of Paracelsus A Description of Mercury p. 132 41. An Objection of reducing Things by Fire into three Principles answered Aristotle's Three Principles likewise answered p. 138 42. Of Elements when distinguish'd from Principles A short Description of the Air the Earth the Water and the Fire That by the Words Heaven and Earth are to be understood the Form and the Matter p. 141 43. That Elements and Principles may be termed Equivocal and that there are but Two p. 147 44. An Answer to S s touching Four Elements wherein 't is shewed that there are but Two Elements that of Water the Passive Matter and the Solar Influx the Form p. 148 45. Some Aristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Democritus That the Elements are not contrary and opposite as Aristotle holds but agreeing and alike in a remiss degree according to Democritus p. 150 46. Of the Primary Qualities in Bodies according to Aristotle whence proceed their Effects and of the Atomical Physiology of Leucippus Epicurus and Democritus Both Opinions examined p. 152 47. Reasons against both and for a middle Opinion p. 157 48. Of the Original of Qualities Herein the Creation is considered and that according to Moses p. 164 49. That these Words The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters are not to be understood of the Holy Ghost p. 167 50. Of the First Day 's Work The Creation of Matter and Form and dividing the Light or Form from the grosser Matter p. 168 51. Of the Second Day 's Work or the Expansion and Division of the Waters above from those below p. 169 52. Of the Third Day 's Work The Generation of Plants p. 171 53. Of the Fourth Day 's Work The Collecting of the Light or Form into the Body of the Sun ibid 54. Of the Fifth Day 's Work The Generation of Fish and Fowl by the Union of Water and the Form p. 172 55. Of the Sixth Day 's Work The Creation of Beasts and Reptiles and lastly Man ibid. 56. How the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities p. 173 57. That the various Accidents and Qualities of Bodies proceed from the various Intension and Remission of the Form not according to Des Cartes from the different Magnitude and Figure of their Principles This illustrated by several Instances p. 176 58. The Conclusion p. 184 LICENSED January 2d 1691 2. Ja. Fraser OF Transmigration c. THis Opinion of Transmigration of Souls which is father'd upon Pythagoras is mistaken every where but very grosly believed in Pegu Magor and other parts of Asia For believing that the Soul doth pass into some other Creature after its departure from the Humane Body they abstain from no sort of respect to the most contemptible Creatures and superstitiously avoid doing any hurt to that Animal whose Body they think contains the Soul of their deceased Father Now how they could tell or why they should think that this or that Beast is thus animated rather than another I confess is strange and what is more so it seems from the Belief of those in Bengall and other Parts of the East-Indies who imagine that the Souls of Good Men pass into Cows and such useful Creatures and the Souls of Bad Men into Crows and such hurtful Birds or Beasts that these People think it of the Immortal Rational Soul rather than the Sensitive For the Faculties of the Rational Soul are exerted naturally in the kind Offices of Beneficence and Humanity but those of the Sensitive only in Growth and Sense It looks as if Folly begot and Superstitious Fancy propagated this Opinion Though to do Right to Pythagoras who was doubtless a great Man the absurdity of this Opinion is as far remote from his Sentiments as the Manichaean Heresie is different from the Christian Religion But Philosophy and Religion have both suffered alike by Ignorant Expositors For what will not a wild Fancy and little Judgment center'd in a Man fond of his own Thoughts produce What strange Opinions in Religion What barbarous Cruelties by Humane Sacrifices to the Heathen Gods hath the World been filled with Nor is Philosophy it self exempt from very odd Conceits Thus are the best Things corrupted But to return to our Author whose Opinion asserted is That the Soul after its departure from the Body passes into some other Animal This is as strongly put as any thing said of him for we have all by Tradition will bear 〈◊〉 Opinion I propose to defend and free it from the Absurdities Men have put upon it and restore it to its native Sence But let me 〈◊〉 here That I do not intend this Migration of the Rational Soul but of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit which Terms of Soul and Spirit being often used as Synonyma's have given occasion especially to the Ignorant to mistake the meaning of Pythagoras He that considers the Frame of this World the Contexture of Man and the perpetual Vicissitude and Change of Things will easily believe that either God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that Things pass and are changed into one another by a continual Circulation But we all know that the Eternal having made the World by his Wisdom and Power does preserve it now by his Providence and Goodness so that we must be forc'd to acknowledge not a new Creation but a Mutation of Things that begets this Variety Man indeed is endowed with something more than the rest of the Creatures he hath a Rational Soul that should sit President in his Body govern his Passions and direct his Affections How little it does so proceeds from the Vileness of our Wills rather than the Degeneracy of our Nature but we would excuse our selves Besides this he hath a Vegetative or Sensitive Spirit which is perfectly distinct from the Rational Soul as well as Body It seems to be a Medium to unite two Extreams of a Divine Immortal Ray and Gross Matter I am not discoursing now of the Government of the Mind over the Sensitive Part and what Obedience the one ought to pay the other nor how they contend for Dominion like Prerogative and Liberty in a disturb'd State But I am laying the Foundation of the Reasonableness of Pythagoras his Opinion which is the Transmigration of Souls or Spirits for these Terms are used equivocally To go to the bottom of this Question 't is fit to consider Nature in her several Provinces Mineral Vegetable and Animal for all created Beings on this side Heaven may be placed under one of these Heads nor are the meanest of them without a Spirit or Vital Principle which is all one and these like the Sensitive Souls of Animals evaporate on the Dissolution or Destruction of their Bodies To say how these Spirits leave their Habitations before I offer how they enter may be improper I shall speak therefore of this first and then of the other Nor will it be impertinent to the
that all Plants of the same sort have much the same Figure and Colour 'T is not certainly from their manner of pressing through the Earth that they obtain the same likeness for how should it happen that the Species of every Herb should have such a particular manner of pressing through the Earth as to make it always retain the same shape But I rather conceive that the saline Particles that joyn with the Vapour being so and so modified for they must have some Figure do determine the genéral Moisture as well to a constant uniform Figure and Colour as to a particular internal Nature and Quality Not unlike the very minute Seeds that we see whose Taste does more truly demonstrate the Nature of its Plant it produces than the Microscope can find out its Figure and yet its Figure is owing to the Modification of the Seed Thus Minerals and Vegetables seem to be made not by Creation as at first out of nothing but by the Union of Matter and Form blessed from the beginning by the Word of God Crescite multiplicamini This for the first sort of Natural Productions As for the latter i. e. the sowing of Seeds and planting of Trees which came in with the Curse their Production may justly be called Artificial but neither are they produced without the assistance of the Universal Spirit for being sown in the Earth the moist Vapour wherein the Universal Spirit rests dissolves the Body of the Seed whose vital Principle being let loose becomes active and vigorous and meeting with the Vapour of the Earth like dear Friends embrace and unite and being of an homogeneous Nature grow up together the General Moisture being first determin'd by the Particular The Growth of Plants is the same the porous Roots sucking in the moist Vapour which is assimilated into the Nature of the Tree by its specificated Virtue As for the Generation of Animals they are not unlike the Production of Vegetables rais'd by particular Seed The describing of which may offend a chaste Ear or excite a lascivious Mind therefore I omit it But this Opinion it 's plain the Learned Ancients were of when they declar'd That Man was not propagated by Coition only but that the Universal Spirit which flows principally from the Sun has a hand in it And therefore they affirmed That Sol Homo generant Hominem which I shall explain more particularly hereafter For as Man is not supported by Bread and Meat only in his sensitive Capacity but by a secret Food of Life that is in the Air so neither is he generated by the Union of Two Sperms only without the assistance of that secret Spirit that enters the closest Caverns whence 't is said Non datur Vacuum It being now said how the Spirit enters and vivifies Matter it remains that we give an account how it leaves it again and what then becomes of it There are various ways of dissolving Nature in all the Parts of her Dominion Animals are destroy'd either by the Consumption through the length of Time of their Radical Moisture the Oil that maintains the Flame or by accident or violence when the Sensitive Spirit for we speak not of the Rational leaves its Habitation and returns into the common Receptacle of Sensitive and Vegetative Spirits the Air from whence it came Minerals and Vegetables are destroyed by Fire and evaporate likewise into the Air I mean the volatil Here it was we found them at first and here in a little circulation of Time we may perceive them again Now being let loose from that Prison where the Spirits 〈◊〉 Forms were detained and specificated a little Time restores them to their native Simplicity and Universality and flowing in an Ocean where the Celestial Influence are continually descending and Vapours ascending like the Angels on Jacob's Ladder they receive new impresses 〈◊〉 Virtue to fit them for farther Service Thus Nature is never idle and thus with Plato all things are in a continual Alteration and Fluctuation Nothing according to Pythagoras is simply new nor any thing according to Trismegistus dies but all things pass and are changed into something else For all mix'd Bodies are made of the Elements into which after a little time they are resolved again Thus Porphyry tells us that every Irrational Power is resolved into the Life of the Whole And thus these Spirits being ready and fit to impregnate new Matter and She 〈◊〉 to desire it according to the Axiom of Materia appetit Formam ut Foemina Virum the same Spirit which animated one Body may on its Dissolution animate another which I take to be the meaning of Pythagoras his Transmigration of Souls or Spirits Hence Lucretius Huic accedit uti quicque in 〈◊〉 Corpora rursum Dissolvit Natura neque ad 〈◊〉 interimit Res. Nature the Form from Bodies oft unties New Bodies to inform whence nothing dies If this be not so I would fain know what becomes of the Form that animates Minerals Vegetables and Animals not to speak of their Bodies which are only changed not annihilated Can that Spirit that gives Life and Motion that partakes of the Nature of Light be reduced to nothing Can that Sensitive Spirit in Brutes that exercises Memory one of the Rational Faculties die and become nothing If you say they breath their Spirits into the Air and there vanish that is all I contend for The Air indeed is the proper place to receive them being according to Laertius full of Souls and according to Epicurus full of Atoms or intelligible Bodies unapparent the Principle 〈◊〉 all Things For even this Place wherein we walk and Birds flie though it is properly rather Water rarefied that Air as I have proved by a Magnet attracting it yet it is thus much of a spiritual Nature that it is invisible therefore well may be the Receiver of Forms since the Forms of all Bodies are 〈◊〉 we can only hear and see its Effects the Air it self is too fine and above the Capacity of the Eye What then is the AEther that is in the Region above And what are the Influences or Forms that descend from thence The Pythagoreans held that the Souls of Creatures are a portion of AEther and all Philosophers agree that AEther is incorruptible and what is so is so far from being annihilated when it gets rid of the Body that it lays a good claim to Immortality Treasures fallen into the Sea are lost only to them that cannot find them witness our late Expedition The Spirit is not lost but moving in the Air in its natural Sphere where it obtains new Strength and Vigor It passes into the Air as the Rivers flow into the Sea Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quo 〈◊〉 bet occupat Artus Spiritus c. Ovid. Met 〈◊〉 Lib. XV. The Spirit never dies 〈◊〉 here and there Though all things
change it wanders through the Air. But do not Animals convey a Sensitive Spirit as 〈◊〉 as Body in Generation How then descends a Form I agree they give a Portion on of Specifick Spirit yet this hinders not but that as the Body is supported by Food in which there is a portion of Spirit and as the Animal Spirits that are continually flowing forth are supplied by the Influx of new and assisted by the Universal so in the Business of Generation as well as afterwards the Specifick Spirit is enlarged and multiplied by the Influx of the General or Universal Now this is more or less according to the activity of the Specifick Spirit which being of the nature of Light doth attract its like with more or less vigor not much unlike an enkindled though not flaming Lamp whose Smoak or Effluviums reaching a neighbouring Light attracts it and becomes enlightned by it at a distance and by how much the Effluviums are more powerful they attract a greater Proportion of Light For Light naturally joyns and unites with Light as Fire with Fire and the Souls of Animals the Rational excepted are a Ray of Heavenly Light Hence it comes to pass that in Men Horses and other Animals you shall have a vast difference the Race of some appearing always full of Life and as it were all Spirit whilst that of others are always heavy and dull and as it were half animated And thus it is in several Plants which every Gardener knows by experience for you shall have in the same kind some produce great increase and others very little in the same Soil Now I see no Reason why the Universal Spirit may not joyn with the Specifick in Generation as well as afterwards And why not in that of Animals as well as in the Production of Vegetables For though it is in the moist Vapour latent in the Earth as I hinted before and imbibed more or less plentifully according to the activity of the Form so is it more intensely in the Air in its proper Sphere for the Universal Spirit lodging principally there permeates through all the Parts of the Universe and is that Nature that is always ready and at hand to vivifie disposed Matter That the Universal Spirit does multiply the animal one after the Birth is obvious to the Understanding of all Men for that portion of animal Spirit that animates an Infant would scarce give motion to a Manly Bulk But I think we may with as much reason deny the Growth and Increase of the Body as that of the Spirit All Men that know the Benefit of good air and the Mischief of bad must acknowledge it How do the weak and languishing in a good air recover Strength and obtain new Spirit and Vigour And how languid and sickly do Men become in a bad And this may well be for the Animal Spirits are of an Aereal Principle which appears from hence whilst they inhabit the Body thro' the intimate Union with the Air the Body is preserved sweet the Air continually flowing in adding new stores of Life and giving Motion as it were to the whole Machine But when the animal Spirit is departed then for want of that Communion the Body putrefies and stinks Hence Anaximenes makes Spirit and Air Synonyma's The Reason of bad Air is occasioned by the grossness of the Watery Humors or Sulphurous Vapors that annoy the Celestial Influences by adhesion to them When the Arsenical Vapors are multiplied it begets a Plague and it 's more or less mortal as they increase or decrease Dismal was the Place that Virgil speaks of Quam super haud ullae poterant impunè volantes Tendere iter pennis talis sese Halitus atris Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat Hnde locum Graii dixerunt nomine Avernum ' O'er which no Fowl can stretch her labouring wings ' Such are the Fumes arising from those Springs ' They mortal are and fill the Atmos-Hall ' Whence do the Greeks that Place Avernus call These Sulphurous Exhalations destroy Plants and Fruit as well as Animals Plants being blighted and Apples being spotted even with blue spots to the Core in the late Sickness-Year where the Plague raged The knowledge of which by the inspection of the Entrails of Animals may be had and foreseen and by removal prevented For when the impurity of the air cannot be discerned by the Sense of Smelling and when the Malignity makes no impression on the outward Skin at least in its first approaches yet the vital parts of Animals which hold the closest and most intimate Communion with the Air will presently discover if there be an Infection in it by the discolouring and putrefying the Parts for they are first tainted then the Blood thence the Sore Hence I conceive it was that Democritus when he was reproached for his Poverty told his Despisers That he could be rich when he pleased For by this Observation being a great Dissector of Bodies he foresaw a Dearth and therefore bought up all the Olives The Dearth happening the Price of Olives rose whereby he might have sold them to great advantage but the Seller repining at his Misfortune Democritus like himself return'd the Olives at the Price he bought them Democritus therefore commended the Wisdom of the Ancients for instituting an inspection into the Entrails of Sacrificed Beasts from the general Constitution and Colour whereof may be perceived Signs of Health or Pestilence and sometimes what Dearth or Plenty will follow Augury thus stinted by wise Observation and having regard to due Circumstances may be useful but the Practice of it amongst the Romans as in foretelling particular Events to Men and the like was justly enough derided by Cicero But all Arts have suffered by the additions of foolish Impostors whence the unwary reject the Truth for the sake of Error intermixt Hence Arts and Sciences have their Death as well as Birth Hence the Tinging of Glass is lost Yet I conceive that they who have Leisure and Knowledge in the Mineral Province may extract a Sulphur from Metals that will tinge and penetrate harder Bodies than that of Glass But to return to the Subject of Air whence I digressed The good Air and the Life and Spirit it brings proceeds from the sublimation of a light Water acuated with a volatil Nitre which being rarefi'd and impregnated with the Heavenly Influences conveys down Life new Recruits to the Spirits of Animals as well as to Plants and Minerals This if you can receive it is Homer's Juno whom Jupiter let down into the Air with a weight at her Feet her Hands being tied with a Gold Chain to Jupiter's Chair The Meaning whereof is this That the Spiritual Influences flowing from the Heavenly Bodies are too subtil for a Descent without a Body that the Air is the Body or Medium that conveys them down to the Earth And though these Forms flow thus
fit for the Learned 〈◊〉 of the Honourable Mr. 〈◊〉 the Ornament of our Nation But to return to Pythagoras Can the Belief of this Doctrine that teaches that Spirit set at Liberty by 〈◊〉 Dissolution of its Body may afterwards animate another Body be an Argument for any man's paying a Deference to that Creature whom he fansies the Spirit of his Father animates He may with as much Reason honour that Field that produced his Father's Food being assimilated into his Nature or adore the Wind that continued Life to him as this Animal For the Sensitive Spirit after its dissolution from the Body is no more his Father's than the Air he expired was a part of himself it was nothing at first but the Ligature of the Rational Soul and Body which when they are dissolved as to them there is an end of the Tie No one sure will think this Opinion does invade the Doctrine of the Resurrection since there can be no need of a Medium where there are no Extreams The cloathing of the Blessed Spirits after this Life will doubtless be with a Robe of Light because they are always to appear before the Father of Lights Our Saviour's Transfiguration may give us a glimpse of this but where Flesh and Blood cannot enter what need can there be of a Sensitive Spirit But I think this Matter may be carried higher than the Opinion laid down of Pythagoras for this very Particle of Light and Heat when it is free from its Body of whatever sort may penetrate Matter that may concrete into Stone or Metal produce a Vegetable or insinuate into an Animal-Matrix and cooperate in the Generation of the Foetus for it is homogeneous with the Vital Heat in all but their Specification 'T is true Eirenaeus the Great has said There is nothing that has a Seminal Virtue applicable to two things But this is spoken of a Seminal Virtue latent in some Body not at Liberty and free but specificated and determin'd That this Spirit is universal I need not go back to the first Abyss and Form to shew the Identity of Matter and Form in General which was afterwards divided and distinguish'd according to the Proportion of Matter and Form to prove the Identity of Spirit in all these Three 'T is enough here to shew that Minerals and Plants not to mention Animals being Physick and Food for Man are by application to him assimilated into his Nature and that only by the Power of his own Specifick Spirit which shews them to be of his own Matter and Form or it could not attract and convert into its own Nature what is repugnant to it But that there is an Homogeneity of Spirit in all the Three Provinces of Nature will appear from hence if it be true that from the Dross of Metals reduc d to Ashes are generated Beetles from Plants Caterpillers from Fruit Maggots and from putrefied Animals Bees and Flies so that an Animal Life flows from them all And out of any Species of every one of the Three Kinds may be drawn a Light burning and fiery Spirit which could not be were they not homogeneous The great difference which there seems to be between the several parts of the Creation makes the People indeed believe them of contrary Natures Thus the Vulgar can hardly think that Fountain Water will ever become Wood Leaves Fruit Bones Sinews Blood and all the Parts of an Animal Body But a Naturalist can easily discern that the Water or moist Vapour that dissolves the Seed is by the Specifick Spirit of the Seed converted into its own Nature and shoots up into Branches bearing Leaves and Fruit whose grosser part encreaseth the Body of the Tree And so the Water drank by Animals becomes converted into Nourishment and is communicated into all the Parts of the Body by which they all grow and are encreased to a determinate Time Thus are all the Parts of the Universe related to each other by the common Bond of the same Universal Spirit which Parmenides in his famous Idea's calls That one Idea which is the Foundation of all Singulars out of which as from a Thread the whole Web as it were of Individuals is woven Now this Universal Spirit residing in many Particulars is the Support and Foundation of them all and is according to Zenophanes wholly together one though for distinction sake and that we may better understand one another in Discourse we divide it into Three Heads which are called Kinds and into almost infinite Species which are the Particulars Thus we see Nature tho' She is One Pure and Simple is yet beneficial to the whole Creation and continually supplies the perishing Old by the Gift as it were of New And thus we may see that without God who is Nature's Governor we can do nothing even in this world O Eternal Wisdom How excellent are the Divine Operations How manifold the divine Goodness whose Wisdom Power and Love are no less evident in the Conservation than the Creation of the World If the Divine Mind should check Nature a few moments this delicate Machine would be without Spirit the world would be benumb'd with an eternal Cold and Darkness and an everlasting Death all things would run back into their first Mass Chaos and dark Abyss never to be renewed without that Spirit that first banished Darkness by separating the Waters and enkindling in their most refined Parts advanced to the Region Above a Spirit of Light To the Eternal therefore be infinite Praises by the pure Spirits of Men and Angels He that thinks I do a dishonour to Animals in supposing that that Spirit that animated a mean Vegetable 〈◊〉 a sluggish Metal on its leaving these Bodies should give Life and Motion to an Animal Being will easily see his Mistake when he considers 〈◊〉 those Things are always esteemed most Excellent 〈◊〉 Noble that are of longest duration Now we see 〈◊〉 many Vegetables and all Things of a Metallick Composition do exceed Animals 〈◊〉 duration of Time Besides all Things receive a value from their Usefulness now though divers Beasts and Birds are very useful both for Food and Pleasure yet 〈◊〉 of them are supported without Vegetables nor can any Man plow or go to Sea without Metals But this is speaking rather like a Merchant than Naturalist therefore I shall wave it That Spirit seems to me to be most Noble that has so digested the Passive Matter which contains it as to be able to defend it against all the assaults of the Elements and on the other side that Spirit seems to be most weak and unactive that suffers its Body to be soonest dissolved on their Intention Now Vegetables and Animals do both perish in the Flames but Metals do not So that the Strength and Virtue they enjoy visible to every Eye gives them justly the Precedence But could their Bodies be dissolved and their Spirits 〈◊〉 loose as we see in Vegetable Seeds
then their Excellency would be very manifest 〈◊〉 that has seen the perpetual Light to which they have been advanced by Dissolution does know what place 〈◊〉 merit in this Life 〈◊〉 were the operation as easie 〈◊〉 the Reason is evident no ingenious Man would be without it For my part I own myself herein only Un 〈◊〉 yet he that is not able to 〈◊〉 a Bow may yet give 〈◊〉 Wherefore to this I conceive there is need of an homogeneous Agent defecated from all Impurity and impregnated with a Metalline Sulphur the former found in the House of Gemini the latter in that of Aries by the benign Influences of Libra and Aquarius But let none but the Happy pretend to this He that can retire and enjoy the Freedom of Horace his Countryman Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Ut prisca gens mortalium Paterna rura bobus exercet suis Solutus omni foenore c. Happy the Man from toilsome cares set free Who does regain Man's ancient Liberty Ploughing his Ground with Oxen of his own By Parents left 's free from Usurious Loan To this Freedom of Thought there is necessary a Knowledge of all Nature a plentiful Fortune and above all a wise and a Learned Friend Qui publicis 〈◊〉 bus Muneribus funguntur 〈◊〉 privatis necessariis 〈◊〉 cupationibus jugiter incumbunt 〈◊〉 summum hujus Philosophiae 〈◊〉 contendant Totum enim 〈◊〉 illa desiderat 〈◊〉 possedet Possessum ab omni 〈◊〉 longo negotio vendicat 〈◊〉 omnia aliena reputans flocci 〈◊〉 They who are 〈◊〉 tigued with Publick Honours and Employments or have continual Avocations of private domestick Affairs let them not pretend to the Heights of this Philosophy for she requires the whole Mind which obtain'd she keeps and retains him from all tedious Business teaching him to slight all Things else as Trifles This is an Eternal Bar to such as my self who am bow'd down to an Employment of daily Attendance Me Miserum Well may the Qualifications above be thought necessary since besides the Fineness and Acuteness of Mind there is required Herculean Labour Non viribus ullis Vincere nec duro poteris convellere fern This to attain no Steel 〈◊〉 any Force Nor French Dragoons 〈◊〉 Missionary Horse For 't is so difficult that 〈◊〉 tells us Mars being imprisoned by Neptune's Son Thirteen Months in a Dungeon could scarce be set 〈◊〉 by Juno's help though assisted by Hermes himself 〈◊〉 meaning whereof when have told you that Mars the Son of Juno and she the Metallick Nature is too obvious to need an Explanation for a Surcharge is nauseous to the Mind of an Ingenious Man Now to remove all Objections to the Foundation of this Opinion of Pythagoras and what is superadded It may be asked How doth it appear that the Heavenly Bodies bestow an Influence or Universal Spirit on the Earth Why may not the Earth it self be impregnated ab initio with Seed enough to hold out for all Species to the end of the World That the Heavenly Bodies move and transmit Heat we Both see and feel Nay this Heat beyond the Tropicks is so intense and powerful that with us collected by a concave Glass it will melt Silver and that in a more extraordinary manner than a Culinary Fire is able to perform Whence Mechungus affirms that there is no artificial Fire able to give such a heat 〈◊〉 that which comes down from Heaven We see Infects sort of Animals in a feu days are generated by it is waterish places Those 〈◊〉 pass for Animals as Frogs Toads and even Mice whose Generation is aequivocal 〈◊〉 so produced by means whereof we perceive that Vegetables grow and increase Timaeus the Locrian saith That God scatters Souls i. e. Forms some in the Moon others in other Planets and Stars whence they are instilled into Creatures To which Aristotle agrees when he saith That the Universal Efficient Cause of all things is the Sun and the other Stars and that their Access and Recess are the Causes of Generation and Corruption If so what need is there of an Element of Fire above the Region of the Air But I conceive 't was placed there for Order's sake only Now this Virtue that is Ministerial to such Variety of things must be in its own Nature General and Catholick or it could not be subservient to so many several different Individuals The Specification of it naturally proceeds from the Particulars We see a little Salt seasons a great Lump and a Scion transmutes the whole Juice of the Tree into its own Nature Wherein we may observe a twofold Change First Of the general Moisture into an Identity of that of the Tree Secondly A new Specification of it by its passing into the Scion Nay such is the virtue of Fermentation that you may inoculate Scion upon Scion after a little Growth and whatever becomes of Transmutation in the Mineral we daily see it various ways in the Vegetable Province to that degree that in many Trees you may ingraft and inoculate out of species as Cherries on a Laurel Pears on a Hawthorn-Tree nor is it otherwise in the Animal of which no man's Experience is without some Instances Fermentation saith the incomparable Eirenaeus the Great is the Wonder of the World by it Water becomes Herbs Trees Plants Fruit Flesh Blood Stones Minerals and every Thing This Epicurus calls the attracting and intangling adaptable Atoms by their Fellow-Atoms by which they grow up into the same Nature of which hereafter As for the latter part of the Objection touching the Earth's having Seed enough in it self and therefore needs not borrow of the Heavens What I said already to the first part of the Question may be a sufficient Answer But to proceed That the Earth is barren sluggish dead and passive we may easily see by considering how unfruitful all places are that are surrounded with Buildings For if the Earth had Seed enough in it self she might be as fertil in a City-Garden as in a Country But it is plain that the want of a free access of the Air whereby an Universal Spirit or animating Heat is conveyed is the only Cause of Sterility Why do your Country-men after some years plowing leave the Ground fallow Is there not Seed or Virtue enough in the Earth to hold out If there is not whence does she receive it It must proceed either internally from the Centre or externally from the Heavens if from her own Centre why does she wait the accession of the Sun to call forth her Vegetables And why where his Influences are interrupted is she barren But may not the Earth have a Feminine Sperm in it and may not this vital Heat be as a Masculine Principle that may only excite and bring this dormant Seed from Potency into Act to which Opinion Xenocrates seems to be inclined If the Earth were filled with such an
Plant and infuse it into the Body of another And thus Van Suchten and the acuter sort of Chymists tell us may be done with Metals But what need we fly to Laborious Art for the proof of this Does not sagacious Nature afford Instances enough of this sort in divers Places witness the petrefying Baths at Buda Glashitten and Eisenbach in Hungary that turn Wood and Iron into Stone and the Venereal Mine at Hern-grunat near Neusol where by leaving Iron in the Vitriolate Water for Fourteen Days it is transmuted into excellent Copper better and more ductil than the Natural But enough of this I have done with Pythagoras and shall touch now on Four Things 1. I shall speak somewhat to the duration of Bodies 2. Examine some Principles and Elements generally received 3. Compare some Aristotelian Hypotheses with those of Democritus 4. Having already shewn how variety of Plants and Metals are now generated in the Earth from the Diversity of Salts c. I will endeavour to shew how the Earth comes to be filled with such variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities First As to the Duration of Bodies Bodies after the sensitive Spirit has left them and before their resolution into Dust have a sort of Vegetable Life remaining in them as appears by the growth of Hair and Nails that may be perceived in dead Bodies and a weak Animal one that lurks in the Moisture whence in Putrefaction Worms and divers sorts of Insects may be generated who dying others of another sort arise If therefore Bodies obtain this sort of Immortality not to speak of the Resurrction of the Body in a Philosophical Discourse why should it be denied to the Spirit which hath a much greater Right to it by the pure and incorrupt lasting Nature of its Essence But I shall advance the Nature of Bodies to a much more unmixt and pure Immortality For the Radical Moisture of Bodies that lies in the Bones may justly challenge a Right as things now are to an eternal duration For not to mention Bones that are found entire after a Thousand Years Burial nor the Bodies of Egyptian Mummies preserved whole for several Thousand Years there is in the Bones a Radical Moisture that is fix'd and permanent and is so far from giving way or suffering loss by that Element that is the Destroyer of mix'd Bodies that it is the Vessel made use of to purge the fix'd Metals in the Fire and remains unhurt when the volatil Metals fly away so that none of the Elements can destroy it no not the most torrid Vulcan Now for mix'd Bodies Fire indeed may separate the Parts of a mix'd Body change the Figure and so alter its Appearance as to puzzle the best Mechanick to reduce it to its primitive state yet this is no Annihilation but Division The burning of Wood or any Fuel is a Destruction of it I confess as to the Proprietor but not with respect to the Universe no more than there is less Money in the World by the Profuseness of a Prodigal as the one doth but change Hands so the other alters only the situation of its Parts The Watery or Mercurial Part of the Wood passeth away in Smoak the Oily or Sulphurous in Flame and the Body of Salt rests in the Ashes The Air preserves the two former and the Earth retains the latter each part returns to its native Country What then can destroy this Body except the First Cause I am yet to learn For though Bone-Ashes by reason of Moisture may flow and become Glass the ultimate end and use of them yet so glorious a lightsome body as that of Glass is rather an exaltation of its Essence than diminution of its Excellency nor does it give any termination to its Being but only a change to its Figure If Culinary Fire destroys the Parts of the Universe in time it may the whole But this is inconsistent with the Wisdom of its Maker to create Principles destructive of one another The Light of Nature as well as Experience taught Plato that the World was not destroyable by any other Cause but by the same God who composed it which the Eternal can easily do by Fire according as Things now appear without the Light of Holy Writ Which makes me wonder that Aristotle Zenophanes and other Great Men did not see this but thought the World of necessity as Eternal as God for though the Heat of the Sun is now tolerable between the Tropicks yet he that considers its being a little multiplied by a concave Glass even in our Meridian though its Rays pass through a vast Region of Water rarefied if reflected on a Man for some time it will scorch and destroy him when the volatil Waters that allay his Heat become fixed which the People think now are and a Philosopher knows may easily be then the Sun having no Cloud to obstruct his Light nor any Water to cool the scorching Heat of his Rays will necessarily burn up and calcine the Earth Thus the very Elements would destroy us did not the Eternal by his Providence defend us from the Heat by the interposition of the Waters and from the Chilness of the Waters by impregnating them with a Solar Heat whose invisible congealed Spirit saith one of the Learned Magi is more valuable than the whole Earth Clementissimo itaque infinitae sint Laudes Secondly As to Principles and Elements being to speak of these it will not be amiss to enquire how and when these came into the World The Study of Natural Philosophy was as early in the world as Men came to call upon God For whatever Appearances God made to the Antediluvian Patriarchs and by that means communicated his Divine Will and Nature to them yet we cannot suppose that the World in general had any other Light of the Divine Glory and Majesty than what came to them by Tradition and the Contemplation of the several Parts of the Universe for God is known by his Works they are the Witnesses of his Wisdom Power and Goodness The Knowledge of these Works comes not to Mankind at least generally by Inspiration but by exerting our Faculties And as for Tradition that is apt to make but a weak impression on thinking Men unless it is back'd with Reason But besides though the Creation of the World was a Tradition and the manner out of Chaos yet to give an account of the Phaenomena of Things and the manner now of Nature's Productions could not be a Tradition This was left to Man as the proper exercise of his Rational Powers that by improving and advancing his Thoughts he might come to have a clearer Light and Knowledge of God and consequently love him the more intensely for it is almost impossible to have a true knowledge of God and not to be inflamed with Love of him such is the Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature When Men therefore began to contemplate the works of God they found all
Deorum beyond imitation This Sir Roger L'Estrange has ingeniously Translated and embellished with Learned Notes The Wisdom and Order by which the Parts were moved made the Stoicks think even the Parts themselves endued with an intelligent Mind and therefore weakly enough called them Gods not distinguishing between the Creator and his Works which Epicurus hath well confuted But I am pass'd my Tedder and must ask Pardon of our Clergy for invading their Province The Sum of all is this 'T is the Duty of Mankind to consider the Natural as well as Moral Government of Divine Providence This is the Mean to attain the End of our Creation i. e. to advance the Glory of God and exalt and perfect our Minds If what I have hinted does sufficiently shew the Necessity of this the Neglect of it is a Fault too obvious to need an Inference and the doing it an Advantage that will justifie at least excuse the following Essay I have but this to add That whatever are the Faults of the following Discourse I have avoided one which the Learned generally incur that is of being too praeliminary One must dig fifteen Fathom deep before one comes to the Oar thus infolding a little Truth in so much Rubbish makes him that has a quick Apprehension and little Leisure neglect the former for the sake of the latter But this Fault proceeds from a foolish though customary Fancy that unless a Book has Folio 500 at the End of it it makes no Figure on a Shelf but is like to dwindle into the contemptible Name of a Pamphlet Hence the dull and heavy Transcribers load Mankind with intolerable Burthens and Men like Asses receive that Weight which fills their Heads rather with Smoak and Fume than Light and Truth When I consider that the Wisest of Men have delivered their Thoughts of Men and Things rather in short Apothegms than tedious Discourses and that the Witty Greeks brought even Arguments into the narrow compass of a short Sillogism that Moses writ the History of the Creation in a short Chapter and that He who is more than Man communicated himself and what was necessary for the Good of Man in short Parables that make a deep impression on the Mind and in pithy Sentences that may be writ in a Sheet or two of Paper I am fully of opinion with the Ingenious Mr. Norris That if Angels were to write we should have fewer Volumes and that the Brevity of this Discourse is no real Exception to its Truth THE CONTENTS 1. THE mistaken Notion of Transmigration throughout the World The Consequence of it in Asia where 't is believ'd Pag. 1 2. The Proposition stated That the Soul after its departure from the Body does pass into some other Animal this is spoken of the Sensitive not of the Rational Soul p. 4 3. Proved in part by way of Induction either that God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that things pass and are changed into one another But God does not make new Matter c. p. 5 4. That Transanimation of Spirits may refer to Plants and Minerals as well as Animals for they have a Spirit or vital Principle p. 8 5. Of the Generation of Metals and how the Spirit enters Matter Of the Imperfect Metals and their Cause p. 9 6. Of the Perfect Metals and how various Metals are in the same Place p. 11 7. Of Stones the Precious the Common Plants of two kinds what grow of themselves and what are sown p. 14 8. Of Plants that grow of themselves and the Cause of their variety p. 16 9. Of their Figure whence it proceeds p. 20 10. Of the sowing of Seeds and the setting of Plants p. 22 11. Of the Generation of Animals p. 23 12. How the Form leaves Matter in Animals Minerals and Vegetables and what then becomes of it that it passeth into the Air where it receives new Virtue p. 25 13. That thence it flows down again and animates a new Body which is the true Notion of Transmigration p. 27 14. Objection That Animals convey a sensitive Spirit in Generation how then descends a Form p. 32 15. Answered That though they do convey a portion of specifick Spirit yet the universal cooperates The manner how from the Air. ibid. 16. Of the Air and the Mischief of sulphurous Vapours that they cause the Plague The Way to foresee it and a Dearth Of Augary p. 37 17. Homer's Juno explained p. 43 18. Why the seven Planets call'd Gods That the Philosophers did not adore all they call'd Gods p. 46 19. Why so many call'd Gods The first Principles of Nature by the Philosophers of all Learned Nations call'd Gods to conceal them from the Vulgar p. 50 20. The Description of Nature in her Ascent and Descent according to Homer The Consent of the Philosophers about the first Principles p. 54 21. The Publishing the Fables of the Ancients an occasion of Idolotry the Original thereof though from beholding the Stars yet not for the Reason R. Maimonides gives p. 57 22. Of the Mysteries of the Ancients p. 60 23. That all the Ancient Philosophers that treated mysteriously of Nature meant the same Thing under divers AEnigma's p. 62 24. This made manifest by explaining an Egyptian Symbol according to the Chaldean Astrology and Grecian Mythology p. 63 25. Objections against Transmigration answered p. 80 26. The Notion carried higher than what generally imagined p. 82 27. Of the Identity of Form in all Bodies p. 83 28. A Comparison of the Form in Animals Plants and Minerals p. 90 29. Of the excellent Form in Metals and of the perpetual Light made out of them of the great difficulty thereof p. 91 30. Objection against the Influences of the Heavenly Bodies answered Objection that the Earth hath Seed in it self answer'd p. 97 31. Other Objections answer'd and the Conclusion therefrom p. 104 32. That Bodies are not annihilated when their Spirit leaves them nor new Substances made in Generation but pre-existent Substances are made into one which acquire new Qualities p. 107 33. How Pythagoras might call himself Euphorbus that lived many years before him p. 110 34. Plato's Opinion answered concerning the Degeneracy of the Effeminate p. 111 35. Pythagoras his Abstinence from Flesh explained p. 115 36. Transmigration in Plants and Minerals demonstrable to Sense p. 116 And this concludes the 〈◊〉 of Transmigration 37. Four Things touch'd 〈◊〉 1. The Duration of Bodies 2. 〈◊〉 Principles and Elements 〈◊〉 received examined 3. Some 〈◊〉 ristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Demo critus c. 4. How the 〈◊〉 comes to be filled with variety 〈◊〉 Bodies abounding with 〈◊〉 Qualities p. 〈◊〉 38. Of the Duration of 〈◊〉 and of the Calcination of the 〈◊〉 in the general Conflagration p. 119 39. Of Principles and Elements and first of Principles how 〈◊〉 when they came into the World p. 126 40. That there are but two Principles notwithstanding the Chymists and the Invention
imaginary Seed whenever the Sun approaches with his enlivening Beams surely all these Seeds would quickly appear to sight what then should the Earth do for the next year's Vegetables The Propagation of them only by their letting fall a Seed and by that means another coming in its place is weak and frivolous for though this in many places often happens yet Experience shews us that tho' Weeds are grubb'd up before they run to seed yet the same or others soon grow up in their stead And whence should this happen Who are the Conservators of the seeds of Weeds and noxious Plants Noxious only because their use is not known What Enemy comes in the night and sows them And where are their Store-houses But may not the Birds in the Air let fall seed and so it may grow This Objection can admit no Resolution but this Take Earth defend it as you please so it has some access of Air and you will find an Herb of some sort or other arise It is therefore most evident that by the Heavenly Bodies or from them a germinating Virtue is emitted that this Virtue is universal conveyed by the Medium of Air filling all Places and producing divers Effects according to the plenty of Spirit and difference of Place That this Spirit on the dissolution of its Body is not annihilated but gets loose becomes active and vigorous and impregnates new Matter whose Nature is varied according to the diversity of Place as Water mixing with salt things becomes saline and with Acids sharp Now this to me is so far from being a wonder that I should admire if it were otherwise since Bodies that are but the Case of Spirits are not annihilated when their Spirits leave them but lose only their external Figure and Shape for if Bodies on their resolution were annihilated the World in time would be reduc'd to nothing For the World consisting of Parts and those Parts of Bodies as Bodies are annihilated so are the Parts and the Parts being daily substracted this Machine would fall to pieces or rather to nothing But as in Generation saith Epicurus there is no new substance made but pre-existent substances are made up into one which acquire new Qualities so in Corruption no substance absolutely ceaseth to be but is dissipated into more substances which remain after the destruction of the former So that though Bodies resolve into Dust yet this Dust remains still and being quickned by a Solar Heat shoots forth into some Plant and this Plant becoming Food to Man or Beast and Beast to Man is assimilated into the Nature of the Eater and becomes part of himself Hence Hermes and the rest of the Philosophers affirm that nothing properly dies but all things pass and are changed into something else So that if one would urge it he might prove this way a Transmigration of Bodies as well as Spirits since the Bodies of the Dead become Food to the Living after a little Circulation of Time passing through a few Mediums and that Food becomes part of him that eats it This the Egyptians hinted by the Hieroglyphick of a Snake painted in a circular form the Head swallowing up the Tail Of which Claudian Serpens Perpetuumque viret squamis caudamque reducto Ore vorat tacito relegens exordia lapsu ' Python his Scales renews and on the Ground ' With Tail in Mouth he lies in Circle round Thus Pythagoras might say he was Euphorbus who lived many years before him because of the Possibility both in respect to the Identity in some sort of his Body for we were once upon our Plates and his animation by the same sensitive Spirit being of a Temper and Disposition very like him Thus for similitude of Spirit John the Baptist is called Elias But now for Plato's Opinion and the rest of the Pythagoreans who held or rather seemed to hold That by indulging to Sense the Souls of Men pass'd first into Women then if they continued vicious into Brutes c. This Degeneracy if he had confin'd to the same Body would have had as much Reason and Truth of its side as the other hath of Prettiness and Fancy For Experience shews us that many Men by soft and tender Habits grow weak and effeminate and by degrees slide into an Indulgence of all Brutal Passions Now it is more than probable that there was no more intended by this sort of Expression than to shew Mankind to what a low Ebb Humane Nature might descend to what a Brutal Sordidness Man might sink that wallow'd in sensual Pleasures And what is the natural Consequence of this That Men therefore to avoid this Evil should adorn and cultivate their Minds with useful Knowledge and exert Life in Practical Vertues This was the Design both of Moral and Natural Philosophy and this AEsop who flourished about an hundred years before Plato inculcated by his ingenious Fables amongst which had this of Plato's been inserted the Moral had been obvious to every Understanding This is no new Interpretation for Timaeus long ago commended the Ionick Poet for making Men religious by ancient Fabulous Stories For said he as we cure Bodies with things unwholsome when the wholesome agree not with them so we restrain Souls with Fabulous Relations when they will not be led by the True Let them then continues he since there is a necessity for it talk of these strange Punishments as if Souls did transmigrate the Effeminate into the Bodies of Women given up to Ignominy of Murtherers into those of Beasts for Punishment of the Lascivious into the forms of Swine of the Light and Temerarious into Birds of the Slothful and Idle Unlearned and Ignorant into several kinds of Fishes Thus we see how Pythagoras has been miss-represented and what was made use of only as the last Remedy to restrain Men from Vice and was what we call Argumentum ad Hominem is now for want of Understanding in his Censurers return'd upon him with great Reproach But did not Pythagoras abstain from Flesh-Meat for fear of eating his Parents according to the gross Notion of Transmigration Most certainly not for Jamblicus in the Life of Pythagoras tells us That he being the Disciple of Thales one of the chief Things Thales advised him was to husband his Time well upon which account he abstained from Wine and Flesh only eating such things as were light of Digestion by which means he procured shortness of Sleep Wakefulness Purity of Mind and constant Health of Body But what if Transmigration may be made evident to Sense in Plants and Minerals That it may be in Plants every ordinary Chymist knows For by the extracting the Spirit or Soul of a Vegetable in the form of Oil and by the cohobation of it on the calcined Salt of a different Plant they will impregnate that Salt with a new Life and Spirit and give it new Virtue Smell and Taste Thus they draw forth a Spirit from one
as Plutarch will have it and then 't will be disputing only about Words But we 'll consider this Elements seem to be but modern in respect of the Ancients Moses speaks only of the Spirit and the Abyss and so for what I perceive it continued even to the Time of Thales who flourished in the 35th Olympiad Principles and Elements being not then distinguished by him for which Plutarch finds fault with him The same Author makes Empedocles to hold Four Elements who 't is said was a Disciple of Pythagoras who was contemporary with Thales Here I will suppose Elements to begin the Reason this They that held four Elements perceiving that besides the moist Vapour and heavenly Influence or Fire and Water in the modern Language there were Earth and Air that Air is the Food and as it were the Companion of Fire and Water of Earth and that things generated in the Earth could not but partake of its Nature as the Foetus in the Womb. That two of these were active and two passive two heavy and two light must of necessity be those Parts of Matter that constitute the Harmony of each Being To speak clearly to this Matter I shall take each Element apart and by that you will see whether these four or two only are self-subsisting Beings Pure Simple Primitive and Unmixt which is the Notion of an Element I will begin with the Air. That the Air we walk in is pure and unmixt no one will pretend for the Sulphurous Steams that are sublimed into the Air and the abundant Moisture fluctuating in this Region shew the contrary The Truth is what we call Air is nothing but Water rarefied attracted by the Heat of the Sun or sublim'd by the Archeus of the Earth and this may be made manifest by many several Experiments as the evaporating of Water into Smoak which is a gross Air or calcin'd Tartar that will attract it and dissolve it into Water The Earth can never be said to be pure simple or unmix'd for it is the common Shop of Nature wherein bodies of all sorts and qualities do reside It is in truth nothing more than the grosser parts of the Waters which condensing into a body became the Settlement of the Waters which God afterwards caused to become dry by the removal of the Waters from it and the Spirit of Light shining on it Though it is said In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth yet this is by a Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usual as the Learned say amongst the Hebrews for the Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit moved upon the Face of the Waters The Chaos therefore or first Matter was plainly an Abyss of Waters and so our Latin Translators and Commentators render it Aquarum Terrae supernatantium say Junius and Tremellius Water I conceive is in its own Nature pure simple and unmix'd without any quality though susceptible of all A Primitive in Nature a middle Substance whose one Extream constituted Earth and its other Air or Heaven This may well be called a Principle for she is the first Matter of all things into which all things may be reduced Fire in its Original is an emanation of a Solar Spirit its Rays darting downwards impregnate and enkindle Passive Matter into Motion and Vegetation It is the Life or Spirit of the World as Water is the Matter To doubt this a Principle or Element for I think it no Blunder under Plutarch's Favour to make them Synonyma's were a mortal Sin in Philosophy Having said this 't is easie to infer That Water is the passive Principle and the Solar Influence the Formal of all created Beings and that properly speaking these two are the only Principles according to the Ancients and the other two only Derivatives But does not the excellent a Learned Magus tell us That the Four Elements by their never ceasing Motion cast forth a Sperm or subtil Portion of Matter into the Earth where meeting and uniting it is digested and brought to perfection according to the purity or impurity of the place The Authority of this Person and the Reverence and Admiration I have for him as it makes me conceal his Name so it does almost make me blush to lift up my Pen against him Sed magis Amica Veritas If Four Elements go to the Constitution of each Being these Elements must be intimately united Now that cannot be unless the purest part of one Element enter per minima the purest part of the other But Earth cannot enter Water per minima unless it be reduced to the Form and Tenuity of Water and then what need is there of Earth if Earth must be first resolved into Water ere it can unite with it Again Water must be rarefied to the dignity of Air or else it cannot unite intimately with Air if so what need is there of Water since Water must become Air before it can assist in the Constitution of a Body It to me therefore seems most plain that all created Beings here below are a Concrete of Water the purest part whereof being rarefied and impregnated with a celestial Heat which is all the Element of Fire I know of is digested into the various works of Nature diversified now according to what Nature has wrought in the Matrix before the Form enters for the Form is as capable of divers effects as the Water is susceptible of qualities Thus much for the Second Viz. Principles and Elements Thirdly I shall compare some Aristotelian Hypotheses with those of Democritus Aristotle and Heraclitus too held the Elements to be contrary to each other as Fire to Water Earth to Air two active and two passive Principles but Democritus denies it alledging that the Agent and Patient must be in some measure alike otherwise they cannot act upon one another Wherein Democritus is certainly in the right for Fire and Water differ not in a remiss but intense degree witness the quiet resting of Iron in which the Fire of Nature dwells plentifully in Water and witness the Generation of Animals in water which cannot be done without heat and witness the Seeds of all Beings whose germinating Virtue is the Fire of Nature involved in Moisture There is in truth no more difference between these two than between Water and Plants of which the one is so far from being repugnant to the other that the Plant is nourished by the water yet when the water is raised to an Acid and the Plant reduced to an Alkali by the union of these two a violent ebullition is caused a controversie even unto Death As for the Cause of the variety of Bodies the difference between Aristotle and his Followers and Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus and their Followers is no less and 't is no wonder that they who differ in the Nature of their Principles should fall out in the effects they produce The Aristotelians impute the effects of Bodies to secret
primary Qualities residing in them by the conjunction of the Elements and so under the Mask of Qualities which they could not tell what to make of couch all ignorance of Bodies their Causes if not Effects Democritus and his People impute nothing to Qualities but all to Figure and Motion called the Atomical Physiology For my part I think neither Opinion right yet a middle between both may be true I shall consider both Opinions and then give my Reasons against both and for the middle one As for the Pyrrhonian Doctrine of Qualities 't is too trifling to merit an Answer I might introduce this Question with a great deal of pomp and shew that it hath been a Controversie in the world for above Two Thousand Years that it hath exercised the greatest Men and that it is not yet determined But I shall think my self happy enough if I can put an end to this Debate without any other consideration The Method I propose to take I think differs from those that have gone before me for I intend to speak of the Creation of the First Matter and Universal Form and shew how from the various Union of these Two various Qualities arise But it would be too Magisterial to reject Opinions without shewing their Mistakes I shall therefore endeavour to shew the Error of these two Parties and then substitute what I conceive more true As to the Aristotelian that of Occult Qualities 't is Ignotum per Ignotius a thing is hot or cold bitter or sweet because of some Quality in it and what is that Quality 'T is Occult that is in plain English 't is so because it is so But the most that can be made of this Notion of Qualities may amount to this That there is a Form or Vital Principle latent or occult in all Bodies that not only retains and keeps the Parts together be the Genus or Species what it will and so distributes it self to all the Members performing the Office of Life but is the Specifick Formal Cause of all those Qualities with which Bodies abound be they those of Sweet Bitter Sharp c. or Hot and Cold in their several degrees Which Form being a Vital Principle is invisible and therefore occult as Lucretius holds Ex insensilibus ne credas sensile gigni Nimirum Lapides Ligna c. ' Of things unseen things visible are made ' As Stones and Wood and all things that do fade But this I conceive cannot be for though Galtruchius tells us in justification of this Doctrine That there is an actual Modification and Determination of the Form to the Matter I would fain know what particular Quality can a Form have that enters passive Matter Where can it receive before it enters Matter such a Specification For notwithstanding what Pliny saith of the Planet Venus that she scatters a Prolifick Dew which is but general and what the Astrologers say of the particular Influences of each Planet I desire to know who can distinguish the Influences of Saturn from Jupiter Mars from Venus and so of the rest except that of Sol The Sun indeed melts Wax but hardens Clay but this diversity of effect proceeds from the difference of the Object not of the Agent for the Agent is always one and the same tho' varied according to the passive Matter that receives it 'T is not therefore the Form alone that gives or is the Quality in the Body for as the Body was scatter'd Atoms loose and insipid till its parts being collected constituted by virtue of the Form a mixt Body so was its Form simple and undetermin'd till bound down and tied to the Body Now for the Atomical Physiology of Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus which is now called the New by what Figure I know not How can meer Matter which in it self loose and scattered is insipid i. e. in its parts hath no Taste for what Taste have the uncompounded Bodies of Atoms void of Qualities when put together by the clinging of its Atoms the emanation of its Particles or imagine what other way you please acquire a particular Taste or give a particular Odor Nil dat quod non habet may hold well enough here That which it had not in its Parts it can never have in the whole I speak of the same undetermin'd Matter for I know that Bodies of different Natures when conjoyn'd obtain Qualities by Fermentation which neither had a part besides if Atoms by their Position and Figure or by the manner of the flowing forth of their Particles do give a Taste and Smell c. these Atoms are so very small that the Body though separated into many Parts yet must retain notwithstanding the Figure of the Atoms the Atoms being too minute to have their Angles and Points cut off by a small division of the Body and consequently the Parts of the Body must have the same Taste and Odor when divided as before if the Qualities that are perceived by the Organs of Taste and Smelling be wholly owing to Matter i. e. to the figuration of the Atoms But this daily Experience evinces the contrary for Bodies divided or but a little opened as Plants and Fruit c. lose in a little time both their Taste and Smell and yet no one can say that the points or angles of the Atoms were disfigured or the Emanation of their Particles obstructed since great Proportions were left untouched But Galtruchius affirms Matter to be previously disposed to such a Form by a Temperament of Qualities But how can this be Are not Qualities the Effect of Life in every Body what needs there then a Form where there is Life before The Qualities therefore of Odor and Taste cannot proceed from the configuration of the Atoms Now if neither the Form gives the Quality of it self for the Form as I have shewn before is simple a vital Air undetermin'd nor the passive Matter though Atomical as I have shewn here and yet all Bodies have Qualities they must proceed from the Union of both and not from any distinct Cause in either So the Spirit of Nitre and Salt Armoniack apart have no Qualities or Power to dissolve or rather corrode Gold but united do it effectually 4. This brings me to the Fourth and last Thing I intend to speak to and that is How the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different qualities Since I propose here to treat of the Original of Qualities I must of necessity speak of the First Matter and its Formation and that leads me naturally to consider the first Creation which I shall do as briefly as possibly I can I shall not cite the various Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers that treat of the World's beginning tho' some thought it had none this would look more like Shew than Use which I have no Temptation to do since I write for Pleasure not for Bread Besides for Philosophy's sake I shall omit it for there is
nothing so foolish which some of them have not said Nor shall I borrow Parts of the Many as the Greeks did to patch up a New one of my own Nor shall I speak of the Creation any farther than as it relates to my present purpose But herein I will take the Philosopher Moses for my Guide who exclusive of his Divine Authority has given a wiser Account of the World's Creation than the whole Body of Philosophers put together whose Writings the most Learned Bishop Stilling fleet has defended in his Origines Sacrae against all the World God having created the First Matter which seems to be a thin fluid Substance an Abyss of Fume or Vapour rather than Water which was therefore the more passive and tenuous fit to be stretched out for the composition of Heaven and capable of any Form he gave a Form fit to actuate and impregnate this Matter which was to be the vital Principle of this Body This general Form was a Spirit of Light and Heat and so are all particular Forms now and therefore capable of being the Instrument of God not the Third Person in the Trinity to rarefie and subtilize the Superficies of this Abyss and to exalt it to the Dignity of constituting Celestial Bodies and AEther This Spirit of Light and Heat whose Property is Motion acting upon this Superficies rais'd it up on all sides and mixing and abiding with it in a plentiful degree advanced it up to the supreme Heaven and enlightned all that Part by its diffusion which we call AEther though the lower part of that mighty Space the Atmosphere was but glimmering in respect of the AEther and the Terraqueous Globe by reason of its distance and gloomy Substance was dark This Division of the Light from the Darkness Holy Writ calls the First Day 's Work This will appear more evident by considering the Second Day 's Work and that was the making of a Firmament or Expansion which was to divide the Waters from the Waters i. e. the Waters that resided with the Globe below not only from the Celestial Bodies which were advanc'd above whose material Principle was Water but even from the lower part of this Aery Region the Residence of Watery Clouds The manner of which I conceive was thus by the Will of the most High This Active Spirit of Light surrounding the moist Vapour on all sides drove it down lower throughout the Aery Region and thereby compress'd this tenuous Matter into a more close and narrow compass whence it became condensed into a watery Substance The Vapour thus condensed into Water and thus compress'd on all sides flying from the Fiery Spirit as from an Enemy became still more congeal'd whose Centre being the Sediment of the Waters became Mud or Earth And this was the Second Day 's Work This Fiery Spirit by the Will of God acting upon the Waters divided the same so that the Waters being rolled off on each side the Mud or Earthy Substance appeared which by the Medium of the Form was made dry and impregnated with virtue sufficient for the Production of Plants And this was the Third Day 's Operation But on the Fourth Day the Almighty collected and pent in this seatter'd Universal Form into the Body of the Sun whose Virtue being shut up comprized in a narrow Compass was capable of a more intense Emanation whence followed a more noble Production So that on the Fifth Day God created Fish and Fowl by the Union of the Passive Matter Water and that of the Form And afterwards on the Sixth Day of the Earth God made Beasts and Reptils the Matter being grosser the Generation was more sluggish and then as the Colophon of all God created that mighty Creature Man endowed with a Mind full of Vertue and Holiness in resemblance to the Divine Nature not to speak of his Knowledge and Wisdom and made him Lord of all Were I not here in Publick I could not forbear a Rapture of Praise to the Almighty Builder of the World for his Bounty and Munificence to Man in the mighty Priviledges and Endowments of his Nature Sed quod palà m non decet clà m fiat Having here given a short Abridgment of the Creation I shall proceed to shew how the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities The Consideration of this will take in Plants Minerals and all Fossils As for Plants we find them mention'd in the 3d Day 's operation and that they included their own Seeds according to their several Species So that from hence it seems that all Plants being created from the beginning had for their continuance a Seed infused that might be the Future Principle of raising the like I say might be for that I conceive I have already shewed that Plants may be generated of all sorts without the sowing of the Specifick seed by the Power of the Form and the predisposition which the Solar Influx has previously wrought on Passive Matter But now it remains we give an account how the Earth comes to be altered by the Solar Influx or in the Words above how the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities I suppose the Earth and Waters in the first Creation had no Qualities but the primary of Cold and Moist and after the Waters were rolled off and the dry Land appeared those that then were were latent in the Plants which God created which were only in the Superficies A weak Light and a faint Form being sufficient for the Production of these so that the inner parts of the Earth were still simple and undetermin'd But God having shut up this scatter'd and wandring Light on the Fourth Day into the Body of the Sun it became thence a powerful and universal Form or Spirit to this simple or general Matter which wheeling about this Globe of Earth and Waters continually and darting into it on all sides Rays of Light and Heat must of necessity fill the Earth with Heat and Spirit This vital Heat still being multiplied and increased by the Influx of more and this Form moving in its Sphere by mixing with the Waters and arising by Sublimation with them what with the Rays flowing in and the Vapours by subliming to the Superficies of the Earth expiring must of necessity work on the Passive Matter the Earth through which they pass and according to the Plenty or Scarcity of the Form cause diversity of Qualities in it for the warm Vapour still purifies the place where it passes but where it is stopp'd before purification of the Place an abortive or imperfect Thing is made Thus Mercury determined to a Metallick Species for want of sufficient Heat in the Matrix becomes an Abortive And thus the Earth wrought upon variously towards the Superficies by the Intension or Remission of the warm Vapour though in a most minute degree must produce a different Salt and thence
Modest and the Vertuous move only in this elevated Sphere But Morals are needless after what the Excellent Dr. Lucas has said in his admirable Works who has obliged an ungrateful Age. If what I have said take with the few Wise and Vertuous I have my End as for the Dissolute may he reform but as Vicious I neither court his Suffrage nor value his Judgment Quid mali feci c. Sempiterna Lux Nec Honores nec Divitias peto me modò Divinae Lucis Radio illumines Sapientiâ Rerumque Naturalium Cognitione instruas ut hisce à me probè perspectis Majestatem tuam earum meique Creatricem intensiore Amore Ardore Animi prosequar adorem ut cum mei transierint Dies Coelesti Regno tuo illatus comparatior sim ad Divina contemplanda Sapientiamque tuam Amore Seraphico amplexandam FINIS a Thus high the Cynicks and Stoicks advanced Vertue whose sole Reward which it self brought they held sufficient to conquer the Miseries of Pain and Want Of the Generation of Metals How 〈◊〉 Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 this Position answers them all b 〈◊〉 may be understood the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Orpheus the Father of the Gods with Vesta his Wife and what he and the rest of the Philosophers meant by a Generation of Deities proceeding from such Parents Of the Imperfect Metals Of Perfect Metals How various Metals are in the same place Of Stones The precious The Common Vegetables of Two Sorts what grow of themselves and what are sown That grow of themselves The Cause of Variety of Plants * This is evident from Tunbridge and other waters which passing thro' Iron Mines are impregnated with the virtue of the Mines through which they pass Nay put but a few Iron Nails into a little common water for half an hour and it shall have the same taste not to say virtue for the Iron-stone is too hard to have much of its Particles washed off by the soft gliding of Water and common Water is too weak a Menstruum to dissolve a Martial Body Of their Figure This difference of Qualities Epicurus imputes to the various transposition of Atoms Of the sowing of Seeds Of Plants Of the Generation of Animals How the Form leaves Matter in Animals How in Minerals and Vegetables What then becomes of the Form that it passes into the Air where it receives new virtue Mundus nunquam est moritur semper nascitur id tantum habet constantiae quod divina Providentia ab eo nunquam recedit That thence it flows down again and animates a new Body which is the true Notion of Transmigration If Bodies are not annihilated much less are Forms Objection That Animals convey a Sensitive Spirit in Generation Answered Though they do convey a portion of Specifick Spirit yet the Universal 〈◊〉 The manner how the Universal Spirit joyns with the Specifick in the Generation of Animals That the Universal Spirit is more plentifully in the Air than elsewhere That the Animal Spirit increases in Animals The Mischief of Sulphurous Vapors fluctuating in the Air that they cause the Plague A Means to foresee a Plague The Foresight of a Dearth Of Augury The Loss of Arts. The Benefit of good Air. Homer explained Superior govern inferior Natures The Seven Planets called Gods and why in a large not a strict sence The ancient Philosophers did not adore all they called Gods Aristotle proves from Motion that there can be but one God How the Philosophers came to call many Things Gods a I say Created because this Spirit of Light was on the 4 th Day contracted into the Body of the Sun The Description of Nature in her Ascent and Descent a I say of one Species for various were the parts of Idolatry and there were several Origins from whence they sprang the Worship of the Stars not being the Original of all Idolatry for most Nations adored several Deities The Scythians ado red the Wind as God being as they say the Cause of Life The Chaldeans adored Fire the Persians Water the Romans Earth under the Name of Vesta the Egyptians divers Animals and Insects and all Nation had their Deisied Heroes Of the Mysteries of the Ancients That all the ancient Philosophers that treated mysteriously of Nature meant the same Thing under divers AEnigma's Au Egyptian Symbol explained According to the Chaldean Astrology Grecian Mythology Egyptian Chaldean Grecian Mercury described Egyptian Explanation Chaldean Explanation The Grecian Explanation The Fables of the Ancients refer to Things not Persons Objection Respons Objection Respons Of the Identity of Form in all Bodies a Aliment says Aristotle must be the same potentially which the Thing augmented or nourished is in Act. A comparison of the Form in Animals Plants and Minerals Of the Excellency of the Form in Metals Of the perpetual light made out of them and of its great difficulty a This is Jargon to those only who do not understand it Object 1. Object 2. Respons Aristotle held that there was an Element of Fire above the Region of the Air. Of the Universal Spirit Respons 2. Object Resp. Object Resp. That Bodies are only changed not annihilated a In nihilum nil posse reverti The Moral of Transmigration Transmigration in Plants and Minerals demonstrable to sense Of the duration of Bodies Of the general Conflagration 2. Of Principles and Elements Of the 3 Principles of the Chymists Principles Objection Respons Objection Respons Of the Elements Of the Air. Of the Earth Of Water Of Fire Of the Creation a 'T is an usual Hebraism to impute second Causes to the first This distinction of First and Second Causes was found out first by the Greeks who taught the World to speak Scholastically but the Jews made them all one which indeed in a large sence they are for the world is the Lord's and all things therein And therefore I saiah c. 40. v. 8. saith The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it As the World is God's and all the Spirits in it and Parts of it so indeed this may be said to be the Spirit of the Lord in point of Property but not of Identity Can any one think that this Spirit that blows on the Grass or take it Metaphorically for Man is the Holy Ghost Junius and Tremellius translate the Words Spiritus Jehovae the appropriate Name of the Eternal yet in their Commentary say 't is not Regenitus Spiritus Sanctificationis in Christo which if they had remembred they would not have rendred the Spiritus Dei Gen. 1. Spiritus Sanctus Tertia illa Persona Deitatis à Deo Patre Filio procedens But they have I must acknowledge not a few Commentators on their side though I conceive the Jews never dreamed of such an Interpretation they might believe it some Vis Potentia or Emanatio Dei but not the Divine Nature himself which it is dishonourable to imagine was incubans superficiei Aquarum brooding over the Waters as a Hen does over her Eggs. This piece of Mechanism may be suitable to Man or some created Power but the Almighty Fiat is worthy only of God But besides this Conjecture the Original will bear it for the Learned say that Ruach signisies not only Spiritus but Ventus Voluntas Angulus Pars Plaga And therefore R. Abraham on this Place renders it Spiritus aut Ventus Dei sufflabat aut cubabat super faciem Aquarum i. e. saith he Ventus missus à Deo ad desiccandum Aquas The First Day The Second Day The Third Day The Fourth Day The Fifth Day The Sixth Day a I am confirmed the more in this Opinion by an Iron Mine which I saw at Tunbridge whose Vein running about three Miles was stopt at a hard Rock for this Rocky Substance hindred the ascending Vapour Conclusion