clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is
great way of as also the reason that the smell of Rosemary is perceivable at a hundred miles distance as Sir Kenelme Digby observes and likewise the wonderful cure of persons wounds which are far distant by the means of the Sympathetick Powder so likewise of the fermentation of Canary Wine brought into England which ferment here at the time of their Vintage when the Vines in Spain flourish and are in the budd and such like I suppose farther that all these small corpuscles do differ as to their figure and magnitude and that they are not equally received by this or that body so one man is infected with the Plague in the same place where are many others untouched For the same reason the beams of the Sun do melt Wax and not Lead unless they are collected and united by the help of a Burning-glass or the like and the heat of Fire melts Mettals after a very different manner Lastly I suppose that it is somewhat difficult to give a solid and sufficient reason of all the Experiments which daily occur in the nature of things Truly we are surprised with no small admiration when we see Iron move at the presence of the Load-stone and to approach it as if it were endued with a kind of sense and knowledge the Palm-Tree of the male kind is barren unless the female be planted near it but if they be separated by a river they both lean to one another as if they would embrace each other If you strike the string of a Lute in one corner of a Room it shall cause the string of another Lute tuned to the same heighth and placed in an opposite corner to give a sound but not another The Cock always sings and claps his wings in the same moment that the Sun ascends above the Horizon all Effects which we see from Sympathy afford us matter of admiration and compel us to acknowledge That Sympathy to be the Daughter of ignorance The same thing may be said of Effects which are attributed to Antipathy no less amazing and no less difficult to be explained who can without much difficulty explain the natural aversion that is between the Colewort and Vine so that if it be planted near a Vine the Vine will give back and so will the Golewort on the other side who can give a Reason that Sheep should shun a Wolf though unseen or that a Drum made of sheeps-skin should not sound where there is in place another Drum made of a Wolfs-skin or that when we are seen by a Wolf before we see him we are hoarse who can give a reason that the Basilisk should kill by sight and other Effects of this kind which are frequently observed But because that Phoenomena of the Load-stone before mentioned seems to me to be a matter most worthy of consideration I shall treat of this subject in a particular Chapter by it self CHAP. VII Experiments concerning Iron and the Load-Stone THe Load-stone is a stone sound in Iron Mines not much different from the Nature of Iron wherefore the particles which proceed from the Load-stone have a kind of agreeableness with the pores of Iron so these small corpuscles going out of the Load-stone and meeting with the Iron in the way do rush into the pores of it by troops but because all cannot enter at once a great many remain without and these are as strongly beaten back by the particles of the Iron which they meet with as if they were of the number of those corpuscles which being at liberty do return of their own accord which at length do send these by a reflective motion to the Load stone whence they first came hence it is that Iron is drawn towards the Load-stone principally by the agitation of those minute magnetick corpuscles moved in the concavities of the Iron and being shaken together by the sundry motion of those corpuscles which are twisted one within another those corpuscles which do return by reflection are complicated and annexed to those which are in the pores of the Iron or else have passed them through and cannot be returned or moved towards the Load-stone unless they draw along with them those corpuscles to which they are annexed and which cannot follow unless by their motion the Iron be carried with them so the Iron follows and is moved towards the Load-stone except the Iron be bigger than the Load-stone for then the corpuscles which proceed from the Load-stone are not so many nor by consequence so powerful as to draw the Iron or the impression which they make upon the Iron is not strong enough to cause a renitency to pass that side by which they ought to be beaten back This is the reason that the Load-stone draws no other Body but Iron because other Bodies do not return the Atoms neither are their pores well fitted for those Magnetick corpuscles By the same reason it does appear that the Load-stone ought not to approach to the Iron but the Iron to the Load-stone It may be said that hard and solid Bodies such as Iron is cannot emit such a great number of corpuscles as other Bodies which like the Load-stone are less solid and more porous Also there may be a reason given why the Load-stone being rubbed with Garlick or Oyle doth not so easily draw Iron to it especially if you also rub them with it because these strange corpuscles by their Oyliness do hinder the emission of the corpuscles out of the Load-stone and also their entrance into the Pores of the Iron and do break their elastick force We may observe many other Effects of the Load-stone As for example That Iron put upon a Table is moved by the vertue of this Stone which is placed under the Table for it is certain that the spirit or corpuscles of the Load-stone which moves the Iron penetrates through the vacuity or pores of the Table as if by small and invisible threads it had been tyed to the Load-stone it is the same thing if the Table be of Marble or Glass provided it be not greasie nor too thick which proves the porosity of Bodies We see another Effect of this Stone in a Needle which being touched by it always turns towards the Pole we suppose for this reason because there are whole Mountains of Load-stones found under the Poles dispersing their spirits through the Universal World. Spirits which are entangled with those which do adhere to the Magnetick Needle whose force is lessened as the Spirits of it are dissipated especially if the Compass be set in a place where there are pieces of Iron to which the spirits stick and leave the Needle which had taken no greater quantity of them than what was requisite according to its Capacity That which is most wonderful in this Stone is that we see it draws Iron on one side and rejects it on the other so that it appears in every Load-stone that there are two Poles of the World the North Pole attracts Iron the South
Pole repels it because the Spirit of the North Pole enters in at the Pores of the Iron but the Southern cannot for it strikes against the Iron and drives back too much its Elastick Particles This Explication presupposes the Being of Spirits and Atoms and their Figures and Motions and as also small occult vacuities which are dispersed through all Bodies as we shall shew hereafter CHAP. VIII An Explication of many other Effects which we endeavour to attribute to Sympathy I Do not design in this place to shew all the Effects which do proceed from Sympathy and to give the reason of every one of them in particular I conceive such a Labour besides that it is very difficult is moreover useless for an Explication of one will serve to explain the rest therefore instead of all it will be sufficient to Explain some few of them That which first presents it self to our consideration is the Sympathetick Powder the Sympathetick Wood and the Sympathetick Ointment an Amulet and the Medalls which are of the same Nature which they call Talisman Sir Kenelm Digby Reports that the Sympathetick Powder will cure a wound when the person wounded is distant a hundred nay two hundred Miles so that the Cloath be dressed to which the Matter or Blood sticks which proceeded from the wound but principally there must be care taken that the wound be kept clean and that the Cloath be kept in a temperate place for if it be thrown into a place which is too warm it will cause an inflammation in the wound no solid reason can be given of this Phaenomenon so wonderful in it self but that it is by a continual entercourse of the Spirits proceeding from the Bodies which by continual motion are coming and going and keeping a tye or bond betwixt the Bodies and though our Senses are too gross to perceive them it doth not therefore follow that there are not such things as it appears by the example of the Spider descending or ascending and drawing after him an invisible Thread which proceeds from his Body so that he being in one end of the Chamber remains firm and fixed to the other end by the same thread by which he bears himself up and is moved from one part to the other I confess it is hard to conceive that there should be a Thread of Communication betwixt the Wound and the Blood which issued from it But that is neither impossible nor incomprehensible though the Phenomenon is not plainly infallible because this Thread being broke or interrupted the wound cannot be cured unless we take again fresh Blood and excite it by the means of this Powder whose Spirits do drive those which are in the Blood and mixing themselves by the strength of the Powder do carry and communicate its vertue to the wound and that at a considerable distance but not indifferently not at the distance of a hundred Miles as it is conmonly believed it is certain if that were done by Sympathy the Effect would be the same at any distance neither would it ever deceive us I cannot produce any more sensible or just reason to explain the Vertues and Effects of the Sympathetick Powder which depend much upon the due preparation of it they do not extend themselves so far nor are they so infallible as some would have for the reasons by us alledged The same thing may be said of the Sympathetick Wood which stops Blood if a little of the Blood which runs out of the would be put upon this Wood where so soon as that Blood is dryed the Flux of the other Blood is stanched and this they say is done by Sympathy but the true reason proceeds from the invisible adherence whereby both these Bloods are so subtilly connected together by the astringent Vertue of this Wood and by this Thread of Friendship composed out of Atoms variously twisted together communicates it to the Blood which flows in great quantity whereupon this Flux if it be not too vehement is stopped If this Effect did arise from Sympathy it would never deceive us because nothing can oppose Sympathy but it is not infallible as experience shews us Of all the Effects which hold us in suspence that which we call the Divining-Rod is not the least for it is very strange to see a Rod which is held fast in the Hand visibly to incline and bend it self towards that place where there is any Water or Mettal and more or less as the Water or Mettal is nearer to the Superficies of the Earth or is more remote from it and more deep in the ground and that which is most stupendious is that this Rod which does it shews no motion but in the hands of those who have obtained a particular vertue to this purpose which distinguishes them from others though it cannot be said who gave them this power nor why this Rod hath this motion in the hands of one Man and not in anothers Concerning this Subject the cause of this motion is to be considered which cannot be attributed to Sympathy for Sympathy is a necessary Cause and then this motion would be always and in the hands of every body which yet we see is not done Therefore the most natural Cause is to be enquired into which I deduce from these Mineral or Aquatick Spirits issuing from those places wherein the Mettals or Waters are which meeting with the Rod whose Pores are fitted for them to lay hold on attracts it by a Perpendicular motion which is natural to them and bends it as it were with a Silken Thread or a Golden Chain The difficulty is about the hand which holds the Rod for every hand is not qualified for this purpose nor is every Tree fit for it unless it be Hazel or some other of the same quality with it As to the Hand it is certain that the Hands as well as the Men do differ and that the Spirits proceeding from them are different and so it ought not to be looked upon as such a wonder that there should be Spirits which retain the Rod and hinders this motion and that they should proceed from the hand of one and not from the hand of another and that every sort of Wood is not fitted to receive the hold of all Atoms Of portative remedies which are called Amulets I say nothing but what experience taught me concerning them and of the manner how Quick-Silver sticks to Gold and Silver to Copper which forces me to write a particular Chapter concerning them CHAP. IX Experiments concerning Portative Remedies of Quick-Silver Gold Silver and Copper THere are certain Remedies by Physitians called Amulets which give ease to Humane Bodies in many Distempers as long as the Person carries them about him as experience teaches us of a Spider shut up in a Nut-shell and hung about the Neck is good to cure all Diseases of the Lungs the true Nephritick Stone being carried about one cures the Stone a little Bone of the Thigh heals
the Sciatica Quick-Silver or a Toad hung about the Neck is a preservative against the Plague the Tooth of a Dead Man carried about you shall cure you of the Tooth-ach Oak-Moss gathered at a certain time and an Elkes hoof cure the Epilepsie There are such as preserve Children from having the Small-Pox and others which being tied to the wrist cure the Tertian and Semitertian So there are many others whose Effects are ascribed to occult causes and to the Sympathy and Antipathy of things I do not question the truth of these experiments because I am certain as to the greatest part of them having tryed them Without doubt there are many others which I do not know of and which nevertheless others might have seen but this I know that the aforementioned Effect is not infallible and when it happens it is done by the emission of certain Spirits or Atoms proceeding from those Remedies and penetrating the Pores of Mans Body and giving strength to the Animal Spirits to resist internal Poysons or resisting the external Poysons and fixing and hindring them from hurting those who carry the Amulets I shall say nothing of Medals which are called Talisman importing good Luck to those by whom they are carried about them nor of white Magnets which procure the kindness of all People and the favour of a Mistriss I give little credit to such things neither can I easily believe all things which are said of them and if Stars ought to have place here rather than Demons all is done by the means of Atoms Now I come to that which I am better acquainted with and of which I can speak with more certainty I mean of Experiments concerning Quick-silver and Gold it is certain that if any Man hath Quick-Silver in his Body or any where about him that the Gold-Ring which he hath upon his Finger or which he holds in his Mouth will turn white because the Quick-Silver sticks to the Gold and if this Gold-Ring be thrown into the Fire the Quick-Silver flyes and evaporates and if the same Ring be again put upon the Finger or held in the Mouth it will still grow white every time as long as any Quick-Silver remains in the Body This Phoenomenon is commonly ascribed to a Sympathy which is betwixt Quick-Silver and Gold as if the Quick-Silver should hastily go to the Gold and embrace it or that the Gold did draw the Quick-Silver to it but Gold enclosed in smooth Glass does not turn white no more doth it then when Quick-Silver is enclosed hermetically in a Glass there is no Sympathy to call it forth thence no more than out of a Box or Bladder wherein it is kept we ought not therefore to say that it was the Sympathy of these two Mettals which was the only cause by which the one adheres to the other for though we should grant that there is a Sympathy that is an agreeableness proportion and likeness between these two substances not in their imaginary qualities but in the figure of their Atoms nevertheless it must be confessed that the attraction of Quick-Silver to Gold is by an emission of their Spirits and Corpuscles near after the same manner as we observed of the Load-Stone and Iron There is no less a connexion betwixt Silver which the Chymists call the Moon and Copper which they call Venus than there is betwixt Mercury that is in their Dialect Quicksilver and the Sun that is Gold. If one Ounce of Silver be disolved in three Ounces of Aquafortis made of Nitre and Vitriol the Silver is reduced to Water neither is it ever after seen and if we would recover the Silver after such a dissolution you must take leaves of Copper and put them into an Earthen Vessel and pour upon them one pint of common Water then to this Water put the liquor in which the Silver was dissolved and it will turn it as white as Milk and in the space of two or three hours the Silver will leave the Aqua-fortis and joyn it self to the Copper in the form of Curd or white Moss when the water is clear throw it all out the silver sticking to the Copper is dryed and reduced to a mealy Powder and this is called Calx Lunae or Silver Calcined As to this we must take notice that if in stead of Copper you put in leaves or pieces of Gold Silver Lead or Tin the Experiment will not answer expectation neither will Silver stick to them as well as to Gold whence we must necessarily conclude that there is a certain Sympathy or peculiar connexion between Silver and Copper as there is betwixt Gold and Quick-silver so that we grant that if the transmutation of Mettals be not impossible no Mettal can be sooner changed into another than Copper into Silver and Mercury into Gold The difficulty is in knowing the true cause of a Connexion or Affinity which is so remarkable It is commonly said to be done by that sympathy or agreeableness which is between these two Mettals But in saying that we say nothing for we must enquire farther into the cause and foundation of this Sympathy so that we are forced to search for another Cause of this Effect and to say that Silver is not joined to Copper but by the means of a certain local motion of the Particles of the Silver which are dispersed in this great quantity of water and are congregated to joyn and unite themselves to the Copper there is no other cause of this local motion besides the Spirits and scent of the Copper which are dispersed thorow the water and there meeting with particles of the Silver which are wandring separated and dispersed are fixed to them by reason of the conformity of their Pores when the Corpuscles of the Silver are loosed and set at liberty in the water they leave it and descend being forced downwards by the concurring Particles of the Water and leaving no vacuity wherein the Particles of the Silver may be contained they find the Atoms of the Copper emitting themselves like the Odors of Aromatique Bodies and mutually entangle one another like littlè hooks they go directly towards the Copper and falls upon it as it lies in the bottom of the Vessel this Explication doth imply the Doctrine of Atoms and their figures weight and motions as it shall appear in following Chapters after we have discoursed of Antipathy CHAP. X. Of Natural Phaenomena which are attributed to Antipathy THere are observed to be many Effects for which no Reason can be given without the help of this feigned Antipathy I 'le instance to you some few which I shall endeavour to explain In the first place occurs the sight of the Basilisk who kills all whom he sees which they say is by Antipathy which is betwixt it and other Animals But it may be said rather that it is done by the emission of certain venomous Spirits which penetrate the Eyes of those which were seen by the Basilisk The nature of this poison
full and absolute Cure or partly which allays the violence of the Distemper But without doubt or contradiction the true Antidote of the Plague is changing of the Air or correcting of it by good Scents which being attracted within us together with the Air do attemper and correct it and their Corpuscles do check the impatience and the too-free motion of the emancipated Atoms The Poison of a Mad Dog is very hard to be cured and as that sort of Madness is accounted incurable and is publickly attended with a very deadly and fatal issue we are forced to bind those who are infected or suspected and at length to smother them between two Feather-beds The ordinary Remedy is to send them to the Sea to throw them into it several times Experience teaches us that that kind of Remedy is not altogether useless but is to be accounted amongst those which are most safe though it be not altogether infallible The antipathy of the Sea-water hath no room here and it were vain to alledge it in the confirmation of this practice Therefore I say that according to our Principles the emancipated Atoms proceeding from the spittle of the mad dog while they penetrate the substance of the Brain or at least begin to penetrate it or to be turned round its foldings to enter into its Cavities are interrupted in their motion so that they cannot enter into the Cavities of it nay and they are thrown partly out by those struglings which the Patient must necessarily suffer when he is cast into the Sea I do not nor will not deny but that there are Atoms or Corpuscles proceeding from the Froth of the Sea which entring into the Patients body thro' the Pores made open by the agitation or by breathing in of the Air and being comunicated to the blood do with their cubicular figures fix and withstand the emancipated Atoms which produce the madness or nearly dispose the body to it To comprehend in a word all that can be said concerning this matter whatsoever can heal or give ease to a Distemper so dangerous it does it only by hindring the Motion of those loosed Atoms or by quite expelling them out of the body The same thing may be said of the third sort of Poison that is the Venerial which is called the French disease That also hath its general and specifick Antidotes Quick-silver is commonly used for this business and that by reason of that antipathy which is betwixt it and the disease it is most certainly held to be the one only Remedy for it Others use Sudorificks as Guajacum Salsaparilla or animal or Mineral Bezoar or the salt of Vipers Others are only contented with one Remedy which is Mercury perfected by Nature and radically divided by Art also the more industrious do use Philosophical water prepared from the Beams of the Sun and Moon But tho' we may provide an excellent Remedy against this Distemper nevertheless it must be confessed that it is not radically taken away but by the help of those things which expel the Venerial emancipated Atoms from the Centre to the Circumference whether it be done by sweat or by an insensible transpiration this doth not happen by Antipathy or some occult quality but by the motion of the Particles of the Medicine which strike against these miserable Atoms and drive them out by those most convenient ways that is the Pores of our Body Therefore let us proceed to those Antidotes which are opposite to Toxicks not by Antipathy or some occult quality but by their different figures Therefore who will say that Milk hath an aversion to Sublimate or Arsenick though it be a most speedy Remedy and that no less than Oyl which doth resist Poyson because descending into the Ventricle and in its passage touching the Gullet and the orifice of the Ventricle as well as Milk doth lessen the motion of the Corpuscles of the Poison and blunts the sharp points and corners of them and defends all those Parts But of all things a Vomit is most useful in this Case being assisted with the help of Milk or Oyle Slackning the Tunicles of the Stomach and making the Passage more easie For if a Vomit should be given without smoothing and besmearing the Passage the Venome in coming out would Excoriate all the parts that it touched by its sharp-pointed Saw-like and Hooked Particles which are covered by the Particles of Oyl or Milk going out with them and are so prohibited and hindred from hurting In the Conclusion of this Chapter I do observe that Corrupt Humours in our Body as Physicians do affirm to us do degenerate into Poisons and Toxicks but they are silent as to the Reason of this Confusion and all the manner of avoiding it First they ascribe this Corruption to External Causes or to inward Occult and Maligne Qualities or to the excess of certain Qualities as Cold Hot Dry Moist or to certain unwholesom Diet and to ill Digestion or lastly to Obstructions hindring the necessary distribution of them But truly it is not demonstrated from thence that crude and an undigested Diet or Corrupt Humours do degenerate into Poison therefore the true Cause of this thing and the solid Reason of it must be enquired into To this purpose I do suppose that the Humours or Nourishment being any manner of way divided may be said to be Corrupted because I acknowledge no difference between a division and a corruption of a thing but in a separation which is not total there remain some Bodies which are neither Poisons nor Toxicks though they Oppress and Obstruct the Parts and hinder the intercourse of the Spirits as it happens in Phlegm Melancholly and Slimy Humours which are joyned with the Earthy part of the Excrements Besides these Bodies there are other Corpuscles which with their Hooks Sharp points and Stings do pierce prick and penetrate Man's Body and the Membranes of it as also the Veins Muscles and Nerves and do Corrode the Stomach and in the same manner with Poison do occasion Ulcers Imposthumes and Pustles These are those which the Physicians do call sharp biting and Chollerick Humours whereof that I may end this Tract concerning Sympathy and Antipathy and the Actions depending thereon and without these Occult Causes assign a true and an Efficient Cause of all our Distempers I am compelled to treat in a Chapter by it self and in that which follows shall be delivered the General means whereby the Causes and Roots of all Diseases may be Removed CHAP. XV. The True Cause of our Diseases THe Effects of our Diseases are pernicious and have their Origine either from within or without the Causes of them sometimes are so obscure that the Original of them cannot be discovered and though we define a Disease to be a disposition against Nature or an inordinate Constitution of those Qualities which are Constituent of a Right Temperature yet for all this we are not Wiser or more Learned than we were before Therefore after
it may be concluded that there are as many parts in the Millet Seed as there are in the whole Terrestrial Globe Also according to this Opinion we must grant that a Body cannot be divided into as many parts as really it may and that neither the hither or further end of a staff can be found nor that there is a Circle or perfect Piramid nor that the parts of a Body can be immediately divided All which consequences as they are absolutely necessary so they are all equally absurd Descartes did endeavour to free himself from this difficulty by saying that the number of the parts of the Millet-Seed was neither finite nor infinite but only that they were indefinite But the evasion is ridiculous and these two Philosophers are forced to confess that every part of the Millet-seed hath its extension and if their Number be either infinite or indefinite then their extensions also will be either infinite or indefinite at the least which is absurd to affirm I add no more to avoid Scholastic Intricacies and distinctions CHAP. XX. The Properties Magnitude Figure Weight and Motion of Atoms AN Atom is a corporeal Being simple invisible and indivisible Solidity constitutes its Essence or essential property which distinguishes it from Spirits and Vacuity which have no power of resisting Atoms do necessarily avoid all our Senses because these are composed of many distinct and gross parts whose Object ought to be composed e're it can be perceived by the external Organ which nevertheless doth not destroy the truth and reality of Atoms because small Corpuscles do escape our Senses as we observe in Dust which sticks to our Cloaths and also in the Corpuscles of a Ring which is wasted and diminished by time and use in the Corpuscles of a Stone which is made hollow by the drops of Water which fall upon it in divers occult parts in a Mite which cannot be seen without the help of a Microscope and lastly in small Corpuscles which are seen to move in a Chamber by the help of the Sun-beams that we may omit many others which are smaller which without doubt we could see if our sight was sharper as I shall mention in my Animadversions about Experiments of Miscroscopes Though Atoms are most subtle and inperceptible yet they have their particular extension magnitude and figure from whence their differences do arise for the figure of some of them is round as the Atoms of Water Oyl and Quick-Silver others have cubicular figures such are the Atoms of Sea-Water and others are Pyramidal as those whereof Nitre doth consist there are some which have sharp points like needles ' as Fire whence we are to suppose that there are others variously figured This difference is necessary to distinguish Compounds And as these Atoms as to their solidity or invisibility and indivisibility which are their inseparable Properties are alike so also if they did not differ in their figure and thickness all bodies would be of the same likeness Weight is the Principle of the said Natural Motion insomuch as it doth resist a violent motion That I mention here that we may know whether motion of Atoms hath an internal or an external Principle or whether Weight be determined only to one Motion or that it be indifferently inclined to many And whether the motion of Atoms do tend to some Center And whether it be continuant or interrupted And lastly whether it be perpendicular or horizontal Parallel or declined right or parabolical or circular In order to resolve well this difficulty I suppose that Atoms may be considered in a double State The First State of them is before the Composition of the bodies which are made of them which may be called the State of Liberty The other is that which they have in the bodies which do consist of them which may be termed the State of obligation or servitude If Attoms be considered in their First State their motion is perpetual So that an Atom that is loose and freed from any composition is essentially in motion which ought not in the least to be wondred at for Motion in respect of a free Atom is the same that Understanding is in respect of an Angelâ— which is never without knowing unless his Intellect is bound and clouded From this Principle it is evident That Atoms are in continual motion unless they are hindred or that there is some obstruction in the way or that there are other Atoms resisting and repelling of them or that they find such as will stick unto them or that they insinuate themselves into the Atoms of certain bodies or or that they enter into some composition whereby their motion is stopped Nevertheless Atoms in Compounds are not altogether void of motion because they are not so straitly imbodied together but that they have some motion like Vibrations and Palpitations according to the liberty which is granted them by the disseminated Vacuities nay some of them sometimes do attempt their escape especially in porous bodies which therefore are sooner corrupted and perish than other Bodies which are more solid and more close It is yet more evident in living bodies out of which the animal Spirits which are but the bodies of Atoms and most subtile Corpuscles are dissipated by transpiration whence aliments are necessarily requisite for to supply the Spirits of the whole body which are dissipated by motion and agitation This motion of Atoms or the least Corpuscles in living bodies may be deservedly accounted the Image of their first liberty and tho' they do but seldom enjoy their full liberty yet they are apt to raise the greatest commotions in order to be freed and to gain their liberty this is the origine of many distempers as in Acute Fevers the Atoms or Corpuscles of the boiling blood or obstructed choller are carried and driven into the Brain where they produce watchfulness Deliriums and Phrensies According to this Principle that which we said before may be concluded That many Distempers do arise from minute Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms For These being driven forwards by other Atoms and forced back do run into the membranes Periostiam Meninges or intestines and cause Pains which they call the Collick Headach Gouts and Rheumatisms So that this solution of Corpuscles and emancipation of Atoms in our Bodies are much to be feared and to prevent this danger all motions of the body which are too violent must be avoided for these are the external cause of the confusion of the Spirits and the emancipation of the Atoms The emancipation of Atoms and also of the small Corpuscles which are composed of those Atoms are to be feared no less in the great than little World for the Winds are nothing else but emancipated Atoms which by their impetuosity being driven backwards and forwards do force all bodies which they meet with in their way It is these Atoms which agitate the Air and the Sea and cause Earth-quakes and also over-turn all things which resist their motion
this motion of the Earth by more Natural Reasons I say therefore and suppose that the Sun is immoveable in the Centre of the World and yet notwithstanding that like a Wheel it turns round about its proper Centre and this is that motion which is called Circum-Rotation and by this motion it disperses on all sides on every part these Corpuscles which produce Light and Heat These Corpuscles compose that great Vortex which is about the Sun and which with it is carried round and moves the Earth which is plac'd in the same Vortex with it like as a Stone is moved by the motion of a rapid Stream and this same Vortex carries other Planets along with it accordingly as they are more or less immerged in it According to this explication one may fancy the Sun to be like the wheel of a Clock which moves that which is next to it another way for when one Wheel is moved towards the right the other which it carries with it must of necessity be moved towards the left So whilst the Sun by its Circum-Rotation is moved from East to West the Earth must likewise be moved from West to East The other motion of the Earth is that which is called Annual or half-yearly and which arises from the Libration of the Solar Body and of the Vortex which drives the Earth from the part of the Pole and makes it daily go a degree farther and so the Annual as the Diurnal motion each day declines one degree onely from a Parallel from whence arise the vicissitudes of days and Seasons But if the Earth returns by the same steps as I may so say it happens because the Sun by its daily Libration drives it on from one part and then after six Months assuming an opposite Libration it draws it back for Three Months and for the other three Months which makes up Six it drives it forwards so that the Rotation and the Libration of the Sun makes a double or a triple motion of the Earth without the former's changing either its place or its Centre All that we have hitherto said according to the mind of these Authors doth not as yet satisfie a Spirit curious to know the truth So here are other difficulties remaining which must be taken away by more sensible and more Natural Reasons First Though we affirm the Sun to be immoveable and the Earth to be wheeled round about it or though we affirm the contrary there remains nevertheless that we give an account not only of each of these motions but also of the motions of the other Planets It is demanded what is the internal or external Cause of the Earths motion If it be answered that the Sun by its Libration is the Cause of it as we have said and as our Opinion is it remains that we demonstrate the Cause whether internal or external that gives the Sun this motion By means of which being librated from one side for Six Months it is also librated for as many from the other side and by this so regular motion it sometimes draws the Earth towards it and sometimes drives it from it as we shall see in the following Chapter what can be said about this Matter CHAP. IX Of the Sun the true Centre and Heart of the World. THe Sun being placed in the Centre of the World is like the Heart inspiring Life into all things and presiding over all the Works of Nature whatsoever even as the Heart in an humane Body is the Principle of its Life and all its motions this is that admirable Machine which without being moved out of its place moves the Spirits Humours and all the parts of our Bodies in like manner the immoveable Sun by his double motion shakes and moves the Earth as well as the rest of the Planets One only difficulty remains in explaining the motion of the Heart in the Microcosme and of the Sun in the Macrocosme But being about to treat else-where of the Earths motion we will here only speak of the Suns motion which I call a wheeling of it round about the Earth and afterwards we will speak of its Libration Elsewhere we have said the Sun to be not only of the same Nature with Gold but to be Gold indeed melted in the Centre of the World and Cupellated by the Fire of the fix'd Stars which are every where about it No wonder therefore that it is wheeled round like melted Gold in a Crusible and there sparkling and purified That this Hypothesis which will bring no little light to many things may be better comprehended I will bring an Experiment to confirm this Doctrine which seems new indeed but nevertheless it cannot be denied to be built upon the foundation of indubitable Experience I say therefore that if you take Gold and put it into a great Crusible with Lead Copper or other Mettals and make a Fire every where round it these Mettals will be melted together and compose a sparkling smoaking Bath this Bath or melted Matter is in perpetual motion and so soon as the matter is made hot it wheels round its Centre without intermission It would be much more conspicuous if this melted Matter in the Centre of the World were equally distant from all the points of its circumference for this being supposed no man will deny this melted Matter fixed in the Centre of the World and Fire being put to it every where and on all sides to remain in fashion as in a Crusible and to have the same motion of Circum-rotation and Libration which we attribute to the Sun. All the Obstacle we meet with at first sight consists in this to wit how this solar melted Matter can remain suspended not falling down on any part Secondly By means of what Fire it remains always melted Thirdly How it comes to pass that since Gold so soon as it is cupellated or refined remains in the Crusible in a fix'd Mass yet the Sun which is like to this Gold is neither fixed nor stands it still immediately but being wheeled perpetually round its Centre it continues in motion and is Librated in the Cupel without any intermission To the first of these difficulties I answer that we ought not to stand upon it because they who place the Earth in the Centre of the World do teach us that if a great hole were made through the Earth even as far as our Antipodes and if a Mill-Stone were thrown into it it would stop in the middle which is affirmed to be the Centre of the World and there remain suspended for to move forwards either way would be to ascend The same thing may be said likewife of Water or other Liquids which would remain suspended If therefore the Sun be in the Centre of the World why should it seem a wonder that it should remain there so suspended since that may serve him instead of a Cupel As to the other difficulty which belongs to the Fire I answer that there is no want of that because
goes streight forwards whenas he continually treads the same steps in the same Circle But to do this there must be a propulsion on every side for Gold would not be turned round in the Cupel if Fire were only applyed to it from beneath and not from above and quite round it which ought to be well taken notice of We will say then that the Sun cannot be moved about its own Centre that is the Centre of the World unless at the same time it moves the ambient Bodies by the assistance of the Corpuscles coming out of its Globe like so many streams of Light just as we see Rivers of Water flowing out of the Sea and yet the Sea is never the less for this Effusion no more than the Sun is lessened by a continual effusion of his Light because it receives in as much as it pours out and these Waters return back to the Sea as these Corpuscles of Light do to the Sun by a continual Circulation CHAP. X. Of the Moon and its Changes THe Moon is like an Optick Looking-Glass in which Light and the Corpuscles flowing from the Sun are concentred and gathered together from whence for divers respects and changes they are sent towards the Earth One of the Antients affirmed the Moon to be a Planet very near and familiar to the Earth it is moved about the Sun because it is in the solar Vortex by which it is carried round and in it three kinds of Motions are observed viz its Annual Monthly and Diurnal from these divers motions divers Aspects in respect of the Sun and it do arise from whence are its various yet constant appearances It s Figure is round but its Mass is partly solid partly fluid like Earth and Water its roundness appears at Full and New-Moons without this roundness we could never see its increase or decrease It s solidity is the Cause why the Light of the Sun is from thence reflected to us even as by reason of its fluidity we observe in it obscure parts like Spots because they do not reflect the Sun so much as the solid parts do but if in the Body of the Moon there are some parts higher than others in the shape of Mountains or Hills the Sun Beams do there produce small shadows which are observed by the help of Perspective Glasses That it cannot be half so big as the Earth is proved by Optick Principles Shades and Paralaxes in respect of it self it is always in the full because one half of it is continually illustrated by the Sun But it does not always appear full to us but only at the time of its Opposition and Recession from the Sun and then also in respect of us it may be Eclipsed because our Earth at that time is directly placed between it and the Sun and by its shadow makes the Moon more or less obscure as it is nearer or farther off and as it is more or less opposite to it These two opposite points in which when the Moon suffers an Eclipse those great Lights are found Astrologers call the Dragons Head and Tail. But as the Earth by its interposition is the Cause of the Moon 's Eclipse so also by the interposition of the Moon betwixt the Sun and the Earth is produced an Eclipse of the Sun which is either greater or less according as the Moon is more or less posited between us and the Sun or is nearer or farther from us Lunar Eclipses can happen naturally only in the time of Full Moon but these of the Sun in the time of New Moon An Eclipse of the Moon may be Total and Universal But that of the Sun can never without a Miracle be so at the same time but this is not a real defect of light in the Body of the Sun as it is in the Moon which is a dark Body and possesses only a borrowed Light. We may hear what Astronomical Philosophers and Astronomers say of it I told you before that the Sun is like melted Gold I told you likewise by the way that the Moon might be compared to melted Silver but I think it may be truly said that its Matter as to its Circumference is more like to real Silver but be it as it is it continues in the manner we see it suspended in one massie lump a most subtile Aetherial matter full of many empty spaces being by the Creator shut up in its Circumference which hinders the Moon chiefly from changing its place and from being immerged more deeply in the Sun 's Vortex whose Atoms are indeed more thick and gross By reason of its vacuities there is no fear that it should descend nearer the Sun or be able to resist the impression of its Vortex any more than the Earth which has plenty of Pores Cavities and empty Spaces without which it would too much resist the solar Vortex and would be able to get nearer its Centre that is the Sun. But its empty Cavities hinder that like Air contained in a Bladder which hinders it from sinking to the bottom and as the hollowness of the Quils of Birds bear them up in the Air. The Moon in her daily motion finishes her Course round the Earth in the space of twenty four hours or rather the Earth performs its daily motion about the Sun and its own proper Centre in twenty four hours time the Moon being carried away by the same Solar Vortex with the Earth is daily retarded some degrees whereupon we say it rises every day later and later until by this resistance or retrocession in twenty nine or thirty days it hath compleated its Monthly motion And besides this Retrocession it is moved by the Libration of the Sun from one Tropick to another and twice in every Month runs through the Equinoctial Line after the same manner as the Earth does it twice every Year There can be no Annual motion of the Moon unless about its own proper Centre But I will wander no further about a matter meerly Astrological CHAP. XI Of the Planets Comets and Fixed Stars SATURN Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury are Five wandring Stars called Planets of the same Nature with the Sun but less pure whose Corpuscles are sent and driven towards the Body of the Sun they are likened to divers melted Mettals and sparkling in Chrystalline or Adamantine Crâ—â—bles and the Fire melting them is that of the Sun and the Fixed Stars If it be asked why they are not joyned with the Sun I answer that they consist of a Matter full of many empty Spaces and besides that they daily disburthen themselves upon the Body of the Sun and supply it with matter for depuration and resining which the Sun sends back to them more subtilised and they distill down these seminal and Mettalline Spirits upon the Earth They are diversely whirled about by the solar Vortex after which manner they obtain divers motions as Astronomers teach us Who affirm the Planets Mars and Venus to be less than the Earth
in general THE Earth as hath been said is a Planet habitable having three Motions The First of these is about its own proper Centre which is not the Centre of the World for the Circle of the Earth is Excentrick This motion is impressed upon it by the Solar Vortex as a greater Wheel carries a less along with it and this is called its Diurnal motion Another is about the Sun as the Centre of the World to which it is Concentrical and requires a Years time to return to the same point and this arises likewise from the Solar Vortex for the Earth being driven on by the Flux of the Centre of the Universe cannot be moved about its proper Centre without sensibly making an Excentrick Circle And from this two-fold Motion of it arises the other third viz. from one Pole to the other in the space of one six Months and returning back again in the space of six other which happens because it can go no farther nor pass the Tropick unless it recedes from the Solar Circle for here it hath only the Latitude of the Ecliptick For if it should recede it must ascend too for whatsoever recedes from the Centre of the Universe in respect of that ascends and so likewise from its proper Centre The Earth in all these motions carries the Water along with it for they both make but one and the same Globe which is altogether exact and regular on the Seas part but less accurate on the Earth's part by reason of the Vales and Mountains And though it be true that the Earth does not seem to us to be of a round Figure yet it is proved by Experience for that teaches us that the last part of the Ship which can be seen by those on shoar is the top of the Mast and the first Things they on Ship-board see as they approach their Haven are the tops of Towers From whence it may evidently appear that the Sea is as it were a Belly and eminence which insensibly is lifted up into a convexity that so with the Earth it may constitute one entire Globe Earth and Water are two immediate Principles of all Compounds which are to be seen in this lower Region of the World yet notwithstanding not they but Atoms are the first Elements as it is said else-where There is moreover a lesser number of Vacuities in Terrestrial than in Aqueous Bodies and this is the Cause that the Earth is more solid and the Water more fluid that is to say less solid than the Earth CHAP. II. Of Terrestrial Inanimate Bodies in general THere is nothing Simple but God an Angel the Rational Soul Atoms and a Vacuum God is essentially Simple in a simplicity of Essence Power and Act for whatsoever is in him is an act his Essence is no ways compounded nor his Power idle nor his Action ever interrupted An Angel is simple in respect of essence but his power is not always in act nor his action at least the same without intermission The Rational Soul which is a Spirit laid in pledge or at least a Physical Compound with an Organical Body is simple because it hath neither Integral Physical nor contained parts but it self is a Physical Part saving only that its powers are often idle and its actions are changed and interrupted A Vacuum is simple for since it is neither a Spirit nor Matter nor any thing else but a capacity of receiving a Body and it hath an essential emptiness it cannot be called simple but for as much as it cannot suffer composition by reason of its imperfection Lastly Atoms are simple because they are indivisible and the first Elements of Bodies out of which all compound Bodies are framed I acknowledge no other Elements no other substantial material forms in Bodies for they are not only unnecessary but impossible Yet it doth not follow from thence that the diversity which occurs between Bodies constituting the World and which are the Compounds of the lower World is no other than meerly accidental and not at all essential for according to our Principles we determine one composition to be substantially distinguished from another by Atoms which are the first Principles of its composition and essentially by the manner of composition that is by the disposition and ordination of its Atoms Corpuscles and all its parts They who conclude that there is no Physical Compound without a substantial form think Matter alone with its diverse Figures and in all its dispositions cannot possibly be the Cause of the special Properties which we observe in every one Body and that therefore a form distinct from Matter is required to produce qualities proper to every one compound Body As for Example Earth is in its Nature dry and Water is cold which could not happen unless Earth did obtain a substantial form which is dryness and Water such a one as Cold requires This is that form which restores dryness to the Earth and Cold to the Water when they are put out of their Natural State and condition to wit by introducing moisture into the first and heat into the latter This Objection how strong so ever it may seem is nevertheless but vain for we say that neither the moisture of Water nor the dryness of Earth are Accidental Qualities so that this ought to gravel none but those who acknowledge Accidental Qualities distinct from Matter Ours is quite another Opinion and our Language quite otherwise For we firmly conclude That all Compound Bodies which are in the World are compounded of Matter every thing else being excluded and that all contingent changes in them arise from Matter newly added or taken away or changing place or by some confused Atoms or Corpuscles brought thither from else-where or lastly by the more notable parts changing place or other ways disposed by the Action of external Agents CHAP. III. Of the various Qualities to be observed in Compound Bodies THere is a difference betwixt the Qualities of Simple Elements which are Atoms and the Qualities of Bodies compounded of them for the First as well as Atoms are immutable and incorruptible the others as well as the compound Bodies are mutable and fleeting For indeed Propriety follows the Nature of that Being of which it is the propriety So that if Atoms are immutable by their solidity the same must be said of their Qualities but Bodies compounded of many distinct Parts are forced to be changed as often as their parts change places or are wholly separated That which is corrupted as well as that which is generated De Novo is a Composition for as corruption is a division of substance so generation is a composition of it To Explain this Opinion There is nothing more commodious than the example of Syllables and Words For truly Letters are immutable indeed and according to their different place they vary a Syllable or Word without changing their figure substance and essence remaining always the same in what state or disposition soever they are placed
or in Glass Vessels where if it be possible there is a transmutation of one thing into another For this combination does not in the least vary their Nature and they are easily separated which does not happen in things which Nature alone helpt by Art rightly and duly composeth CHAP. VII Of Mettals and their Formation IF those things which are above us are unknown to us no less are those things also which are beneath us and which happen in the shade and in the dark and it may be truly said that the production of Mettals in the bottom of Mines is the most obscure mystery in Nature and without any manner of trifling to speak like a Philosopher all that can be said concerning this subject I reduce to the Cause producing Mettals to the Matter from whence and the Manner whereby they are produced The Principal Cause Chief Agent and Parent of all Mettals is the Sun the Planets and fixt Stars concurring likewise to it the Fixt Stars by their heat keep the Celestial Gold in fusion and turn it round in the Cupel in the Centre of the World that is the Sun from whence issue bright fumes without ceasing out of which proceeds light and which carry Heat together with seminal Spirits which penetrating the Pores of the Earth generate Gold in the very Bowels of it So Coelestial Gold that is the Sun is the Parent of Terrestrial Gold as it is of all other Mettals by the reflection of its light upon each Planet each of which together with the Sun produceth its particular Mettal And the Earth performs the Office of a Womb which furnisheth the greatest part of the Matter out of which Mettals are produced and nourisheth them afterwards But the Sun bestows seminal Spirits all pure for Gold but mixed with the Spirits of other Planets for other Mettals But that this generation of Mettals may be rightly understood we must call to mind that out of Letters Syllables are formed before Words Words before Speeches out of which all Discourses are compounded Nature does the same in the production of Mettals for she begins with little Bodies out of which she makes the three immediate Principles of Mettals to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercury Of which Salt is the grosser Sulphur the more unctuous and Mercury the more fluid and moveable part and out of these three by divers preparations digestions sublimations and fixations she makes a Mettalline or Mineral Body But it might be said as it seems to me that the Spirits or Corpuscles flowing from the Stars purified in the Sun and received into the Earth's Lap are incrassated and brought into clear and limpid Water which Water is that viscous sweet and Mercurial Matter which after some few Ages is elaborated and digested till at last it becomes a yellow and fixt Earth in which the Spirit and seed from above resides which Spirit makes all the Corpuscles of water it meets withal like to the former which piercing into the Veins of the Earth and finding a Matter that is pure encreases the Golden Mine until it meets with dead Earth which hinders its propagation But if the Mixture be impure and strange Matter mingled in it instead of Gold it only produces Silver Iron or Copper which are imperfect Mettals From this Doctrine I conclude first of all That by Nature producing Mettals ought to be understood this seminal Spirit consisting of Corpuscles flowing from the Fire of the Stars and working these Miracles under the Earth Secondly That Mettals enjoy a Mettalline Life and after their way a Vegetative also that they are generated out of Mettallick Seed Gold out of the seed of Gold. And that this Mettallick Embryo is nourished by the Air of the Stars by the Spirit and Dew of the Heavens that it grows buds and puts forth branches like a Tree which Metallourgists call a Mettalline Tree furnished with boughs Trunks and Roots which could ne-never be without a vital Principle included in it Which things will more clearly appear by what shall be said hereafter and especially in the experiment about the Tree of Diana CHAP. VIII Of Gold the King of Mettals THere are Seven Mettals viz. Gold Silver Copper Iron Tin Lead and Quick-Silver which Chymists call Sol Luna Venus Jupiter Saturn and Mercury because they suppose each single Planet operates upon each Mettal which is done as I told you by a remission of Coelestial Spirits which are in the Solar Globe and out of its Vortex are carried into each Planet who according to the various opposition of the Sun recieve more or less of his light and send it towards the Earth as being the womb in which pure and impure Mettals are formed according to the purity or impurity of the subterranean Lodgings First Gold is the Chief and Noblest of all Mettals it is the chiefest and principal work of Nature and the heaviest of all Mettals because the Mettallick Corpuscles are so firmly shut and united together in it that very small numbers of Vacuities are left in its composition and in respect of bulk there is a much greater quantity of Matter in Gold than in other Mettals Notwithstanding this great solidity and firmness of Gold yet nevertheless there are some small Vacuities between its Atoms for there is nothing absolutely solid and without a Vacuum but an Atom in particular besides Atoms since they have Figures cannot be united without leaving some empty spaces for unless it were so Gold could not de divided no more than an indivisible Atom There are therefore Vacuities betwixt the Atoms of Gold though but very small and also betwixt its Corpuscles and lastly between its little pieces From this well-grounded Principle I discover the difference of the dissolutions or divisions of Gold. The least and grossest of them all is that which is made by melting it with other Mettals when therefore it is melted with some or with the least of the Seven it is mixed with them and divided into infinite Particles especially if it be mingl'd with a great quantity of an imperfect Mettal as for Example if an Ounce of Gold be melted into ten pounds or more of Lead or Copper but the division of it is apparent from this that not the least quantity of this mixture can be brought to the test but some portion of Gold will be found in it Another separation is made in respect of the small masses of Gold which is made by the help of Aqua Regis which divides Gold after that manner that it may as in the first Division be melted with any Mettal so in this second it becomes like the Water in which it is dissolved and divided But since it is only separated into very small masses it is easily again reduced into a Body and to be melted with Borax and fit to become the massy Gold it was before The third Division which is called radical although it be not so is made by a proper dissolvent of the Philosophers which is a
from whence it is brought into Spain out of it is extracted the best and purest Gold whose Corpuscles were wrapt up in the Particles of a crude and unprofitable Earth The same may be said of Lapis Lazulus or the Azure-colour'd Stone Litharge and Tutty are not properly Minerals because they are not digged out of Mines For the first is only the grosser part of Gold Silver or Lead But Tutty is the purer part of Copper the Atoms of which being set at liberty ascend and stick to the Arch of the Furnace wherein Copper is melted The fourth Mineral is Vitriol containing in it self Saline Sulphurous and Mercurial Corpuscles all of a different figure The Spirit which is distilled from it consists of Atoms so acute as that they cut thick humours and hinder vapours from ascending to the Brain It penetrates likewise into imperfect Mettals Arsenick is a white and Chrystalline Mineral there is a yellow one also called Orpiment and a third which is red called Sandover all these three are very violent Poisons for the reasons above alledged Sulphur also is a Mineral easily taking Fire as being of a Fiery Nature it disolves and melts Iron just as a burning Coal does Wax There is extracted from it a Spirit an Oyle or Balsom performing wonders in Diseases of the Breast There is also another Sulphur in perfect Mettals which is incombustible CHAP. XIII Of Salts SALT is the Principle of Savours because the Saline Atoms have Figures fit to affect and vellicate the Organ of Taste that is the Tongue and Pallat Sea or common Salt is made out of Sea-water by the help of evaporation this very same Salt is dissolved in Water a certain quantity of whose spaces it fills all which being filled the Salt falls to the bottom unless something else be put into it as Nitre or the like which the water carries with it over and above from whence it appears that the vacuities of water are not all equal and that there are some of them which the Atoms of Nitre can enter into but not the Atoms of common cubical Salt. Common Salt Vitriol Nitre and the like have Atoms not only sharp or pointed but also like little hooks adhering to Glass it self though endued with few and very small Pores and what is wonderful Sea-Salt or Vitriol or Nitre or all of them together dissolved in water and the water evaporated by degrees the Salt or Salts we see ascend according to the heighth of the Glass to the very brims of it whither when it is come it descends on the other side to the very bottom of the Glass so that it is quite covered with Salt. From this Experiment three things are manifest First that there are little cavities in Glass Secondly that Salt like Ivy is endowed with little hooks And Thirdly that Salt grows and creeps up according to the heighth of the Glass just as the Sap of Trees and nourishing humour ascends from the Roots to the Trunk and from thence afterwards to the higher Branches as shall be said elsewhere Husbandmen experience this to be true when they burn their Stubble that so the Rains falling upon the ashes may carry along with them the Salt which is to penetrate into the Earth from which afterwards Seed and the fruitfulness of the Earth ariseth Salt does also preserve Bodies from Corruption by creeping into their Pores and by that means hindring the Air from entring in which would divide and dissolve their parts or cause a fermentation in them There are a great many kinds of Salts to wit sowre and sweet and acid and bitter and as many others as there are Tastes Which ariseth only from a different disposition of their Atoms As Salt is found in all things so from them it may be extracted and they who extract Salt out of the Earth for the making of Nitre do afterwards expose that Earth to the Air where it is impregnated again with Salt either from the Air or Rain Salts have as various motions as they have Figures which appears in the evaporation of four Salts dissolved together in Water for they do not only after the water is evaporated remain at the bottom but also each of them chuseth to it self a proper place and fastens it self to it without mixing at all with the others by reason of the irregularity of their Figures From the Salt of Urine is extracted a Spirit which mixt with Spirit of Wine composeth a Body hard enough because those Spirits by filling each others Vacuities are hardned for nothing becomes hard but in as much as its vacuities are either filled or made less From Tartar a Salt is extracted which is the Salt of Wine out of which calcined and dissolved in a cold place is made an Oyle which being mixed with Oyle of Vitriol a great boyling ariseth and that being over a white powder falls to the bottom called Tartar Vitriolate for all the moisture of the Tartar enters into the vacuities of the Spirit of Vitriol and the Salt of Tartar recovers its first state that is of a white Powder But the strife betwixt them proceeds from the disagreeableness of their Atoms by reason of which they very much justle one another That Salt which is called Sal Polychrestum is not of less usefulness because it drives out peccant Humours extreamly well It is compounded that is to say of Nitre and Sulphur D. Seignette adds to it moreover another Salt and indeed I must say that that has succeeded better than all others and that his Sal Polychrestum is a very innocent and a most excellent Remedy CHAP. XIV Of Subterraneous Fires and Earth-Quakes THere is no Man can doubt but that there are Subterraneous Fires the Mountains of Hecla in Island Aetna in Sicily and Vesuvius in the Kingdom of Naples are invincible arguments of them as there are the Fires of the Stars above us so there are Fires below us called Subterranean lighted beneath the Earth from the beginning of the World or at least Bituminous and Sulphurous Matters were never wanting beneath the Earth no more than Coals or Bituminous Stones which easily take Fire and Flame Therefore the setting them on fire was not at all difficult for there needed only one little spark arising from the striking together of two Flints or from a Lamp or Candle which Miners carry along with them into the Pits that so they may the better work there The same also might happen by Lightning or lastly Fire might be kindled of its own accord by a fat and unctuous humidity after the same manner as wet Hay and such like Bodies heat and take Fire From these Subterranean Fires the heat of Mineral Waters ariseth nor is there any fear that these should extinguish these Fires for Bitumen burns in water as the Experiment of Camphire teaches us Earth-quakes are produced by winds that is by a troop of emancipated Atoms which shake the Earth places most obnoctious to these are the Sea-Coasts by
reason of Winds and Tempests creeping into the Bowels of the Earth through the holes made hollow by the Water But these Earth-quakes arise when the Earth recedes never so little from the Centre of its gravity or is interrupted in its motion about the Centre of the Universe that is about the Sun or else when it is driven to and fro by the Solar Vortex and this is a fourth motion of it by means of which it is sometimes nearer the Sun in a streight and perpendicular Line from whence sometimes happen intolerable Summer heats or mild Winters or on the contrary as we may have experienced CHAP. XV. Of Waters and their differences THere are many kinds of Waters seen which I here propose to speak a little of The first of them is that which is called the common Elementary Water whose Atoms are round and vacuities plenty and triangular This may be rarified and condensed as the Corpuscles of Fire entring into its Vacuities either dilate them and remove the parts of Water from one another or the particles of cold compress them and shut them up by their gravity or else expel from thence the particles of Air which had insinuated therein Sometimes water is so closely shut up by Cold that it is congealed and brought into cones of Ice from whose lightness appears the quantity of Air that has got into the Pores and from its hardness is manifested that the vacuities of this Air are very much compressed Another Species of Water is that which is called destilled Water and which by the help of Alembicks is extracted out of all kinds of Simples which is thus done the Particles of Water which are in Plants do free themselves and are driven upwards in the form of Vapours which striking against the Head of the Vessel are incrassated crushed together and condensed into little drops of Water which fall down through the beack of the Alembick After this manner Rains arise and fall upon the Earth and from hence we may learn that Vapours are nothing else but Water rarified and that in Nature there is a continual Circulation whilst Water ascends and descends it ascends in the form of Vapours and makes the Clouds and it falls down again in Rains and Dew A Third sort of Water is called Aqua-Fortis extracted out of Mettalline Salts so that to speak properly it is not Water but Spirits that is the most subtile and most acute Particles that are in the Salts and by force are freed from them and which forsaking their terrestrial parts carry only the watery parts along with them with which they compose a sensible and fluid Body This Water dissolves Mettals and brings them into a corrosive Liquor So we may see what Saline Corpuscles are able to do when they are freed from their Earthy part nor shall we any more wonder at the effects which proceed from serosities and salt Phlegm in humane Bodies We may from hence also learn from whence the intolerable pains of the Gout Gripes and the Cholick do arise for these are corrosive Spirits freed from their Earthy part which become so sharp and penetrating that they pierce through the parts on which they fall pulling and tearing them asunder The following Species of Water is that which is called Aqua-Vitae which is nothing but the more subtile Corpuscles of Wine which are of a Fiery and Sulphurous Nature and do very easily burn and take Fire by the means of fermentation An Aqua-Vitae is extracted out of all kinds of Grain Pulse and Plants It is a wonderful thing truly that we see a Linnen Cloth dipped in Aqua-Vitae and set on fire and yet nevertheless it is not burnt nay not so much as scorched Which proceeds from this That in Aqua-Vitae there is a kind of Salt whose Corpuscles sticking to the Linnen defend it from the burning heat of the Flame which applies it self to the Sulphur only not being able to touch the Salt or the Subject to which it adheres Under the fifth Species of Water are comprehended Mineral Waters so called because they contain in them a great many Mineral Spirits as various as the places through which they pass and as various as the Mettals and Minerals which they meet with in their passage Amongst them some are hot and boyling because they run through places in which Sulphur and â—itumen are heated Of these there are a great many in France but the most Natural and sweetest of them are the Waters of Bourbon which conduce very much to the Breast and Stomach and to the whole Body by opening their Pores and vents taking away by transpiration Head-achs Rheumatisms and Palsâ—es and they might deservedly be called an Universal Medicine because besides the Vertues above described they possess wonderful ones also in the Stone of the Kidneys and curing Fits of the Mother unless that they too much irritate Ulcers and inward Apostems as also they discover them if they lie hid I have Chymically extracted out of these Waters a Salt as white as Snow and altogether like to Sal Polychrestum and I can affirm that Nitre also and Sulphur are contained in them For this Reason their sharp Particles enrage inward Ulcers and for the same Cause sharp-pointed Dock-Leaves being ca 〈…〉 into the Wells of Bourbon the Salt hinders them from withering After the same manner as the Salt of the Aqua-Vitae keeps the lighted Handkerchief without being hurt as we observed before There are also other hot Waters which instead of Nitre are impregnated with Vitriol whereupon they purge by Stool much more than the others but they are not altogether so safe Of these there are many kinds but all the Bourbon Waters are alike except the Waters of Jonas which are not to be reckon'd amongst the best Moreover the Waters of Bourbon-Lancius in Bâ—â—gundy are the hottest and have some parts of Nitre and Sulphur but the greatest part of Bittumen wherefore they serve for Bathing indeed but not at all for Drinking because they purge only by transpiration and plentiful Sweats There are also a great many cold Mineral Waters in France and amongst the rest those of Passy les Paris which besides that they as well as other spurge by Stool and Urine they have this peculiar quality that they cure Agues and cool in Burning Feavers they open inward and inveterate Apostems they open Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Bowels by the help of the Spirits or Corpuscles of Iron which they carry along with them out of the Mines through which they pass Some of these are stronger some sweeter and lastly some decayed CHAP. XVI Of the Sea its Ebbing and Flowing as also of the Saltness of Sea-Water THe Sea goes about the Earth like a Circle or Girdle and the Earth is like an Island in the midst of it But if by the Author of Nature cavities had not been digged in it in which the Sea might be placed it would overflow the whole Earth The first thing in the
run downwards For to say that Water will seek after its proper Centre is to flye back again to an Occult Cause and to renounce our Principles I conclude therefore that the Atoms Corpuscles and drops of Water are of a perfect round Figure and since they have a certain inclination without hindrance nothing can keep them back but that without interruption they do and will drive one another forward even to the World's End. The Fourth Part of Physick Of those things which are in Man and of Man himself as he is a Compound Physical Animated Body WE are now come at length to our Fourth and last part of Physick wherein according to what we proposed we are to speak of the things which are in Man whom now we consider as a Body animated Which compels us to speak of the Soul and of Life in general and afterwards descending to special we will explain the Life of Man as he is rational and we shall endeavour by Natural Reasons to prove the immortality of his Soul. CHAP. I. Of Life in general LIfe as we have said elsewhere appears only by action and motion So those Beings which have most of action and motion obtain also most of Life And we say a Man is dying when there is but little motion left in him and dead when it is quite abolished Every motion is not a vital motion for that it may be so it must be Internal of the thing that acts and proceed from a Principle that is not external Wherefore the motion of a Stone that is thrown into the Air is not a vital motion because it comes from an external Cause to wit from the hand of him that throws it I say further that it must be the motion of a Compound Body if it be a vital motion and for this Cause the motion of Atoms is not so because they are simple and indivisible beings neither capable of Life nor Death And for as much as Atoms are not Compounds tho' they compound Bodies so they are not said to live in the least although without their impression and ministery there is no Life nor no motion in the Bodies we speak of Life therefore is an action and motion of a Compound and Organical Body arising from an internal and seminal Principle And in this sense Mettals may be said to possess a certain kind of Life since they obtain a certain motion of vegetation by which they grow and we may determine this motion to arise from an internal and seminal principle though it be abstruse enough and the Organs of Life scarcely appear so that it is a very difficult matter to distinguish them in Plants and in some Animals as in the Fish called a Muscle and in Oysters which are nevertheless endowed with a more perfect life than Mettals and Plants We shall in the following Discourse tell you wherein this Life consists and how Mettals and Plants dye as well as other living Creatures There is a great difference between Life and the Principle of it tho' not in like manner between Life and motion or vital action For Life is the action and motion of divers Beings gathered by Nature together and united after such a manner as that the parts of it move one another as we see in Machines and what the Pullies and Springs are in these the same are the Spirits in Natural Compound Bodies that is the most swiftly moving Atoms From this Doctrine is collected first of all That there are Atoms more swift and fuller of Motion than others by reason of their subtilty and figure such as are Coelestial Fiery and Luminous Atoms to wit such as Heaven the Stars Fire Heat and Light are compounded of This we judge by the compound Bodies that are made and framed out of them For humane Spirits instructed with material Senses is not able to penetrate into the essence of Atoms and their special difference But we determine that the Atoms out of which Heaven the Stars and Light are made have Figures and activities greater more perfect and more fit for motion than those that compound cold and heavy Bodies although when the thing is well considered it may arise from their greater liberty and more perfect Figure Secondly according to our Principles we must say That the Vital Spirts so called are nothing else but a certain number of Atoms free from all composition and such whose Figure and condition renders them unfit for service and slavery This Doctrine supposeth that there are two sorts of Atoms in Nature some of which like Common-People are destined to Imprisonment Service and Bonds but others like Nobles to liberty and command over others Now those whose Lot it is to be like the Commons are made to compose the Machines of our Bodies and they are such as entangle one another and are linked and bound together in the formation of Bodies whereas those which cannot be bound nor undergo Slavery are destined to move the whole Machine of our Bodies as not being fastned to any part but running through all parts and bestowing every where motion sense and disposition These are what are called Vital Spirits because they bestow Life that is motion These Atoms therefore are not Life but the Principles and Authors of it Sometimes Atoms that Compound Bodies get out of Service and as often as occasion offers and Bodies â—uffer division are emancipated for in all separations and corruptions of Bodies some Atoms do flye away and like the first seek to recover Liberty and when it happens that these Fugitive Atoms are mingled together with those that are essentially free from thence arise conflicts in our Bodies and from These Ill dispositions and our Diseases which there is no help to be hoped for nor any cure unless these rebellious and emancipated Atoms are restored to their first confinement or else driven out of the Body that so by this means the Spirits may remain pure and altogether free in their motion and not be interrupted by these irregular Atoms which are the common disturbers of Nature and Health And for as much as some Atoms continually flye out of those Bodies which we use for nourishment by reason of divers degrees of Corruption which they are forced to undergo before they can be changed into our substance So it is certain that there is always in us some principle of a Disease to be found and that we never in this World enjoy a perfect Health and that those are only most healthy who are less sickly than others As I have said elsewhere that there are no Men absolutely wise but that they that are called wise are less ignorant than others But moreover if Captive Atoms are sometimes free'd by emancipation so on the other hand those which are not used to be detained are sometimes incarcerated and involved with others nor can they stir beyond the limits of their Prison And there are some which in like manner are so included with others by the Providence of
but what is much tobe lamented they have left us in admiration and ignorance Therefore I try as well as I can to resolve these difficulties that I may perform my promise First of all therefore since Matter is every where one and the same nor does the Astral and Coelestial differ from the Terrestrial as we have said elsewhere but only in this that Atoms which make Coelestial Bodies have Figures different from them which compose terrestrial Bodies and that the Particles of those are better and more strictly united than these I say we must not conclude with Fernelius that the Elements of the Stars are different from the Elements of the sublunary World nor with Galen that that divine thing in the Seed is a certain part of Divinity But we must confess that Seeds are Bodies composed of many parts not only in respect of the sperm and diverse coverings in which the seminal Spirit is shut up and kept but also in respect of the seminal Spirit it self which is not a Simple thing but a Body compounded of most subtile Atoms excellently figured made and proportioned that as an Original they may serve to the forming all Copies afterwards in the propagation of the Species These are the Atoms as I said shut up yet without Bonds or Servitude This Doctrine is agreeable to our Principles and as we have compared Atoms with the first elements of Grammar which are Letters we say likewise according to this Opinion that Letters may be made and written so exactly as to serve as a pattern to make others by in like manner among Atoms there are some so well made and formed and disposed in so just an order that they may serve for Samples and Patterns to others and in this manner I conceive of Seeds I come now to the next difficulty which represents the multiplication of every individual by a sole dilatation of Seeds but the manner how this dilatation is made is not easie to be explained but I apprehend it after this manner A grain of Corn which is a Seed is thrown into the Earth where it putrifies and is dissolved by an acid menstruum which contains in it a Spirit whose Atoms are partly of the same Nature with the Spirits of the Seed or at least are subtile enough to penetrate into the vacuities of the husk of the Grain and sperm in which the seminal Spirit is shut up which Spirit the coverings of it being dilated by these apertures frees it self from the Prison wherein it was detained and the Atoms and Original Corpuscles begin to drive on one another they being themselves driven on by the Atoms of the acid or dissolving Spirit which acted the first part in the Play and received its motion from the others For whatsoever is moved is moved by another and so successively the parts of the World Particles Corpuscles and Atoms mutually drive on one another and this motion began with the World and will continue 'till the end of it when God will fix all things and put a stop to all generations So that these seminal Spirits being thus loosed and endowed with liberty by the acid Spirits are still driven on by them and being pressed rise upwards and form a stalk with a very slender top by the concourse of the Salt of the manure and out of the corruption and division of dissolved Atoms of the neighbouring Bodies which they luckily meet withal or which are thrown into the Earth near that place on purpose this is what Husbandmen know very well who for this reason Dung their grounds and burn the stubble But if they knew how to steep their grains or seeth Corn in an acid dissolvent or water their grounds with it there would be none found so barren but would become fruitful nor would the Husbandman be a little pleased with his plenty of Corn and from thence the truth of our Principles and Experiments would be manifested Man who is generated out of Humane Seed and like plants receives his first formation does in this case very much excel them For as in his dignity he excels all things that have material life so also he is begotten and conceived after a more Noble and more Eminent manner and we may say with Plato that a Man of all wonders is the most wonderful not only in his perfect being but also in his first Formation This Formation is indeed a Miracle of Nature which cannot be more naturally explained than by saying That the Womans Womb after having received the Man's Seed is shut up by the Contraction of its Fibres and the seminal body finding there an acid juice putrifies and is corrupted in the space of Eight or Ten Days The Seminal Spirit thus extricating it self and joyning with the Blood that is there and even now at the beginning being joyned to the Womans Seed out of Two is made One partaking in the Conception of Father and Mother which is then afterwards formed by the help of this acid Blood which dissolves it and is the Cause why these two seminal Spirits are joyned together and out of two compound One only Being which is called Embryo The whole Wonder consists in this Ordination of Parts which are disposed in so elegant an order that there is no man in the World able to give them so just an order and disposition and now behold what I think of this business Besides the general providence of God which I acknowledge in all things and besides that particular one which he takes care of Man as of his own Image I cannot but return to the motion of Spirits or seminal Corpuscles which form a Body fit to undergo their operations As many as proceed from every one part of the Body generating produce a part in the Body generated and form it like themselves The Corpuscles or seminal Spirits derived from the Eyes form Eyes and we may say the same of the other parts of the Body this supposes Seed to proceed from all parts of the Body and from hence we gather that their parts who exceed measure in the Venerial act are all weakned especially the Brain which is sometimes so shaken together that it heavily decays and the powers of it are dissolved So that these sort of Men often dye seized with Epileptick Convulsions Palsies Tremblings of the Nerves Arthritick Pains and Defluxions It remains therefore to know how the parts of the Eyes form the Eyes the parts of the Brain the Brain and the parts derived from the Hands and Arms the Hands and Arms of an Embryo For we see that the Blind beget Blind and the Lame the Lame unless the Mothers Blood supplies this defect I say therefore that in the resolution or dissolving of the seminal Body there is necessarily caused a motion of Corpuscles mutually driving one another to and fro each possessing that place which gives them its Figure by which they are detained in a due site nor can they abide elsewhere So the Corpuscles which form
the Eyes are of that Figure that they cannot be placed elsewhere without a violent concussion of these mutually self impelling Atoms and these concussions are sometimes the cause why when the Women are hurt the Child is not at all formed and that by reason of the sole inordinate motion of one Corpuscle which either does not or being hindred by others which cause this motion cannot find a place due to its Figure It is plain therefore that seminal Corpuscles have the Figure of that part from whence they are derived and the whole humane Body is no otherwise shut up in a small part of Matter than an whole Oak in an Acorn and an Apple in a Kernel The example brought by me above concerning the divers kinds of Salt dissolved in water which in evaporating part asunder from each other and each possesseth his place not without a difference of Figures will give some light to this my Doctrine CHAP. V. Of Nutrition which Plants and Brute Beasts have common with Man. NUtrition is a vital action and so proper to Living Creatures that as there is nothing nourished that is not Living so there is no Living thing that is not nourished All the difficulty lies in the manner of Nutrition for no Man doubts but Animals and Plants at the beginning of their existence are nourished and grow which could not be without the addition of new Matter which is changed into the substance of the thing Living This addition of Matter takes in its attraction preparation digestion and its distribution through all the Parts of the Body nourished These opperations appear in Plants wherein it is amiss to attribute that to Nutritive Attractive Digestive and Distributive Qualities which may be explicated by the motion of the Atoms or seminal Corpuscles contained in the Seed But because Nutrition is much more conspicuous in Living Creatures and especially in Man it will be necessary to explain the Reason how that is performed in him in the first State after Conception and afterwards when the Organs are formed For there is need of Aliment that the Organs which are just formed and tenderer then to be sufficient to undergo their Operations may grow and be encreased So that at the very moment he begins to live there is a necessity that he should be nourished CHAP. VI. How and with what Aliment an Embryo is nourished 'till the time of his Birth THe first thing that is done after the laying together of the parts of the Embryo and the disposition of its Organs is the infusion of the Rational Soul which God in one and the same moment Creates and gives to this little Body as its Lodging Forty or sometimes more days after its Conception what is done before the infusion of this Soul to speak properly is nothing else but a disposition of the Organs to receive it This admirable Structure begins from the Heart Head Bones and other particular Fundamentals and when it is already compleated and the Soul infused the seminal Atoms Presidents of the formation of the Body persevere in performing their works taking as Companions of their Office these Particles of the Mothers Blood which may serve to nourish the Infant being sensibly solicitous for its increase 'till the time of its Nativity Yet nevertheless it is very difficult throughly to declare the true Reason of the Nutrition and Life of the Infant for seven or eight Months together Gassendus recounts three Opinions of the Antients concerning this thing the first is of Alcmaeon in Plutarch affirming the Infant to be nourished by all parts of the Body drawing in by the help of the Pores a necessary Aliment The second Opinion is by the same Plutarch attributed to Democritus this Philosopher teaches that the Infant is nourished in the Mothers Womb in the same manner as it is nourished when born to wit by the Mouth and this is the Cause he says why the newly born seek the Breast with open Mouth The third is Aristotle's Galen's and many others who conclude that the Infant takes no nourishment in the Womb but by the Umbilical Veins which taking their Original from the bottom of the Matrix insinuate themselves into the middle of the Abdomen or Belly where being collected into one Trunk they lead on the Mothers Blood into the hollow part of the Liver where part of it is carried into a Branch of Vena-Cava and part into a Branch of the Vena-Porta and the two Arteries which accompany the Umbilical Veins having passed the Liver each of them apart go to the two Branches of the Aorta or great Artery and carry the Arterial Blood which they bring thither that it may all be distributed through the whole Body of the Infant and changed into a substance fit for its Nutrition This Opinion is confirmed by the refutation of the two former For the first is false For if the Infant was like a Sponge it would not be nourished but swelled by the Water or serous humour in which it swims and which is contained in the Amnion The second Opinion is not probable For the Infants head is placed betwixt both knees nor can it suck the Caruncles which are covered with a Skin as is supposed unless at one and the same time it should attract the water wherein it lies hid or penetrate the Membrane in which it is involved The third Opinion standing firm which I believe rests upon a better foundation nor does the Infants Stomach generate Chyle nor its Liver Blood the Mothers Blood subministring all those things And from hence it is that a Woman with Child communicates to the fruit of her Womb the purity or impurity of her Blood her good or ill nourishment as also her Health and Diseases and these Diseases are hereditary not but that there are some which proceed from the Fathers whose impure Blood licentious living ill nourishment and frequent excesses afford matter to these evils Besides we may say that the Infant in the Mothers Womb does neither live nor breath but by the Mouth Heart and Lungs of the Mother from whence it comes to pass that the Infant for the most part follows the Mothers affections and inclinations and seeing that in the state wherein it is in the Womb it is tyed to its Mother in so strict a bond of Union it is impossible that she alone should be feaverish nor that the big-bellied Woman should dye the Child remaining alive and healthful CHAP. VII How Man is Nourished after he is Born. AMan Born hath need of Nourishment now nothing can nourish him which hath not some Spirit of Life So Roots Plants Corn Pulse Flesh serve to the nourishing of a Man and all this business is performed by the benefit of Atoms and vital Corpuscles passing from one Compound Body to another This Nutrition is necessary to encrease the substance of the born Infant and so there is need of a new Compound Body to serve it for Aliment And this Compound Body must of
luminous substance The particulars belonging to the composition of the Eye Anatomy will teach Let us speak something of the Object of Sight and first of Colour Colour which Bodies exhibit to us is nothing else but light reflected and interrupted by the Angles of the Atoms and the very small Cavities in the extremities of Bodies as also a diverse reflection and refraction of that Light upon which the variety of Colours depends Experience favours this Doctrine for Galls being broke and thrown into artificial or Natural Vitriolated-Water give a black colour like Ink and hereby is known whether Waters contain any high of Vitriol Iron or Copper For Mineral-Waters when they pass through an Iron Mine by an addition of Galls grow black but others not and this blackness is not any Physical and accidental quality produced in Water by the throwing in of Galls which are not black but this change arises only from a new position of Atoms and Corpuscles whereby the Rays of Light are bended and broken after a new manner The same thing happens if you mix Minium which is red in its own Nature with Wine-Vinegar for that will turn white and the yolk of an Egg mixt with Turpentine looks altogether like a white kind of Cream Now in all these and other Experiments nothing happens besides a perturbation of Atoms which take a new place and reflect or refract Light after another manner without any production of any new Accident Nor is Light any accident or Physical Quality as the Disciples of Aristotle will have it but a real effusion and spreading of Corpuscles which flow from the substance of the Sun and upper Stars and more or less penetrate through the empty spaces of the Air as the Air is more rarified or more condensed It will be convenient to remember here that we place the Sun in the Centre of the World and say that the Sun is of one and the same substance with Gold Gold melted and purified and that its glittering and rayes is properly that which we call Light and which is reflected upon all the Bodies of Planets amongst which the Earth only is supposed habitable these Sun-Beams are nothing else than that which we call Light so Light is a certain thing compounded of the Atoms of Gold by a mutual connection amongst themselves bound together and which tye all the parts of the World to their Centre the Sun. From whence it is easily gathered how all things act by vertue of the Sun and that the Sun it self also is an helper that Man be produced from Man. The truth of this our Doctrine appears from those things which we brought from Monsieur Bezancon's Experiment Light therefore is of the same Nature with Gold and the Sun and is therefore Gold or the Sun rarified and Air in the day-time is full of this dispersed Gold so that in breathing we draw in some Atoms of this rarified Gold which brings Life to us in bringing to us the Principle of Natural Heat and radical moisture No wonder that Aurum Potabile is of so great esteem and sought for by every illustrious personage to restore Health But since true Aurum Potabile is scarce by reason of the defect of a solvent and of a Natural and Radical Vehicle God provides for this by giving us Light which we take in by the Air which serves instead of a Vehicle to it Light therefore is our Life and preserves it and we say of a Man that is dead that his Light is extinguished and of a Man tha lies confined in a Dungeon that he dwells amongst the Dead Upon the occasion of this Sentence which I have thought fit to confirm I observe that Light is the Universal Spirit of the vulgar varying according to the Subject it meets withal and that the same is that famous dissolvent from which only or by the addition of common Gold may be made the Universal Medicine But for as much as to the obtaining this effect there is required that this Light be made liquid and out of it be made a living Water and Stream or Rain of Gold which few can perform From hence it is that few possess this supream Remedy I observe Secondly that Light excites the seminal Spirit which is of the same Nature and is contained under divers Seeds and divers coverings and that the same light produces in us and reproduces those Spirits which are called Vital and Animal and which are nothing else than Luminous Corpuscles which are always in motion whilst they take Air and together with the Air the Light annexed without which their motion ceaseth We see also that a Man dyes for want of Air and by the hindrance of respiration and these Spirits are more dulled by Night than by Day and so do partly fail in the Body the Light failing And unless there did still continue some Luminous and Solar Spirit in the Air or if the Stars did not afford a sufficient quantity of it in the Night in the Night it were impossible we should be able to escape Death Besides we may observe that by this Light which penetrates and creeps through the Bowels of the Earth Mettals are produced for it is their Seed lying invisibly hid in their Bodies We may say likewise that every Living thing receives Life from this Light so that we live by Gold only we subsist by the benefit of Gold and all things are filled with Gold that is with the Sun rarified and expanded through all things through all the most secret places and through our very Hearts whose motions will cease when the Light of the Sun and other Stars shall cease whose motion will likewise cease at the end of all Ages By the help of this Doctrine we understand what the Antients meant when they said all was full of Jupiter and Gold and that the Commerce of Heaven and Earth was bound together with a Golden Chain That the Universal Medicine cannot be extracted but out of the water of the Beams of the Sun and Moon By this means also we comprehend the truth of the saying about Apollo and his Golden hairs and we shall know that which the Philosophy of the Antients could not explain to wit from whence the motion of the Spirits in our Bodies proceed and in what the Life which we enjoy does properly consist And so even the new Philosophy will no less Labour in explaining the Essence of Life unless it follows these our Principles As many as shall have been sufficiently illustrated by this Light will here find a Secret for the Nobility by which for many years they will be able to preserve Health and Vigor beyond the ordinary term I say enough of this thing to move Illustrious Wits as being enlightned People to enquire into the Nature and Effects of the Light and Colours which we see which the Sun produceth in the Rainbow and in the Peacocks Tail where by the help of a Microscope a thousand Golden threeds are
seen Nor is there any reason why we should stand amazed at the sight of these Colours since they are nothing else than Light reflected and refracted wherein all Colours are contained as I have said for it is of the same Nature with Gold out of which all Colours may be produced although the yellow only is apparent They who have divers ways dissolved Gold and Mercury or crude Gold have there found all of them as many Colours as ever they had seen and many more Colours than they knew CHAP. X. How Illustrated Objects are seen ARISTOTLE and his Scholars will have Vision to be made by certain Qualities commonly called the Intentional Species which as is reported joyn the visive power that is the Eye with the Visible Object and the Powers represent the Object These Species according to this Opinion are discernable and are in the Air as in their proper subject but this is not to be endured for if these are accidents and have Air for their Subject the Air being changed by the least breath of wind the accident would pass from one Subject to another which is refractory to the Principles of these Philosophers These species bring in a great many other difficulties which relate to their Nature Production Propagation in the Air Eduction Extension and Reception into the Eye all which cannot be solved without captious contensions and when all shall be throughly canvased no body will be e're the wiser from whence it happens that all these accidents which are neither Bodies nor Spirits I am forced to send back to School with their Doctors Some believe Vision is made by an emission of visual Rayes out of the Eyes but neither will this Opinion subsist in as much as it supposes that to see an Object ten Leagues distant from us it is of necessity that the Eye should send Corpuscles thither and even to the very Heavens to see the Stars there Gassendus would have vision made by the Species or Figure of the Object composed of Corpuscles or most subtile Atoms proceeding from the Object and received by the Eye But it cannot be conceived that a Man placed in the midst of a Plain can continually emit without diminution Corpuscles from every part or that these Corpuscles can be in the Air without perturbation and confusion at the same time whilst other Objects emit an infinite number of theirs and all this transmitted in a right Line through the vacuities of the Air from whence it follows that through one and that a little space of a Vacuum in the Air that vast number of Atoms or Corpuscles must pass without penetration and confusion Gassendus answers that the difficulty arises from this that we do not enough conceive the subtilty of Atoms nor the rapidity of their motion This reason does not satisfie since we know that the Vacuities of the Air are not greater than Atoms How then can a thousand Atoms of Matter pass in a right Line through one only Vacuum no bigger than one single Atom without penetration This difficulty besides some others hath moved some Philosophers to say that the Eye is a natural seeing-Glass endued with such a convexity as those Glasses have which are put into perspectives by which we see things a great way distant These Philosophers say that Light wherein is contained every kind of divers Colours as it is determined upon the Objects by the angles of the Atoms does also comprehend all kind of Objects too and represents them with all variety of Colours according to the divers determination of the Objects Or to say more truly that Light represents it self to the Eye as it is determined by Objects and it is certain we see nothing but Light and Colour that is Light with its determination and when we distinctly see an Object its extention and Figure that proceeds from nothing else than that we see Light determined by the dimensions and circumstances of the Object The Nature of Light therefore is solely to be considered and it will no ways hinder but that we shall avoid all the difficulties of the others by embracing an Opinion which rests upon truth which very well and with the consent of all conceives that Light is seen by it self nor is there need of any Species to see Light and since we to speak properly do not see the Objects but Light the Object of Sight there is no necessity that the Object should transmit Accidents or Corpuscles as if Light could not be seen of it self From this Doctrine that which appears new follows that Light is to be considered in a threefold State and first of all in the Quality of the Object secondly in the Quality of the Term. The first state is Light determined by the Object the second is Light expanded in the air the third is Light received by the Eye and represented with all its determinations And this is it which we call the Image of the Object in the Eye as it were in a Glass In prosecuting this subject we might have treated of the reason why we see Objects by the help of perspective Glasses multiplying their Figure or by Microscopes a new invention by the help of which many things are discovered which before lay hid such as are Worms in Wine Vinegar Gnats in Water and Dew as also Pores in Glass and a thousand little Animals in Seeds But of these I shall say nothing now since I have done it already in a little peculiar Tract which I will Print the first opportunity where the application of the Principles of my Physick will be seen to explicate more illustrious things which are discovered by the help of Microscopes if the Reader pleases to spend his time to see and judge of what I say concerning these things CHAP. XI Of Hearing its Organ and Object THe Organ of Hearing is the Ear composed of a Cartilage and hollowness's wherein the air insinuating it self by its motion causeth sound Besides these external and apparent Particles there are others also internal which are composed of Membranes as also some little Bones and included air the auditory Nerve doth also run down thither that it may bring the Animal Spirit necessary to all the Operations of the Senses The Object of Hearing is Sound to wit the motion of two or more Bodies mutually meeting one another and as no Body that wants Heat and Light is the Object of Sight so no Body that wants motion can be the Object of Hearing Or rather as Light alone without the intervention of any other Medium is the Object of Sight so is motion the Object of Hearing so that there is no necessity to have recourse to the pretended Quality which is commonly called Sound nor to any intentional Species no nor so much indeed as to Corpuscles sent out a great way off I say therefore that as Light is seen by it self and Truth immediately and without any other intermedium is known by it self so Motion is apparent of it self
that my Remedy is infallible For truly I believe and not a few of the most eminent and ablest Physitians of the Faculty in Paris are of the same Opinion with me that there is not a Remedy which can be called infallible and made publick Of which thing in the occasion of the fermentation of humours I will a little more specially treat in my Philosophical Reflections which in a little time will see the Light. I only add this here that the Heat which follows the shakeing does proceed from an agitation of the Spirits stimulated by the violent motion and repeated stroke of the emancipated Atoms which are at last expelled through the Pores of the Body as the Rebellious Angels were thrown out of Heaven by the more powerful good Spirits CHAP. XIX Of the Circulation of the Blood. AS many as have delivered themselves from the prejudices of Antient Physick and Vulgar Philosophy have taught after Harvey That the blood in our Bodies is moved in a circular motion from the extream parts to the Centre and not from the Centre onely to the extream parts as was heretofore believed Gassendus does not disapprove this Opinion although he does not embrace it for Reasons alledged in a particular Treatise set forth by him I use his Reasons to establish it as being better founded in Reason and more agreeable to the disposition of the Veins and Arteries Let us see therefore how the Circulation of the Blood is made according to Harvey and the most Learned Physitians The Blood say they passeth into the Heart from the Vena Cava and Arteria Venosa by two Valves where they are ended and as often as the Heart dilates it self a drop of Blood falls into each of its Cavities and as often as the Heart contracts it self the Blood passeth into the Lungs from the right Cavity through the Vena Arteriosa and from the left Cavity into the Aorta so that the Blood is moved from the extream parts of the Body to its Centre into which it is carried by the Vena Cava where it exonerates it self in the Right Cavity from whence it passeth into the Vena Arteriosa and drives on the Blood which is contained in that through Anastomoses already discovered and through Pores less sensible into the Arteria Venosa And as much Blood as the Arteria Venosa hath received so much of it deposits into the left Cavity from whence passing into the Aorta it is carried into the extream parts of the Body through Branches which go to the Branches of the Vena Cava from hence the Blood being brought into the Trunk continuing its journey by the same way it returns to the Heart and by the same reason as I said it wonderfully and without intermission performs the Circulation This Circulation of the Blood relies upon some Experiments the first of which is taken from Blood-letting For Chyrurgeons when they Bleed a Vein tye the Arm above the Orifice and if they put their Finger upon the Vein on the other side of the Ligament the Blood is stopped immediately From whence it is apparent that it comes from the extremity of the Fingers to the Trunk and not from the Trunk to the extremity of the Fingers but by Circulation of which we are discoursing The Second Experiment is made if a Vein be tyed in a part of the Body separated from the Artery for it will be emptied on that side towards the Trunk and it will be swelled on the other side on that side that is to say from whence the Blood according to this Opinion ought to proceed There is nothing therefore so certain as this Circular motion of the Blood and its passage into the Heart but here are three things to be observed First that the motion of the Heart does not depend upon this Circulation of the Blood although it conduce to its conservation and inordinate motion as this Circulation is made more or less hastily and as the Blood is more or less temperate in the disposition of its particles and in its saline serosities which serve for a vehicle to it and render it more fluid Secondly that the Circulation of the Blood as the Moderns indeed will have it may be performed three times in an hour yet so that all the Blood does not enter into the Cavities or Ventricles of the Heart as not once every hour but either sooner or later according to the greater or lesser quantity or greater or lesser subtilty or mobility of the Blood. Thirdly I say that the Blood in some cases cannot pass out of the Arteries into the Veins through the extremities that is when the extremities are cut off in which Case it goes on another way through insensible Pores which they call Transpiration or Transudation CHAP. XX. Of the Inward Senses and the Inferiour Appetite BEsides the exteriour Senses of which we have spoken there are also found to be in Man interiour Senses to wit the Imagination common Sense and Sensitive Memory The first forms a lasting Image of Objects The Second judgeth of the agreeableness or disagreeableness of them The third retains and preserves these Images or Ideas which is manifest in Dogs who represent to themselves persons absent and distinguish both between the good and the evil that hath befallen them witnessing that they remember the thing by running away if they have an opportunity or by Fawnings Appetite follows the interiour Senses and is common to all Animals and which is performed by the weight of Atoms whereby it comes to pass that an Animal hath a propensity and is driven to seek for that with which it is delighted and to abstain from that which might bring trouble So that Delight and Pain are the two great importances of the Life of an Animal Pleasure according to the Opinion of Epicurus depends upon Corpuscles which have a soft round and agreeable Figure especially to the Brain as to which the Object is represented by the imagination and from which it is carried by the Senses Pain on the contrary and both of them are performed by those Corpuscles whether they come to or go from or continue In Morals we will speak concerning these Passions as the two Scales of sensitive actions in the mean time I may here say that the interiour Senses receive these Corpuscles which bring pleasure or pain by the ministery of the exteriour Senses from whence it comes that those that Sleep or are Lethargick or Apoplectick feel nothing though they are pricked For the Brain is filled with strange Humours which hinder the motion of the aforesaid Corpuscles or else that motion is stopped by Vapours brought from the lower parts to the Brain which happens to those that are asleep CHAP. XXI Of Sleep Wakefulness and Death SLEEP is the Image of Death for all the Senses are at rest nor is there any motion left but that of the Heart Lungs and Arteries this Rest proceeds from Vapours arising out of the Stomach which by their
very well known that he that puts on a Garment or touches it leaves upon it his Scent that is Corpuscles which proceed from his Body and which constitute part of it and by the help of these Corpuscles a Dog is able to know his Masters Handkerchief Hat or Garment from ten thousand others This being supposed if the Dead Man's Garment or Gloak be put into a Press or Chest first and for some days when the Body that is Buried begins to putrifie there will be a considerable noise and disturbance in the Press or Chest enough to frighten Children and other folks too and the Corpuscles of the dead Body being attracted by those that are going away by their motion make this noise among the Cloaths And whereas this attraction is made in a streight Line and these Corpuscles cannot pass through the Bords but obliquely the Wood suffering violence makes a noise as if it were crackt Any one may trye this and know whether this Experiment made by others be true or no I see no reason to doubt of it From hence appears that invisible Bond of the Parts with the Body from whence they did proceed A third Experiment may be made which will serve to the illustrating this Subject Take a piece of Veal or any other Flesh from the Shambles and with it rub the Warts of any ones Face or Hands then afterwards fling it upon the Dunghil or Bury it and as that putrifies the Warts will fall off which denotes that the Corpuscles of Flesh returning to their whole or greater part and being violently attracted do in the same manner attract the Warts and make them go away which some Learned Men say they have Experienced We may admire in all these things the Providence of God who hath Created Atoms and out of them hath compounded the Universe wherein we find so great a number of wonderful things which are the subject of our admiration and convince our Ignorance CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals SEeing that Man dyes other Animals cannot escape Death let us see wherein it consists The Followers of Aristotle are very much puzzled in explaining the Death of a Dog for when it is destitute of all Sense and Motion it is dead without doubt yet in the mean time it hath all its parts and Organs What therefore happens to this Animal It s Soul is separated from its Body say they and the Spirit of Life is not in him they do the Beast much honour who speak thus in his Favour But what becomes of this Soul Is it corrupted or annihilated or does it subsist apart in some other place or is it taken into some other Body No by no means say they it is not it is destroyed and that 's sufficient So it is sufficient to People who don 't seek after the Truth For if this Soul be a substance as they say it is a material one it is impossible but it must go into some other thing or else be reduced into nothing It is reduced into nothing say they therefore it is annihilated therefore it is Created and made out of nothing which is Ridiculous and unbecoming a Christian Philosopher It is true this Opinion is very common in the Schools but this Errour is detected and they who are wiser than others say with us that the Spirits of Life or Corpuscles of Light being altogether dissipated or hindred in their motion do withdraw and return to their Original and Copulate with others which are in the Air so dyes a Dog without the loss of that which God made the Parts are separated the Spirits seek the Air the Body the Earth Plants dye like other Living Creatures but their Death very much differs from the Death of Animals for as much as their Organical Parts do not appear so as they do in Animals nor does a Plant dye so easily as an Animal For a Plant is not dead so soon as it is pulled out of the ground its Life continues to the extream dryness or evaporation of the Radical moisture which contains all the Spirits of Life and though the Plant be calcined or burnt to Ashes part of the Spirits will remain in those Ashes for the Lixivium that is made or the Salt that is extracted gives all the Savour of the Plant and where that Lixivium is congealed by the Cold of the Night the Figure of the burnt Plant will appear in the very Ice But what is more to be observed is that a Plant dryed in a Kilne and put into a particular Water whose Virtue is Universal receives its pristine Greenness Leaves and Flowers without doubt in this dryed Plant some Vital Spirits were shut up which are relaxed by the Spirits of this Water or the Vital Spirits exhaling give way to the Spirits of the Water we speak of to take their places This Water is endued with Vital Spirits which can fill the place of those that exhale in us and with this sole Remedy Life may be prolonged and the losses of ruined Old-Age be repaired by filling up the Vacuities of the radical moisture which is dissipated But you will say where is this Water it is to be found in Light according to our Principles and certainly no where else This Water is the true Elixir-Vitae and the Universal Medicine of the Antients and it is meet that we use it to the preservation of the most Sacred Persons Mettals have a more abstruse Life than Plants nor is their Death more conspicuous Their Life consists in a certain disposition of Parts which permits a free motion to the Atoms of Life and Light. This is the State of Mettals in their Mines and when they are melted this Liberty is lost by the intervention of the Atoms of Fire and when after melting they grow cold they may be called Dead for they are deprived of motion nor do they perform any action Gold melted when it is grown cold is dead it Lived in the Mine it is dying whilst it is melting and it is dead when cast into Ingots In vain therefore do the Chymists seek for the Living among the Dead Common Gold is dead and good for nothing but to make Money of but if any one can dissolve this Body and bring the Dead to Life again by the benefit of that resuscitative Water which we spoke of before he may prepare a Medicine profitable to humane and Mettalick Bodies It is said before that Stones want Life But this I meant that they not a Life so notorious as Mettals whose Life hitherto is yet obscure enough for I have Learnt being convinced by Experience that the greatest part of Stones are multiplied and encrease according to all their dimensions and that Sand is turned into Shells And this very thing is the Cause that I conclude Light to be the Spirit of Life that by the benefit of it all things Live the very Stones also take their Life from hence Seeds owe all their Vigour to Light and seeing that Light is woven out of thin threads of Gold all things therefore Live by the Spirit of Gold. But the Soul of Man is Spiritual and a Ray of Divine Light and owes its Life to God and his Word as also it is an Immortal Substance as we shall say in the next and last Chpater