Disseminate Inanity neither important nor câ—mpetent ibid. 9 The Hypâ—theâ—is of a câ—rtâ—in Aethereal substance to replenish thâ— porâ—s â—f Boâ—ies in Raâ—ifaction demonstrated insufficient to solve the Difficulty or demolish the Epâ—cuâ—ean Thâ—sis of small Vacuities 254 10 The Facility of understanding the Reasons and Manner of 〈◊〉 and Condensation from the Concâ—ssion of sâ—all Vacuities illustrated by a 〈…〉 255 11 PARADOX Thaâ— the Matter of a Body when 〈…〉 no more of true Place 〈…〉 and the Coâ—câ—liaâ—ion thereof to the 〈◊〉 Definitions of a Rare and of a Denâ—e Boâ—y 2â—6 12 PROBLEM 〈…〉 be capable of Condensation to so hiâ—g 〈◊〉 as it is of Rariâ—faction and the 〈◊〉 â—olution therof ibid. SECT III. ART C. 1 THe opportunity of the present speculation concerning the Câ—uses of Perâ—picuity and Opacity â—â—8 2 The true Notions of a Perâ—picuum and Opacum ibid. 3 That every Concretion is so much the more 〈◊〉 by how much thâ— more and more ample Inane Spaces 〈◊〉 inâ—â—rcepted among its particles caeteus paâ—â—bus ibid. 4 Why Glass though much more Dense is yet much more Diaphanous than Paper 259 5 Why â—he Diaphanity of Glass is gradually diminished according to the various degrees of its Crassitude ibid. 6 An Apodictical Confutation of that popular Error that Glass is totally or in every particle Diaphanous 260 CHAP. X. Of Magnitude Figure And their Consequents Subtility Hebetude Smoothness Asperity 261 SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Contexture of this Chapter with the praecedent ibid. 2 That the Magnitude of Concretions ariseth from the Magnitude of their Material Principles ibid. 3 The praesent intentiâ—n of the term Magnitude ibid. 4 That the â—uantity of a thing is meerly the Matter of it 2â—2 5 The Quantity of a thing neither Augmented by its Rarefaction nor diminished by its Condensation contrary to the Aristotelians who distinguish the Qâ—antity of a Body from its Substaâ—ce ibid. 6 The reason of Quantity explicable also meerly from the notion of Place 263 7 The Existence of a Body without real Extension and of Extension without a Body though impossible to Nature yet easie to God ibid. 8 COROLLARY That the primary Cause why Nature admits no Penetration of Dimensiâ—ns is rather the Solidity than the Extension of a Body 264 9 The reasons of Quantity Continued and Dâ—screte or Magnitude and Multitude ibid. 10 That no Body is perfectly Continued beside an Atom ibid. 11 Aristotles Dâ—finition of a Continuum in what respect true and what false 265 12 Figure Physicalâ—y considered nothing but the superficies or terminant Extremes of a Body ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Continuity of this to the first Section 266 2 Subtility and Hebetude how the Consequents of Magnitude ibid. 3 A considerable Exception of the Chymests viz. that some Bodies are dissolved in liquors of grosser particles which yet conserve their Continuity in liquors of most subtile and corrosive particles prevented ibid. 4 Why Oyle dissociates the parts of some Bodies which remain inviolate in Spirit of Wine and why Lightning is more penetrative than Fire 267 5 Smoothness and Asperity in Concretions the Consequents of Figure in their Material Principles ibid. CHAP. XI Of the Motive Vertue Habit Gravity and Levity of Concretions â—69 SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Motive Virtue of all Concretions derived from the essential Mobility of Atoms ibid. 2 Why the Motive Virtue of Concretions doth reside principally in their spiritual Parts 270 3 That the Deviation of Concretions from motion Direct and their Tardity in motion arise from the Deflections and â—epercussions of Atoms composing them ibid. 4 Why the motion of all Concretions necessarily praessâ—pâ—ssâ—th something that remains unmoved or that in respect of its slower motion is equivalâ—nt â—o a thing Vnmoved ibid. 5 What 〈◊〉 Aâ—tive Faculty of a thing is 271 6 That in Nature every Faculty is Active none Passive ibid. 7 A Peripatetick Contradiction assuming the Matter of alâ— Bodies to be devoid of all Activity and yet dâ—suming some Faculties à tota substantia 272 8 That the â—aculties of Animals the Ratiocination of man onely excepted are Identical with their spirits ibid. 9 The Reasons of the Coexistence of Various Faculties in one and the same Concretion ibid. 10 Habit defiâ—ed 273 11 That the Reason of all Habits in Animals consisteth principally in the conformity and flexibility of the Organs which the respective Faculty makes use of for the performance of its proper Actions ibid. 12 Habits acquirable by Bruits and common not onely to Vegetables but also to some Minerals 2â—4 SECT II. ARTIC 1 GRavity as to its Essence or Formal Reason very obscure 275 2 The opinion of Epicurus good as to the Cause of Comparative insufficient as to the â—ause of Absolute Gravity ibid. 3 Aristotles opinion of Gravity recited ibid. 4 Copernicus theory of Gravity insatisfactory and wherein 276 5 The Determination of Kepler Gassendus c. that Gravity is Caused meâ—rly by the Attraction of the Earth espoused by the Author 277 6 The External Principle of the perpendicular Descent of a stone projected up in the Aer must be either Depellent or Attrahent ibid. 7 That the Resistence of the Superior Aer is the onely Cause which gradually refracteth and in fine wholly overcometh the Imâ—rest Force whereby a stone projected is elevated upward ibid. 8 That the Aer distracted by a stone violently ascending hath as well a Depulsive as a Resistent Faculty arising immediately from its Elaterical or Restorative motion 279 9 That nevertheless when a stone projected on high in the Aer is at the highest point of its mountee no Cauâ—e can Begâ—â— its Downward Motion but the Attractive Virtue of the Earth 280 10 Argument that the Tâ—râ—aqueous Globe is endowed with a certain Attractive Faculty in order to the Dâ—tention and Retraction of aâ—l its Parts 2â—1 11 What are the Parts of the TerrestrialGlobe 282 12 A Second Argument that the Earth is Magnetical ibid. 13 A Parallelism betwixt the Attraction of Iron by a Loadstone and the Attraction of Terrene bodies by the Eaâ—th 283 14 That as the sphere of the Loadstones Allective Virtue is limited so is that of the Eartâ—s magnetism ibid. 15 An Objection of the Disproportion between the great Bulk of a large stone and the Exility of the supposed magnetique Rays of the Earth Solved by three weighty Reasons 284 16 The Reason of the Aequivelocity of Bodies oâ— different weights in their perpendicular Descent with sundry unquestionable Authorities to confirm the Hoti thereof â—85 17 That the whole Terrestrial Globe is devoid of Gravity and that in the universe is no Highest nor Lowest place 2â—6 18 That the Centre of the Vniverse is not the Lowest part thereof nor the Centre of the Earth the Centre of the World 287 19 A Fourth Argument that Gravity is onely Attraction 289 20 Why a greater Gravity or stronger Attractive force is imprest upon a piece of Iron by a Loadstone than by the Earth ibid. 21 A Fifth Argument
those things to be Contiguous or Continued whose Rayes are received into the Eye as Contiguous or Continued none of the spaces interjacent affording one raye Of which truth Des Cartes seems to have had a glimpse when in Dioptrices cap. 6. Sect. 15. he conceds objectorum quae intuemur praecedaneam cognitionem ipsorum distantiae melius dignoscendae inservire that a certain praecognition of the object doth much conduce to the more certain dignotion of its Distance And on this branch may we ingraft a PARADOX that one and the same object speculated by the same man in the same degree of light doth alwayes appear greater to one Eye than to the other The truth of this is evincible by the joint testimony of those incorruptible Witnesses of Certitude Experience and Reason 1 Of Experience because no man can make the vision of both his eyes equally perfect but beholding a thing first with one eye the other being closed or eclipsed and then with the other the former being closed or eclipsed shall constantly discover it to be greater in dimensions in the apprehension of one Eye than of the other and Gassendus making a perfect and strict Experiment hereof testifies of himself in Epist. 2. de Apparent Magnitud Solis c. Sect. 17. that the Characters of his Book appeared to his right Eye by a fifth part greater in dimensions though somewhat more obscure than to his left 2 Of Reason because of all Twin Parts in the body as Ears Hands Leggs Testicles c. one is alwayes more vigorous and perfect in the performance of its action than the other Which Inaequality of Vigour if it be not the Bastard of Custom may rightfully be Fathered upon either this that one part is invigorated with a more liberal afflux of Spirits than the other or this that the Orgaganical Constitution of one Part is more perfect and firm than that of the other And therefore one Eye having its Pupill wider or the figure of the Chrystalline more Convex or the Retina Tunica more concave than the other must apprehend an object to be either larger in Dimensions or more Distinct in Parts than the other whose parts are of a different configuration either of these Causes necessitating a respective Disparity in the Action If this sound strange in the ears of any man how will he startle at the mention of that much more Paradoxical Thesis of Ioh. Baptista Porta lib. 6. de Refraâ—tion cap. 1. That no man can see distinctly but with one eye at once Which though seemingly repugnant not only to common persuasion but also to that high and mighty Axiom of Alhazen Vitellio Franc. Bacon Niceron and other the most eminent Professors of the Optiques That the Visive Axes of both eyes concurr and unite in the object speculated is yet a verity well worthy our admission and assertion For the Axes of the Eyes are so ordained by Nature that when one is intended the other is relaxed when one is imployed the other is idle and unconcerned nor can they be both intended at once or imployed though both may be at once relaxed or unimployed as is Experimented when with both eyes open we look on the leaf of a Book for we then perceive the lines and print thereof but do not distinctly discern the Characters so as to read one word till we fix the Axe of one eye thereon and at that instant we feel a certain suddain subsultation or gentle impulse in the Centre of that eye arising doubtless from the rushing in of more spirits through the Optick Nerve for the more efficacious performance of its action The Cause of the impossibility of the intention of both Visive Axes at one object may be desumed from the Parallelism of the Motion of the Eyes which being most evident to sense gives us just ground to admire how so many subtle Mathematicians and exquisite Oculists have not discovered the Coition and Union of the Visive Axes in the object speculated which they so confidently build upon to be an absolute Impossibility For though man hath two Eyes yet doth he use but one at once in the case of Distinct inspection the right eye to discern objects on the right side and the left to view objects on the left nor is there more necessity why he should use both Eyes at once than both Arms or Leggs or Testicles at once And for an Experiment to assist this Reason we shall desire you only to look at the top of your own Nose and you shall soon be convicted that you cannot discern it with both eyes at once but the right side with the right eye and afterward the left side with the left eye and at the instant of changing the Axe of the first eye you shall be sensible of that impulse of Spirits newly mentioned Noâ— indeed is it possible that while your right eye is levelled at the right side of your nose your left should be levelled at the left side but on the contrary averted quite â—rom it because the motion of the eyes being Conjugate or Parallel when the Axe of the right eye is converted to the right side of the nose the Axe of the left must be converted toward the left Ear. And therefore since the Visive Axes of both Eyes cannot Concurr and Unite in the Tipp of the Nose what can remain to persuade that they must Concurr and unite in the same Letter or Word in a book which is not many inches more remote than the Nose And that you may satisfie your self that the Visive Axes doe never meet but run on in a perpetual Parallelism i. e. in direct lines as far distant each from other as are the Eyes themselves having fixed a staff or launce upright in the ground and retreated from it to the distance of 10 or 20 paces more or less look as earnestly as you can on it with your right eye closing your left and you shall perceive it to eclipse a certain part of the wall tree or other body situate beyond it Then look on it again with your left eye closing your right and you shall observe it to eclipse another part of the wall that space being intercepted which is called the Parallaxe This done look on it with both eyes open and if the Axes of both did meet and unite in the staff as is generally supposed then of necessity would you observe the staff to eclipse either both parts of the Wall together or the middle of the Parallaxe but you shall observe it to do neither for the middle shall never be eclipsed but only one of the parts and that on which you shall fix one of your eyes more intently than the other This considered we dare second Gassendus in his promise to Gunners that they shall shoot as right with both eyes open as only with one for levelling the mouth of the Peece directly at the mark with one eye their other must be wholly unconcerned therein nor is
spiritual or more tenuious parts thereof Now what more praegnant Argument than this can the most circumspect desire in order to their Conviction that the Faculties of an Animal we exclude the Rational Faculty of man from the sphere of our assertion arâ— Identical with the Spirits of it i. e. the most subtile most free and most moveable or active part of its materials For though the spirits are by vulgar Philosophers conceived to be only the Primary Organ or immediate Instrument which the Faculty residing in one part occasionally transmits into another yet to those Worthies who have with impartial and profound scrutiny searched into the mystery hath it appeared more consentaneous that the spirits are of the same nature with the Faculty and not only movent but Instrument nor can it stand with right reason to admit more than this that as water in the streams is all one specifically with that in the fountain so is the Faculty keeping its court or chief residence in one part of the body as it were the Fountain or Original from whence to all other parts inservient to the same function the diffusion of spirits is made in certain exile rivolets or what more neerly attains the abstrusity Rayes like those emitted from the Sun or other fountain of light And what we here say of the Faculties of Animals holds equal truth also concerning those of Inanimate Concretions allowing a difference of proportion But here ariseth a considerble Difficulty that at first view seems to threaten our Paradox with total ruine and this it is if the Faculties of Concretions be not distinct in essence from their spirits or most agile particles how then can there be so many various Faculties coexistent in one and the same concretion as are dayly observed for in an Apple for example there is one Faculty of affecting the sight another of affecting the taste a third affecting the smell Concerning this therefore we give you this solution that the coexistence of various Faculties in one Concretion doth depend upon 1 the variety of multiforme particles of which the whole Concretion doth consist 2 the variety of particles and special contexture of its divers parts 3 the variety of External Faculties to which it happens that they are applied To keep to our former Example in an Apple t is manifest there are some particles in which consisteth its faculty of affecting the smell others in which consisteth its faculty of affecting the Tast for the Experiments of Chymistry demonstrate that these different particles may be so sequestred each from other as that the tast may be conserved when the smell is lost and the smell conserved when the taste is abolished And in an Animal it is no less evident that the organ of one sense hath one peculiar kind of contexture the organ of another sense another and finally that when we shall referr the Faculties of Odour and Sapour which are in an Apple to the Faculties of smelling and tasting in Animals they become subject to a further discrimination Since the same particles which move the smelling shall create a sweet and grateful odour in respect of one Animal and an offensive or stinking in respect of another and in like manner those particles which affect the Taste shall yeild a most grateful and desireable Sapour to one Animal and as odious and detestable a one to another Ought we therefore to account that Faculty of an Odour which is in an Apple either Single or Multiplex If we would speak strictly it is Single Absolutely Respectively Multiplex And thus indeed may we affirm that in the General or absolutely an Apple is Odorous and Sapid but Comparatively and in Special that it is fragrant or foetid sweet or bitter As for that Appendix of a Faculty which not only Philosophers but the People also name a HABIT Experience daily teacheth that there are some Faculties in Animals especially which by only frequency of acting grow more prompt and fit to act and upon consequence that that Hability or promptness for action is nothing but a Facility of doing or repeating that action which the same Faculty by the same instruments hath frequently done before And as to the Reason of this Facility though it arise in some measure from the Power or Faculty it self or the Spirits as being accustomed to one certain motion yet doth it chiefly depend upon the Disposition of the Organs or instruments which the Faculty makes use of in the performance of its proper action For because the Organ is alwayes a Dissimilar or Compound Body consisting of some parts that are crass and rigid we are to conceive it to be at first somewhat stubborn and not easily flexible to such various motions as the Faculty requires to its several operations and therefore as when we would have a Wand to be every way easily flexible we are gently and frequently to bend it that so the tenour of its fibres running longwise through it may be here and there and every where made more lax without any sensible divulsion so if we desire to have our hands expedite for the performance of all those difficult motions that are necessary to the playing of a Lesson on the Lute we must by degrees master that rigidity or clumsiness in the Nerves Tendons Muscles and joints of our fingers yea in the very skin and all other parts of our hands Thus also Infants while they stammer and strive again and again to pronounce a word clearly and distinctly do no more than by degrees master the stiffness and sluggishness of their tongues and other vocal organs and so make them more flexible and voluble and when by assuefaction they have made them easily flexible to all the motions required to the formation of that idiome then at length come they to speak it plainly and perfectly The same is also true concerning the Brain and those Organical parts therein that are inservient to the act of Imagination and by the imagination to the act of Discourse For though the Mind when divorced from the the body can operate most readily and knows no difficulty or impediment in the act of Intellection as being Immaterial and so wanting no organs for the exercise of its reasoning Faculty yet nevertheless while it is adliged to the body and its material instruments doth it remain subject to some impediment in the execution of its functions and because that impediment consisteth only in the less aptitude or inconformity of its proper organs therefore the way to remove that impediment is only by Assuefaction of it to study and ratiocination And from this Assuefaction may the Mind be affirmed to acquire a certain Habit or Promptitude to perform its proper Actions insomuch as by reason of that Habit it operates more freely and expeditely but yet in stricter Logick that Habit ariseth chiefly to its Organs as may be inferred only from hence that the Organs are capable of increment and decrement and
wherein they are melted or made red hot the reason why they burn so extreamly must be this that they are exceedingly Compact in substance and so their particles being more tenacious or reciprocally cohaerent then those of wood oyle or any other body whatever they more firmly keep together the Atoms of fire immitted into them insomuch that a man cannot touch them with his finger but instantly it is in all points invaded with whole swarms of igneous Atoms and most fiercely compunged and dilacerated And as for the Derasion of the skin from any part of an Animal immersed into melted metal this ariseth partly from the total dissolution of the tenour of the skin by the dense and on every side compungent Atoms of Fire partly from the Compression and Resistence of the parts of the Metal now made Fluid which are both so great that upon the withdrawing of the member immersed into the metal the part which is immediately prest upon by the particles thereof is detained behind and that 's the skin Hence also is it no longer a Problem Why red hâ—t Iron sets any Combustible matter on Fire for it is evident that it cannot inflame by its own substance but by the Atoms of Fire immitted into and for a while reteined in its Pores And this brings us to a Second CONSECTARY viz. That as the Degrees of Heat are various Physicians indeed allow only 4 and Physiologists but double that number the Former in order to the more convenient reduction of their Art to certain and established principles the Latter meerly in conformity to the Dictates of Aristotle but Neither upon absolute necessity since it is reasonable for any man to augment their number even above number at pleasure So also must the Degrees of fire be various For since Fire even according to Aristotle is only the Excess of Heat or Heat encreased to that height as to Burn or Enflame a thing if we begin at the gentle Meteor called Ignis Fatuus which lighting upon a mans hand and a good while adhereing thereto doth hardly warm it or at the fire of the purest spirit of Wine enflamed which also is very languid for it is frequent among the Irish for a Cure of their Endemious Fluxes of the belly to swallow down small balls of Cotton steept in spirit of wine and set on fire and that many times with good success We say if we begin from either of these weak Fires and run through all the intermediate ones to that of melted Gold which all men acknowledge to be the Highest we shall soon be convinced that the Degrees of Fire are so various as to arise even to innumerability Most true it is in the General that every Fire is so much the more intense by how much more numerous or agminous the Atoms of Fire are that make it yet if we regard only the Effect there must be allowed a convenient space of time for the requisite motion of those Atoms and a supply of fresh ones successively to invade and penetrate the thing to be burned or enflamed For since the Igneous Atoms exsilient from their involucrum or seminary and invading the extrems of a body objected to them are subject to easy Repercussion or rather Resilition from it therefore to the Calefaction Adustion or Inflammation of a body it is not sufficient that the body be only moved along by or over the Fire but it must be held neer or in it so long as till the first invading Igneous Atoms which otherwise would recoyle from it be impelled on and driven into the pores of the same by streams of other Igneous Atoms contiguously succeeding and pressing upon them And however the space of time be almost in assignably short in which the finger of a man touching a glowing Coale or melted metal is burned because the Atoms of Fire are therein exceeding Dense and Agminous and so penetrate the skin in all points yet nevertheless common observation assures that in the General a certain space of time is necessary to the Effect of Calefaction or Ambustion and that so much the Longer by how much the Fewer or more Disgregated the Igneous Atoms are either in the Body Calefying or the Aer conterminous thereto And this as formerly to the end that the Motion of the Igneous Atoms first assaulting the object may be continued and a supply of fresh ones promoting and impelling the former be afforded from the Focus or Seminary Hence is it that a mans hand may be frequently Waved to and fro in Flame without burning because the Atoms of Fire which invade it are repercussed and not by a continued aflux of others driven foreward into its pores the motion of his hand preventing the Continuity of their Fluor but if his hand be held still in the flame though but a very short time it must be burned because the first invading Atoms of Fire are impelled on by others and those again by others in a continent fluor so that their Motion is continued and a constant supply maintained Hence comes it also that no Metal can be molten only by a Flash or transient touch of the Fire for we are not yet fully satisfied of the verity of that vulgar tradition of the instantaneous melting of money in a purse or of a sword blade in its sheath by Lightning and if we were yet could we assign that prodigious Effect to some more probable Cause viz. the impetuosity of the motion and the exceeding Coarctation of those Atoms of Fire of which that peculiar species of Lightning doth consist but it must be so long held in or over the Fire as until the Igneous Atoms have totally pervaded its contexture and dissociated all its particles and therefore so much the longer stay in the fire doth every Metal require to its Fusion by how much the more Compact and Tenacious its particles are As the Degrees of Fire are various as to the more and less of Vehemency respective to the more and less Density or Congregation of the Igneous Atoms So likewise is there a considerably variety among Flames as to the more and less of Duration Concerning the Causes therefore of this Variety in the General we briefly observe that Flame hath its Greater or Less Duration respective to the 1. Various Materials or Bodies inflammable For such Bodies as have a greater Aversion to inflammation being commixt with others that are easily inflammable make their flame less Durable as Bay Salt dissolved in spirit of Wine shortens the duration of its flame by almost a third part as the Lord Bacon affirms upon exact experiment Nat. Hist. cent 4. and contrariwise such as approach neerer to an affinity with fire i. e have much of Unctuousness and plenty of igneous Atoms concealed therein yield the most lasting Flames as Oyle and Spirit of Wine commixt in due proportions and spirit of Salt to a tenth part commixt with Oyle Olive makes it burn twice as long in
them their prâ—y 2 It is worthy a serious Remark that sundry Animalls bear a kind of 〈…〉 to the Persons of such men as are delighted or conversant in the Destruction of those of the same species with them as we daily see that 〈◊〉 are highly offended and angry at Butchers that Dogs bark 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Glovers that deal most in Dog skins and 〈…〉 killing of Dogs in time of the plague to praevâ—nt 〈◊〉 diffusion 〈…〉 and encrease of Putrefaction by their 〈◊〉 that Vermin 〈◊〉 the trapps and gins of Warrenners whereâ—◠〈…〉 their owne kind hath been taken and destroyed c. As 〈…〉 or strong Aversions t is manifest that they arise 〈…〉 or Character of Providence 〈…〉 Natures or Essential Forms but only 〈…〉 upon the sense For the 〈…〉 any Animal of the same species excite a kind of Horror in the like Animal that smells them and so cause it to abhor and avoid all such persons and places for fear of the like harm and internecion as their fellowes have suffered from them Now that which makes these odours insinuate themselves with such â—ase and familiarity into the Sensories of animals of the same species is the similitude and Uniformity of their Specifical Constitutions which yet the rough hand of Corruption seems not totally to have obliterated in the long since extravenated blood and spirits but to have left some Vestigia or Râ—mains of the Canine nature in the Doggs blood of the Porcine in the Swâ—â—â—s c. And that which makes them so horridly Odious is the great Aâ—â—â—â—â—ion of the blood from its genuine temper and conditius For the smell of the Carcass or blood of any Animal having once suffered the Depâ—avation of Corruption is always most hateful and dangerous to others of the same Species and it hath been observed that the most pernicious inâ—ections and Plagues have been such as took their Original from the Corruption of Humane Bodies which indeed is the best reason that hath â—een yet given why the Plague so often attends long and bloody Sieges and is commonly the second to the Sword We conceive the same to 〈…〉 the ground of that Axiom of the Lord St. Alban Nat. Hist. cent 10 â— â—enerally that which is Dead or Corrupted or Excerned hath Antipaâ—â—â—â—â—th the same thing when it is Alive and when it is sound and with those 〈◊〉 which do excern as a Carcass of Man is most infectious and odious â—â—man a Carrion of an Horse to an Horse c. Purulent matter of 〈◊〉 and Ulcers Carbuncles Pocks Scabbs Leprousy to Sound flesh And the Excrements of every species to that Creature that excerneth them But the Excâ—ements are less Pernicious than the Corruptions 3 The 〈◊〉 and according to some reports the opening of the Eyesâ— of the Carcass of a murthered man at the praesence and touch of the Homicide 〈…〉 in truth the noblest of Antipathies and scarce any Writer of the Secrets or Miracles of Nature hath omitted the Consideration thereof This Life in Death Revenge of the Grave or loud language of silent Corruption many Venerable and Christian Philosophers have accounteâ—â— holly Miraculous or Supernatural as ordained and effected by the just 〈◊〉 of God for the detection and punishment of the inhumane 〈◊〉 And least we should seem too forward to expunge from 〈◊〉 mind of any man the beleif of that opinion which to some may 〈…〉 more powerful Argument than the express Command of God to 〈◊〉 them from committing so horrid and execrable a Crime as Muâ—â—er we shall so far concurr with them as to conceive this Effect 〈…〉 Divine only in the Iâ—stitution but meerly Natural in the Production or Immediate Causes Because the Apparence seems not to 〈◊〉 the Capacity of Natural Means and the whole Syndrome and 〈◊〉 of it Causes may be thus explained It is an Opinion highly Câ—â—â—entaneous that in every vehement Passion there is formeâ—â— certain 〈…〉 well of the Object whereupon the Imagination is 〈…〉 the Good or Evil connected unto and expected from that Objecâ— and that this Idea is as it were impressed by a kind of inexplicable 〈◊〉 upon the Spirits at the same instant the Mind 〈◊〉 to Will the praesent Prosecution or Avoidance or the object 〈…〉 by the mediation of the Spirits those Angels of the Mind the same Idea is transmitted to the Blood and through the Arteries diffused into all parts of the body as well as into the Nerves and Muscles which are inservient to such Voluntary Motions as are requisite to the execution of the Decrees and Mandats of the Will concerning the Prosecution or Avoidance of the Object This being so we may conceive that the Phansy of the Person assaulted by an Assassine having formed an Idea of Hatred Opposition and Revenge and the same being Characterized upon the Spirirs and by them diffused through the blood though the blood become much less Fluid in the veins after death by reason the vital influence and Pulsifick Faculty of the Heart which Animated and Circulated it is extinct yet because at the praesence of the Murderer there issue from the pores of his body such subtile Emanations as are Consimilar to those which were emitted from him at the time He strove with overcame and killed the Patient and those Emanations entering the Dead Body doe cause a fresh Commotion in the blood remaining yet somewhat Fluid in its veins and as it were renew the former Colluctation or Duell betwixt the yet wholly uncondensed Spirits of the slain and those of the Homicide therefore is it that the Blood suffering an Estuation flows up and down in the veins to seek some vent or salley-port and finding none so open as in that part wherein the wound was made it issues forth from thence And where the Murthered Person is destroyed by strangulation suffocation or the like unbloody Death so that there is no manifest Solution of Continuity in the skin or other Exterior parts of the body in that case it hath been observed that the Carcass bleeds at the Mouth or Nose or both and this only because in all vehement strivings and especially in Colluctation for life the Spirits and Blood flow most plentifully into the Arteries and Veins of the Herd as is visible by the great Redness of the Eyes and face of every man that Fights and where the blood fixeth in most plenty there will be the greatest tumult aestuation and commotion when it is fermented agitated and again set afloat by the Discordant Effluvia's emitted from the body of the neer approâ—ching or touching Murtherer and consequently there must the vessels suffer the greatest stress distension and disruption or apertion of their orifices 4 And this magnale of the as it were Reanimation of the vindictive blood in the veins of a Dead body by the Magick of those Hostile and Fermenting Aporrhaea's transmitted from the body of Him who violently extinguished its former life ushers in Another no less prodigious nor less
one of a Philosopher 13 Here we should open and survey the whole Theatre of Venoms or Poisons on one hand and that of Antidotes or Counterpoisons on the other those operating to the Destruction these to the Muniment and Conservation of Life and both by such Qualities and wayes as are generally both by Physiologists and Physitians praesumed to be Occult or beyond the investigation of Reason and of which all that is known is learned in the common School of Experience But worthily to examine the Nature of each particular Poison among those many found in the lists of Animals Vegetables Minerals and explicate the Propriety by which its proper Antidote or Alexipharmacon doth encounter oppose conquer and expel it must of necessity enlarge this Section into a Volume besides the expence of more time than what we have consigned to our whole Work And therefore we hope our Reader will not conceive his expectation wholly frustrated nor Curiosity altogether defrauded though we now entertain Him only with the General Reasons Why Poisons are Hostile and Destructive why Counterpoisons friendly and Conservaâ—ive of Life Gwoinus de Venen lib. 2. cap. 24. we well remember defines Venenum Poison to be quod in corpus ingressum vim infert Naturae illamque vincit That which being admitted into the body offers violence to Nature and conquers it And according to this Definition by Poisons we understand not only such things as bear a pernicious Enmity in particular to the temperament of the Heart or that substance wherein the Vital Faculty may be conceived principally and immediately to consist but all such as are hostile and destructive to the temperament of the Brain or any oâ—her Noble and Principal Organ of the body so as by altering the requisite Constitution thereof they subvert the aeconomy and ruine the frame of Nature wherein the Disposition of the parts to perform the Actions of Life is radicated And that wherein this Deleterious or Pernicious Faculty doth consist we conceive to be a certain Substance which being communicated or infused into any part of the body though in very small quantity doth by reason of the exceeding Subtility and violent Mobility or Agility of the insensible particles of which it is composed most easily and expeditely transfuse or disperse it self through the whole body consociate it self to the spirits and invading the Heart Brain or other Principal Organ so alter the requisite Disposition or temperament and habit thereof as to make it thenceforth wholly uncapable of performing the Functions or Actions of life to which it was destined and framed and by that means introduceth extreme Destruction Likewise by Alexipharmacal Medicaments or Counterpoisons we understand not such things as have only a propitious and benign Friendship particularly for the temperament of the Brain Heart or other Noble Organ in the body and are therefore accounted specifically Auxiliant and Corroborative thereunto in the Expulsion of ought that is noxious and offensive unto it because in that sense all Cardiacal Cephalical and Specifically Corroborative Medicaments would be Alexiterial and every peculiar Venome would not require its proper Antivenome both which are contradicted by Experience But such things as are endowed with Faculties è diametro and directly Contrapugnant to Poisons meerly as Poisons For divers things that are absolute Poisons of themselves and would destroy if taken alone by themselves do yet become powerful Praeservatives and Antidotes against other poisons and afford suddain and certain relief to nature when taken to oppose them Thus Aconite than which scarce any venome is more speedy and mortal in its operation upon a sound body doth yet prove a praesent remedy to one bitten by a Scorpion if drank in Wine as Pliny hath observed lib. 27. cap. 2. And that wherein this Salutiferous Virtue of Antidotes doth consist we conceive likewise to be a certain Substance which being received into the body though in small quantitie doth with expedition diffuse it self throughout the same and encountering the venome formerly admitted and then operating refract its energy praevent its further violence extinguish its operation and at length either totally subdue or totally educe it For All Alexipharmacal Remedies do not bring relief to nature assaulted and oppressed by Poison by one and the same way or manner of operation some working by way of Repulsion others by way of Abduction others by way of Opposition and downright Conquest when they are taken Inwardly some by Retraction others by Extinction where they are applied Externally Thus Triacle whose Basis or master ingredient is the Flesh of Vipers doth cure a man empoisoned by the Biting of a Viper only because in respect of Consimilarity or Similitude of substance it uniteth it self to the Venome of the Viper which had before taken possession of and diffused it self throughout the body and afterwards educeth the same together with it self when it is expelled by sweating procured by divers Cardiacal and Hidrotical or Sudorifick Medicaments commixt in the same Composition no otherwise than as Soap whose principal Ingredient is oil doth therefore take off oily and greasie spots from Clothes because uniting it self unto a Cognate or Consimilar substance the Oil or Fat adhaering to the Cloth and so assisting its Dilution and Concorporation with the Water in which it self is dissolved it carrieth the same away together with it self in the water when that is expressed or wrung out by the hand of the Laundress More plainly As oyle is therefore commixed with Ashes or Salt in the composition of Soap to the end it may not stain the Cloth anew to which it is applyed but being confused with the oil or Fat wherewith the cloth was formerly stained Abduce or carry off the same together with it self in the water which is the Vehicle to both so likewise is the Flesh of Vipers therefore commixt with so many Alexiterial Simples as concur to the Confection of Triacle to the end it may by them be hindred from envenoming the body a new but yet at the same time be so commixt with the Venome already diffused tâ—rough the body as that when those Alexiterial Medicaments are by Sâ—â—at or otherwise educed from the body carrying along with them thâ— Venome of the Vipers flesh to which they are individually consociâ—ted they may also abduce or carry away that venome of the Vipers tooth which was formerly diffused through the body And this we mâ—reover conceive may be the General Reason not only of the Evacuatâ—on of Venomes by Sweat where the Antidote works by Union and Aâ—â—uction but also of the Evacuation of superfluous Humours by Elective 〈◊〉 or Purging Medicaments that specifically educe this or that Humor for it may be as lawfully said that Like may be cured by Like or 〈◊〉 by Unlike as that oil may be absterged by its Like viz. the oil in Soâ—p and by something that is Unlike viz. the Salt or Water carrying 〈◊〉 oâ—l individually
the manner of that moâ—ive activity of the Aer upon the thing projected They thus explicate The Aer say they which is first moved by the Projicient together with the moveable doth at the same time both propel the moveable and impel the Aer immediately beyond it which being likewise moved doth in the same manner propel the moveable and impel the aer immediately beyond it and that aer being thus moved doth again impel both the moveable and the aer next beyond it and so consequently the next aer impels both the moveable and the next aer beyond it until the propulsion and promotion being gradually debilitated and at length wholly overcome partly by the Gravity of the thing moved partly by the Resistence of the occurring Aer the motion wholly ceaseth and the thing projected attaineth quiet And that Others contend that the Body Projected is carryed forward by a Force as They call it Imprest which they account to be a Quality so communicated unto the body projected from the Projicient as that not being indelible it must gradually decay in the progress thereof and at length wholly perish whereupon the motion also must by degrees remit its violence and at length absolutely vanish and the thing projected again recover its native quiet But lest we trifle away our praecious moments in confutinâ— each of these weak Opinions against which the Reason of every man is ready to object many great absurdities especially such as the praecedent theory will soon advertise him of let us praesently recur to the more solid speculations of our master Gassendus in his Epistles de motu impresso a motore translato and praesenting you the summary thereof without further delay satisfie your Curiosity and our own Debt of assisting it First we are to determine that nothing remaining it self unmoved can move another For since our Discourse concerns not the First Cause of all motion God whose Power is infinite who is in all places who can only by the force of his Will create move and destroy all things manifest it is that nothing Finite especially Corporeal and such only hath an interest in our praesent consideration can move another thing unless it self be also moved at the same time as Plato well observed in his saying Neque est Dissicile modo sed etiam plane impossibile ut quidpiam motum imprimere sine quapiam sui commotione valeat in Timaeo And the Reason is this whatever doth move doth act and e converso whatever doth act doth move Action and Passion as Aristotle 3. physic 3 being the same with motion Again the movent and Moveable ought to be together or to touch each other because whether the movent impel attract carry or â—owle the moveable necessary it is that still it should impress some certain Force upon it and force it can impress none thereupon unless by touching it And though it doth touch it yet if it discharge no force of motion upon it i. e. remain unmoved it self there shall be only a meer Contact reciprocal but no motion and as the one so shall the other remain unmoved Therefore that the one may move the other it ought to have that vigour or motion first in it self which it doth impress upon the other since if it have none it can give none Even sense demonstrates that by how much more vehement motion the movent it self is in at the instant it toucheth the moveable by so much the farther doth it always propel the same and thence our Reason may necessarily infer that the movent must it self be in some small motion in the same instant it gives a small motion to another Moreover though Aristotle in 8. Physic cap 5. subtly Distinguisheth three Things in motion viz. the 〈◊〉 ut quod as V. G. a man the Movens ut quo as a staff and the Mobile as a stone and thereupon magisterially teacheth that the stone is moved and doth not move that the staff is moved and doth move that the man doth move and is not moved yet is it not â—â—ident how far short He comes of thereby Demonstrating the immobility of the First Movent to which He praetended For whereas He urgeth that otherwise we must proceed to Infinity that binds not at all because the movens ut quod the man is moved by Himself and sense declares that the man must move his Arm or Hand together with the staff which if you suppose not to be the movens ut quo the stone bâ—â—ng not moved thereby but the mobile it self is not the movent it self â—â—so moved Suppose also that the mans Arme or Hand is the moveâ—◠〈◊〉 quo nay if you please that his whole Body or the Muscles or Nerve or Spirits are the movens ut quo and deriving the motion from his very Soul suppose that to be the movens ut quod yet truely can you not â—â—â—ceive that the Soul it self remaining Immote doth move the Arm oâ—â—and Nor is the Soul it self then moved onely by Accident as wheâ—â— marriner is carried by the motion of his ship but also per se as wâ—â—â— the mariner moves himself that he may move the Oar that it may move the ship in which himself is carried For as a ship in a calm sea â—ould not be moved it self nor the mariner be moved with it by Accidâ—â—â— in case the mariner himself wanted motion whereby to impel his shipâ— so neither would the body be moved nor the Soul be moved therewâ—â—â— by Accident unless the soul be first agitated within with a motion whâ—â—â—by the body is moved Conclude therefore that nothing can be 〈◊〉 but the Projicient must not only Touch it either immediately â—â—mediately by some Instrument but also Propel it with the same 〈◊〉 whâ—â—â—with it self is in the same instant moved It is moreover â—â—â—â—ssary that the movent be moved not only in a point or so far as that point of space in which it first toucheth the moveable but also that a while cohaering unto the moveable it be moved along with it so as we may well conceive them to be made by that Cohaesion as it were one and the same body or one entire moveable pro tempore and consequently that the motion of both the movent and moveable is one intire motion For what motion is in the moveable so long as it remains conjoyned to the movent is in a manner a certain Tyrocinium in which the moveable is as it were taught to progress foreward in that way which the movent hath begun upward downward transverse oblique circular and that either slowly or swiftly and according as the movent shall guide and direct it before its manumission or dismission Thus when a man throws a stone with his hand you may plainly perceive how the motion thereof begins together with that of his hand and after it is discharged from his hand you cannot say that a new motion is impressed upon the stone but only that the
Perspicuity and Opacity Art 2. The true Notions of a Perspicuum and Opaâ—um Art 3. That every Concretion is so much the more Diaphaâ—ous by how much the more more ample Inane Spaces are intercepted among its particles caeteris paâ—ibus Art 4. Why Glass though much more Dense is yet much more Diaphanous than Paper Art 5. Why the Diaphanity of Glass is gradually diminished according to the various degrees of its Craâ—â—â—tude Art 6. An Apodictical Confutation of that popular Error that Glass is totally or in every particle Diaphanous Art 1. The Contexture of this Chapter with the praecedent Art 2. That the Magnitude of Concretions ariseth from the Magnitude of their Material Principles Art 3. The praesent intention of the term Magnitude Art 4. That the Quantity of a thing is meerly the Matter of it Art 5. The Quantity of a thing neither augmented by its Rarefaction noâ— diminished by itâ— Condensation contrary to the Aristoâ—eleans who distinguish the Quantity of a Body frâ—m itâ— Substance Art 6. The reason of Quantiâ—y explicable also meerly from the notion of Place Art 7. The Existence of a Body without real Exâ—ension of Exâ—â—â—sion without a Bâ—dy 〈…〉 to Nature yet 〈◊〉 to God Art 11 Aristotles Definition of a Continuum in what respect true and whaâ— false Art â—2 Figure Physically considâ—red nothing but the superficies or terminant Extreâ—â— of a Body Art 1. The Continuity of this to the first Section Art 2. 〈…〉 Art 3. A considerable Exception of the Chymists â— viz. that some Bodies are dissolved in liâ—uorâ— of 〈◊〉 particles which 〈…〉 Art 4. Why Oyle dissociates the parts of some Bodies which remain inviolate in Spirit of Wine and why Lightning is more penetrative than Fire Art 5. Smoothness and Asperity in Concretions the Conâ—equents of Figure in hâ—â—r Material Principles Art 1. The Motive Virtue of all Concretions derived from the essential Mobility oâ— Atoms Art 2. 〈…〉 Partâ— Art 5. What the Active Faculty of a thing is Art 6. That in Nature every Faculty is Active none Passive Art 7. A Peripatetick Contradiction assuming the Matter of all Bodies to be devoid of all Activity and yet desuming some Faculties â tota substantia Art 8. That the Faculties of Animals the Ratiocination of man only excepted are Identical with their spirits Art 9. The Râ—â—sons of the Coexistence of Various Faculties in one and the same Concretion Art 10. Habit defined Art 11. That the Reason of all Habits in Animals consisteth principally in the conformity and flâ—xibility of the Organs which the râ—spective Faculty makes use of for the performance of its proper Actions Art 12. Habits acquirable by Bruits and common not only to Vegetables but also to some Minerals Art 1. Gravity as to â—â—s Essence oâ— Formal Reason very obscure Art 2. The opinion of Epicurus good as to the Cause of Comparative insufficient as to the Cause of Absolute Gravity Art 3. Aristotles opinion of Gravity recited Art 4. Copernicus theory of Gravity insatisfactory and wherein Art 5. The Determination of Kepler Gassendus c. that Gravity is Caused meerly by the Attraction of the Earth espoused by the Author Art 6. The Extâ—rnal Principle of the perpendicular Descent of a stone projected up in the Aer must be either Depellâ—nt or Atâ—rahent Art 7. That the Resistence of the Superior Aer is the only Cause which gradually refracteth and in fine wholly overcometh the Imprest Force whereby a stone projected is elevated upward Art 8. Thaâ— the Aer distracted by a stone violently ascending hath as well a Depulsive as a Resistent Faculty arising immediately from its Elaterical or Restorative motion Art 9. That nevertheleâ—â— when 〈…〉 on high in the 〈…〉 no Causâ— can 〈◊〉 Downwâ—â—â— Motio◠〈…〉 Art 10. Aâ—gument that 〈◊〉 Terraqueous Glâ—be is endowed with a certain Attractive Faculty in order to the Detention and Retraction of all its Parts Art 11. What are the Parts of the Terrestrial Globe Art 12. A Second Argument that the Earth is Magnetical Art 13. A Parallelisme betwixt the Attraction of Iron by a Lâ—adâ—tone aâ—d the Attraction of Terrene bodies by the Earth Art 14. That as the sphere oâ— the Loadstones Allective Virtue is limited so is that of the Earths magnetism Art 15. An Obiection of the Disproportion between the great Bulk of a large 〈◊〉 and the Exâ—â—â—â—y of the supposed magnetique Rays of the Earth Solved by three wâ—ighty Reasons Art 16. The Reason of the Aequivelocity of Bodies of different weights in their perpendicular Descent with sundry unquestionable Authorities to câ—nfirm the Hoti thereof Art 18. That the Centre of the Univerâ—e is not the Lâ—wâ—st part â—â—â—reof nor the Centre of the Earth the Centre of the World Art 19. A Fourth Aâ—gument that Gravity is only Attraction Art 20. Why a greater Gravity or stronger Attractive force is â—mprest â—pon a piece of iron by a Loadstone than by the Earth Art 21 A â—ifth Argument almost Apâ—â—icticaâ—â— that Gravity 〈◊〉 the Effect 〈◊〉 the Earth â—â—â—â—raction Art 1. â—word nothing 〈…〉 Art 1. The Connection of this to the immediately precedent Chapter Art 2. Why the Author deduceth the 4 First Qualities not from the 4 vulgar Elements but from the. 3 Proprieties of Atoms Art 3. The Nature of Heat is to be conceived from its General Effect viz. the Penetration Discussion and Dissolution of Bodies concrete Art 4. Heat defined as no Immaterial but a 〈…〉 Art 7. That the Atoms of Heat are capable of Expedition or deliverance from Concretions Two wayes viz. by Evâ—cation and Motion Art 8. An Vnâ—raâ—us matter the chief Seminary of the Atoms of Heat and why Aâ—â— â— Among â—nctuouâ— Concreâ—â—ons Whâ— some arâ— more â—asily inflammablâ— than others Art 11. PROBLEM 1. Why the â—ottoâ— of a Caldâ—â—n wherein Water is boyling may be touched by the hand of a man â—ithout burning 〈…〉 Art 12. PROBLEM 2. Why Lime becomes ardent upon the affusion of Water â—ol Art 13. PROBLEM 3. Why the Heat of Lime burning is more vehement than the Heat of any Flame whatever Sol. Art 14. PROBLEM 4 Why boyling Oyle scalds more vehemently then boyling Water Sol. Art 15. PROBLEM 5 Why Metals melted or made red hot burn more violent than the Fire that melteth or heateth them Sol. Art 16. CONSECTARY 2. That as the degrees of Heat so those of fire are innumerably vâ—rious Art 17. That to the Calefaction Combustion or Inflammation of a body by fire is required a certain space of time and that the space is greater or less according to the paucity or abundance of the igneous Atoms invading the body obiected and more or less of aptitude in the contexture thereof to admit them Art 18. Flame more or less Durable for various respects Art 19. CONSECTARY 3. That the immediate and genuine Effect of Heat is the Disgregation of all bodies as well Homogeneous as Heterogenous and that the Congregation of Homogeneous Natures is only an Accidentalâ—ffâ—ct â—ffâ—ct of Hâ—aâ— contrary
certain special Faculty or Virtue for a Cause to that motion praesumed and such must be their inhaerent Gravity or the tendency of weight Now in respect to either of these three last Proprieties Atoms may be conceived to admit of difference among themselves for in regard of Magnitude some may be greater then others of Figure some may be sphaerical others cubical some smooth others rough c. and of Gravity some may be more and others less ponderous though this can cause no degrees of Velocity or Tardity in their Motion it being formerly demonstrated that two bodies of different weights are aequally swift in their descent To these 4 Essential Attributes of Atoms Empiricus hath superadded a Fifth viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Renitency or Resistence But by his good leave we cannot understand this to be any distinct Propriety but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something resilient from and dependent on their solidity which is the formal reason of Resistence besides we may confound their Renitency with their Gravity insomuch as we commonly measure the Gravity of any thing by the renitency of it to our arms in the act of Elevation Which may be the reason why Aphrodisaeus lib. 1. Quest. cap. 2. enumerating the proprieties of Atoms takes no notice at all of their Gravity but blends it under the most sensible effect thereof Resistence The specifical are such as belong to Atoms of particular sorts of Figure as Smoothness Acuteness Angularity and their Contraries Asperity Obtuseness Orbicularity c. These in the dialect of Epicurus are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cognatae Proprietates Now all these Proprieties both Generical and Specifical or Originary and Dependent are truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch 1. adv Colot calls them Congenial and inseparable Other Proprieties there are adscriptive to Atoms such as their Concurse Connexion Position Order Number c. from which the Qualities of Compound Bodies do emerge but since they are only Communia Accidentia Common Accidents or as Lucretius Atomorum Eventa the fortuitous Events of Atoms considered as complex and coadunated in the Generation of Concretions and not in the intire simplicity of their Essence and consequently seperable from them therefore may we hope that our Reader will content himself with our bare mention of them in this place which is designed for the more advantagious Consideration of only the Essential and Inseparable SECT II. Concerning the Magnitude of Atoms MAgnitude and Atoms though two terms that make a graceful Consonance to ears acquainted with the most charming harmony of Reason may yet sound harsh and discordant in those of the Vulgar which is accustomed to accept Magnitude only Comparatively or as it stands Antithetical to Parvity and therefore it concerns us to provide against misapprehension by an early advertisement that in our assumption of Magnitude as the first essential Propriety of Atoms we intend not that they hold any sensible bulk but that contrary to Insectiles or Points Mathematical they are Entities Quantitive simply i. e. Realities endowed with certain corporeal Dimensions though most minute and consisting in the lowest degree of physical quantity so that even those of the largest size or rate are much below the perception and discernment of the acutest Opticks and remain commensurable only by the finer digits of rational Conjecture And somewhat the more requisite may this Praemonition seem in respect that no meaner an Author then Theodoret hath through gross inadvertency stumbled at the same block of ambiguity For in Serm. 4. therapâ—ut He positively affirms that Democritus Metrodorus and Epicurus by their exile Principles Atoms meant no other but those small pulverized fragments of bodies which the beams of the Sun transmitted through lattice Windows or chincks make visible in the aer when according to their genuine sense one of those dusty granules nay the smallest of all things discernable by the eyes of Linceus though advantaged by the most exquisite Engyscope doth consist of Myriads of Myriads of thousands of true Atoms which are yet corporeal and possess a determinate extension To avert the Wonder impendent on this nice assertion and tune our thoughts to a key high enough to attain the Verisimility thereof We are first to let them down to a worthy acknowledgment of the exceeding Grossnesse and Dulnesse of our Senses when compared to the superlative Subtility and Acuteness of Nature in most of her Operations for that once done we shall no longer boast the perspicacity of our Opticks nor circumscribe our Intellectuals with the narrow line of our sensible discoveries but learn there to set on our Reason to hunt where our sense is at a loss Doubtless the slender Crany of a Pismire contains more distinct Cellules then that magnificent Fabrick the Eschurial doth rooms which though imperceptible to the eye of the body are yet obvious to that of the mind since no man can imagine how otherwise the Faculties of sense and voluntary Motion can be maintained a perpetuall supply of Animal or aâ— Dâ— Hâ—rvâ—â— will have them Vital spirits being indispensably necessary to the continuation of those actions and therefore there must be Elaboratories for the praeparation and confection Treasuries for the conservation and various Conduits for the emission and occasional transvection of them into the Nerves and Muscles of that industrious and provident Animal The due resentment of which praegnant Instance is alone sufficient to demonstrate the incomputable degrees of distance betwixt the sensible Capacity of man and the curious Mechanicks of Nature and make the acutest of us all call for a Table-book to enroll this Aphorism Ubi humana industria subtilitasque desinit inde incipit industria subtilitasque Naturae The wings of our Arrogance being thus clipt let us display those of our Discoursive Faculty and try how near we can come to deprehend the Magnitude i. e. the Parvity of Atoms by an ingenious Conjecture Consider we first that an exquisite Artist will make the movement of a Watch indicating the minute of the hour the hour of the day the day of the week moneth year together with the age of the Moon and time of the Seas reciprocation and all this in so small a compass as to be decently worn in the pall of a ring while a bungling Smith can hardly bring down the model of his grosser wheels and balance so low as freely to perform their motions in the hollow of a Tower If so well may we allow the finer fingers of that grand Exemplar to all Artificers Nature to distinguish a greater multiplicity of parts in one Grain of Millet seed then ruder man can in that great Mountain Caucasus nay in the whole Terrestrial Globe Consider we with Magnenus that one grain of Frankinsense being fired doth so largely diffuse it self in fume as to fill a space in the aer more then seven hundred millions of times greater then it possessed before combustion For to the utmost dispersion
Thomas Iordanus de pestis phaenomen tr 1. cap 18. and Sennertus out of Nich. Polius in Haemerologia Silesiae in lib. de peste cap. 2. Which prodigious Effects clearly proclaim the mighty energy of their Causes and are manifestoes sufficient that Odours justly challenge to themselves those Attributes which are proper onely to Corporiety nor can ought but downright ignorance expect them from the naked Immaterial Qualities or imaginary Images of the Peripatetick 3 The Manner of the Odours moving or Affecting the Sensory can never be explained but by assuming a certain Commensuration or Correspondency betwixt the Particles amassing the Odour and the Contexture of the Olfactory Nerves or Mammillary Processes of the brain delated through the spongy bone For 1 it is Canonical that no Immaterial can Operate upon a Material Physically the inexplicable activity of the Rational Soul upon the body by the mediation of the spirits and that of Angelical essences excepted 2 Though an Odour diffused through the aer chance to touch upon the hands cheeks lips tongue c. yet doth it therein produce no sensation of it self because the Particles of it hold no proportion to either the pores or particles of which those parts are composed but arriving at the organ of smelling it cannot but instantly excite the Faculty therein resident to an actual sensation or apprehension of it in regard of that correspondency in Figure and Contexture which the particles of it hold to the pores and particles of the Odoratory Nerves Certainly as the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves is altogether different from that of the Tongue and so the minute bodies of them as well as the small spaces intercepted among those minute bodies in all points of their superficies not contingent are likewise of a dissimilar configuration from the particles and intercepted vacuola of the Tongue so also is it necessary that the small bodies which commove and affect the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves be altogether dissimilar to those which commove and affect the contexture of the Tongue since otherwise all objects would be in common and the Distinction of senses unnecessary Now lest we should seem to beg the Quaestion that the sensation is effected in the Odoratory Nerves only by the Figures of the particles of an Odour and that the variety of Odours depends on the variety of impressions made on the sensory respective to their various figures and contextures this is not obscurely intimated in those formerly recited words of Epicurus Molecularum sive Corpusculorum quaedam perturbate ac discrepanter quaedam verò placide ac leniter seu accommodatè se habere ad olfactus sensorium The substance whereof is this that because the particles and Contexture of some Odours are such that they strike the sensory roughly and discordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Ingrateful and on the contrary because other Odours have such particles and such contextures as being smooth in Figure strike the sensory gently evenly and concordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Grateful and desiderable We might have introduced Plato himself as lighting the tapor to us in this partâ—cular insomuch as He saith in Timaeo that the sweet sort of Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de mulcere quâ inseritur amicabiliter se habere doth softly stroke and cause a certain blandishment in the sensory but that the kinde of noysom or stinking Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in a manner Exasperate and wound it To this Incongruity or Disproportion betwixt offensive smells and the composure of the Odoratory Nerves the profound Fracastorius plainly alludeth in his proportionalitèr autem se habent odores quorum ingratissimus est qui Fâ—tidus appellatur quique abominabili in saporibus respondet nam hic ex iis pariter resultat quae nullam habent digestionem nec rationem mistionis sed confusionem èmultis fere ac diversis qualia fere sunt Putrescentia in quibus dissoluta mistione evaporatio diversorum contingit de sympath antipath cap. 14 importing withal that the reason why the stink of corrupting Carcasses is of all other most noysom is because the odours effuming from them consist of heterogeneous or divers particles If you had rather hear this in Verse be pleased to listen to that Tetrastich of Lucretius Non simile penetrare putes primordia formâ In nares hominum cum taetra Cadavera torrent Et cum Scena Croco Cilici perfusa recens est Araque Panchaeos exhalat propter odores Upon which we may justly thus descant As the hand touching a lock of wool is pleased with the softness of it but grasping a Nettle is injured by that phalanx of villous stings wherewith Nature hath guarded the leaves thereof so are the Nostrills invaded with the odour of Saffron delighted therewith because the particles of it are smooth in figure and of equal contexture but invaded with the odour of a putrid Carcase they are highly offended because the particles thereof are asper in figure and of unequal contexture and so prick and dilacerate the tender sensory Moreover whereas there is so great variety of individual Tempeâ—aments among men and some have the Contexture of their odoratory Nerves exceeding dissimilar to that of others hence may we well derive 〈◊〉 Cause of that so much admired secret Why those Odours which are not onely grateful but even highly cordial to some persons are most odious and almost poysonous to others Infinite are the Examples recorded by Physicians in this kinde but none more memorable than that remembred by Plutarch lib. 1. advers Coloten of Berenice and a certain Spartan woman who meeting each other instantly disliked and fainted because the one smelt of Butter the other of a certain fragrant Ointment However the rarity of the Accident will not permit us to pass over the mention of a Lady of honor and eminent prudence now living in London who doth usually swoon at the smell of a Rose the Queen of sweets and sometimes feasts her nose with Assa faetida the Devils Turd as some call it than which no favour is generally held more abominable and this out of no Affectation for her wisdom and modesty exclude that praetence nor to prevent Fitts of the Mother for she never knew an Hysterical passion but in others in all her life as she hath frequently protested to me who have served her as Physician many years Again as this Assumption of the Corporiety of an Odour doth easily solve the Sympathies and Antipathies observed among men to particular smells so likewise doth it yield a plain and satisfactory reason why some Brâ—â—t Animals are pleased with those Odours which are extremely hateful to others Why Doggs abhorr the smell of Wine and are so much delighted with the stink of Carrion as they are loath to leave it behind them and therefore tumble on it to perfume their skins therewith Why a Cat so much dislikes
stiffly cohaerent particles and 〈◊〉 from a most solid into an oyly substance not so much by 〈…〉 â—ymbolisme or Affinity of nature that Salt Nitre and Sulphur whicâ—â—eing added to Sand Flints and many Metals promote the solution 〈…〉 fire have yet no accelerating but a retarding energy upoâ— Turpentine Balsome Myrrh c. in the extraction of their Oyls or 〈◊〉 that all Waters or Spirits extracted from Saâ—ine and Metalline nature are most convenient Menstruaes for the solution of Metals Minerals not 〈◊〉 much in respect of their Corrosion as similitude of pores and particles and consequently that every Concretion requires to its dissolution some 〈◊〉 dissolvent that holds some respondency or analogy to its contexture 〈◊〉 yet have we no reason therefore to abandon our Assumption that 〈◊〉 dissolution of one body by the subingression or insinuation 〈…〉 another must arise from the greater subtility of particles 〈…〉 until it be commonstrated to us that a Body whose 〈…〉 can penetrate another Body whose Pores are more 〈…〉 whereto is demonstrated to us by the frequent Experimentâ— of 〈◊〉 And therefore the Reason Why Oyle Olive doth pervade some Bodies which yet are impenetrable even by spirit of Wine by â—aimundus Lullius and after him by Libavius and Quercetan accounted the true Sulphur and Mercury of Hermetical Philosophers extracted from a Vegetable for the solution of Gold into a Potable substance and the Confection of the Great Elixir and as General a Dissolvent as that admired but hardly understood Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus if not the same can be no other but this that in the substance of Oyle are some Particles much more subtile and penetrative than any contained in the substance of Wine though those subtile particles are thinly interspersed among a far greater number of Hamous or Hooked particles which retard their penetration Thus also in that affrighting and Atheist-converting Meteor Lightning seem to be contained many particles much more exile and searching than those of our Culinary Fires because it sometimes dissolves the hardest of Metals in a moment which preserveâ— its integrity for some hours in our fiercest reverberatory furnaces Which Lucretius well expresseth in this Tetrastich Dicere enim possis caelestem Fulminis ignem Subtilem magis e parvis constare Figuris Atque ideo transire foramina quae nequit ignis Noster hic elignis ortus taedaque creatus Secondly the Qualities Consequent to Figure are SMOOTHNESSE and its contrary ASPERITY Not that if we appeal to the judgement of the sense the superfice of a Body may not be smooth though it consist of angulouâ— Atoms or rough though composed of plain and polite Atoms for all Atoms as well as their Figures are so Exile as that many of them that are angular may cohaere into a mass without any inequality in the superfice deprehensible by the sense and on the contrary many of those that are plane and polite may be convened and concreted into such masses as to make angles edges and other inequalities sufficiently sensible But that if we refer the matter partly to the judicature of Reason partly to the evidence of our senses in General we cannot but determine it to arise from the Figuration of Atoms alone First to the judicature of Reason for as the mind admits nothing to be perfectly continued besides an Atom so can it admit nothing to be exquisitely smooth besides either the whole superfice of an Atom â—f the same be orbicular oval or of the like Figure or som parts of it if the same be tetrahedical hexahedrical or of some such poligone figure Because look by what reason the mind doth conclude the superfice of no Concretion in nature to be perfectly continued by the same reason doth 〈◊〉 â—â—nclude the superfice of every thing seemingly most equal and polite to be â—â—râ—â—usly interrupted with asperities or eminent and deprest particles and 〈…〉 refers immediately and soleâ—y to many small masses of Atoms in 〈◊〉 Contexture coadunated like as it referrs the interruptions in the superfice of a piece of Lawne or Cambrique which to the eye and touch appears most smooth and united to the small masses of Filaments interwoven in the webb And here the Experiment of a Microscope is opportune for when a man looks through it upon a â—heet of the finest and â—mooâ—hest Venice Paper which seems to the naked eye and most exquisite touch to be equal and â—erse in all parts of it superfice He shall discern it to be so full of Eminences and Cavities or small Hills and Valleys as the most praegnant and praepared Imagination cannot suppose any thing more unequal and impolite Seâ—ondly to the Evidence of our senses in General because the very Afâ—â—ction of Pleasure or Pain arising to the sensory from the contact of the sâ—â—â—ible object doth sufficiently demonstrate that smoothness is a Quality 〈◊〉 either from such Atoms or such small masses of Atoms contexed as 〈◊〉 smooth and pleasant to the sense by reason of their correspondence 〈◊〉 â—he pores and particles of the Organ and contrariwise that â—sperity is a â—uality resulting either from such single Atoms or such most minute masses of Atoms concreted as dilacerate or exasperate the sense by reason of 〈◊〉 incongruity or Disproportion to the Contexture of the Organ as w◠〈◊〉 even to redundancy Exemplified in the Grateful and Ungrateful 〈◊〉 of each sense CHAP. XI OF THE Motive Vertue Habit Gravity and Levity OF CONCRETIONS SECT I. THe Third Propriety of the Universal Matter Atoms is Mobility or Gravity and from that fountain is it that all Concretions derive their Virtue Motive For though our deceptable sense inform us that the minute Particles of Bodies are fixt in the act of their Coadunation wedged up together and as it were fast bound to the peace by reciprocal concatenation and revinction yet from the Dâ—ssolution of all Compound natures in process oâ— time caused by the intestine Commotions of their Elementary Principles without the hostility of any External Contraries may our more judicious Reason well inferr that Atoms are never totally deprived of that their essential Faculty Mobility but are anceâ—santly agitated thereby even in the centrals of Concretions the most soâ—id and compact some tending one way others another in a perpetual 〈◊〉 of Eruption and when the Major part of them chance to â—ffect 〈…〉 the same way of emancipation then is their united force determimined â—o one part of the Concretion and motion likewise determined to one region respecting that Part. That same MOTIVE VIRTUE thereâ—ore wherewith every Compound Bodie is naturally endowed must owe â—ts â—rigine to the innate and co-essential Mobility oâ— its component particles being really the same thing with their Gravity or Impetus which yet receives its determinate manner and degree from their mutual Combination In respect whereof it necessarily comes to paâ—s that when Atoms mutually adhâ—ering vnto 〈…〉 other caâ—â—ot obey the â—mpuâ—â—e of 〈◊〉 â—â—ndency singly they are not
celebrated by Naturalists and that is the suddain Disanimation of the Blood in Living Bodies by the meer prâ—sence of the Basilisk Catablepa and Diginus Serpents of a Nature so transcendently Venemous that according to pogular Tradition and the several relations of Dioscorides Galen Pliny Solinus Aelian Avicen and most other Authors who have treated of the Proprieties of Animals and Venoms they are Dectructive beyond themselves i. e. they either kill by intuition or Hiss out the flames of life by their Deieterious Expirations If Natural Historians have herein escaped that itch of Fiction to which they are so generally subject when they come to handle Rarities and that Nature hath produced any such Speâ—â—es whose optical Emissions or Pectoral Expirations are fatal and pernicious whether he sees the Woolf first or the Woolf him suddain silence being ever the Associate â—or rather Consequent of great and suddain Fear The Aphonia therefore or Defect of voice which hath sometimes though very rarely been observed to invade men upon the Conspection of Woolves is not the genuine Effect of any secret and radicated Antipathy or Fascinating Virtue in the subtle Aporrhaea's emitted from the eyes lungs or bodie of the Woolf but only of their own Fear and Terror arising from a strong apprehension of Danger the suddain and impetuous Concentration of the Spirits toward the Heart by reason of the violent Terror at that time causing a Defection of spirits and consequently a kind of Relaxation in the Muscles of the Tongue and Nerves inservient to the vocal instruments So that the inspired Aer cannot be Efflated with that force and celerity as is necessary to the loudness and distinct articulation of the voice 6 Nor is it the Eye alone that the Folly of men hath made obnoxious to Antipathies but the Ear also hath it share of wonderful Effects for there go solemn stories of inveterate and specifical Enmities betwixt the Lyon and Cock Elephant and Swine and He hath read little who hath not more than once met with sundry relations that the Crowing of the Cock is more terrible than death to the fiercest Lyon and the Grunting of a Swine so odious to an Elephant that it puts him into an Agony of Horror Trembling and Cold sweat Which notwithstanding may well be called to the barre of Experiment and many worthy Authors have more then questioned among whom Camerarius in Symbol expresly assures us that in his time one of the Duke of Bavaria's Lyons breaking into a yard adjacent to his Den and there finding a flock of Poultry was so far from being afraid of the Cock or his Crowing that he devoured him and his troop of Hens together And as for the other Antipathy ourselves have seen an Elephant feed and sleep quietly in the same stable with a Sow and her whole litter of Piggs However lest some should plead the power of Custom in both these cases and object that that Lyon and Elephant had been by Assuefaction brought to endure the naturally hateful Noises of the Cocks Crowing and the Swines Grunting to eradicate the belief of the supposed Occult Antipathies we say that such may be the Discrepancy or Disproportion betwixt the Figures and Contextures of those subtile particles that compose those Harsh Sounds and the Contexture of the organs of Hearing in the Lyon and Elephant as that they exasperate them and so highly offend those Animals For thus we suffer a kind of short Horror and our Teeth are set on edge by those harsh and vehement sounds made by scraping of trenchers filing the teeth of saws squeaking of doors and the like only because those sounds grate and exasperate the Auditory Nerves which communicate the harsh impression to the Nerves of the Teeth and cause a stridor therein 7 But if we pass from these Imaginary to Real Antipathies and desire not to misimploy our Understanding in the quest of Dihotâ—es for such things of whose Hoti the more sober and judicious part of Schollars justly doubt let us come to the wonderful Venome of the TARANTULA a certain Phalangium or smal Spider frequent in Italy but most in and about Tarentum in Apulia which hath this strange Propriety that being communicated to the bodie of man by biting it makes him Dance most violently at the same time every year till He be perfectly cured thereby being invincible by any other Antidote but Musick An Effect so truly admirable and singular that the Discovery of its abstruse Causes and the manner of their operation cannot but be most opportune and grateful to the Curious who we presume would gladly knowe Why suâ—h as are empoysoned by the biting of a Tarantula fall intâ— violent Fits of Dancing and cannot be Cured by any other Remedies but the Harmonious Straines of Musick aloâ—â— SOLUTION How great the power of Musick is as to the excitement exaltation and compescence or mitigation of the Passions of the Mind of Man and wherein the Câ—use of that Harmonical Magick doth consist would be a Digression and perhaps somewhat superfluous for us here to enquire And therefore cutting off all Collateral Curiosities we shall confine our present 〈◊〉 to the limits of our owne Profession endeavouring only to explain the Reasons why Musick hath so strong and generous an Energy as certainly to cure the Bodie of a man intoxicated with the Venome of the Taruntula which eludes and despises the opposition of all other Alexipharmacal Medicaments Forasmuch therefore as the â—tâ—ings of a Lute Vial or other Musical Instrument do alwayes movâ— and impell the Aer after the same manner as themselves are moved anâ— impelled and by this proportionate misture of Sounds create an Harmony delightful not only to the Eare but to that Harmonious Essencâ— the soul which Animates the Eare hence comes it that by the musical Harmony that is made by the Musicians playâ—â—g to the person infected with the Tarantâ—sme the Aer by reason of the various and yet proportionate motions of the strings is harmonically moved and agitated and carying thâ—se various motions of the harmony impressed upon it self into the Eare and so affecting the Phantastical Faculty with those pleasant motions 〈…〉 like manner affect and move the spirits in the brain and the spirits having received those impressions and diffused into the Nerves Muscles and 〈◊〉 of the whole body and there meeting with a certain thin acrimonâ—ous and pricking Humor which is the chief fewel and vehicle of the Venoâ—e derived from the Tarantula they attenuate and agitate the same by a 〈◊〉 very like that of Fermentation and disperse it with a quick motion 〈…〉 all the parts And this Humor being thus set afloat and estuated toâ—â—â—her with the venome or seeds of the Poyson which are contained 〈◊〉 must needs affect all the Musculousand Nervous parts 〈…〉 with a kind of Itch or gentle and therefore pleasan◠〈◊〉 or rather Titillation So that the Patient feeling this universa◠〈…〉 Tickling can be no longer at ease and
quiet but is compelle◠〈◊〉 to dance and move all the members of his body with all agility 〈…〉 possible This Dancing causeth a Commotion of all the 〈◊〉 in his body that Commotion augments the present Heat thereâ—â— that Heat causeth a Relaxation and Apertion of the pores of thâ—â—kin and thereupon ensues a liberal and universal sweat and together with that sweat the venome is dispersed and expelled But where the Venome is so deeply settled and as it were radicated in the solid substance of the parts as that one or two or three Fits of Dancing and Sweating are not sufficient to the total Eradication and Expulsion thereof in that deplorable case the Patient becomes freshly intoxicated and relapseth into his dancing paroxisins at the same periodical season every year without omission till his many and profuse Annual sweats have freed him from all Reliques of the Poyson Most true it is that Divers Tarantiacal persons are affected with divers Musical Instruments and divers Tunes and Ayrs but this is to be imputed to the Diversity of Complexions and Temperaments either of the Tarantula's which envenome them or of the Persons themselves For such as are Melancholy of themselves or intoxicated by the poyson of the duller and more sluggish sort of Tarantula's are ever Affected and Sympathize rather with the musick of Drums Trumpets Sackbuts and other loud and strong sounding instruments than with that of Lutes Vials and other soft and gentle ones For since Melancholy is a thick heavy and viscid Humor and the Spiritâ— alwaies follow the Disposition of the Humor praedominant to the Concitation and Dissipation thereof a greater force of motion is required And this doubtless was the Reason why a certain Girl of Tarentum being there bitten by a Tarantula and affected with the stupendious symptome of Tarantism could never be excited to dance by any sounds but those of Guns Alarms beaten upon Drums Charges and Triumphs sounded in Trumpets and other military musick the heavy and viscid venome meeting with a body of a Cold and Phlegmatick Complexion and so requiring very strong Commotions of the Aer and Spirits to its Estuation and Dissipation And on the Contrary Cholerick and Sanguine Complexions are by reason of the Subtility of their Spirits and greater Fluidity of their Humors soonest Cured by the Hâ—rmony of Lutes Harps Vials Virginals Guitarrs Tiorba's and other stringed Instruments But that which deserves our highest Admiration is this that this Venome of the Tarantula doth produce the same Effect in the body of man which it doth in that of the Tarantula it self wherein it is generated as if there were some secret Cognation and Similitude betwixt the Nature of that venemous Spider and that of Mankinde For as the Poyson being infused into any part of mans body and set a work by Musick doth by a continual vellication or Titillation of the Muscles and Membranes thereof incite the intoxicated person to dance So likewise while it remains in its own womb and proper Conservatory the body of the Tarantula being once set a work by Musick doth it incite the Tarantula to dance and caper as is commonly observed by the Italians and at large related by Atâ—an Kircherus in opere Magnetico and some others of un questionable veracity who would admit no testimony in this particular but what they received from their own exact observations Among the sundry Narrations of Experiments in this kind Kircher entertains his Reader cheifly with this one as the most exact and commemorable A certain Italian Duchess sayes He to the end she might be fully satisfied of the truth of this prodigy of nature of which â—he had so often heard and as often doubted commanded that a Tarantula should be brought into the Hall or Refectory of a Colledge of Jesuits all the Fathers being praesent and there set upon a small chipp of wood that floated 〈◊〉 of water Then she gave order that an Excellent Harper shoulâ— stand by and play over several of his best composed Tunes The Tarantula for a good while seemed wholly unconcerned in the musick discovering no motions of tripudiation in himself but at length 〈◊〉 the Hâ—rper had hiâ— upon some certain Notes Strains and Ayres 〈◊〉 held some proportion to the Humor and Specifical Venome of 〈◊〉 Spider â—he now enchanted Insect began to detect its sympathy to 〈◊〉 and natural inclination to dancing not only by the frequent 〈…〉 and nimble agitation of his whole body but even most 〈◊〉 observâ—ng time and measures according to the Harmoniâ—â—â— Numbâ—â—â—â—â—prest in the Tune and as the Musician plaid more slowly 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 beast dance more slowly or nimbly not moving a 〈◊〉 after the Tâ—mâ— was ended But this which then appâ—â—râ—d 〈…〉 the Dutcheâ—s and other Spectators they soon after heard 〈…〉 to the Musicians of Tarentum who being hired with an 〈…〉 paid out of the Publique purse to cure the meane◠〈…〉 when any is bitten by a Tarantula that they may not 〈…〉 the Patient and put themselves to the pains of playing â—ong 〈…〉 enquire of the Patient in what house what field 〈…〉 of what colour and bigness the Tarantula was that 〈◊〉 him 〈◊〉 satisfied of these particulars they forthwith go to the pâ—ace 〈◊〉 and there looking among the several species of Tarantulâ—s 〈…〉 are busie in weaving their Cobweb nets for the ensnaring of 〈◊〉 they search for such a one as the Patient hath described and having 〈◊〉 found the like they instantly fall to their instruments and plaâ— over 〈◊〉 sets of Lessons one after another till they light upon 〈…〉 holding some proportion to the Specifical temperament and veneâ—â—ous Humor of that Tarantula inciteth him to dance 〈…〉 delightful and strange it is to behold the great 〈…〉 among many Tarantula's together one while this 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 that exactly sympathizing with the Harmonious moâ—io◠〈…〉 and aer When the Musicians have thus informed 〈…〉 particular Genius and Humor of that species of Tarantuâ—â—â— by one 〈◊〉 which the Patient was envenomed they return home an◠〈…〉 almost at first touch of their instruments playin◠〈…〉 again those Tunes whose Correspondency to the 〈…〉 ambuscado â— in the centrals of his bodie they 〈…〉 â—â—perimented and they seldom or never fail of the 〈…〉 are certain what Notes and Tunes are most 〈…〉 Genius of the Spider that hath intoxicated the 〈◊〉 〈…〉 inconsistent with Reason that the Tarantula it self 〈…〉 strange Effect from the Charms of Musick as 〈…〉 Venome hath intoxicated for seeing that 〈…〉 supplies the office of Blood in this Insect is exceeding 〈…〉 with subtle and hot spirits and so becomes a 〈…〉 receive the Motions impressed upon it by the 〈…〉 Aer whereof the Sounds are composed it seems 〈…〉 being a sâ—â—ated and set afloat by the motions of the aer which are Harmonical it should cause the like Vibrissations in the nervous parts of the Tarantula as the hand of the Musician hath caused in the Consonous strings of the instrument
praestigious and Diabolical For it being certain that all Serpents are most highly offended at the smell and influx of those invisible Emanations proceeding from the Cornus by reason of some great Disproportion or Incompossibility betwixt those subtile Effluviaâ—s and the temperament of the Vital and Spiritual Substance of Serpents insomuch that in a moment they become strongly intoxicated thereby Why should it seem impossible that He who understands this invincible Enmity and how to manage a wand or rod of the Cornus with cunning and dexterity having first intoxicated a Serpent by the touch thereof should during that fit make him observe and readily conforme to all the various motions of that wand So as that the unlearned Spectators perceiving the Serpent to approach the Enchanter as he moves the wand neerer to himself to retreat from him as he puts the wand from him to turne round as the wand is moved round to dance as that is waved to and fro and lye still as in a trance when that is held still over him and all this while knowing nothing that the simple virtue of the wand is the Cause of all those mimical motions and gestures of the Serpent they are easily deluded into a belief that the whole seene is supernatural and the main Energy radicated in those words or Charms which the Impostor with great Ceremony and gravity of aspect mutters forth the better to disguise his Legerdemane and dissemble Nâ—ture in the Colours of a Miracle And as in this so in all other Magical Practices those Bombast Words nonesense Spells exotique Characters and Fanatick Ceremonies used by all Praestigiators and Enchanters have no Virtue or Efficacy at all that little only excepted which may consist meerly in the sounds and tones in which they are pronounced in respect whereof the eare may be pleased or displeased as to the Causation of the Effect intended nor doe they import any thing more than the Circumvention of the Spectâ—â—tors judgement and exaltation of his Imagination upon whom they prâ—etend to work the miracle Which considered it will be an argument not only of Christianism but of sound judgement in any man to conclude that excepting only some few particulars in which God hath been pleased to permit the Devil to exercise his Praestigiatory power and yet whoso shall consider the infinite Goodness of God will not easily be induced to beleive that He hath permitted any such at all all those Volumes of Stories of Fascinations Incantations Transformations Sympathies of men and beasts with Magical Telesms Gamahues or Waxen Images and the like mysterious Nothings are meer Fables execrable Romances So Epidemical we confess hath the Contagion of such Impostures been that among the People when any Person waxeth macilent and pines away we hear of nothing but Evil Neighbours Witchcraft Charms Statues of Wax and the like venefical fopperies and instantly some poor decrepite old woman is suspected and perhaps accâ—â—â—d of malice and Diabolical stratagems against the life of that person who all the while lieth languishing of some Common Disease and the leâ—â—â—ed Physician no sooner examines the case but he finds the sick mans Consumption to proceed from some inveterate malady of the bodie as Ulcer of the Lungs Hectique Fever Debility of the Stomack Liver or other common Concocting part or from long and deep Grief of mind In like manner when the Husband man observes his field to become barren 〈◊〉 chattel â—o cast then yong or die his corn to be blasted his fruits 〈…〉 immaturely or the like sinister Accidents nothing is more usual 〈◊〉 than to charge those misfortunes upon the Magical Impraecations of some offended Neighbour whom the multitude supposeth to be a 〈◊〉 man or Conjurer And yet were the Philosopher consulteâ—â—bouâ— those Disasters he would soon discover them to be the ordinary 〈◊〉 genuine Effects of Natural Causes and refer each Contingent 〈◊〉 proper original True it is likewise that many of those Sorcerers who◠〈◊〉 vulgar call White Witches in respect of the good they 〈…〉 frequently pâ—â—â—scribe certain Amulets or Perâ—apts for the praecentio◠〈…〉 of some diâ—â—ases and in this case if the Amulet or Perâ—apt 〈…〉 such Natural Ingredients as are endowed with Qualitieâ— repugâ—â—â—â— to the Disâ—â—se or its germane Causes we are not to deny 〈…〉 But as for those superstitious Invocations of Angels an◠〈◊〉 Salamons Characters Tetragrammatons Spells Circles an◠〈…〉 and ridiculous Magical Rites and Ceremonies used by the 〈◊〉 at the time of the Composition or Application of those Amulets or 〈◊〉 they are of no power or virtue at all and signifie nothing but 〈◊〉 Delusion of the Ignorant Again we grant that the Imagination 〈◊〉 Confidence of the sick Person being by such means exalteâ— may 〈◊〉 very much to his Recovery for it is no secret that the 〈…〉 men are for the most part erected and their drooping spirit◠〈…〉 by the good opinion they have entertained of the 〈…〉 Confidence they place in his praescripts but yet are 〈…〉 allow any Direct and Natural Efficacy to that 〈…〉 and Ceremonious administration of Remedies which are 〈◊〉 observed by such Impostors as praetend to Extraordinary skill an◠〈◊〉 supernatural way in the Cure of Diseases and seem to affect and 〈…〉 the detestable repute of Magicians And what we say of the 〈…〉 Amulets and the like we desire should 〈…〉 or Love-procuring Potions oâ— the Ligature 〈…〉 Wedding night to cause Impotency in new 〈…〉 then Brides a thing very frequent in Zant and Gascoâ—◠〈…〉 because each of these hath other Causes than those 〈…〉 Nugaments praescribed by those Cheaters and 〈…〉 they can have upon the persons to whom they 〈…〉 in the praepossession of their Phancy and 〈…〉 to Hope or Fear 9 〈…〉 a certain sort of Fascination Natural about which 〈…〉 and most Nurses when they observe 〈…〉 fall into Cachexâ—es languishing condition◠〈…〉 instantly crie out that some envious 〈…〉 them Concerning this secret therefore in 〈…〉 part hath no interest at all we say that if there be any thing of truth as to matter of Fact the Fascinating activity of the old malicious Crone must consist only in this that she doth evibrate or dart forth from her brain certain malignant Spirits or rayes which entering the tender body of the Infant do infect the purer spirits and so the blood in its Arteries and assimilating the same to their depraved and maligne nature corrupt all the Aliment of the body and alienate the parts from their genuine and requisite temperament Not that those Malignant Emissions can arrive at and infect an Infant that is absent as is vulgarly conceived but that the malicious old woman must be praesent and look with an oblique or wist look and breath upon the Child whose health she envies nay conjure up her Imagination to that height of malice as to imbue her spirits with the evil Miasme or Inquinament of those vitious and corrupt Humors wherewith her half-rotten Carcass is well stored and
to assist the Contention of her optique Nerves and Muscles that so those Spirits may be ejaculated with great force For that an old woman though as highly malignant in her Nature and Malice as can be supposed should be able to infect and envenome an Infant at great distance is not to admitted by any but such as have ignorance enough to excuse their perswasion of the highest Impossibility imaginable But that she may in some measure contribute to the indisposition of an Infant at whom she shoots her maligne Eye-beams neer at hand may receive much of credit from the Pollution of a Lookinglass by the adspect of a Menstruous woman and from the Contagion of Blear Eyes Coughing Oscitation or Gaping Pissing and the like all which are observed to be somewhat infectious to the standers by 10 You may call it Fascination also if you please when the Torpedo doth benumb or stupifie the hand of the Fisherman For as the Maleficiation of Infants is the Effect only of certain malign or ill conditioned Emanations transmitted to them from the brain of some malevolent and half venemous Ruines of a woman so likewise must the stupefaction of the hand of the Fisherman be the Effect of certain Stupefactive Emanations either immediately or by the mediation of a staff or other continued body transmitted thereunto from the offended Fish which Emanations by a Faculty holding some neer Analogy to that of Opium Hyosciamus and other strong Narcoticks or stupefactive Medicaments do in a moment Dull and Fix the Spirits in the part that they invade and so make it Heavy Senseless and unfit for voluntary motion 11 But how shall we get free of that Difficulty wherein so many high-going Wits have been Gravell'd the sudden arrest of a ship under sail by the small Fish Echineis thereupon general called a Remora We cannot expede our selves from it by having recourse to any Fixing Emanations transmitted from the Fish to the ship because the Motion thereof is not voluntary but from External Impulse nor hath the ship any spirits or other Active principles of motion that can be supposed capable of Alteration by any influx whatever Nor by alleaging any motion contrary to that of the tide winds and oares impressed upon the ship by the Remora because whatsoever kind of Impulse or Force can be imagined impressible upon it thereby yet can it never be sufficient to impede and suppress the so violent motion thereof insomuch as the Remora neither adhaering to any rock shelf or other place more firme than the water but only to the ship 〈◊〉 self must want that fixation Firmitude that is inevitably necessary whenever any thing doth stop or move another thing of greater weight then it self What then shall we impeach of unfaithfulness all those Authentick Historians who have recorded the suddain and prodigious Arrests of the ships of Periaâ—â—er Aâ—tigonus and Caius Caligula in the middest of their Courses though therein advantaged by the Conspiring impulses of Saâ—ls and Oares Not so neither because many other vessels as well before as since have been stopped in the like manner and there is in nature Another Cause incompâ—â—ably more potent and so more likely to have arrested them than that 〈◊〉 small and weak Fish Echmeis and that is the Contrary motion of the sea which our Mariners â—who also have been often troubled with 〈◊〉 experiments of its Retropellent Force call the Current which is alwayes most strong and cumbersome in narrow and aufractuous Chanels Whâ—â—h being scarce known to the Sea-men of those times when Navigation and Hydrography were yet in their infancy and few Pilots so expert as to dâ—â—â—â—minate the several Re-encounters or Contrary Drifts of Waters in 〈◊〉 â—nd the same Creek or Arme of the Sea when they found any 〈◊〉 â—â—ddenly retarded and impeded in its course they never conceived that â—â—moration to arise from some Contrary Current of Waters in that plaâ—â—â—ut from some Impediment in the bottome or keel of the vesseâ—â—t sel◠〈◊〉 â—s â—hey searched there for it if it hapned twice or thrice that they 〈…〉 small Fish such as the Concha Veneris or any other not 〈…〉 adhaering to the lower part of the Rudder or Keel they instantly 〈◊〉 without any examinâ—tion at all whether so weak a cause might not be 〈…〉 to so great an Effect imputed the Remoration of theâ—r 〈…〉 Historians indeed tell us that the Admiral Galley which â—â—â—ried the Emperour Caligula in his last voyage to Rome was unexpecteâ— Arâ—ested in the middest of all his numerous Fleet and that an 〈…〉 found sticking to the bottom thereof but they forgot to tell us 〈◊〉 or no there were any other Fishes of the same kind affixed to any 〈◊〉 of the Galleys that kept on their course and we have good â—â—ason 〈◊〉 â—â—njecture that there were because very few ships are brought into 〈◊〉 and Docks to be carined but have many small fishes resembling 〈◊〉 adhaering to their bottoms as ourselves have more than once obseâ—â—â—â— in Holland Besides since at Caligula's putting forth â—â—om Astura 〈◊〉 Island Port and steering his course for Antium his Galley as is 〈◊〉 custome of Admirals kept up in the middle Chanell 〈…〉 encountred and opposed by some special current or violent 〈…〉 place so streitly pent in on both sides by the situation oâ— certain 〈◊〉 and Shelves as that its greatest force was in one certain pâ—râ— oâ— the â—â—aneâ—l and so not extensible to the other Galleys of his Navy 〈…〉 â—owed neerer to the shoars and so rode upon free water 〈…〉 are now adayes often Arrested by special Currents in the 〈…〉 whose Chanels are rocky aufractuous and vortiâ—ou◠〈…〉 to frequent Eddies and strong Whirlepools and neer 〈…〉 every day behold the Contrary Drifts of ships by the 〈…〉 in the same Arme of the Sea some vessels being 〈…〉 whether the sea runs out while others rice toward 〈…〉 sea runâ— in 12 So unlimited is the Credulity of man that some have gone farther yet from the bounds of Reason and imagined a Second wonderful Faculty in the Remora viz. the Praesagition of violent Death or some eminent Disaster to the chief person in the ship which it arresteth For Pliny lib. 9. cap. 25. lib. 23. cap. 1. will needs have it a Prodigy portending the murder of Caligula which ensued shortly after his arrival at Rome from Astura and that by the like arresting of the ship of Perianders Ambassadors sent to obtain an edict for the Castration of all Noble youths Nature did declare her high detestation of that Course so destructive to the way of Generation that she had instituted for the Conservation of her noblest species But every man knows how easie it is to make any sinister Accident the Omen of a tragical Event after it hath happened and that Plinies Remark upon the inhuman Embassie and succeeding Infortune of Perianders Messengers would better beseem the ranging pen or tongue of an Orator than the strict
the accensed matter with such pernicity and vehemence and reciprocal arietations and in such swarms as that they repel the water affused and permit it not to enter the pores of the fewel as constantly happens in Wild-fire where the ingredients are Unctuous and consist of very tenacious particles in that case Water is so far from extinguishing the flame that it makes it more impetuous and raging However we shall acknowledg thus much that if the Principality of Cold must be adscribed to one of the Three vulgar Elements the Aer doubtless hath the best title thereunto because being the most Lax and Porous bodie of the Three it doth most easily admit and most plentifully harbour the seeds of Cold and being also subtile and Fluid it doth most easily immit or carry them along with it self into the pores of other bodies and so not only Infrigidate but some times Congeal and Conglaciate them in case they be of such Contextures and such particles as are susceptible of Congelation and Conglaciation The Fable of the Satyr and Wayfering man who blew hot and cold though in the mouth of every School-boy is yet scarce understood by their Masters nay the greatest Philosophers have found the reason of that Contrariety of Effects from one and the same Cause to be highly problematical Wherefore since we are fallen upon the cause of the Frigidity in the Aer and the Frigidity of our Breath doth materially depend thereon opportunity invites Us to solve that Problem which though both Aristotle sect 3. prob 7. Anaximenes apud Plutarch de frigore primigenio have strongly attempted yet have they left it to the conquest of Epicurus principles viz. Why doth the breath of a man warme when effâ—ated with the mouth wide open and cool when efflated with the mouth contraâ—â—ed To omit the opinions of others therefore we conceive the cause hereof to be only this that albeit the Breath doth consist of aer for the most part fraught with Calorifick Atoms emitted from the lungs and vital organs yet hath it many Frigorifick ones also interspersed among its particles which being of greater bulk than the Calorifick and so capable of a stronger impuls are by the force of efflation transmitted to greatter distance from the mouth because the Calorifick Atoms commixt with the breath in regard of their exility are no sooner dischaged from the mouth than they instantly disperse in round Wence it comes that if the breath be expired in 〈◊〉 large stream or with the mouth wide open because the circuit of the 〈◊〉 of breaâ—h is large and so the Hot Atoms emitted are not so soon dispersed therefore doth the stream feel warme to the hand objected there and so much the more warme by how much neerer the hand is held to the mouth the Calorifick Atoms being less and less Dissipated in each degree of remove But in case the breath be â—mitted with contracted lipps becausâ—â—hen the compass of the stream is small and the force of Efflation greater 〈◊〉 therefore are the Calorifick Atoms soon Disgregated and the Frigorificâ— only râ—main commixt with the Aer which affects the objected hand 〈◊〉 Cold and by how much farther in the limits of the power of Efflation◠〈◊〉 hand is held from the mouth by so much colder doth the breath appear 〈…〉 contra That Calorifick Atoms are subject to more and more 〈…〉 the stream of a Fluid substance to which they are commixt is greater and greater in circuit may be confirmed from hence that if we poure hoâ—â—â—ter from on high in frosty weather we shall observe a fume to issue 〈◊〉 â—scend from the stream all along and that so much the more plentifully by how much greater the stream is Thus we use to cool Burnt wine or 〈◊〉 by frequent refunding it from vessel to vessel or infunding it into broad and shallow vessels that so the Atoms of Heat may be the sooner disperâ—â—â— for by how much larger the superfice of the liquor is made by so much more of liberty for Exsilition is given to the Atoms of Heat containeâ—â—herein and as much of Insinuation to the Atoms of Cold in company 〈◊〉 the circumstant Aer Thus also we cool our faces in the heat of 〈◊〉 with fanning the aer towards us the Hot Atoms being thereby 〈◊〉 and the Cold impelled deeper into the pores of the skin which 〈…〉 the reason why all Winds appear so much the Colder by how much â—â—â—onger they blowe as Deâ—s Cartes hath well observed in these words 〈…〉 vehementior majoris frigiditatis perceptionem quam aer 〈…〉 corpore nostro excitat quod aer quietus tantùm exteriorem nostram 〈…〉 quae interiâ—ribus nostris carnibus frigidior est contingat ventus vero â—â—hementius in corpus nostrum actus etiam in penetralia ejus adigatur 〈◊〉 illa siut cute calidiora id circo etiam majorem frigiditatem ab ejus contaâ—â—â— percipiunt In our preceâ—ent Article touching the necessary assignatin of a Tetrahedical Figure 〈…〉 Atoms of Cold we remember we said that in respect of their 〈…〉 or plane faces they were most apt to Compinge or bind in the particle 〈◊〉 all Concretions into which they are intromitted and from thence we shalâ—â—â—ke the hint of inferring Three noble CONSECTARIES 1. That 〈◊〉 Snow Hail Hoarfrost and all Congelations are made meerly by thâ—â—â—â—romission of Frigorifick Atoms among the particles of 〈…〉 being once insinuated and commixt among them in sufficieâ—◠〈…〉 alter their fluid and lax consistence into a rigid and compact i. e. they Congeal them 2. That 〈…〉 or Trembling sometimes observed in the members of 〈…〉 that Rigor or Shaking in the beginning of most putri◠〈…〉 when the Fits of Intermittent fevers invade are chiefly cause◠〈◊〉 Frigorifick Atoms For when the Spherical Atoms of Heat which swarm in and vivifie the bodies of Animals are not moved quaquaversùm in the members with such freedom velocity and directness excentrically as they ought because meeting and contesting with those less Agile Atoms of Cold which have entred the body upon its chilling their proper motion is thereby impeded they are strongly repelled and made to recoyle towards the Central parts of the bodie in avoydance of their Adversary the Cold ones and in that tumultuous retreat or introcession they vellicate the fibres of the membranous and nervous parts and so cause a kind of vibration or contraction which if only of the skin makes that symptome which Physicians call a Horror but if of the Muscles in the Habit of the bodie makes that more vehement Concussion which they call a Rigor Either of which doth so long endure as till the Atoms of Heat being more strong by Concentration and Union have re-encountered and expelled them That it is of the Nature of Hot Atoms when invaded by a greater number of Cold ones to recoyle from them and concentre themselves in the middle of the body that contains them is demonstrable from the Experiment of Frozen
Wines wherein the spirits concentre and preserve themselves free from Congelation in the middle of the frozen Phlegm so that they may be seen to remain fluid and of the colour of an Amethyst as Helmont hath well declared in his History of the Nativity of Tartar in Wines 3. That the Death of all Animals is caused immediately by the Atoms of Cold which insinuating themselves in great swarms into the body and not expelled again from thence by the overpowered Atoms of Heat they wholly impede and suppress those motions of them wherein Vitality consisteth So that the Calorifick ones being no longer able to calefy the principal seat of life the Vital flame is soon extinguished and the whole Body resigned to the tyranny of Cold. Which is therefore well accounted to be the grand and profest Enemy of Life CHAP. XIII OF Fluidity Stability Humidity Siccity SECT I. HEre our very Method must be somewhat Paradoxical and the Genealogy we shall afford of those Two vulgarly accounted Passive â—â—ualities Humidity and Siccity very much different from that universally embraced in the Schools For should we tread in the steps of Aristotle as most who have travelled in this subject have constantly done we must have subnected our Disquisition into the Nature and Origine of Moisture and Dryness immediately to that of Heat and Cold as the other pair of First Elemental Qualities and â—diametro opposite to them But having observed that those 2 Terms Moist and Drâ— are not according to the severe and praecise Dialect of truth rightly â—â—commodable to all those things which are genuinely imported by 〈◊〉 Greek Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the definions of Aristotle and consequently that we could not avoid the danger of losing â—â—â—selves in a perpetual Aequivocation of Terms unless we committed ouâ— thoughts wholly to the conduct of Nature Herself progressing from the more to the less General Qualities and at each step explicating their distinct dependencies we thereupon inferred that we ought to praemâ—se the Consideration of Fluidity and Firmness which are more Generâ—â—â— to that of Humidity and Siccity as less General Qualities and 〈◊〉 seem to be one degree more removed from Catholick Principles That those 〈◊〉 Terms so frequent in the mouth of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 in signification than Humidum and Siccum by which His 〈◊〉 Interpreters and Commentators commonly explicate them 〈…〉 even from hence that under the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is comprehended noâ— only in General whatever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fluid and Liquid but also in special that matter or body whereby a thing is moistned when immersed into or perfused with the same and likewise under the contrary term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is comprehended as well in General whatever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compact or Firm and Solid as in special that matter or body which being applyed to a thing is not capable of Humectating or Madefying the same and which is therefore called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aridum Now this duely perpended doth at first sight detest the Aequivocation of the Latin Terms and direct us to this praecise determination that whatever is Fluid is not Humid nor whatever is Dry Compact or Firme but that a Humid body properly is that whereby another body being perfused is moistned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or madefied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and on the contrary that a Dry or Arid body is that which is not capable of Humectating or madefying another body to which it is applied Again forasmuch as Aristotle positively defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quâ—d facile terminum admittens proprio tamen non terminatur that which being destitute of self-termination is yet easily terminated by another substance t is evident that this His Definition is competent not only to a Humid thing in special but also to a Fluid in General such as are not only Water Oyle every Liquor yea and Metal or other Concretion actually fused or melted but also the Aer Flame Smoke Dust and whatever is of such a nature as that being admitted into any vessel or other continent of whatever figure or however terminated in it superfice doth easily accomodate it self thereunto put on the same figure and confess termination by the same limits or boundaries and this because it cannot terminate it self as being naturally comparated only to Diffusion On the other side since He defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod facile terminatum proptio termino terminatur aegre alieno to be that which is easily terminateâ— by its owne superfice and hardly terminated by another it is also manifest that this Definition is not peculiar only to a Dry or â—rid substance but in common also to a Firme or Solid one such as not only Earth Wood Stones c. but also Ice Metal unmolten Pitch Resine Wax and the like Concreted juices and in a word all bodies which have their parts so consistent and mutually cohaerent as that they are not naturally comparated to Diffusion but conserve themselves in their own superfice and require compression dilatation section detrition or some other violent means to accommodate them to termination by the superfice of another body And certainly if what is praecisely signified by the Terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were no more than what is meant by the Latin substitute thereof Humidum then might the Aer be justly said to be Humid which is so far in its owne nature from being endowed with the faculty of Humectating bodies that its genuine virtue is to exsiccate all things suspended therein nay even Fire it self might be allowed the same Attribute together with Smoke Dust and the like Fluid substances which exsiccate all bodies perfused with moâ—sture On the advers part if what is praecisely intended by the Terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were fully expressible by the Latin Siccum or Aridum then doubtless might Wax Reâ—ine and all Concreted juices be accounted actually Dry nay Ice it self which is only Liquor congealed could not be excluded the Categorie of Arid substances These Considerations premised though we might here enquire Whether Aristotle spake like Himself when He confined Fluidity and that according to his owne definition to only 2 Elements Water and Aer when yet the Element of Fire which He placed above the Aerâ—â—l region must be transcendently Fluid else how could it be so easily terminated by the Concave of the Lunar Sphere on one part and the Convex of the Aereal on the other And whether His Antithesis or Counter assertion viz. that the 2 Firme Elements are Fire and Earth be not a downright Absurdity yet shall we not insist upon the detection of either of those two Errors because they are obvious to every mans notice but only Conclude that though every Humid body be Fluid and every Arid or Dry body be Firm yet will not the Conversion hold since every