place of Residence of the Soul and it is pursuant to and on the Account of that Concussion the Soul forms an Idea of the Object which she perceives or apprehends in the manner we call Seeing And it is according to the various Modifications of that Concussion that she sees Objects at several distances under divers Figures and of different Colours From whence it follows that the Perceptions or Ideas of the Soul have no necessary dependence on the Objects but only on the exteriour Organ which may be prov'd by a thousand Experiments but especially by that of Phrenetick People who perceive Objects quite different from what they really are and see them where they are not Now that you may perceive a Body in the place where I am when no such thing is there it is sufficient that your interiour Organ should be moved in such a manner as it would be if a Body was really there That 's the thing I now am actually doing upon your Optick Nerve to make you know that I am here That is it which causes you to see a Body though in truth there is none to see And what I act upon the Organ of Sight to make a Body appear the same I do in proportion upon that of Hearing to find you Sounds and Words I impress a like Motion upon the Strings of your Nerves of the fifth Conjugation as would the Vibrations and Undulations of the Air were it agitated by the Motion of a Tongue and the Mouth of a Man who should stand where I seem to do and should utter the same Words you at present hear Upon these Principles it was F. Maignan that a Father of our Order has most ingeniously unfolded the Mysteries of the Holy Sacrament without the assistance of that Medly of absolute Accidents that could never be conceiv'd For says he when we are taught the Body of I. C. is under the appearance of Bread nothing more is intimated than that the Body of I. C. is truly there where the Bread was and seems still to us to be to the end that Bread may appear where the Body of I. C. actually is God acts upon our Senses He there produces the self-same Motions and makes the same Impressions the Bread did before So when our Lord presented himself to St. Magdalen in the form of a Gardiner it was by acting upon her Eyes just as the Visage and Habit of the Gardiner would have done and not by cloathing himself with the absolute Accidents of a Gardinâ—r But that which you may gather from this present Experience is the manner how the Dead appear who sometimes by God's Permission present themselves to those alive For they appear by the same Method as I do actually my self And those Bodies of Air or Water which some pretend they attire themselves withal are only the Whymâ—ies and Forgeries of their Imagination who have treated of Devils craft in supposing the Principles of the School Philosophy Have you any farther Difficulty said he upon that Point Ah! Father reply'd I you have made it as clear as the Sun and have given me infinite Satisfaction Your Discourse is altogether Spiritual I rely not much upon the Explication of that Father of your Order upon the Mystery of the Eucharist I take it for a Maxim with the wisest of the Catholick Philosophers That all Novelty in such sort of Things is dangerous at least always ought to be suspected You have absolutely dispers'd the Doubts that troubled me It was indeed long ago that I had a Notion Sensation was caus'd by the Local Motion of the Organs but that Idea was not unperplex'd Aristotle had said it before Cartesius Arist. in Probl. but had not explain'd it From this time forth I renounce for ever a great part of the Ideas I had fram'd thereupon I solemnly abjure before you all the Axioms that respect the Active Passive and passible Intellect I acknowledg they are Terms that signifie nothing and are of no use but to make the Ignorant to stare who cannot understand them but imagine the Philosophers can After that Protestation Father Mersennus's Soul mov'd my Organ in such a manner as gave me to apprehend he was well pleas'd Which made me take the boldness of proposing a second Scruple Father said I I don 't well understand what that World is of M. Descartes where you would conduct me For in reading M. Descartes I did conceive his World was nothing else but this of ours explain'd by the Principles of his Philosophy And I distinctly remember I have read in a Letter he had formerly wrote these Words That he should think himself undeserving of the Name of a Natural Philosopher if he could only tell how Things might be without demonstrating they could not be otherwise There he Bravado's it a little Let. 37. Tom. 2. But that confirms me that when he speaks the contrary and says he pretends not to give an Account of Things as they are in the World but only how they ought to be in a World that he imagins he would be angry should we credit him thereupon What you say is true reply'd Father Mersennus M. Descartes design'd not to be believed in that Particular So that the World of M. Descartes is in earnest this World explain'd by the Principles of his Philosophy But it is also true that there is or rather will be very speedily another World that may more properly be call'd Descartes's World since it will be of his own Contrivance And that 's the World with which this Gentleman your Friend has entertain'd you and that we shall give you a sight of if you please Nothing certainly said I will be more diverting I would quit the Racing or the Festivals of Versailles to be Spectator of this Prodigy which doubtless is the compleatest Work of Philosophy and the almost Master-piece of Human Nature But Sir said I turning to my old Gentleman the Story of Descartes you have formerly related gives me some disturbance The Voyage you know is very long and a World like this he is about is not to be built in one Hour's time I know my Soul loves her Body very well and would be much concern'd at her return to find it incapacitated to receive her And an hundred Accidents may happen against which no one can give Security We are provided for them all said he Look towards the bottom of your Bed Good God I cry'd out scar'd out of my Senses What is' t I see The Devil then is one of your Club Wretched Mortal that I am I am lost undone However I 'll die without any familiarity with him Monsieur avaunt I renounce utterly your Enchantments and your Magick Softly foftly said he why all this Alarm He is no Devil that you see though Black He 's far from being a Devil This is the Soul of a little Black that waits upon Descartes To ease you of all Scruples and Disquiet in a word or two I
Accident call'd Solidity and that when it was dissolv'd it became Liquid by an absolute Accident call'd Fluidity That one of these Accidents made Lead run when heated and the other fixed it when it began to cool And on the contrary if having read the Delicate Natural and Intelligible Way of M. Descartes's explaining the Nature of Fluidity and the Properties of Fluid Bodies by the Motion of the insensible Parts of those Bodies a Motion which the meer Dissolution of Salts in common Water and of Metals in Aqua Fortis evidently demonstrates they were not at least come over to us in that Point The most of them answered That as they were persuaded there was no doing without absolute Qualities in the explication of an abundance of Phenomenas that which they could most easily part with was Fluidity and that they would not quarrel with me thereupon This suppos'd said I Gentlemen you shall be speedily satisfied or more perplex'd than M. Descartes for in short in your own System the World is full there 's an Abhorrence of a Vacuum through the whole Motion notwithstanding both is and does continue the Sensible and Insensible Parts of Bodies are mov'd nor does their Hardness and Impenetrability stop their Progress Why may not M. Descartes's Matter that is no more impenetrable than yours enjoy the same Priviledg and Charter Why must his Motion be more impossible both you and us suppose the selfâ— same Thing and we have no more to do than defend our selves against the Epicureans who think they demonstrate by Motion the Necessity of their little insensible Vacuities interspers'd throughout all Bodies Their pretended Domonstration amounts to this To the end a Body may move it is necessary it disturb another Body from its Place That other cannot stir because it has not where to go if all is full Therefore Motion will be impossible if there is no Receptacle or a Vacuum On the other Hand supposing a Vacuum among Bodies they may be compress'd in lesser Room and consequently may make Way for such as press against them and thus Motion will be made This is a meer Fallacy of theirs which both you and we can easily unriddle by only telling the Epicureans That to conceive how Motion is perform'd without a Vacuum we need only understand That a Body is never mov'd alone but that in the same Instant one Body quits its Place another crowds in and takes it And when I conceive one Body may in the same Moment take the Place another Body leaves I perfectly conceive Motion for there lies all the Mystery My Peripateticks seemed surpriz'd to see me come over them thus readily with so neat a Conclusion drawn from a Principle they had so freely granted me and doubtless repented them of their Condescention But I proceeded by telling them I scorned to take an Advantage over them from their Courtesie though they were oblig'd to it by the Evidence of the Truth and I was unwilling they should reproach me as perhaps they did already in their Hearts for having us'd Surprize and abus'd their good Nature to insnare them and therefore I would endeavour by their own Principles to enforce to them at least the Probability of the Truth I was defending Gentlemen said I there are Prejudices in the Case that we are upon proceeding from the Imagination more than Reason We imagine in the first Place That a Body which we fancy in the midst of the Matter of the World is far more press'd if we suppose that Matter Solid than it would be upon Supposition it were Fluid which is manifestly false For if the World be full whether with Solid Matter or with Fluid there is neither more nor less of it but an equal Quantity in each Supposition and consequently its Parts are no more close and crowded supposing it Hard than if you suppose it Fluid Again we are apt to believe That a Body whilst it is Liquid is ever ready to give way to the Motion of another Body and on the contrary whilst 't is Solid it is incapable of that Compliance if incompassed with other Solid Bodies The first is prov'd evidently false by a very common Experiment Fill a Glass Bottle with Water whose Neck is long and slender then turn the Mouth of it downwards placing it perpendicularly upright the Water by its own Weight is forc'd towards the Earth it meets no other Body in its Way but Air that is still more Liquid than it self yet notwithstanding the Gravity and Propensity of the Water to put itself in Motion notwithstanding the Fluidity of the Air that is below it its Motion is impossible and the Air makes as great an Opposition as could a Solid Body wherewith you should have firmly stopt the Orifice of the Bottle What is it then that thus obstructs the Motion of the Water 'T is the Air and Water 's being in such a Situation as no Tendency or Attempt whatsoever of the Water can determine the Air or any other Body to come and fill its Place in the same instant that it leaves it For as soon as it can that is to say as soon as you shall incline the Bottle a little Side-ways and consequently make Way for a little Line of Air to wind itself in by the Side of the Water the Motion will follow proportionably to the Space that the Air shall fill We must not then suppose that a Liquid Body is ever disposed to yield to the Motion of other Bodies Nor ought we more to imagine that when a Body is Solid and surrounded with other Solid Bodies it never is inclinable to be mov'd which I thus prove Let us suppose an hollow Globe perfectly full partly with Water and partly with a vast many little solid Bodies of every Make and Figure dispers'd all over this Mass of Water Let us conceive all these Bodies settled and at rest being that the Water fills all the Spaces betwixt these little Bodies we imagine the Parts of this Water of all sorts of Figures as are the Spaces which they fill Thus we conceive in those Spaces your little Globes of Water little Triangles little Cubes little Hexagons c. Let us suppose now that Water and all those little Bodies put in Motion Making then Reflection on the Figure of the Parts of this Water before the Motion we easily conceive an Alteration in all these Figures in the instant of Motion that is to say the little Globes of Water are divided in two half-Globes the Cubes of Water lose their Angles and so on Of these little Parts whether Solid or Liquid some receive more Motion some less and briefly all so determine one another as not the least empty Space is left but upon one's forsaking of a Place another repossesses it in the very instant And all this is easily perform'd by the proneness of the watery Parts to break and disengage themselves from one another Thus in the first instant of the Motion we imagine that there
a little tempted to turn Cartesian without troubling my self to dispute the Globules with him of the Second Element or offering such other Doubts and Scruples as then came into my Mind with entire Submission I complemented upon all the rest both these Companions of my Voyage that is to say upon the subtle Matter and on that branchy Matter which I termed in their Language without more ado the Matter of the First and Third-Element I much applauded their Explication of Fluidity and commended it for its Neatness and Simplicity but a little Adventure turned the Discourse and had like to have spoiled the Fruit of all my former Complasance There was on the top of the Tower on which we lighted a kind of a Twirl that was in the Nature of a Weather-Cock about seven Inches Diameter its Substance was of Plate of Steel very thin and light its Sails were exactly equal and the Pin on which it turn'd smooth and polish'd So that the gentlest Gale of Wind set it a going and at the same time turn'd about a bent Iron Rod for the observing the point of the Wind whose end made the Axis to the Twirl It fortun'd that a Soldier of a Suitz Regiment that quartered in the Town discharg'd his Musket in the Air It was loaded with two Bullets one of which as it flew but just glanc'd upon the end of one of the Flyers of the Twirl And yet impress'd so considerable a Motion as lasted a long time The Bullet continu'd its Motion almost in a right Line and went very near as far and as swift as the other Bullet that never touch'd upon the Weather-cock I had good Reason to take notice of that last Circumstance Father Mersennus slipt not that occasion to demonstrate to me another of M. Descartes's Principles You see said he these Flyers if that Ball had not slanted upon one of them in passing seeing there is not any breeze of Wind do you think they would have left that quiet Posture they were in and turn'd themselves about No certainly I reply'd The posture they were in a Moment since could never have been chang'd for that they are in at present but by the assistance of some External Cause that has made that alteration But now added he that they are in a directly contrary State do you believe they could quit the same without the determination of some other Cause that should destroy their Motion as the Bullet did their Rest Father said I that Question seems more difficult than the other to resolve I have heard it always held as an unquestionable Axiom That every Body whilst it is in Motion tends to its Repose as to its end We 'll grant you reply'd he that Philosophick Banterage every Body whilst in Motion has a tendency to rest as to its end A Body is endu'd with Reason and a Will first to have an end and then to make unto it But if that Proposition is capable of receiving any tolerable meaning it says no more than this That in the situation and disposition Bodies have among themselves in the World sensible Bodies that are mov'd do truly lose their Motion by Degrees upon the opposition they receive from other Bodies to which it is communicated and at length they rest For if nothing did destroy that State of Motion it would last for ever by the same Rule that if nothing did disturb the rest of a Body it would always remain immoveable And this it is of which I had a desire to convince you by the Example of this little Wind-mill Fortune has presented us Supposing this Gimcrack had turn'd in the midst of Water as it does in the midst of Air it is a plain Case it 's Motion would quickly have been destroy'd by the great Resistance the Water would have made If two of its Sails had been longer larger and heavier than the other two the Motion had ceas'd sooner yet Because that inequality would have been another Cause of a more forcible Resistance Again if you add to this that the Pin on which it turns had been thicker as also rusty and unpolish'd the Motion had been lost still sooner for the same Reason But because it stands in Air and in Air that 's very fine because it Sails are exactly pois'd and its Axis slender smooth and polish'd the Resistance that it finds is less and the Motion so much greater and longer it will last Whence we may thus conclude Much Resistance destroys much Motion a less Resistance destroys less and a lesser yet destroys a lesser Motion still and so on Hence if there was no Resistance at all the Motion would not flag but continue always hence as a Body would maintain its Rest unless an external Cause disturbed it in the Possession of that State so a Body would continue its Motion as long as it should meet no Molestation in it So then the great Principle of M. Descartes is establish'd That a Body of its own Nature stays always in the Capacity it is plac'd if it is at rest 't wil always rest if it is of a Triangular Figure it will be of a Triangular Figure always if it is in Motion it will for ever be so But for the rest this Principle is not peculiar to Descartes Galileus before him Gassendus Hobbes Maignan c. suppose it true And I remember likewise That in making my Collections for my Commentaries upon Genesis where I have introduced an infinite Number of Philological Philosophical and Astronomical Dissertations I have remarked more than one Place in Aristotle where he either teaches of supposes the same Doctrin and Vasques one of the subtlest of the School Philosophers has proved it at large as to the concern of Motion It may however be said that no one ever carried it to that Pitch and used it so dextrously and with that Advantage as Descartes and thence it was that particular Difference and Honour was paid him rather than to others upon that respect I am much of your Opinion I returned That General Principle is without Controversie one of those the Mind of Man admits without offering Violence to itself and the Difficulty that is found in applying it to Bodies considered in Motion proceeds only from that false Idea so commonly received of what we call Modes in Philosophy and from our conceiting Motion as a positive being and Rest as its Privation though neither Motion is a Being nor Rest the Privation of a Being but one and the other are different and contrary States of which a Body Natural is capable But Reverend Father this Whirl-gig here has raised a Scruple in me of which I 'd fain discharge my Conscience iâ— is grounded on another Principle of Descartes concerning which you may call to mind if you please that the Ball that touch'd the Sail seeing it but glanced upon it lost nothing or next to nothing of its Motion that it had so far preserved and we saw it arrive to its
that have formerly appear'd in the Heavens now disappear What 's become of the seventh Pleiade and of that seen the last Age in the Constellation of Cassiope And supposing any one since its ceasing to appear should bring his Action against Tyco Brahe and others that observ'd it as false Intelligencers that abus'd the credulous World do you think it would not be thrown out And does not M. Descartes himself give us to apprehend that our Vortex infinitely greater than the Sphere of Fire shall be sometime swallow'd up when one least thinks on 't And when by that Absorption the Sun shall become an Earth and perhaps at once the subtil Matter which is confâ—â—'d in the Centre of our Earth forcing its Passage througâ— the Crusts that cover it shall make that a Sun granting that the Books of M. Descartes existed in another Vortex where are Men would not they look on all he has wrote of our World as Fabulous and Romantick However granting that there never was a Sphere of Fire it was ever admirably suppos'd Never was System more exactly contriv'd than Aristotle's of the Elements They all are rang'd according to the Dignity or Meanness of their Nature The Earth as the most unactive and ignoble Element has the lowest Seat The Water less course and heavy than the Earth takes place above it The Air by reason of its Subtilty is exalted higher than the Water And the Fire the most noble and most vigorous of them all owns no Superior but the Stars and the subtil Matter in which swim the Planets The extent of each is likewise proportion'd to the Merit of their Nature Like Brethren they have divided the Estate of the four Qualities each of them has two one of which in the Superlative Degree The Earth is cold and dry the Water is cold and moist the Air is hot and moist the Fire is hot and dry And to the end they may bear up still in the perpetual Combats they give each other if the prevaling Quality of one 's more active the predominant Quality of the others put them in a good posture of Defence against the effort of their Enemy Could any thing be more justly or ingeniously imagin'd In fine with how many fine Thoughts has that Sphere of Fire and that orderly Disposition of the Elements furnished our Preachers heretofore and still supplies those of Italy But to mention something better in its kind that one Devise of Father le Moine of which the Sphere of Fire is the Substance deserves there had been one and would deserve there should be one still and that it should endure for ever Designing to signifie the more pure are Friendships the more durable they are he painted the Sphere of Fire with this Spanish Motto Eterno porque Puro This Fire 's Eternal because it 's pure What an unhappiness it is that that Thought so fine and solid as it is all over should at last be false for want of a Sphere of Fire Thus I was defending as well as I could the Peripatetick Interest whilst we arriv'd at the Globe of the Moon I shall not be tedious in giving a large Description of it since others have don 't before me I will only say that the Earth look't to us that view'd it from the Moon as the Moon appears to those that view it from the Earth with this difference that the Earth seem'd bigger far because it really is so So we judg'd that the Earth in respect of those that beheld it from the Moon had the same Phases as the Moon in regard of those that behold it from the Earth that it had its Quadratures its Oppositions its Conjunctions except that it could never be totally Eclips'd by the reason of its greatness in comparison of the Moon whose Shade could not have a Diameter so large as the Earth then in Conjunction The Moon is a Mass of Matter much like that of which the Earth is compos'd There you have Fields and Forests Seas and Rivers I saw no Animals indeed but I am of Opinion if there were some transported they would thrive and probably multiply Empire de la Luâ—e 'T is false that there are Men there as Cyrano reports but 't was undesignedly that he deceiv'd us having first been deceiv'd himself One of the separate Souls which we found in great Multitudes and which were there at his Arrival told me the Original of that Error A great Company of Souls surpriz'd to see a Man with his Body in a Land where the like was never seen before had a mind to know the meaning of it They agreed together to appear in Human Shape to him They accost him and enquire by what Method he accomplish'd so great a Voyage Made him relate what he knew of our World and as he seem'd equally inquisitive as to the Transactions of the World of the Moon and the Life the Inhabitants led there the Familiar Spirit of Socrates who was among the rest took upon him to answer And having declar'd who he was as that Historian himself relates he made him upon the Spot a Fantastical System of the Republick and Society which is the same he gives us in his Relation where he seriously tells us There are Men in the Moon characters their Humour describes their Employments their Customs and Government But 't is worth the knowing that some â—opperies he has inserted he brought not from that Country as the Soul assur'd me and that many Profane Allusions and Libertine Reflections he there makes were only the Fruits of a debauch'd Imagination and a corrupt Mind such as was that Historians or of the Imitation of an Author yet more Atheistical than himself I mean Lucian one of whose Works was made the Plan to his History of the Moon The Inequalities we found in the Globe of the Moon are partly Isâ—es wherewith the Seas there are pleasantly chequer'd and partly Hills and Vallies in its Continent They belong to several famous Astronomers or Philosophers whose Names they bear and who are the high and mighty States there We landed in Gassendi a Seat extraordinary fine and very apposite and such in a Word as an Abbot like Monsieur Gassendus could make it who wanted for neither Genius Art nor Science and who had no use for his Revenues in gaming treating and living high The Lord of the Mannor was then absent whom we should have been glad to have waited on since we heard that he still continu'd his Civility and Moderation which were his Natural Endowments And though formerly there were some Misunderstandings betwixt him and Cartesius yet he always very obligingly and with a Mark of Distinction entertain'd the Cartesians that came to pay a Visit and especially Father Mersennus who was his peculiar Friend He was a Man that equall'd M. Descartes in capacity of Genius excell'd him in the reach and extent of Science but was less heady and conceited He seem'd somewhat a Pyrrhonist in Natural
Parts of the third Element that cover'd it and the paucity of its Pores in the Superficies I say since that Star by reason of its solidity was capable of a far greater Motion than the Mass of Celestial Matter that incompass'd it and carried it along having by degrees arriv'd to a mighty Speed in the turning of a Hand it gain'd the Brink of the Circumference of the Vortex and out it flew amain and continuing its Motion by the Tangent of the Circle it had begun to describe pass'd on to another Vortex and from that to another till I knew not what became onâ—t For M. Dâ—scartes interrupted the Attention I was in to pursue it to instruct me That the Adventure I had seen at present usually happen'd and would still from Time to Time in our World And that what we there call Comets were nothing else but Stars that have lost their Vortex and Light by that congealing Matter and then pass'd from Vortex to Vortex V. Fig. Vorâ— becoming visible to us all the Time they traverse our Solary Vortex and ceasing to be seen as soon as they entred in another Immediately after the Ruin of the Vortex I have been speaking of there were seven others that ran the same Risque and became seven Comets Whereupon Monsieur Descartes pursu'd It is not amiss in order to your better understanding the Effects that are speedily to follow to give Names to the Principal Stars that are left We have still a dozen of them but we will trouble our Heads at present with no more then eight That then continued he pointing out the greatest Star of all and which had the greatest Vortex we will call the Sun that other shall be Saturn let the next on the Left-hand be Iupiter that on the Right shall be named Mars that other wee 'll name Earth and the nearest to us of all shall be christned the Moon Of these two little ones the one shall be Venus and the other Mercury By and by I will name the other four Having for some Time consider'd the admirable Disposition of all these Vortexes that in spite of their Fluidity did not at all mix and incorporate with one another a thing no one would believe unless he saw it and which cannot be comprehended but by a Cartesian Soul for no other Philosopher 'till this Day hath been able to conceive it possible We saw Mercury and Venus begin to be overspread with the rising Scum and forthwith the Vortex of the Sun with the other neighbouring Vortexes to get ground prodigiously on those two Stars till at last their Heaven or their Vortex being entirely swallow'd up they fell in with that of the Sun somewhat near the Centre and began to turn about him floating in the Matter of his Vortex The same thing happen'd a little while after to four petty Stars whose Vortexes border'd upon that of Iupiter where they were oblig'd to descend and take the same Lot therein as Venus and Mercury in that of Sol. M. Descartes called these four the Satellites of Iupiter because they represent the four Planets that turn about Iupiter in our World Lastly the Earth in like manner made herself Mistress of the Moon and obliged her to attend her in quality of her Planet for that is the Name which is given to degraded Stars because of their only Employment that is left which is to wander in the Zodiac and to turn eternally about those that have rob'd them of their Vortex M. Descartes exemplify'd this Matter by certain Whirl-pools we sometimes see in Rivers whereof one great one that often contains in it many little ones represents the great Solary Vortex and the little ones represent the Vortexes of Iupiter and the Earth Those little Whirl-pools are carried along by the Motion of the greater and turn about its Centre whilst themselves make every thing that comes in the Reach of their Circumference suppose Straws or little Chips to turn about their own Thus the Earth carries round the Moon in her Vortex and Iupiter his Satellites in his 1 The Centre of the Earth full of the Matter of the First Element M the internal Shell that covers it C the Place of Metals D Water E Earth on which we tread V Air. The lowest of these Subordinations was according to my Position an Arch of very Solid and Heavy Matter and there I place the origin of Metals The Second which I rang'd above it was a Liquid Body constituted of the Parts of the third Element pretty long very flexible and pliant as it were little Eels temper'd with an abundance of the Parts of the second Element which was nothing else but what we usually call Water Lastly above all this I suppos'd a third Vault made of the most clinging and craggy Parts of the third Element whose sensible Parts were only Stones Sand Clay and Mud and which was very porous And this is the outward Surface of the Earth on part of which tread Mortal Men. You plainly see then said M. Descartes that to shew you the Train of all these Things would demand a great deal of Time But the Hour of your Departure hastens on I remit you therefore to my Book for Satisfaction in all those Particulars I am going now to make an Abridgment of all those Motions and to shew you in as little Time as we are speaking on 't this Earth exactly like yours with Mountains Valleys Plains and Seas No sooner said than done He falls to determining the Motion of an infinite Number of those long and flexible Parts of the third Element and agitating them by playing among them the Parts of the second in the several Places where he had heap'd them to gether we saw presently a kind of Sea diffuse itself over the Face of the Earth it was a less Trouble to him to raise Mountains by only amassing together an abundance of the branchy Parts of the third Element and causing them to link and graple with each other whereby there stood in many Places great and mighty Piles nothing differing from our Mountains That Earth look'd very bare and naked without Trees without Herbs without Flowers for to produce all those Things that are the greatest Ornaments to our Earth was a Business that would take up longer Time This done he employ'd the rest of the Time that we staid with him in the consideration chiefly of two Things First of the Gravity or rather of the Motion of Bodies we call Heavy towards the Centre And secondly of the Manner of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea He began with the first and explained it at this rate S the Sun T the Earth AB CD the little Vortex of the Earth NA CZ the great Orb wherein the Earth is carried round the Sun And it is for the same Reason that a Terrestrial Body forc'd into the Air is oblig'd to descend towards the Centre of the Earth because it has less Force to digress from the Centre than
Ellipsis design'd with C. D. B. A. represents the Matter which carries the Planet round the Sun moves far swifter than the Planet He explains I say this Supposition by the Simily of a Boat falling down a River which goes on much slower than the Water that flows under it A plausible comparison at first sight but that has nothing solid in it Since the reason of the Boats tardy Motion in respect of the Water that forces it along is wanting in the Planet steer'd in the midst of the Celestial Matter The reason is this that part of the Boat which stands above the Water meets with the opposition of the Air which bends its course differently from the Water and consequently resists the Motion wherewith the Water influences the Boat And the greater that resistance is as in a contrary Wind the slower is the Motion of the Boat in comparison with that of the Water And the less the resistance is as when the Wind stands fair the swifter is the motion of the Boat But this is not to be found in the Planet plung'd in the midst of the Celestial Matter It preserves intirely all that Motion the Celestial Matter can impress upon it free from all external Opposition Besides being of it self indifferent to Motion or to rest to such or such a degree of Motion or this or that Determination it offers no resistance as M. Descartes himself speaks to the Matter of the Heaven He gives next the reason of that inequality of Motion of the Celestial Matter and of the Planet carried by it which is says he that though such little Bodies as are the insensible parts of the Celestial Matter conspiring all together to act confederately against a great one may be as prevalent as that notwithstanding they can never move it in all respects so swift as they are mov'd themselves 'cause though they are united in some of their Motions which they communicate unto it they infallibly disagree in others which they cannot communicate Either we are mistaken or this is a meer Gipsy-talk at least in relation to the Business we are upon and one of these Slights of Hand we have observ'd M. Descartes from time to time to make use of designedly to blind his Reader and to conceal from him the Lameness and Imperfection of a Conclusion necessary to his System which he is well aware of but is unwilling any one else should see 'T is but bringing some pretty sort of Comparison that may prepare the Mind and sooth and tame if we may so speak the Imagination of his Reader though commonly it never comes up to the stress of the Difficulty and then clapping on it for a Confirmation some abstracted Reason that few either can or will take pains to understand and the Business is done fore-seeing that being half-gain'd already by the Comparison they will easily surrender themselves to the least appearance of Truth which he shall give them a glimpse of in his reason that often is a meer fallacy at bottom And as for this before us What matters it though the little Bodies that drive on a great one should have several Motions What tho' they do not communicate all these several Motions provided they have still Strength enough to force it on that the Body makes no resistance that they all combine as we suppose with M. Descartes to communicate the Motion requisite and that we conceive them all pressing on its Surface so as to push it towards the place where they are push'd themselves For certainly in all these Circumstances we must conceive it going at as great a rate as they And yet from a Principle so weakly establisht as this he concludes That the Celestial Matter ought to move the Planet round its own Centre and constitute a little Heaven about it to turn at the same time as the great one But not now to controvert that Supposition as poorly prov'd as it is let us persue him in his reasoning and to see if it be good let us imagine the Earth T. as it were suspended in a Void and let us fancy a Circle of Celestial Matter as thick as the Diameter of the Earth that violâ—ntly rushing like a Torrent carries it suddenly away But as we suppose this Torrent to be swifter than the Earth methinks without having puzzled our Heads much with the Rules of the Determinations of Motion we might readily conceive it upon its violent dashing against the Earth to be immediately divided in two Parts or Arms whereof one should run above the other below it and whether we conceive this Stream of an equal or a greater depth than the Diameter of the Earth it would diffuse it self round its Surface above below and on every side Whence it follows that it would impress no Motion on it about its own Centre but would moreover deprive it of that Motion if it had one all the Lines of the Torrent counterpoizing one another and resisting the Determinations they should meet with in the Earth contrary to their own Here ought to be the foregoing Figure p. 278. Now methinks in explaining these things thus it is not a bare Similitude that we offer but a perfect Idea of that which ought to happen in the Motion of the Celestial Matter wherein the Earth is carried round the Sun Wherefore then will Descartes have the Celestial Matter that carries the Earth and insists against its Superficies towards A making greater haste than the Earth bend its whole Current from A to B not suffering half of it to run from A to D For 't is impossible for things to be or to be conceiv'd otherwise But if it ought to fall out thus as questionless it ought the Earth no longer-has a Vortex since the Matter flowing from A to D prevents that which flows from A to B from returning by C. D. Nothing can be more plain and evident than this Demonstration But let us suppose per impossible that the Matter when arriv'd at A should entirely make a double to run towards B. Would it make a Vortex No by no means For advancing from B. to C. and arriving at C. it ought to deviate from the Centre of its Motion and continue its Progress towards Z. The Reason given for it in the Principles of Descartes is That this is the very place in all the little Circle it had begun to describe where it finds least resistance First because the Matter it meets in that same Point is already on its Motion towards Z. and freely resigns its place Secondly because that which is below it that is to say betwixt D. and C. resists it and hinders its Descent being more weighty according to M. Descartes And thirdly because the Circle C Z. is its natural place according to the same Philosopher It will flow therefore more towards Z. than D. and consequently make no Vortex But let us farther suppose a Vortex made and the Matter continuing its round from A. to B. from B.