such whose other Atoms are more hamous and reciprocally cohaerent than to be dissociated easily by the intestine motions of the Calorifick Atoms so that some greater force is required to the dissolution of that unctuousness and tenacity whereby they mutually cohaere And hereupon we may safely conclude that an Unctuous substance is as it were the chief nay the sole Matrix or Seminary of Fire or Heat and that such Bodies only as are capable of incalescence and inflammation must contain somewhat of Fatness and unctuoâ—ity in them Sometimes we confess it is observed that Concretions which have no such Unctuosity at all in them as Water are Hot but yet we cannot allow them to be properly said to wax Hot but to be made Hot because the principle of that their Heat is not Internal to them but External or Ascititious For instance when Fire is put under a vessel of Water the small bodies or particles of Fire by degrees insinuate themselves thorowe the pores of the vessel into the substance of the Water and diffuse themselves throughout the same though not so totally at first as not to leave the major part of the particles of the Water untoucht to which other igneous Atoms successively admix themselves as the water grows hotter and 〈◊〉 And evident it is how small a time the Water doth keeâ—â—ts acquired heat when once removed from the fire because thâ—â—toms of Heat being meerly Adventitious to it they spontaneousl◠〈◊〉 it one after another and leave it as they found it Cold only 〈◊〉 Alteration they cause therein that they diminish the Quantity the 〈◊〉 insomuch as successively asâ—ending into the aer they carry along 〈◊〉 them the more tenuious and moveable particles of the Water in 〈◊〉 â—pparence of vapours which are nothing but Water Diffused 〈…〉 Bu◠〈…〉 we affirm that only Unctuous Bodies are Inflammable be gâ—â—â—rally true whence comes it that amongst Unctuous and 〈…〉 some more easily take fire than others The 〈…〉 is this that the Atoms of Fire incarcerated in â—ome 〈◊〉 are not so deeply immerst in nor so opprest and 〈…〉 other Heterogenous particles of matter as in others 〈…〉 the lâ—berty of Eruption much more easily Thus 〈…〉 kindled than Green because in the green the Aâ—ueous 〈…〉 surrounding and oppressing the Atoms of Fire therein containe◠〈◊〉 first tâ— be discussed and attenuated into vapours but in the 〈◊〉 time bâ— the mediation of the warmth in the ambient aeâ— hath 〈…〉 that luxuriant moysture so that none but the 〈…〉 oâ— unâ—tuous part wherein the Atoms of Fire have their 〈…〉 remains to be discussed which done the Atoms of 〈…〉 issue forth in swarms and discover themselves in 〈…〉 spirit of Wine is so much the sooner inflammable by how much 〈◊〉 more pure and defaecated it is because the igneous Atoms 〈…〉 concluded are delivered from the greater part of that 〈…〉 humidity wherewith they were formerly â—urrounded 〈…〉 On the contrary a stone is not made Combustibâ—e 〈◊〉 great â—â—fficulty because the substance of it is so compact as 〈…〉 Unctuous humidity is long in discussion We â—ay a Stone 〈…〉 or Arenaceous one because such is destitute of all 〈◊〉 and so of all igneous particles but a Lime-stone 〈…〉 capable of reduction to a Calx or a Flint out of which by 〈◊〉 against steel are excussed many small fragments plentifully 〈◊〉 Atoms of Fire The 〈◊〉 and Origine of Heat being thus fully explicated according 〈…〉 most verâ—imilous Principles of Democritus Epicurus and their 〈…〉 that we progress to those Porifmata or 〈◊〉 which from thence result to our observation and the 〈…〉 some most considerable Problems retaining to the same 〈◊〉 sucâ— especially as have hitherto eluded the folutive 〈…〉 any other Hypothesis but what we have here 〈◊〉 〈…〉 as the Atoms of Heat which are always 〈…〉 â—nctuous Matter doe upon the acquisition of 〈…〉 â—orth with violence and insinuating themselves into Bodies which they meet withal and totally pervading them dissociate their particles and dissolve their Compage or Contexture Hence is it manifest that Rarefaâ—tion or Dilatation is upon good reason accounted the proper Effect of Heat since those parts of a body which are Conjoyned cannot be Disjoyned but they must instantly possess a greater part of space understand us in that strict sense which we kept our selves to in our Discourse of Rarefaction and Condensation than before Hence comeâ— it that Water in boyling seems so to be encreased that what when cold filled scarce half the Caldron in ebullition cannot be contained in the whole but swells over
Dissolve the compage of the Metal or Ice and Dissociate all the particles thereof for so long as the Heat is continued so long do the Ice and Metal remain Dissolved and Fluid This considered what shall we say to Aristotle who makes it the Essential Attribute of Heat Congregare Homogenea to Congregate Homogeneous Bodies Truly rather then openly convict so great a Votary to truth of so palpable an Error we should gladly become his Compurgator and palliate his mistake with an indulgent comment that in his Definition of Heat to be a Quality genuinely Congregative of Homogeneous natures He had his eye not upon the General Effect of Heat which He could not but observe to Disgregate the particles of all things aswel Homogeneous as Heterogeneous but upon some special Effect of it upon some particular Concretions such as are Compounded of parts of Divers natures as Wood and all Combustible bodies Concerning which indeed His Assertion is thus far justifiable that the whole Bodie is so dissolved by fire as that the Dissimilar parts of it are perfectly sequestred each from other and every one attains it proper place the Aereal part ascending and associating with the Aer the Aqueous evaporating the Igneous discovering themselves in Flame and the earthy remaining behind in the forme of Ashes But alas this favourable Conjecture cannot excuse nor gild over his Incogitancy for the Congregation of the Homogenous particles of a Body dissolved by Fire in the place most convenient to their particular Nature ariseth immediately from their own Tendency thither or that we may speak more like our selves i. e. the Disciples of Epicurus from their respective proportions of Gravity the more Heavy extruding and so impelling upward the less heavy and only Accidentally from Heat or as it hath dissolved the caement and so the Continuity of the Concretion wherein they were confusedly and promiscuously blended together So that Truth will not dispense with our Connivence at so dangerous a Lapse though in one of Her choicest Favorites chiefly because it hath already deluded so many of Her seekers under the glorious title of a Fundamental Axiome but strictly enjoynes Us to Conclude that Heat per se or of its own nature is alwayes a Disgregative Quality and that it is of of meer Accident that upon the sequestration of Heterogeneities Homogeneous Natures are associated rather than è contra that it is of meer Accident that while Heat Congregates Homogeneous it should Disgregate Heterogeneous Natures as Aristotle most inconsiderately affirmed and taught SECT II. AS in the Course so in the Discourse of Nature having done with the principle of Life Heat we must immediately come to the principle of Death COLD whose Essence we cannot seasonably explain before we have proved that it hath an Essence since many have hotly though with but cold Arguments contended that it hath none at all but is a meer Privation or Nothing That Cold therefore is a Real Ens and hath a Positive Nature of its own may be thus demonstrated 1. Such are the proper Effects of Cold as cannot without open absurdity be ascribed to a simple Privation since a Privation is incapable of Action for Cold compingeth all Bodies that are capable of its efficacy and congealeth Water into Ice which is more than ever any man durst assigne to a privation And when a man thrusts his hand into cold Water the Cold He then feels cannot be sayd to be a meer privation of the Heat of his hand since his hand remains as Hot if not hotter than before the Calorifick Atoms of his hand being more united by the circumobsistence of the Cold. 2. All Heat doth Concentre and unite it self upon the Antiperistasis of Cold not from fear of a privation because Heat is destitute of a sense of its owne being and so of fear to lose that being and if not yet Nothing can have no Contrariety nor Activity but from Repulsion as we have formerly delivered 3. Though many bodies are observed to become Cold upon the absence or Expiration of Heat yet is it the intromission of the Quality contrary to Heat that makes them so for if External Cold be not introduced into their pores they cannot be so properly sayd Frigescere to wax Cold as Decalescere to wax less Hot. Thus a stone which is not Hot nor Cold unless by Accident being admoved to the fire is made Hot and removed from the fire you cannot unless the ambient Aer intromit its Cold into it so justly say that it growes Cold as that it grows Less hot or returnes to its native state of indifferency 4. When Water vulgarly though untruely praesumed to be naturally or essentially cold is congealed into Ice by the Cold of the aer it would be most shamefully absurd to affirm that the Cold of the Ice ariseth meerly from the Absence of Heat in the water because it is the essential part of the supposition that the Water had no Heat before 5. Privation knowes no Degrees for the Word imports the totall Destitution or Absence of somewhat formerly had otherwise in rigid truth it can be no Privation and therefore our common Distinction of a Partial and Total privation hath lived thus long meerly upon indulgence and tolleration but Cold hath its various Degrees for Water is colder to the touch than Earth Ice than Water c. therefore Cold is no Privative but a Positive Quality The Reality of Cold being thus clearly evicted we may with more advantage undertake the consideration of its Formality and explore the roots of those Attributes commonly imputed thereunto First therefore we observe that though Cold be Scholastically defined by that passion caused in the organs of the sense of touching upon the contact of a Cold object yet doth not that special Notion sufficiently express its Nature because there is a more General Effect by which it falls under our cognizance and that is the Congregation and Compaction of the parts of bodies For since Cold is the Antagonist to Heat whose proper vertue it is to Discuss and Disgregate therefore must the proper and immediate virtue of Cold be to Congregate and Compinge and consequently ought we to form to our selves a notion of the Essence of Cold according to that general Effect rather than that special one produced in the sense of Touching which doth adumbrate only a Relative part of it Secondly that by Cold we understand not any Immaterial Quality as Aristotle and the Schools after him but a Substantial one i. e. certain particles of Matter or Atoms whose determinate Magnitude and Figure adapt or empower them to congregate and compinge bodies or to produce all those Effects observed to arise immediately from Cold. And as the Atoms which are comparated to the Causation of such Effects may rightly be termed the Atoms of Cold or Frigorifick Atoms so may those Concretions which harbour such Atoms and are capable of Emitting them be named Cold Concretions
they make their Consistence more Compact and somewhat Rigid as in Ice Snow Haile Hoar-frost c. The Consignation of a Tetrahedical Figure to Frigorifick Atoms appearing thus eminently verisimilous to the full Explanation of the Nature of Cold it remains only that we decide that notable Controversy which so much perplexed many of the Ancients viz. Whether Cold be an Elementary Quality or more plainly Whether or no the Principality of Cold belongs to any one of the four vulgar Elements and so whether Aer or Water or Earth may not be conceived to be Primum Frigidum as rightfully as Fire is sayd to be Primum Calidum Especially since it is well known that the Stoicks imputed the principality of Cold to the Aer Empedocles to Water to whom Aristotle plainly assented though He sometimes forgot himself and affirmed that no Humor is without Heat as in 5. de Generat Animal cap. â— and Plutarch to Earth as we have learned from Himself lib. de frigore primigenio To determine this Antique Dispute therefore we first observe that it arose cheifly from a Petitionary Principle For it appears that all Philosophers who engaged therein took it for granted that the Quality of Heat was eminently inhaerent in Fire the chief of the 4 Principal or Elementary substances and thereupon inferred that the Contrary Quality Cold ought in like manner to have its principal residence in one of the other 3 when introth they ought first to have proved that there was such a thing as an Element of Fire in the Universe which is more than any Logick can hope since the Sphere of Fire which they supposed to possess all that vast space between the convex of the Sphere of Aer and the concave of that of the Moon is a meer Chimaera as we have formerly intimated and Helmont hath clearly commonstrated in cap. de Aere And Secondly we affirm that as the Highest degree of Heat is not justly attributary to any one Body more than other or by way of singular eminency for the Sphere of Fire failing what other can be substituted in the room thereof but to sundry special Bodies which are capable of Exciting or Conceiving Heat in the superlative degree so likewise though we should concede that there are 3 Principal Bodies in Nature namely Aer Water Earth in each whereof the Quality of Cold is sensibly harboured yet is there no one of them of its own nature more principally Cold than other or which of it self containeth Cold in the highest degree but some special Bodies there are composed of them which are capable of Exciting and Conceiving Cold in an eminent manner But in Generals is no Demonstration and therefore we must advance to Particulars and verify our Assertion in each of the Three supposed Elements apart For the Earth forasmuch as our sense certifieth that it is even Torrified with Heat in some places and Congealed with Cold in others according to the temperature of the ambient Aer in divers climats or as the Aer being calefied by the Sun or frigified by frost doth variously affect it in it superficial or Exterior parts and so it cannot be discerned that its External parts are endowed with one of these opposite Qualities more than the other and since we cannot but observe that there are many great and durable subterraneous Fires burning in and many fervid and sulphlureous Exlations frequently emitted and more Hot Springs of Mineral Waters perpetually issuing from its Interior parts or bowels and so it is of necessity that vast seminaries of Igneous Atoms be included in the Entrals thereof We say considering these things we cannot deny but that the Earth doth contain as many Particles of Heat or Calorifick Atoms both without and within as it doth of seeds of Cold or Frigorifick Atoms if not more and upon consequence that it cannot be Primum Frigidum as Plutarch and all his Sectators have dreamt What then shall we conclude Antithetically and conceive that the Globe of the Earth is therefore Essentially rather Hot than Cold Truely No because experience demonstrateth that the Earth doth belch forth Cold Exhalations and congealing blasts as well as Hot Fumes and more frequently witness the North-wind which is so cold that it refrigerates the Aer even in the middst of Summer when the rivers are exhausted by the fervor of the Sun to which Elihu one of Iobs sorry Comforters seems to have alluded when He said That Cold cometh out of the North and the Whirlwind out of the South All therefore we dare determine in this difficult argument the decision whereof doth chiefly depend upon Experiments of vast labour and costs is only thus much that the Earth which is now Hot now Cold in its extreme or superficial parts may as to its Internal or profound parts be as reasonably accounted to contain various seminaries of Heat as of Cold and that the principal seeds of Cold or such as chiefly consist of Frigorifick Atoms do convene into Halinitre and other Concretions of natures retaining thereto And our Reason is that Halinitre is no sooner dissolved in Water than it congealeth the same into perfect Ice and strongly refrigerates all bodies that it toucheth insomuch that we may not only conclude that of all Concretions in Nature at least that we have discovered none is so plentifully fraught with the Atoms or seeds of Cold as Halinitre but also adventure to answer that Problem proposed to Iob Out of whose womb came the Ice and the Hoary Frost of heaven who hath gendred it by saying that all our Freezing and extreme Cold winds seem to be only copious Exhalations of Halinitre dissolved in the bowels of the Earth or consisting of such Frigorifick Atoms as compose Halinitre and this because of the identity of their Effects for the Tramontane Wind the coldest of all winds as Fabricius Paduanus in his exquisite Book de Ventis copiously proveth which the Italians call Chirocco can pretend to no natural Effect in which Halinitre may not justly rival it Long might we dwell upon this not more rare than delightful subject but besides that it deserves a profest Disquisition apart by it self our speculations are limited and may not without indecency either digress from their proper Theme or transgress the strict Laws of Method May it suffice therefore in praesent that we have made it justifiable to conceive that the Earth containeth many such Particles or Atoms whether such as pertain to the Composition of Halinitre or of any other kind whatever upon the Exsilition of which the body containing them may be said to become Cold or pass from Potential to Actual Cold and upon the insinuation of which into Aer Water Earth Stones Wood Flesh or any other terrene Concretion whatever Cold is introduced into them and they may be said to be Frigefied or made Cold. Secondly as for Water that the praetext thereof to the praerogative of Essential Frigidity is also fraudulent and inconsistent
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
resteth but also Versus latera toward the sides or circumambient And that after a various manner according to the various Contextures of soft bodies in the superfice For if the superfice i. e. the outward part of a soft body be of a more Compact and tenacious Contexture than the interior mass or substance as is the skin of an Animal compared to the subjacent flesh and a bladder in respect of the oyle therein contained in that case the compression of the particles is indeed propagated by succession to some distance as well toward the bottom as the sides to which the superior particles being pressed directly downward and there resisted deflect yet not to that distance as where the superfice is of the same Contexture with the interior mass as in Wax and Clay in both which the Compression and so the yeilding may be propagated quite thorow or from the superior to the inferior superfice where it immediately resteth upon the hard body all the intermediate particles starting toward the sides as being pressed above and resisted belowe And hereupon doubtless was it that Aristotle properly called those soft bodies whose superfice is either of a weaker or of the same contexture with their internal substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Formatilia insomuch as when a Seal or other Solid body doth press them they suffer such a Diffraction or Solution of Continuity in their superficial parts as that the dissociated particles are not able to restore themselves to their former situation and mutual cohaesion but retain the figure of the body which pressed them and on the contrary such as have the contexture of their superfice more firm and tenacious than that of their internal mass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pressilia insomuch as upon pressure they suffer not so great a Diffraction or Solution of Continuity in their superficial parts but that they still have some mutual cohaerence and so are able to restore themselves to their former situation upon the remove of the body that pressed them For the illustration of this it is observable 1 That to the yielding of every soft body when pressed it is necessary that it have freedom of space on its sides because if the lateral particles when pressed by the intermediaâ—â— ones have not room whether to recede they cannot yield at all and so the Compression must be very small This may most sensibly be Exemplified in a tube filled with Water for if you attempt to compress the Water therein contained with a Râ—mmer so exactly adapted to the bore of the tube as that no spaces be left betwixt it and the sides thereof whereat the water may rise upward you shall make buâ— a very small and almost insensible progress therein 2 That no superfice of what contexture soever can be depressed versus profundum or be any way dilated but it must suffer some Diffraction or Solution of Continuity more or less For insomuch as each particle of the superfice doth possess a peculiar part of space proportionate to its dimensions and though upon the Dilatation of the superfice i. e. the remove of its particles to a more lax order greater spaces are intercepted among them yet are not the particles multiplied in number nor magnified in dimensions and so cannot possess more or greater spaces than before therefore is it necessary that the superfice be variously crackt and the continuity thereof infringed in many places The Necessity hereof doth farther evidence it self in the Flexion of a Twig Cane or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flexile body for when a Twigg is bended as the Concave superfice becomes Contracted and Corrugated the particles thereof being not able to penetrate each other nor crowd themselves into fewer places So at the same time is the Convex Dilated and suffers many small breaches or cracks the particles thereof being uncapable either to multiply themselves or possess more spaces than before The same likewise is easily intelligible in a Tractile body such as Aristotle names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Nerve or Lutestring for allbeit the interruption of Continuity be not so manifest to the sense in a Tractile as in a Flexile body yet may we observe that when a Tractile body is extended or drawn out in length it is extenuated or diminished in thickness And what think you becomes of those interior particles which compose its Crassitude or thickness Certainly they must come sorth into the superfice that so they may interpose themselves â—mong the Dissociated particles thereof possess the void spaces left betwixt them and with their small clawes or hooks on each hand cohaering to them make the superfice apparently continued Would you observe the Interruption of Continuity among the superficial particles of a Tractile body and the issuing forth and intermistion of interior particles among them be pleased to paint over a Lutestring with some oyled Colour and afterward vernish it over with oyle of Turpentine then strain it hard upon the Lute and you shall plainly perceive the superfice of it to crack and become full of small clefts or chinks and new particles not tincted with the colour to issue forth from the entralls of the string and interpose themselves among those small breaches Lastly the same is also discoverable by the sight in a Ductile body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as every Metal for no metal when pressed or hammerd is dilated or expanded on all sides for any other reason but this that it is as much attenuated in thickness and the particles in the superfice are so dissociated as that the interior particles rise up possess the deserted spaces and cohaere to the discontinued exterior particles as may be more plainly discerned if the superfice of the Metal be tincted with some colour SECT II. FRom the Praemises whereupon we therefore insisted somewhat the longer â—t is manifest that FLEXILITY TRACTILITY DUCTILITY and other Qualities of the same Classis are all the Consequents of Softness as the Contrary to them all RIGIDITY is the Consequent of Hardness insomuch as whoever would frame to himself an exact notion of a Rigid body meerly as a Rigid must compose it of the Attributes inflexile intractile inductile Nor doth any thing remain to our clear understanding of the nature of FLEXILITY but the Solution of that great Difficulty Cur flexilia postquam inflexa fuerint in pristinum statum resiliant Why a flexile body such as a Bowe of wood Steel Whalebone c. doth after flexion spring back again into its natural figure and situation The Reason of this Faculty of Restitution we conceive with the immortal Gassendus to be this that the Recurse or Resilition of a flexile body is a certain Reflex motion which is continued with a Direct motion as we shall have opportunity professedly to demonstrate in our subsequent Enquiry into the nature of Motion In the mean while it may suffice to stay the stomach of Curiosity that we evidence the cause of
〈◊〉 Experiments some whereof are recited by the Lord St. Alban in â—â—lva sylvarum Cent. 1. But this one will serve the turne When an Oyster or Tortois shell is let fall from a sufficient altitude upon a stone 〈◊〉 is usually shattered into many peices and that for no other Reason but this that the lower side whether Convex or Concave being vehemently impinged against the stone the particles thereof immediately knockt by the stone as vehemently give back and in their quick Retrocession impell the particles situate immediately above them whereupon those impelled particles with the same violence impell others next in order above them until the percussion being propagated from part to part successively quite home to the upper superfice it comes to pass that each percussed part giving back the whole shell is shattered into small Fragments All which may seem but a genuine Paraphrase upon the Text of Mersennus Harmonicor lib 2. propos 43. Duritiei verò proprietas appellatur Rigiditas quae fit ab Atomis ita sibi invicem cohaerentibus ut Deflexionem impediant quod contingit in Corporibus quae constant Atomis Cubicis octuedris tetruedis ex quibus resultat perfecta superficiecularum inter se cohaesio hinc â—it ut Rigida Corpora Fructilia sint non autem Sectilia ictu impacto tota in frusta dissiliant Qui adum praedictae superficiunculae se invicem premunt quae sunt ex una parte dimoventur ab iis quae ex alia adeo ut unico impetu externo Corpori impresso Contusio sentiatur per totum partium eodem momento fit separatio There yet remains a Quality which is the Ofspring neither of Softness alone nor Hardness alone but ought to be referred partly to the one partly to the other and that is RUPTILITY For not only such Bodies as challenge the Attribute of Softness are subject to Ruption when they are distressed beyond the tenour of their Contexture either by too much Inflexion as a Bow over bent or too much Distention as Leather or Parchment over strained or too much Malleation as a plate of Lead Iron or other Metal over hammerd but such also as claim the title of Hardness and that in an eminent proportion as Marble for a Pillar of Marble if long and slender and laid transversly or horizontally so as to rest only upon its two extrems is easily broken asunder by its own Weight For as Soft bodies when rackt or deduced beyond the râ—te of mutual Cohaerence among their parts must yeeld to the External Force which distresâ—eth them and so suffer total discontinuity so Hard ones when the Internal Force or their owne Weight is too great to be resisted by their Compactness as in the example of a long Marble Pillar not supported in the middle then must they likewise yeeld to that superior force and break asunder And here the Archer and Musician put in for a Solution of that PROBLEM which so frequently troubles them viz. Cur Chordae faciliâ—â—s circa Exâ—rema quam circa Medium frangantur cum vi vel pondere sive horizontaliter sive verticaliter trahuntur Why Bowstrings Lutestrings and other Chords though of uniforme Contexture throughout and equally distended in all parts do yet usually break asunder not in the middle or neer it but at one End where they are fastned The Cause certainly must be this that the Weight or drawing force doth alwayes first act upon the parts of the string which are neerest to it and successively upon those which are farthest off i. e. in the Middle so that the string suffering the greatest stress neer the Extrems is more subject to break there than in any other part Wherefore whenever a Bowstring breaks in or neer the middle it may safely be concluded that the string was weakest in that place To which we may add this also that Experienced Archers to praevent the frequent breaking of their strings and the danger of breaking the Bow thereby injoyn their String-makers to add a Link of Flax or Twist more at the Ends of each string than in any other parts of it and that they call the Forcing because Experience hath taught them that the Force of the Bow is most violently discharged upon those parts of the string which are neerest to the Horns CHAP. XV. OCCULT QUALITIES made MANIFEST SECT I. HAving thus long entertained it self with the most probable Reasons of the several wayes and means whereby Compound Bodies exhibite their several Attributes and Proprieties to the judicature of the Sensitive Faculties in Animals and principally in Man the Rule Perfection and grand Exemplar of all the rest t is high time for our Curiosity to turn a new leaf and sedulously address it self to the speculation of Another Order or Classis of Qualities such as are vulgarly distinguished from all those which have hitherto been the subject of our Disquisitions by the unhappy and discouraging Epithite OCCULT Wherein we use the scarce perfect Dialect of the Schools who too boldly praesuming that all those Qualities of Concretions which belong to the jurisdiction of the senses are dependent upon Known Causes and deprehended by Known Faculties have therefore termed them Manifest and as incircumspectly concluding that all those Proprieties of Bodies which fall not under the Cognizance of either of the Senses are derived from obscure and undiscoverable Causes and perceived by Unknown Faculties have accordingly determined them to be Immanifest or Occult. Not that we dare be guilty of such unpardonable Vanity and Arrogance as not most willingly to confess that to Ourselves all the Operations of Nature are meer Secrets that in all her ample catalogue of Qualities we have not met with so much as one which is not really Immanifest and Abstruse when we convert our thoughts either upon its Genuine and Proxime Causes or upon the Reason and Manner of its perception by that Sense whose proper Object it is and consequently that as the Sensibility of a thing doth noe way praesuppose its Intelligibility but that many things which are most obvious and open to the Sense as to their Effects may yet be remote and in the dark to the Understanding as to their Causes so on the Contrary doth not the Insensibility of a thing necessitate nay nor aggravate the Unintelligibility thereof but that many things which are above the sphere of the Senses may yet be as much within the reach of our Reason as the most sensible whatever Which being praecogitated as when we look back upon our praecedent Discourses touching the Originals and Perception of Sensible Qualities we have just ground to fear that they have not attained the happy shoar of verity but remain upon the wide and fluctuating ocean of meer Verisimility So also when we look forward upon our immediately subsequent Disquisitions into the Causes of many Insensible Qualities are we not destitute of good reason to hope that though we herein attempt the consignation of
their own occasionall and extemporary spinning as t is not every common eye that can discern them Nay in a Mask at Court we have seen a whole Chorus of Gods descend into the theatre as from the clouds only by Wires and other lines so fine and slender as that all the light of the tapers burning therein was not sufficient to discover them to the sight of the Spectators and vast and ponderous Scenes so suddenly and dextrously shifted by the almost inobservable motions of Skrews Elevators Pulleys and the like Archimedean Engines and Devices that the common Beholders judging only by the Apparence or rather Non-apparence have thought those great machines to have been Automatous or to have moved themselves and at last to vanish into nothing And shall we not then allowe the incomparably more Curious Mechaniques of Natures the Exemplar of Art to be wrought by Instruments of Subtility incomparably greater and that many of those small Engines whereby she usually moves and susteins bodies of considerable bulk and weight are Corporeal though by incomputable excesses below the perception of our acutest sense Certainly for us to affirm that nothing Material is emitted from the Loadstone to Iron which by continuity may Attract it only because our sense doth deprehend nothing intercedent betwixt them is an Argument of equal weight with that of the Blind man who denied the Being of Light and Colours because He could perceive none In a word if there be any validity in what we have so plainly asserted and frequently inculcated touching the Hebetude or Grossness of our Senses on one part and the great Exility of all Aporraea's or Effuxes streaming from Bodies on the other and if thaâ— Oracle Reason be to be heard which so long since persuaded Hippocrates and many other Secretaries of Nature that most if not All Bodies are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perspirable and Conspirable i. e. that they continually emit insensible Effluvia's from themselves to others We say if there be any weight in all this men cannot think it unreasonable in us to conceive that those Admired Effects which they commonly ascribe to Hidden Sympathies and Antipathies are brought about by the same ways and means which Nature and Art use in the Causation of the like Ordinary and Sensible Effects and that the Instruments of Natural Attraction Complectence Repulsion Sejunction are Corporeal and hold a neer Analogie to those of Artificial only these are Gross and Perceptible those Subtile and Imperceptible Notwithstanding the perspicuity of these Arguments we shall not supererogate to heighten the lustre of so desirable a Truth by the vernish of a convenient and praegnant Simile or two If we attentively observe a Chamaeleon catching Gnats and other small Flyes in the Aer for his food we shall see him dart out a long and slender tongue with a small recurvation at the tip and birdlimed with a certain tenacious and inviscating moisture wherewith in a trice laying hold of a Fly at some distance from his mouth he conveys the same into it with such cleanly speed as exceeds the Legerdemane of our cunningst Juglers and may have been the cheif occasion of that popular Error that he lives meerly upon Aer And when we see a peice of Amber Jet hard Wax or other Electrique after sufficient friction to attract straws shavings of wood quils and other festucous bodies of the same lightness objected within the orbe of their Alliciency and that with a cleanly and quick motion Why should we not conceive that this Electricity or Attraction may hold a very neer Analogy to that attraction of Gnats by the exserted and nimbly retracted tongue of a Chamaeleon For 1 it is not improbable that the Attraction of all Electriques is performed by the mediation of swarms of subtle Emanations or Continued Rayes of exile particles comparative to so many Chamaeleons Tongues which through the whole Sphere of their Virtue in various points mutually intersecting or decussating and more especially toward their Extreams doe not only insinuate themselves into the pores of those small and light festucous bodies occurrent but lay hold upon several insensible Asperities in their superfices and then returning by way of Retraction back to their Original or Source bring them along in their twined arms and so long hold them fast in their Complicate embraces as the warmth and radial Diffusion excited by affriction lasteth 2 All the Disparity that can be objected seems to consist onely in the Manner of their Return or Retraction the Tongue of the Chamaeleon being both darted forth and retracted by help of certain Muscles wherewith Nature by a peculiar providence hath accommodated that otherwise Helpless Animal but Electriques are destitute of any such organs either for the Exsertion or Reduction of their Rayes And this is not so great but it may be solved by supposing that as if the Chamaeleons Tongue were drawn forth at length by a mans hand and not extruded by the instruments of Voluntary Motion it would again Contract and Reduce it self spontaneously after the same manner as Nerves and Lutestrings retract and curle up themselves after violent Distension so may the Rayes which stream from an Electrique being abduced from their fountains not spontaneously but by the force of praecedent Affriction be conceived to Reduce and Retract themselves after the manner of Sinews and Lutestrings violently extended 3 That such tenacious Rayes are abduced from Amber and other Electriques is easily convincible besides the experiment of their Attraction of convenient objects from hence that all Electriques are Uncâ—uous and Pinguous Concretions and that in no mean degree and manifest it is that a viscid and unctuous Bodie is no sooner Warmed by rubbing but there rise out of it certain small Lines or Threads which adhaere to a mans finger that toucheth it and such as may by gentle abduction of the finger be prolonged to considerable distance But however this may be controverted and the Way of all Electrique Attractions variously explicated according to the various Conceptions of men the Itch of Phancy being soonest allayed by the liberty of ones singular Conjecture in such curious Theorems yet still is it firme and indubitable that though the Attraction of straws by Amber be in some sort Admirable yet is it not Miraculous as is implied in that opinion which would have it to be by some Immaterial i e. Supernatural Virtue and that it is effected by some Corporeal though both impalpable and invisible Organs continued from the Attrahent to the Attracted On the Other side as for the Abaction or Repulsion of one thing by another in respect whereunto Vulgar Philosophers have thought and taught that the Abacted or Repulsed doth if an Animal voluntarily if Inanimate spontaneously Flie from and avoid Conjunction with the Abacting or Repellent by reason of some hidden Enmity or Antipathy betwixt their Forms though the Reasons and Manner of such Fugation so far forth as concerns Animals may be
one of a Philosopher 13 Here we should open and survey the whole Theatre of Venoms or Poisons on one hand and that of Antidotes or Counterpoisons on the other those operating to the Destruction these to the Muniment and Conservation of Life and both by such Qualities and wayes as are generally both by Physiologists and Physitians praesumed to be Occult or beyond the investigation of Reason and of which all that is known is learned in the common School of Experience But worthily to examine the Nature of each particular Poison among those many found in the lists of Animals Vegetables Minerals and explicate the Propriety by which its proper Antidote or Alexipharmacon doth encounter oppose conquer and expel it must of necessity enlarge this Section into a Volume besides the expence of more time than what we have consigned to our whole Work And therefore we hope our Reader will not conceive his expectation wholly frustrated nor Curiosity altogether defrauded though we now entertain Him only with the General Reasons Why Poisons are Hostile and Destructive why Counterpoisons friendly and Conservaâ—ive of Life Gwoinus de Venen lib. 2. cap. 24. we well remember defines Venenum Poison to be quod in corpus ingressum vim infert Naturae illamque vincit That which being admitted into the body offers violence to Nature and conquers it And according to this Definition by Poisons we understand not only such things as bear a pernicious Enmity in particular to the temperament of the Heart or that substance wherein the Vital Faculty may be conceived principally and immediately to consist but all such as are hostile and destructive to the temperament of the Brain or any oâ—her Noble and Principal Organ of the body so as by altering the requisite Constitution thereof they subvert the aeconomy and ruine the frame of Nature wherein the Disposition of the parts to perform the Actions of Life is radicated And that wherein this Deleterious or Pernicious Faculty doth consist we conceive to be a certain Substance which being communicated or infused into any part of the body though in very small quantity doth by reason of the exceeding Subtility and violent Mobility or Agility of the insensible particles of which it is composed most easily and expeditely transfuse or disperse it self through the whole body consociate it self to the spirits and invading the Heart Brain or other Principal Organ so alter the requisite Disposition or temperament and habit thereof as to make it thenceforth wholly uncapable of performing the Functions or Actions of life to which it was destined and framed and by that means introduceth extreme Destruction Likewise by Alexipharmacal Medicaments or Counterpoisons we understand not such things as have only a propitious and benign Friendship particularly for the temperament of the Brain Heart or other Noble Organ in the body and are therefore accounted specifically Auxiliant and Corroborative thereunto in the Expulsion of ought that is noxious and offensive unto it because in that sense all Cardiacal Cephalical and Specifically Corroborative Medicaments would be Alexiterial and every peculiar Venome would not require its proper Antivenome both which are contradicted by Experience But such things as are endowed with Faculties è diametro and directly Contrapugnant to Poisons meerly as Poisons For divers things that are absolute Poisons of themselves and would destroy if taken alone by themselves do yet become powerful Praeservatives and Antidotes against other poisons and afford suddain and certain relief to nature when taken to oppose them Thus Aconite than which scarce any venome is more speedy and mortal in its operation upon a sound body doth yet prove a praesent remedy to one bitten by a Scorpion if drank in Wine as Pliny hath observed lib. 27. cap. 2. And that wherein this Salutiferous Virtue of Antidotes doth consist we conceive likewise to be a certain Substance which being received into the body though in small quantitie doth with expedition diffuse it self throughout the same and encountering the venome formerly admitted and then operating refract its energy praevent its further violence extinguish its operation and at length either totally subdue or totally educe it For All Alexipharmacal Remedies do not bring relief to nature assaulted and oppressed by Poison by one and the same way or manner of operation some working by way of Repulsion others by way of Abduction others by way of Opposition and downright Conquest when they are taken Inwardly some by Retraction others by Extinction where they are applied Externally Thus Triacle whose Basis or master ingredient is the Flesh of Vipers doth cure a man empoisoned by the Biting of a Viper only because in respect of Consimilarity or Similitude of substance it uniteth it self to the Venome of the Viper which had before taken possession of and diffused it self throughout the body and afterwards educeth the same together with it self when it is expelled by sweating procured by divers Cardiacal and Hidrotical or Sudorifick Medicaments commixt in the same Composition no otherwise than as Soap whose principal Ingredient is oil doth therefore take off oily and greasie spots from Clothes because uniting it self unto a Cognate or Consimilar substance the Oil or Fat adhaering to the Cloth and so assisting its Dilution and Concorporation with the Water in which it self is dissolved it carrieth the same away together with it self in the water when that is expressed or wrung out by the hand of the Laundress More plainly As oyle is therefore commixed with Ashes or Salt in the composition of Soap to the end it may not stain the Cloth anew to which it is applyed but being confused with the oil or Fat wherewith the cloth was formerly stained Abduce or carry off the same together with it self in the water which is the Vehicle to both so likewise is the Flesh of Vipers therefore commixt with so many Alexiterial Simples as concur to the Confection of Triacle to the end it may by them be hindred from envenoming the body a new but yet at the same time be so commixt with the Venome already diffused tâ—rough the body as that when those Alexiterial Medicaments are by Sâ—â—at or otherwise educed from the body carrying along with them thâ— Venome of the Vipers flesh to which they are individually consociâ—ted they may also abduce or carry away that venome of the Vipers tooth which was formerly diffused through the body And this we mâ—reover conceive may be the General Reason not only of the Evacuatâ—on of Venomes by Sweat where the Antidote works by Union and Aâ—â—uction but also of the Evacuation of superfluous Humours by Elective 〈◊〉 or Purging Medicaments that specifically educe this or that Humor for it may be as lawfully said that Like may be cured by Like or 〈◊〉 by Unlike as that oil may be absterged by its Like viz. the oil in Soâ—p and by something that is Unlike viz. the Salt or Water carrying 〈◊〉 oâ—l individually
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
ninety-sixth part above four thousand of a grain will turn it either way The SEVENTH that the Virtue immitted into Iron either from the Earth it self or a Loadstone is no simple or immateriall Quality as both Gilbert and Grandamicus earnestly contend but a certain Corporeal Efflux or Fluor consisting of insensible bodies or particles which introduce upon the particles of Iron the same Disposition and Local respect as themselves have For 1 That an Immutation is caused in the particles of Iron as well by the influence or Magnetical rayes of the Loadstone which doth also invigorate Iron at some distance though not so powerfully as by immediate contact or affriction as of those transmitted from the Earth we have already declared to be not only verisimilous but absolutely necessary that nothing should yet be derived unto the Iron from them as the Instrument of that Immutation is openly repugnant to the Fundamental Laws of all Physical activity since nothing can act upon a distant subject but by some Instrument either continued or transmitted 2 What is immitted into the Iron from the Earth and Loadstone cannot be any naked â—uality or Accident without substance because what wants substance must also want all Activity 3 The Materiality of the Magnetique Virtue is inferrible likewise from hence that it decayes in progress of time as all Odours do and is irreparably destroyed by fire in a few minutes and is capable of Rarity and Density â—whence it is more potent near at hand than at the extremes of it sphere all which are the proper and incommunicable Attributes of Corporiety 4 Insomuch as it changeth the particles of Iron that have Figure and Situation therefore must it self consist of particles also and such as are in figure and situâ—tion consimilar to those of Iron no less being assumable from the Effect even now mentioned viz. the Ablation of that Verticity by a right hand draught of a Needle upon a Loadstone which it lately acquired from it by a left hand one Nor indeed doth the Loadstone seem to act upon Iron otherwise than as a Comb doth upon wool or hair for as a Comb being drawn through Wool one way doth convert and dispose the hairs thereof accordingly and drawn praeposterously or the contrary way doth invert praeposter the former ductus of the hairs so do the Magnetical Rayes invading and pervading the substance of Iron one way dispose all the insensible particles thereof according to their own ductus toward the same way and immitted into it the quite contrary way they reduce the particles to their native situation and local respect and so the formerly imprinted Verticity comes to be wholly obliterated OBJECTED we confess it may be that the Incorporiety or Immateriality of the Loadstones Virtue seems inferrible from hence that it most expeditely penetrateth and passeth through many bodies of eminent solidity and especial Marble 2 That it is Soul-like total in the total Loadstone and total in every part thereof seeing that into how many sensible pieces soever a Loadstone is broken or cut yet still doth the Virtue remain entire in every one of those pieces and there instantly spring up in each single fragment two contrary Poles an Axis Aequator Meridians and Parallels But as to the subtility of Particles and Pores in Concretions our Book is even surcharged with discourses upon that subject in the Generall â—o that notwithstanding the first objection we may adhaere to our former Conception that the particles flowing from the Earth and Loadstone are of such superlative Tenuity as without impediment to penetrate and permeate the most compact and solid Concretions and specially Marble whose small pores may be more accommodate to the figures of the magnetick Atoms and so more fit for their transmission than those of divers other bodies much inferior to it in compactness and solidity And being we have the oath of our sense that the Atoms of Fire doe instantly find out many inlets or pores in the body of Marble by which they insinuate themselves into its centrall parts and so not only calefie the whole mass or substance thereof but reduce it suddainly into a brittle Calx why should we not concede that the Magnetick Atoms may likewise find out convenient inlets or pores in the same and by them nimbly pervade the whole mass and that with so much more of ease and expeâ—ition by how much more subtile and active they are than those of â—ire True it is that we can discerne no such Particles flowing from magneticks no such Pores in Marble but how great the Dulness or Grosness of our senses is comparatively to the ineffable subtility of many of Natures Instruments by which she bringeth admirable Effects to pass we need not here rehearse 2 As for the other Argument desumed from the Fâ—ustulation of a Loadstone we Answer thâ—t the single Virtues of the single fragments are nothing else but so many Parts of the Totall Virtue nor being taken singularly are they equally potent with the whole only they are like the Totall because in the whole Loadstone they follow the ductus or tract of its Fibres that run parallel each to other and conjoyn their forces with thâ—t Fibre which being in the middle stands for the Axis to all the rest But in each Fragment they follow the same ductus or Grain of the Fâ—bres and one Fibre must still be in the middle which becomes an Axis and that to which all the circumstant ones confer and unite their forces The EIGHTH that the Magnetick Virtue both existent in the Loadstone and transfused into Iron seems by a lively Analogy to resemble the Vegetative Faculty or soul of a Plant not only in respect of the Corroboration of the force of its median Fibre or Axis by the conâ—erence of the forces of all the circumstant ones thereupon as the centrall parts of a Plant are corroborated by the circumambient but also and principally in respect of the situation Ductus or Grain of its Fibres which run meridioâ—ally as those in Plants perpendicularly or upward from the roots to the tops of the spriggs For as in the Incision or Engrâ—ffing of the shoot of one tree into the trunck or stock of another the Gardiner must observe to insert the lower extreme of the shoot into a cleft in the upper extreme of the stock as that from whence the nutritive sap and vegetative influence are to be derived unto it because if the shoot were inverted and its upper extreme inserted into the stock it would necessarily wither and die as being in that praeposterous position made uncapable of the influx of the Alimentary juice and vitall Faculty both which come from the root upward to the branches and cannot descend again from them to the root exactly so when we would dispose a Loadstone in conformity of situation to the Earth from which it hath been cut off or to another Loadstone a quondam part of it self 't
the soul is contexed wâ—re foâ—merly exâ—stent in his progenitors in grâ—â—s in Water Aer and other Concretions and the Form also so â—oon as the Coâ—positum is dissolved vanisheth as well the tenuious as grosser particles returning again to aer water earth or other Bodies as they were before their Concretion or Determination to that particulâ—r species ofthings by Generâ—tion But Demoâ—ritus Epicurus and Leucippus are somewhat more full and perspicuous in their Solutâ—on of this Problem declaring â—1â— That when a Thing is Generated multitudes of Atoms are congregated commixeâ— câ—â—posed disposed complicated aâ—ter suâ—h a deteâ—minate manner as that â—â—om thence doth necessarily result a body of such a particuâ—ar species â—pparenâ—e and consequently of such a respectâ—ve denomâ—nation 2 That in suâ—â— a Body there is no substance which wâ—s not praeexistent it being imâ—ossibâ—e that New Atoms whiâ—h only constitute Câ—rporeâ—l 〈…〉 shoulâ—â—e created but only that 〈◊〉 certain Dâ—spositiâ—◠〈◊〉 of the Atoms eternally praeexistent is made 〈…〉 sâ—cha Form 〈◊〉 which is nothing really distinct from but is the very Atoms themselves as they are thus and no otherwise ordered and composed 3 That the Forme of a thing considered abstractly or by it self is therefore onely a meer Quality Accident or Event of whâ—ch the Atoms which compose that Body or substance are naturally capable when thus consociated and mutually related whether we understand it to be the Forme of the whole Compositum or of that most subtile and active part of the substance commonly called the Soul or specifical Forme V. G. of an Horse the same being not a New or freshly created substance as Aristotle and the Schools upon his Authority conceive but only a certain Contexture of the most subtile and moveable Atoms in the composition 4 That out of the infinite stock of the Universal and First Matter uncessantly moving in the infinite space when such Consimular Atoms meet together as are reciprocally proportionate or respondent and mutually implicate each other by their small Hooks and Fastnings then are generated certain very small Bodies or masses such as being much below the discernment of thâ— sense may be accounted Semina Rerum the seeds ofthings differing from the Homaeomeâ—ical Principles of Anaxageras in this that though very hardly yet at last they may be dissolved and reduced to the single Atoms of which at first they were composed whereas the Homoeomera of Anaxagâ—ras are Irresoluâ—le â—nd First Principles 5 That these Moleculae Fiâ—st Masses or smallest Concretions of Atoms are the Proxime and Immediate Principles of â—ire Water Aer and of other things more simple such as the Chymâ—sts conceive their Three Catholique Principles Sal Sulphur â—nd Mercury to be from which afterward congregated and commâ—â—t into greater masâ—es ariâ—e variouâ— kinâ—s of Bodies respectively to the various mâ—nners of theâ—r commistion disposition and concretion as Animals Vâ—getables Minerals â—6â— That from the Dissolution of Boâ—ies composed of divers sorts of â—uch First Mâ—sses of Atoms â—uch as Animals Plants Minerals and each of their several species divers Bodies of more simple Câ—mpositions may be Generated according as the small masses or Complications of Atoms separated by dissolution from them shall be more or less Consimilar and convene again in this or that order and position or particular species as when from wood dissolved by Fire are generated Fire Smoke Flame Soot and Ashes And this is thâ— Summary of the Atomists Doctrine concerning the essence of Forms which that we may conveniently illustrate let us a while insist upon that most opportune instance of the Generation of those divers things Fire Flame Sâ—â—oke Soot Ashes and Salt 〈◊〉 the Dissolution of Wood. Let us conceive 1 That Wood is a Compound Body made up of various Moleculae or small masses of Atoms 2â— That those small masses of Atoms are such as that being congregated commixt and according to such a determinate manner disposed they must in the whole composition retain the species or Foâ—me of Wood but being diâ—located sâ—parated and after another manner again connexed and disposed they must exhibite other less compound Forms or species of Bodies 3 That in the Concretion there are exisâ—ent multitudes of spherical most exile and most agile Atoms such as when they are expeded from the â—etters of the gâ—osser mass and flye away together in great numbers and consociated are comparated to make and exhibite the species of Fire 4 That of these Igneous particles is generated Flame Whos 's Clarity Splendor ariseth from the Abjection of other dissimilar and impure parts formerly commixt with the Igneous particles Whose tendency Vpwards and succeeding Disapparence arise both from the force and pernicity of the Igneous particles in their exsilition and the presâ—ure or urgency of the ambient Aer Whose gradual Attenuation and conicall Figure arise from hence that the Igneous particles in respect of their roundness exility and superlative mobility evolving and expeding themselves from the Concretion the soonest of all others contained therein and in swarms diffusing themselves through the environing aer on all sides do create a Light which is by degrees so exhausted in regard of the speedy avolition of the igneous Atoms composing it that it dwindles or consumes away to a cone or sharp point which is also much more rare then the basis where the igneous particles are most dense and agminous Whose Dilatation from its base to some degrees and Tremulation or Vndulation arise from the copious but indirect emption of the igneous particles disengaging themselves from the grosser parts of the mixture Whose Obnubilation by some smoke commixt with it is caused by the many Fuliginous particles that the Igneous ones carry off with them as they flye away Whose faculty of Pungency Penetration and Dissolution of most bodies objected consisteth in the transcendent subtility of the Igneous particles and in the pernicity of their motion as we have largely declared in our praecedent Discourse of the Nature of Heat 5 That the Fume or smoke issuing from wood in combustion together with Flame is much more simple than the wood it self but yet compounded of divers particles some whereof are Watery others Earthy others Salt others Fuliginous as appears by the adhaerence of the soot to the Chimny by the praecipation of the earthy faeces of soot to the bottom of a vessel of Water and the extraction of Salt from thence by a dissolution of soot in warm water and the Denigration of things thereby 6 And lastly that what we have concâ—ived of Flame and Smoke may be equally reasonable if applied also to the remaining Ashes of wood burned they being likewise composed of various particles or small masses both of Salt and Earth and the particles of Earth being again composed of Mud and Sand or such as that of which Glass is made And when we have perpended the verisimility of these Conceptions we shall be fully convinced that Wood is a thing composed of divers sorts
Intellectual promotions of others but also to stand in the number of those Active and Free Spirits who have through want of Abilities only miscarried in their well intended Endeavours for the benefit of Learning rather than in the list of those Idle or Envious ones who having more of Wit than of Humanity and wanting nothing but the Inclination to do Good have buried their Talents and lest the Republique of Arts and Sciences to suffer in the want of such means of Advancement as their Capacities might easily have afforded unto it 'T is the Custom of the Multitude you Know always to estimate the Counsel of Designs only by their Success and never allowing for Impediments or sinister Accidents to account the Goodness of an Undertaking to consist wholly in the Felicity of its Event but such is the justice of Wisdom that it consigns a Reward to a good Intention and decrees a Lawrel to be planted on his Grave who fals in the generous Attempt of any noble Discovery as well as one to be placed on his Head who shall be so much beholding to the Favour and Assistance of his Fortune as to Accomplish it This I put you in mind of not out of Arrogance as if I challenged any thing 〈◊〉 due to me besides a lively Resentment of my constant and sincere Zeale to the Encrease of Knowledge but to possess you more fully with the Equity of my Expectation which aims at no other Reward but what Detraction it self dares not dispute my Right unto and much less thaâ— what I presume your own Charity would if I had referred my self thereunto have readily assigned me But lest I seem to prevent you in your Inclination or to Extort that from you by force of Argument which as well your own innate Candor as judicious Aequanimity had sufficiently praepaâ—ed you to offer me of your own accord I resigne you to your Peace and the undisturbed enjoyment of those Pleasures which usually result from the memory of Difficulties once overcome Having first assured you that your benigne Acceptance of my Services and Pardon of my Misfortunes so I may call all such Errors whose praecaution was above the power of my humble judgement in this Voyage may prove a chief Encouragement to me to adventure on a Second without which this First must be Imperfect and that is for a Description of the Nature of that Paradise of the World that bright shadow of the All-illuminating and yet Invisible Light that Noble Essence which we know to be within us but do not understand because it is within us and cannot understand without it the Humane Soul and that so soon as Quiet and Physick shall have repaired those Decays in the Weather-beaten Vessel of my Body which long Sitting frequent Watchings and constant Solicitude of mind have therein made In the meantime I conjure you by your own Humanity to remember and testifie that in this my Conversation with you you have found me so far from being Magisterial in any of the Opinions I praesented that considering my own Humor of Indifferency and constant Dubiosity frequently professed but more expresly in the First Chapter of this Work and 1. Art of the 1. Chap. 3. Book it hath somewhat of wonder in it that I ever proposed them to Others nor indeed can any thing solve that wonder but my Hopeâ—â— thereby secretly to undermine that lofty Confidence of yonger Heads in the Certitude of Positions and Axioms Physiological and by my declared Scepticism even in such Notions as my self have laboured to assert by the firmest Grounds and strongest Inducements of Belief to reduce them to the safer level of Quo magis quaerimus magis dubitamus FINIS Art 1. The principal Sects of the ancient Grecian Philosophers only enumerated Art 2. The same revived among the Moderns with enâ—rease Art 3. Who are reduced either to the Pedantique or Female Sect. Art 4. Or to the Assertors of Philosoâ—hical Liberty Art 5. Or to the Renovâ—tors Art 6. Or to the Electors Art 1. The principal causes of the Diversity of Philosophical Sects and the chiefest among them the Obscurity of Nature Art 2. The Imperfection of our Vnderstanding Art 3. The Irregularity of our Curiâ—sâ—tâ— A paradox Art 1. The Ambition of Alexander in affecting the Conquest less vain then that of many ancient Philosophers in affecting the Knowledge of a Multitude of Worlds Art 2. A reduction of those Philosâ—phers to four distinct Sectâ— respective to their distinct persuasion and the Hâ—ads oâ— each Sect nominated Art 3. The two main pillars on which the â—pinion of a Plurality of Worlds was anciently erected Art 1. The Question stated to be concerning the real Existence not the possibility of an Infinity of Worlds Art 2. Because the supposed Infinity of the Extramundan Spaces is no impossâ—bility Art 3. Because an Iâ—finity of Bodies is also possible as to the Omnâ—potence of God Art 4. The Error of concluding the Esse from the Posse of an Infâ—nity of Woâ—lds Art 5. The first main Pillar of a Plurality of Worlds subverted Art 6. The secoâ—d Pillar found sophisticate and demolished Art 7. A Plurality of Worlds manifâ—stly râ—pugnant to Authority Divine Art 8. Anâ— Human. Art 9. The result of all the Demonstratiâ—n of the Authors Thesis That this World is thy Vniverse Art 10. Extramundane Curiosity a high degree of Madness Art 1. Body and Inanity the two general Parts of the Universe Art 2. Three the most memorable Definitions of Corporiety extant among Physiologists recounted and examined Art 3. Four Descriptions of the nature of Inanity by Epicurus Cleomedes Empiricus Aristotle Art 4. Their importance extraâ—ted and what is the fâ—rmal or proper notion of a Vacuum Art 5. The Existence of Bodies in the World manifest by Sense whose Evidence is perfect Demonstration Art 1. The Distinction of a Vacuum into 1 Natural and 2 Praeternatural and the one called Disseminate the other Coacerâ—vate Art 2. The nature of a Disseminate Vacuity explained by the Analogy of a heap of Corn. Art 3. The first Argument of a Disseminate Vacuity desumed from the evidence of Motion in General and Aristotles error concerning the Essence of Place concisely detected and corrected Art 4. Motion demonstrated by Sense and Zeno's aenigmatical Argument for an Universal Quiet dissolved Art 5. The Consequution of the Argument if no Vacuum no Motion illustrated Art 6. An Obâ—ectiâ—n that the Lococessiâ—n of some Bodies dâ—pâ—nds on their Rarity or Porâ—sity noâ— on a Disseminate Vacuity praevented Art 7. No beginning of Moâ—ion without Inaniâ—y interâ—persed Art 1. A second Argument of a Vacuity Disseminate collected from tâ—e reason of Râ—refaction and Condensation Art 2. The eminent Phaenomenâ—n of an Aeroâ—â—lâ—peâ— or Wind-Gun soâ—ved by a Vacuity Disâ—eminate among the incontiguous quoad totas superfiâ—ies parts of aer Art 3. Experiment of an Aeâ—lipile or Hermetical Bâ—llowâ— attesting a Vacuity 〈…〉 Art 4. Experiment of a Sulphuâ—aâ—e Tapor included in a Glass Vial partly filled with
Water of the same importaâ—ce Art 5. No Câ—mbuâ—tâ—â—le in Aer and so the opinion of the Ariâ—â—otâ—leans that the Extinctiâ—n of Flame imprisâ—ned is to be charged on the Defect of Aer for its sustentaâ—tiâ—n grosly erroneous Art 6. A fourth singular and memorable Experiment of the Authors of Yce at the nose of a large Reverberatory Furnace charged with Ignis rotae evidencing a Vacuity inter spersed in the Aer Art 7. An Inference from that Experiment that Aer as to its General Destination is the Common Receptaâ—y of Exhalations Art 8. A second â—llation that the Aer doth receive Exhalations at a certain rate or definite proportion which cannot be transcended without prodigious violence Art 9. The Existence of Inane Incontiguities in the Aer confirmed by two considerable Aâ—guments Art 1. That Water also contains Vacuola empty Spaces demonstrated Art 2. From the Experiment of the Dissolution of Alum Halinitre Sal Ammoniac and Sugar in Water formerly sated with the Tincture of Common Salt Art 3. The verity of the Lord 〈…〉 that a repeated 〈◊〉 not Rhuâ—barb 〈…〉 a virtue 〈…〉 a simpâ—e 〈…〉 in equal quantity and why Art 4. Why two Drachms of Antimony impragnaâ—e a pint of Wine with so strong a vomitory Faculty as two ounces Art 5. Why one and the same Menstruumâ—ay â—ay be enriched wiâ—h vâ—rious Tinctures Art 1. Two other Arguments of a Vacuity Dissâ—minate inferrible from 1 the difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity 2 the Calefaction of Bodies by the penetration of igneous Atoms into them Art 2. The Experiments vulgarly adduced to prove no vacuity in nature so far from denying that they confess a Disseminate one Art 3. The gâ—and Difficulty of the Câ—uâ—e of the Aers restitution of it self to iâ—s natural â—ontexture after raâ—efaction and condensation â—atisfied in brief Art 1. What is conceived by a Coacervate Vacuity and who was the Inventor of the famous Experiment of Quicksilver in a Glass Tube upon which many modern Physiologists have erected their perswasion of the possâ—bility of introducing it Experientiam apponam cusus invenâ—ionem etsi 〈◊〉 qui alii ambitiosiâ—s 〈…〉 tamen mihi conâ—â—at 〈◊〉 à Torricellio 〈…〉 Art 2. A 〈◊〉 description of the Expâ—riment and 〈◊〉 rate 〈◊〉 Art 3. The Authors reason for his selection of only six of the most considerable Phaenomenae to explore the Causes of them Art 1. The First Cardinal Difficulty Art 3. The Desert space in the Tube argued to be an absolute Vacuum coacervate from the impossibility of its repletion with Aer Art 5. The Vacuity in the Desert Space not praevented by the insinuation of Aether Art 6. A Paradâ—â— â—hat Nature doth not abhor all vacuity per se but only â—x Accidenti or in respect to Fluxility Art 7. A second Argument against the repletion of the Desert space by Aether Art 8. The Vacuity of the Desert space not praevented by an Halitus or Spiritual Efflux from the Mercury for three convincing reasons Art 9. The Authâ—rs Apostacy from the opinion of an absolute Coacervate Vacuity in the desert space in regard of Art 10. The possibiliâ— of the subingression of light Art 2. Of the Atoms or insensible bodies of Heat and Cold which are much more exile and penetrative then common Aer Art 12. Of the Magnetical Efflux of the Earth to which opinion the Author resigns his Assent Art 13. No absolute plenitude nor absolute Vacuiâ—y in the Desert Space but only a Disseminate Vacuity Art 1. The second Difficulty stated Art 2. Two things necessary to the creation of an excessive or praeternatural Vacuity Art 3. The occasion of Galilaeos invention of a Brass Cylindre charged with a wooden Embol or Sucker and of Torricellius invention of the praesent Experiment Art 4. The marrow of the Difficulty viz. How the Aer can be impelled upward by the Restagnant Quicksilver when there externally wants a fit space for it to circulate into Art 5. The solution of the same by the Laxity of the Contexture of the Aer Art 6. The same illustrated by the adaequate simile of Corne infused into a Busâ—el Art 7. A subordinate scruple why most bodies are moved through the Aer with so little resistence as is imperceptible by sense Art 8. The same Expeded Art 9. A second dependent scruple concerning the Cause of the sensible resistence of the Aer in this case of the Experiment together with the satisfaction thereof by the Gravity of Aer Art 1. The State of the Third Difficulty Art 2. The Solution thereof in a Word Art 3. Three praecedent positions briefly recognised in order to the worthy profounding of the mystery of tâ—e Aers resisting Compression beyond a certain rate or determinate proportion Art 4. The Aequiponderancy of the External Aer pendent upon the surface of the Restagnant Mercury in the vessel to the Cylindre of Mercury residuous in the Tube at the altitude of 27 digits the cause of the Mercuries constant subsistence at that point Art 5. A convenient 〈◊〉 illustrating and enforcing the same Art 6. The Remainder of the Difficulty viz. Why the Aequilibrium of these two opposite weights the Mercury and the Aer is constant to the praecise altitude of 27 dâ—gâ—tâ— remâ—ved Art 7. Humaâ—e Perspicacity terminated in the exterior parts of Nature or simple Apparitions which eluding our Cognition frequently fall under no other comprehension but that of rational Conjecture Art 8. The constant subsistence of the Mercury at 27 dâ—gits adscriptive rather to the Resistence of the Aer then to any occult Quality in the Mercury Art 9. The Analâ—gy betwixt the Absolute and Respective Aequality of weighâ—s of Quicksilver and Water in the different altitudes of 27 dâ—gits and 32 feet Art 10. The definite weights of the Mercury at 27 dâ—gits and Water at 32 feet in a Tube of the third part of a digit in diametre â—â—und to be near upon two pouâ—d Paris weiâ—ht * Consulâ—ndus Mersennus in tract de Mensuris ponderibus cap 1. 〈◊〉 physicomathemat p. 229. Art 11. Quaere Why the Aequilibrium is constant to the same point of altitude in a Tube of a large concave as well as in one of a small when the force of the Depriment must be greater in the one then the other Art 12. The solution thereof by the appropriation of the same Cause which makes the descent of two bâ—dies of different weights aequivelox Art 1. The Fourth Capital Difficulty proposed Art 2. The full solution thereof by demonstration Art 3. The same confirmed by the theory of the Cause of the Mercuries frequent Reciprocations before it acquiesce at the point of Aequipondium Art 1. The Fifth Principal Difficulty Art 2. Solved by the Motion of Restauration naâ—ural to each insensible particle of Aer Art 3. The incumbent Aer in this case equally distressed by two contrary Forces Art 4. The motion of Restauratiâ—n in the Aer extended to the satisfaction of another consimilar Doubt concerning the subintrusion