the Parts of Nature reduceable to two Heads or Principles an Active Vital or Formal one and a Passive or Material This I conceive Moses intended when he tells us that in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth which things are expressed in the very same words by the Chaldeans Assyrians and Greeks as I have hinted before Thales who was one of the first amongst the Grecians as Laertius Strabo Cicero and Plutarch affirm that made enquiry into Natural Causes conceived Water to be the Material Principle of all living Creatures because all Seed is humid and Plants and Animals are nourish'd by it This he had from a more ancient Nation the Phoenicians by whom Orpheus was likewise instructed To this Material Principle Anaxagoras is said to be the first that added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind by which I conceive he meant the Formal Hence Virgil calls the Universal Form the Mind Totamque insusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno si corpore miscet 'A Mind infus'd through this World 's every part Does move the whole Machine with wondrous Art But Homer and Hesiod both gave an account of these two Principles long before Various afterwards were the Opinions of the Philosophers about Principles Pherecydes the Assyrian asserted Earth to be the Principle of all things Anaximenes Air Hippasus Fire Xenophanes Earth and Water Parmenides Fire and Earth Enopides Fire and Air Democritus and Epicurus Atoms Empedocles Plato and Aristotle c. to these Principles added four Elements being the visible Matter as they conceived of which all Bodies did subsist And this the School-men following them have hitherto maintained and it is now the Doctrine of the World The Chymists hold Three Principles at this day these Principles and Elements I now intend to examine And first for the Three Principles I know it is no less a crime than Heresie in the Communion of Chymists to deny any of their three beloved Principles their Salt Sulphur and Mercury but being not of their Church I need not fear their Censure I do admit Salt in some sence to be one of their Principles but I do deny Sulphur and Mercury to be several for their best Authors affirm Mercury to be only crude Sulphur and Sulphur ripe Mercury they differ therefore not in specie but in degree of Digestion The Ancients saith Eirenaeus the Great thought them all one and though Paracelsus has invented a Liquor by means whereof he taught the way of separating the Sulphur in the form of a tincted Metallick Oil yet I conceive this is nothing but an extraction of the riper and more digested part of the Mercury This will appear more evident by considering the Matter of Metals which I will deliver in the sence of Eirenaeus the Great having translated him but not having the Original in Latin by me That Mercury saith he which is generated in the veins of the Earth and all Metals arise from the same Matter is the universal material Mother of all things cloathed with a Metallick Species which may be easily proved because Mercury is accommodated to them all and by Art may be conjoyned which would be impossible unless they did partake of the same Nature Mercury saith he is Water yet such as will mix with nothing that is not of its own Identity whereas therefore it drinks up all Metals by its moisture it follows they have all a Correspondency of Matter with it Again Mercury by the help of Art assisting Nature may be successively digested with all the Metals And this same Mercury retaining the same Colour and Form of flowing will assume the true Nature of them and by succession exert their true Properties which would be impossible to be done by Art did not Nature shew us the possibility by their Correspondency of Matter Besides all Metals and Minerals too that are of Metallick Principles may be reduced into a current Mercury Hence I conceive 't is evident that current Mercury is the nighest though not the first Matter of Metals which Mercury hath a Salt included in it and becomes a more or less ripe Metal according to the purity or impurity of its Matrix What need then can there be of Sulphur as a distinct Principle But they that contend that these three Salt Sulphur and Mercury are the constituent Principles of a Metallick Body ought to shew that Nature produces these three simple Substances and then unites them in the composition of a Metal But who ever yet saw a Specifick Metalline Salt void of Mercury and Sulphur Or simple Mercury without Salt or a Metalline Sulphur by it self The Truth is in a strict sence there are no other Principles but the moist vapor impregnated with vital heat for these two alone constitute all Bodies As for the Salts I mentioned in the generation of Plants and Metals I conceive them to be only a congelation of a former Vapor differenced in Metals by a long circulation in the Alembick of the Earth and in Plants by a speedy resolution near the Superficies Now this Homogeneity of Salts in two such different Bodies will not appear strange to them who consider the vast Alteration Heat makes on Bodies by time in different Vessels thus common gross Water in an open Vessel by a gentle heat is soon evaporated and rarefied into Air whilst Dew a much purer Substance by the same heat circulated in a close Vessel by length of time is condensed into Earth But are not the Principles of Bodies known by their Resolution and may not Metals be reduced into three distinct Principles If the various Figures into which the Fire is able to divide Bodies must be called Principles Monsieur L'Emery assigns no less than five but he honestly confesseth that this is effected by the alteration the Fire makes on Bodies not by a natural Analysis into their first Principles But does not the Great Stagyrite hold three Principles Matter Form and Privation By Privation he doth not mean a Principle in a strict sence i. e. an Essence constituting a Body or part of such but with respect to the previous Matter of each Body before it is specificated which he calls the Terminus à quo as when determined the Terminus ad quem But if it must be a Principle let it be of Death not of Life For how can that be a Principle of Life that is a separation of Soul and Body If instead of Privation he had called it Putrefaction that might well enough have passed for a Principle or something like it since Putrefaction is the Gate to Life I think therefore the Two Principles of the Ancients Matter and Form stand firm notwithstanding Aristotle or the Chymists But if there are four Elements that constitute Bodies according to the general Doctrine they I must confess will overthrow the Two Principles of Matter Form unless these Principles being first the Elements afterwards are made out of them
Deorum beyond imitation This Sir Roger L'Estrange has ingeniously Translated and embellished with Learned Notes The Wisdom and Order by which the Parts were moved made the Stoicks think even the Parts themselves endued with an intelligent Mind and therefore weakly enough called them Gods not distinguishing between the Creator and his Works which Epicurus hath well confuted But I am pass'd my Tedder and must ask Pardon of our Clergy for invading their Province The Sum of all is this 'T is the Duty of Mankind to consider the Natural as well as Moral Government of Divine Providence This is the Mean to attain the End of our Creation i. e. to advance the Glory of God and exalt and perfect our Minds If what I have hinted does sufficiently shew the Necessity of this the Neglect of it is a Fault too obvious to need an Inference and the doing it an Advantage that will justifie at least excuse the following Essay I have but this to add That whatever are the Faults of the following Discourse I have avoided one which the Learned generally incur that is of being too praeliminary One must dig fifteen Fathom deep before one comes to the Oar thus infolding a little Truth in so much Rubbish makes him that has a quick Apprehension and little Leisure neglect the former for the sake of the latter But this Fault proceeds from a foolish though customary Fancy that unless a Book has Folio 500 at the End of it it makes no Figure on a Shelf but is like to dwindle into the contemptible Name of a Pamphlet Hence the dull and heavy Transcribers load Mankind with intolerable Burthens and Men like Asses receive that Weight which fills their Heads rather with Smoak and Fume than Light and Truth When I consider that the Wisest of Men have delivered their Thoughts of Men and Things rather in short Apothegms than tedious Discourses and that the Witty Greeks brought even Arguments into the narrow compass of a short Sillogism that Moses writ the History of the Creation in a short Chapter and that He who is more than Man communicated himself and what was necessary for the Good of Man in short Parables that make a deep impression on the Mind and in pithy Sentences that may be writ in a Sheet or two of Paper I am fully of opinion with the Ingenious Mr. Norris That if Angels were to write we should have fewer Volumes and that the Brevity of this Discourse is no real Exception to its Truth THE CONTENTS 1. THE mistaken Notion of Transmigration throughout the World The Consequence of it in Asia where 't is believ'd Pag. 1 2. The Proposition stated That the Soul after its departure from the Body does pass into some other Animal this is spoken of the Sensitive not of the Rational Soul p. 4 3. Proved in part by way of Induction either that God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that things pass and are changed into one another But God does not make new Matter c. p. 5 4. That Transanimation of Spirits may refer to Plants and Minerals as well as Animals for they have a Spirit or vital Principle p. 8 5. Of the Generation of Metals and how the Spirit enters Matter Of the Imperfect Metals and their Cause p. 9 6. Of the Perfect Metals and how various Metals are in the same Place p. 11 7. Of Stones the Precious the Common Plants of two kinds what grow of themselves and what are sown p. 14 8. Of Plants that grow of themselves and the Cause of their variety p. 16 9. Of their Figure whence it proceeds p. 20 10. Of the sowing of Seeds and the setting of Plants p. 22 11. Of the Generation of Animals p. 23 12. How the Form leaves Matter in Animals Minerals and Vegetables and what then becomes of it that it passeth into the Air where it receives new Virtue p. 25 13. That thence it flows down again and animates a new Body which is the true Notion of Transmigration p. 27 14. Objection That Animals convey a sensitive Spirit in Generation how then descends a Form p. 32 15. Answered That though they do convey a portion of specifick Spirit yet the universal cooperates The manner how from the Air. ibid. 16. Of the Air and the Mischief of sulphurous Vapours that they cause the Plague The Way to foresee it and a Dearth Of Augary p. 37 17. Homer's Juno explained p. 43 18. Why the seven Planets call'd Gods That the Philosophers did not adore all they call'd Gods p. 46 19. Why so many call'd Gods The first Principles of Nature by the Philosophers of all Learned Nations call'd Gods to conceal them from the Vulgar p. 50 20. The Description of Nature in her Ascent and Descent according to Homer The Consent of the Philosophers about the first Principles p. 54 21. The Publishing the Fables of the Ancients an occasion of Idolotry the Original thereof though from beholding the Stars yet not for the Reason R. Maimonides gives p. 57 22. Of the Mysteries of the Ancients p. 60 23. That all the Ancient Philosophers that treated mysteriously of Nature meant the same Thing under divers AEnigma's p. 62 24. This made manifest by explaining an Egyptian Symbol according to the Chaldean Astrology and Grecian Mythology p. 63 25. Objections against Transmigration answered p. 80 26. The Notion carried higher than what generally imagined p. 82 27. Of the Identity of Form in all Bodies p. 83 28. A Comparison of the Form in Animals Plants and Minerals p. 90 29. Of the excellent Form in Metals and of the perpetual Light made out of them of the great difficulty thereof p. 91 30. Objection against the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies answered Objection that the Earth hath Seed in it self answer'd p. 97 31. Other Objections answer'd and the Conclusion therefrom p. 104 32. That Bodies are not annihilated when their Spirit leaves them nor new Substances made in Generation but pre-existent Substances are made into one which acquire new Qualities p. 107 33. How Pythagoras might call himself Euphorbus that lived many years before him p. 110 34. Plato's Opinion answered concerning the Degeneracy of the Effeminate p. 111 35. Pythagoras his Abstinence from Flesh explained p. 115 36. Transmigration in Plants and Minerals demonstrable to Sense p. 116 And this concludes the 〈◊〉 of Transmigration 37. Four Things touch'd 〈◊〉 1. The Duration of Bodies 2. 〈◊〉 Principles and Elements 〈◊〉 received examined 3. Some 〈◊〉 ristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Demo critus c. 4. How the 〈◊〉 comes to be filled with variety 〈◊〉 Bodies abounding with 〈◊〉 Qualities p. 〈◊〉 38. Of the Duration of 〈◊〉 and of the Calcination of the 〈◊〉 in the general Conflagration p. 119 39. Of Principles and Elements and first of Principles how 〈◊〉 when they came into the World p. 126 40. That there are but two Principles notwithstanding the Chymists and the Invention
of Paracelsus A Description of Mercury p. 132 41. An Objection of reducing Things by Fire into three Principles answered Aristotle's Three Principles likewise answered p. 138 42. Of Elements when distinguish'd from Principles A short Description of the Air the Earth the Water and the Fire That by the Words Heaven and Earth are to be understood the Form and the Matter p. 141 43. That Elements and Principles may be termed Equivocal and that there are but Two p. 147 44. An Answer to S s touching Four Elements wherein 't is shewed that there are but Two Elements that of Water the Passive Matter and the Solar Influx the Form p. 148 45. Some Aristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Democritus That the Elements are not contrary and opposite as Aristotle holds but agreeing and alike in a remiss degree according to Democritus p. 150 46. Of the Primary Qualities in Bodies according to Aristotle whence proceed their Effects and of the Atomical Physiology of Leucippus Epicurus and Democritus Both Opinions examined p. 152 47. Reasons against both and for a middle Opinion p. 157 48. Of the Original of Qualities Herein the Creation is considered and that according to Moses p. 164 49. That these Words The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters are not to be understood of the Holy Ghost p. 167 50. Of the First Day 's Work The Creation of Matter and Form and dividing the Light or Form from the grosser Matter p. 168 51. Of the Second Day 's Work or the Expansion and Division of the Waters above from those below p. 169 52. Of the Third Day 's Work The Generation of Plants p. 171 53. Of the Fourth Day 's Work The Collecting of the Light or Form into the Body of the Sun ibid 54. Of the Fifth Day 's Work The Generation of Fish and Fowl by the Union of Water and the Form p. 172 55. Of the Sixth Day 's Work The Creation of Beasts and Reptiles and lastly Man ibid. 56. How the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities p. 173 57. That the various Accidents and Qualities of Bodies proceed from the various Intension and Remission of the Form not according to Des Cartes from the different Magnitude and Figure of their Principles This illustrated by several Instances p. 176 58. The Conclusion p. 184 LICENSED January 2d 1691 2. Ja. Fraser OF Transmigration c. THis Opinion of Transmigration of Souls which is father'd upon Pythagoras is mistaken every where but very grosly believed in Pegu Magor and other parts of Asia For believing that the Soul doth pass into some other Creature after its departure from the Humane Body they abstain from no sort of respect to the most contemptible Creatures and superstitiously avoid doing any hurt to that Animal whose Body they think contains the Soul of their deceased Father Now how they could tell or why they should think that this or that Beast is thus animated rather than another I confess is strange and what is more so it seems from the Belief of those in Bengall and other Parts of the East-Indies who imagine that the Souls of Good Men pass into Cows and such useful Creatures and the Souls of Bad Men into Crows and such hurtful Birds or Beasts that these People think it of the Immortal Rational Soul rather than the Sensitive For the Faculties of the Rational Soul are exerted naturally in the kind Offices of Beneficence and Humanity but those of the Sensitive only in Growth and Sense It looks as if Folly begot and Superstitious Fancy propagated this Opinion Though to do Right to Pythagoras who was doubtless a great Man the absurdity of this Opinion is as far remote from his Sentiments as the Manichaean Heresie is different from the Christian Religion But Philosophy and Religion have both suffered alike by Ignorant Expositors For what will not a wild Fancy and little Judgment center'd in a Man fond of his own Thoughts produce What strange Opinions in Religion What barbarous Cruelties by Humane Sacrifices to the Heathen Gods hath the World been filled with Nor is Philosophy it self exempt from very odd Conceits Thus are the best Things corrupted But to return to our Author whose Opinion asserted is That the Soul after its departure from the Body passes into some other Animal This is as strongly put as any thing said of him for we have all by Tradition will bear 〈◊〉 Opinion I propose to defend and free it from the Absurdities Men have put upon it and restore it to its native Sence But let me 〈◊〉 here That I do not intend this Migration of the Rational Soul but of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit which Terms of Soul and Spirit being often used as Synonyma's have given occasion especially to the Ignorant to mistake the meaning of Pythagoras He that considers the Frame of this World the Contexture of Man and the perpetual Vicissitude and Change of Things will easily believe that either God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that Things pass and are changed into one another by a continual Circulation But we all know that the Eternal having made the World by his Wisdom and Power does preserve it now by his Providence and Goodness so that we must be forc'd to acknowledge not a new Creation but a Mutation of Things that begets this Variety Man indeed is endowed with something more than the rest of the Creatures he hath a Rational Soul that should sit President in his Body govern his Passions and direct his Affections How little it does so proceeds from the Vileness of our Wills rather than the Degeneracy of our Nature but we would excuse our selves Besides this he hath a Vegetative or Sensitive Spirit which is perfectly distinct from the Rational Soul as well as Body It seems to be a Medium to unite two Extreams of a Divine Immortal Ray and Gross Matter I am not discoursing now of the Government of the Mind over the Sensitive Part and what Obedience the one ought to pay the other nor how they contend for Dominion like Prerogative and Liberty in a disturb'd State But I am laying the Foundation of the Reasonableness of Pythagoras his Opinion which is the Transmigration of Souls or Spirits for these Terms are used equivocally To go to the bottom of this Question 't is fit to consider Nature in her several Provinces Mineral Vegetable and Animal for all created Beings on this side Heaven may be placed under one of these Heads nor are the meanest of them without a Spirit or Vital Principle which is all one and these like the Sensitive Souls of Animals evaporate on the Dissolution or Destruction of their Bodies To say how these Spirits leave their Habitations before I offer how they enter may be improper I shall speak therefore of this first and then of the other Nor will it be impertinent to the
that all Plants of the same sort have much the same Figure and Colour 'T is not certainly from their manner of pressing through the Earth that they obtain the same likeness for how should it happen that the Species of every Herb should have such a particular manner of pressing through the Earth as to make it always retain the same shape But I rather conceive that the saline Particles that joyn with the Vapour being so and so modified for they must have some Figure do determine the genéral Moisture as well to a constant uniform Figure and Colour as to a particular internal Nature and Quality Not unlike the very minute Seeds that we see whose Taste does more truly demonstrate the Nature of its Plant it produces than the Microscope can find out its Figure and yet its Figure is owing to the Modification of the Seed Thus Minerals and Vegetables seem to be made not by Creation as at first out of nothing but by the Union of Matter and Form blessed from the beginning by the Word of God Crescite multiplicamini This for the first sort of Natural Productions As for the latter i. e. the sowing of Seeds and planting of Trees which came in with the Curse their Production may justly be called Artificial but neither are they produced without the assistance of the Universal Spirit for being sown in the Earth the moist Vapour wherein the Universal Spirit rests dissolves the Body of the Seed whose vital Principle being let loose becomes active and vigorous and meeting with the Vapour of the Earth like dear Friends embrace and unite and being of an homogeneous Nature grow up together the General Moisture being first determin'd by the Particular The Growth of Plants is the same the porous Roots sucking in the moist Vapour which is assimilated into the Nature of the Tree by its specificated Virtue As for the Generation of Animals they are not unlike the Production of Vegetables rais'd by particular Seed The describing of which may offend a chaste Ear or excite a lascivious Mind therefore I omit it But this Opinion it 's plain the Learned Ancients were of when they declar'd That Man was not propagated by Coition only but that the Universal Spirit which flows principally from the Sun has a hand in it And therefore they affirmed That Sol Homo generant Hominem which I shall explain more particularly hereafter For as Man is not supported by Bread and Meat only in his sensitive Capacity but by a secret Food of Life that is in the Air so neither is he generated by the Union of Two Sperms only without the assistance of that secret Spirit that enters the closest Caverns whence 't is said Non datur Vacuum It being now said how the Spirit enters and vivifies Matter it remains that we give an account how it leaves it again and what then becomes of it There are various ways of dissolving Nature in all the Parts of her Dominion Animals are destroy'd either by the Consumption through the length of Time of their Radical Moisture the Oil that maintains the Flame or by accident or violence when the Sensitive Spirit for we speak not of the Rational leaves its Habitation and returns into the common Receptacle of Sensitive and Vegetative Spirits the Air from whence it came Minerals and Vegetables are destroyed by Fire and evaporate likewise into the Air I mean the volatil Here it was we found them at first and here in a little circulation of Time we may perceive them again Now being let loose from that Prison where the Spirits 〈◊〉 Forms were detained and specificated a little Time restores them to their native Simplicity and Universality and flowing in an Ocean where the Celestial Influence are continually descending and Vapours ascending like the Angels on Jacob's Ladder they receive new impresses 〈◊〉 Virtue to fit them for farther Service Thus Nature is never idle and thus with Plato all things are in a continual Alteration and Fluctuation Nothing according to Pythagoras is simply new nor any thing according to Trismegistus dies but all things pass and are changed into something else For all mix'd Bodies are made of the Elements into which after a little time they are resolved again Thus Porphyry tells us that every Irrational Power is resolved into the Life of the Whole And thus these Spirits being ready and fit to impregnate new Matter and She 〈◊〉 to desire it according to the Axiom of Materia appetit Formam ut Foemina Virum the same Spirit which animated one Body may on its Dissolution animate another which I take to be the meaning of Pythagoras his Transmigration of Souls or Spirits Hence Lucretius Huic accedit uti quicque in 〈◊〉 Corpora rursum Dissolvit Natura neque ad 〈◊〉 interimit Res. Nature the Form from Bodies oft unties New Bodies to inform whence nothing dies If this be not so I would fain know what becomes of the Form that animates Minerals Vegetables and Animals not to speak of their Bodies which are only changed not annihilated Can that Spirit that gives Life and Motion that partakes of the Nature of Light be reduced to nothing Can that Sensitive Spirit in Brutes that exercises Memory one of the Rational Faculties die and become nothing If you say they breath their Spirits into the Air and there vanish that is all I contend for The Air indeed is the proper place to receive them being according to Laertius full of Souls and according to Epicurus full of Atoms or intelligible Bodies unapparent the Principle 〈◊〉 all Things For even this Place wherein we walk and Birds flie though it is properly rather Water rarefied that Air as I have proved by a Magnet attracting it yet it is thus much of a spiritual Nature that it is invisible therefore well may be the Receiver of Forms since the Forms of all Bodies are 〈◊〉 we can only hear and see its Effects the Air it self is too fine and above the Capacity of the Eye What then is the AEther that is in the Region above And what are the Influences or Forms that descend from thence The Pythagoreans held that the Souls of Creatures are a portion of AEther and all Philosophers agree that AEther is incorruptible and what is so is so far from being annihilated when it gets rid of the Body that it lays a good claim to Immortality Treasures fallen into the Sea are lost only to them that cannot find them witness our late Expedition The Spirit is not lost but moving in the Air in its natural Sphere where it obtains new Strength and Vigor It passes into the Air as the Rivers flow into the Sea Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quo 〈◊〉 bet occupat Artus Spiritus c. Ovid. Met 〈◊〉 Lib. XV. The Spirit never dies 〈◊〉 here and there Though all things
fit for the Learned 〈◊〉 of the Honourable Mr. 〈◊〉 the Ornament of our Nation But to return to Pythagoras Can the Belief of this Doctrine that teaches that Spirit set at Liberty by 〈◊〉 Dissolution of its Body may afterwards animate another Body be an Argument for any man's paying a Deference to that Creature whom he fansies the Spirit of his Father animates He may with as much Reason honour that Field that produced his Father's Food being assimilated into his Nature or adore the Wind that continued Life to him as this Animal For the Sensitive Spirit after its dissolution from the Body is no more his Father's than the Air he expired was a part of himself it was nothing at first but the Ligature of the Rational Soul and Body which when they are dissolved as to them there is an end of the Tie No one sure will think this Opinion does invade the Doctrine of the Resurrection since there can be no need of a Medium where there are no Extreams The cloathing of the Blessed Spirits after this Life will doubtless be with a Robe of Light because they are always to appear before the Father of Lights Our Saviour's Transfiguration may give us a glimpse of this but where Flesh and Blood cannot enter what need can there be of a Sensitive Spirit But I think this Matter may be carried higher than the Opinion laid down of Pythagoras for this very Particle of Light and Heat when it is free from its Body of whatever sort may penetrate Matter that may concrete into Stone or Metal produce a Vegetable or insinuate into an Animal-Matrix and cooperate in the Generation of the Foetus for it is homogeneous with the Vital Heat in all but their Specification 'T is true Eirenaeus the Great has said There is nothing that has a Seminal Virtue applicable to two things But this is spoken of a Seminal Virtue latent in some Body not at Liberty and free but specificated and determin'd That this Spirit is universal I need not go back to the first Abyss and Form to shew the Identity of Matter and Form in General which was afterwards divided and distinguish'd according to the Proportion of Matter and Form to prove the Identity of Spirit in all these Three 'T is enough here to shew that Minerals and Plants not to mention Animals being Physick and Food for Man are by application to him assimilated into his Nature and that only by the Power of his own Specifick Spirit which shews them to be of his own Matter and Form or it could not attract and convert into its own Nature what is repugnant to it But that there is an Homogeneity of Spirit in all the Three Provinces of Nature will appear from hence if it be true that from the Dross of Metals reduc d to Ashes are generated Beetles from Plants Caterpillers from Fruit Maggots and from putrefied Animals Bees and Flies so that an Animal Life flows from them all And out of any Species of every one of the Three Kinds may be drawn a Light burning and fiery Spirit which could not be were they not homogeneous The great difference which there seems to be between the several parts of the Creation makes the People indeed believe them of contrary Natures Thus the Vulgar can hardly think that Fountain Water will ever become Wood Leaves Fruit Bones Sinews Blood and all the Parts of an Animal Body But a Naturalist can easily discern that the Water or moist Vapour that dissolves the Seed is by the Specifick Spirit of the Seed converted into its own Nature and shoots up into Branches bearing Leaves and Fruit whose grosser part encreaseth the Body of the Tree And so the Water drank by Animals becomes converted into Nourishment and is communicated into all the Parts of the Body by which they all grow and are encreased to a determinate Time Thus are all the Parts of the Universe related to each other by the common Bond of the same Universal Spirit which Parmenides in his famous Idea's calls That one Idea which is the Foundation of all Singulars out of which as from a Thread the whole Web as it were of Individuals is woven Now this Universal Spirit residing in many Particulars is the Support and Foundation of them all and is according to Zenophanes wholly together one though for distinction sake and that we may better understand one another in Discourse we divide it into Three Heads which are called Kinds and into almost infinite Species which are the Particulars Thus we see Nature tho' She is One Pure and Simple is yet beneficial to the whole Creation and continually supplies the perishing Old by the Gift as it were of New And thus we may see that without God who is Nature's Governor we can do nothing even in this world O Eternal Wisdom How excellent are the Divine Operations How manifold the divine Goodness whose Wisdom Power and Love are no less evident in the Conservation than the Creation of the World If the Divine Mind should check Nature a few moments this delicate Machine would be without Spirit the world would be benumb'd with an eternal Cold and Darkness and an everlasting Death all things would run back into their first Mass Chaos and dark Abyss never to be renewed without that Spirit that first banished Darkness by separating the Waters and enkindling in their most refined Parts advanced to the Region Above a Spirit of Light To the Eternal therefore be infinite Praises by the pure Spirits of Men and Angels He that thinks I do a dishonour to Animals in supposing that that Spirit that animated a mean Vegetable 〈◊〉 a sluggish Metal on its leaving these Bodies should give Life and Motion to an Animal Being will easily see his Mistake when he considers 〈◊〉 those Things are always esteemed most Excellent 〈◊〉 Noble that are of longest duration Now we see 〈◊〉 many Vegetables and all Things of a Metallick Composition do exceed Animals 〈◊〉 duration of Time Besides all Things receive a value from their Usefulness now though divers Beasts and Birds are very useful both for Food and Pleasure yet 〈◊〉 of them are supported without Vegetables nor can any Man plow or go to Sea without Metals But this is speaking rather like a Merchant than Naturalist therefore I shall wave it That Spirit seems to me to be most Noble that has so digested the Passive Matter which contains it as to be able to defend it against all the assaults of the Elements and on the other side that Spirit seems to be most weak and unactive that suffers its Body to be soonest dissolved on their Intention Now Vegetables and Animals do both perish in the Flames but Metals do not So that the Strength and Virtue they enjoy visible to every Eye gives them justly the Precedence But could their Bodies be dissolved and their Spirits 〈◊〉 loose as we see in Vegetable Seeds
imaginary Seed whenever the Sun approaches with his enlivening Beams surely all these Seeds would quickly appear to sight what then should the Earth do for the next year's Vegetables The Propagation of them only by their letting fall a Seed and by that means another coming in its place is weak and frivolous for though this in many places often happens yet Experience shews us that tho' Weeds are grubb'd up before they run to seed yet the same or others soon grow up in their stead And whence should this happen Who are the Conservators of the seeds of Weeds and noxious Plants Noxious only because their use is not known What Enemy comes in the night and sows them And where are their Store-houses But may not the Birds in the Air let fall seed and so it may grow This Objection can admit no Resolution but this Take Earth defend it as you please so it has some access of Air and you will find an Herb of some sort or other arise It is therefore most evident that by the Heavenly Bodies or from them a germinating Virtue is emitted that this Virtue is universal conveyed by the Medium of Air filling all Places and producing divers Effects according to the plenty of Spirit and difference of Place That this Spirit on the dissolution of its Body is not annihilated but gets loose becomes active and vigorous and impregnates new Matter whose Nature is varied according to the diversity of Place as Water mixing with salt things becomes saline and with Acids sharp Now this to me is so far from being a wonder that I should admire if it were otherwise since Bodies that are but the Case of Spirits are not annihilated when their Spirits leave them but lose only their external Figure and Shape for if Bodies on their resolution were annihilated the World in time would be reduc'd to nothing For the World consisting of Parts and those Parts of Bodies as Bodies are annihilated so are the Parts and the Parts being daily substracted this Machine would fall to pieces or rather to nothing But as in Generation saith Epicurus there is no new substance made but pre-existent substances are made up into one which acquire new Qualities so in Corruption no substance absolutely ceaseth to be but is dissipated into more substances which remain after the destruction of the former So that though Bodies resolve into Dust yet this Dust remains still and being quickned by a Solar Heat shoots forth into some Plant and this Plant becoming Food to Man or Beast and Beast to Man is assimilated into the Nature of the Eater and becomes part of himself Hence Hermes and the rest of the Philosophers affirm that nothing properly dies but all things pass and are changed into something else So that if one would urge it he might prove this way a Transmigration of Bodies as well as Spirits since the Bodies of the Dead become Food to the Living after a little Circulation of Time passing through a few Mediums and that Food becomes part of him that eats it This the Egyptians hinted by the Hieroglyphick of a Snake painted in a circular form the Head swallowing up the Tail Of which Claudian Serpens Perpetuumque viret squamis caudamque reducto Ore vorat tacito relegens exordia lapsu ' Python his Scales renews and on the Ground ' With Tail in Mouth he lies in Circle round Thus Pythagoras might say he was Euphorbus who lived many years before him because of the Possibility both in respect to the Identity in some sort of his Body for we were once upon our Plates and his animation by the same sensitive Spirit being of a Temper and Disposition very like him Thus for similitude of Spirit John the Baptist is called Elias But now for Plato's Opinion and the rest of the Pythagoreans who held or rather seemed to hold That by indulging to Sense the Souls of Men pass'd first into Women then if they continued vicious into Brutes c. This Degeneracy if he had confin'd to the same Body would have had as much Reason and Truth of its side as the other hath of Prettiness and Fancy For Experience shews us that many Men by soft and tender Habits grow weak and effeminate and by degrees slide into an Indulgence of all Brutal Passions Now it is more than probable that there was no more intended by this sort of Expression than to shew Mankind to what a low Ebb Humane Nature might descend to what a Brutal Sordidness Man might sink that wallow'd in sensual Pleasures And what is the natural Consequence of this That Men therefore to avoid this Evil should adorn and cultivate their Minds with useful Knowledge and exert Life in Practical Vertues This was the Design both of Moral and Natural Philosophy and this AEsop who flourished about an hundred years before Plato inculcated by his ingenious Fables amongst which had this of Plato's been inserted the Moral had been obvious to every Understanding This is no new Interpretation for Timaeus long ago commended the Ionick Poet for making Men religious by ancient Fabulous Stories For said he as we cure Bodies with things unwholsome when the wholesome agree not with them so we restrain Souls with Fabulous Relations when they will not be led by the True Let them then continues he since there is a necessity for it talk of these strange Punishments as if Souls did transmigrate the Effeminate into the Bodies of Women given up to Ignominy of Murtherers into those of Beasts for Punishment of the Lascivious into the forms of Swine of the Light and Temerarious into Birds of the Slothful and Idle Unlearned and Ignorant into several kinds of Fishes Thus we see how Pythagoras has been miss-represented and what was made use of only as the last Remedy to restrain Men from Vice and was what we call Argumentum ad Hominem is now for want of Understanding in his Censurers return'd upon him with great Reproach But did not Pythagoras abstain from Flesh-Meat for fear of eating his Parents according to the gross Notion of Transmigration Most certainly not for Jamblicus in the Life of Pythagoras tells us That he being the Disciple of Thales one of the chief Things Thales advised him was to husband his Time well upon which account he abstained from Wine and Flesh only eating such things as were light of Digestion by which means he procured shortness of Sleep Wakefulness Purity of Mind and constant Health of Body But what if Transmigration may be made evident to Sense in Plants and Minerals That it may be in Plants every ordinary Chymist knows For by the extracting the Spirit or Soul of a Vegetable in the form of Oil and by the cohobation of it on the calcined Salt of a different Plant they will impregnate that Salt with a new Life and Spirit and give it new Virtue Smell and Taste Thus they draw forth a Spirit from one