Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	earth_n	part_n	7,610	5	5.1031	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34554	A discourse written to a learned frier by M. Des Fourneillis, shewing that this systeme of M. Des Cartes, and particularly his opinion concerning brutes, does contain nothing dangerous, and that all he hath written of both seems to have been taken out of the first chapter of Genesis ; to which is annexed the Systeme general of the same Cartesian philosophy, by Francis Bayle ... ; Englished out of French.; Copie d'une lettre écrite à un sçavant religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus. English	Cordemoy, Géraud de, d. 1684.; Bayle, François, 1622-1709. Systema generale philosophica. English. 1670.; Grangeron, Henri.	1670 (1670)	Wing C6281; ESTC R7465	31,430	139

which maketh some appear lighter and others heavier It cannot be doubted but that the Systeme in which we are is such as hath bin declared since of so many which Philosophers have fancied there is none but this which agrees perfectly with that delivered by Moses Besides that therein we find in a very natural and very simple motion not only the Causes of the general Phaenomena as are the Direction Station and Retrogradation of the Planets of the Motion of the Spots of the Sun of the Motion of the Planets about their Center of the Vicissitudes of Days and Nights and of the Diversity of the Seasons but also of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea of all the Proprieties observed in the Magnet and in short of all the Appearances in the particular Bodies Of all the Systemes there is none that deserveth so much to be rejected as that of Ptolomy For besides that from the Aggregate of all the parts thereof there results a Whole that is monstrous it is not able to give an accompt why Venus appears sometimes increasing and sometimes full why Mars Jupiter Saturn are alwaies in the lower part of their Epicycle at the time when they are retrograde why the Moon respects us alwayes from the same side why Saturn appears to us under different Shapes now round then oval nor give a reason of many Appearances more Of the PRODUCTIONS made in the Bowels of the Earth THE Diversity of the Pores of the Earth is the Cause that the Matter of the first Element passing through them taketh the Form of so many several Juices Salts and Oyles of which are afterwards formed all the Metals and Minerals which are found in the Bowels of the same The Magnet hath the propriety to draw Iron or Iron to draw the Magnet only from this Cause that the Pores of them are so disposed that the striate or channell'd Matter as the Philosopher calls it which comes from the Poles of the Elementary Mass and continues its way thorow the Pores which are parallel to the Axe of the Earth pasing more easily through the pores of the Loadstone and of Iron than through those of all the other Bodies drives away by this means all the Air met with between both And because this Air finds no place to pass into because all is full but into that which the one or the other of these two Bodies quitteth there is a necessity that the Iron should be thrust towards the Loadstone or the Loadstone towards the Iron The Sea furnishes Water to all Fountains those that are on the tops of Mountains are formed of Waters that are reduced into Vapours by the heat which is found in the Entrails of the Earth The subterraneous Fires differ nothing at all from those that are kindled in our Chimneys They come from this that where there are Mines of Sulphur or Bitumen there are raised Exhalations which lighting upon subterraneous Cavities fasten to the Roofs as Soot does to the inside of our Chimneys and there make a kind of Crust which hath a great disposition to take Fire and which taketh flame actually either by the attrition of its parts which their weight loosens from one another or by the fall of some great Stone which tumbling down from the top of the Vault sets it on fire as the Pestle doth Gunpowder when being very dry 't is too violently stamped Of METEORS VVInds do principally come from nothing but the dilatation of Vapours And this dilatation depends from the presence of the Sun or from the heat he hath left in the Earth or in the Waters When the Sun riseth we feel an Easterly wind when he setteth a Westerly about Noon a Northerly and about Midnight a Southerly Men seldom fail to find these four sorts of Wind every day upon the great Seas but they are not in the same order observ'd upon Land by reason of the Mountains and of the variety of Climates which hinder it Mists and Clouds are nothing else but the same Vapours that made the Winds which having lost their agitation stop in great number in certain places and thereby hinder the action of the Rays of Light Rain is nothing else but the same Vapours that made the Clouds which are converted into many little drops of Water by the action of the Air which a wind hath carried upwards after it had been considerably heated near the Earth The parts of the Clouds which meet only with cold Air to pass through after that they are loosned do come unto us in the same state and by this means do make that Substance we call Snow Hail is nothing else but some portions of a Cloud which having been melted in part do meet with a cold Air that congealeth them afresh Thunder depends from this that in the Air there are divers Stories of Clouds of which the higher fall upon the lower the Air driven out from between them being determined to produce a sound for the same reason that another Air produces one in Musical Organs Lightning proceeds ordinarily from this that the Exhalations which are between two Clouds whereof the one falls upon the other are so pressed that there is some part of those Exhalations which swims but in the sole Matter of the first Element and consequently taketh the form of Fire A Thunderbolt is nothing else but a portion of these kindled Exhalations which moveth down to the Earth where it must needs strike high Bodies rather than lower ones and produce so many different and wondrous Effects as we see according to the Nature of the Exhalations of which this Thunder-bolt is formed A Rain-bow is nothing else but many drops of Rain which receiving the Rayes of the Sun break them many different ways and which after they have thus broken them return them to our Eyes with the modifications requisite to excite in us all the sentiments of the Colours we perceive in this Meteor Of SENSIBLE QUALITIES HArd Bodies are those all whose parts are at rest one by another Liquid Bodies are such as have all their parts moving separately whence it comes that these latter have the propriety of dissolving the former And if a Liquid is unable to dissolve an Hard Body or if it have the force to dissolve one rather than another that proceeds from hence that its parts are more or less gross or agitated and from this that the configuration of the Pores of the Bodies which are to be dissolved is different All the diversities of Liquors consist in the different sizes and shapes of their parts Those that have irregular and entangling figures do compose Liquors that are called Fat and those whose figures are very well polish'd and very smooth make those we call Lean. All Liquors are kept in motion by the matter of the first and second Element which slides into their Pores and moveth alwayes of it self ever since it was first put in motion in the beginning of the World The constrained Figure

according to the difference of their grossness or solidity Now as we have noted that they were all covered with their Waters and that the matter of the Vortexes which according to this Doctrine is the matter of the Firmament separated them from the Earth it was true to say following the same Doctrine as well as that of Genesis that the Waters were severed from the Waters by the formation of the Firmament Thus M. Des Cartes who seems always to follow Moses disposeth the Waters so that they are some above and some under the Firmament For we know that what the Prophet calls in this place Vnder is the Earth we inhabit and all that is severed from it by the Celestial matter may be said in respect of us to be above the Firmament I do not explain this more at large nor do I examine how well these different Conservatories of Waters which M. Des Cartes placeth in several parts of Heaven do represent those Cataracts whence the Lord drew forth at the time of his wrath what served to overwhelm the Earth Neither do I make reflection upon the Changes which have happened to the Earth by this super-abundance of Waters This is perhaps the cause of the Clouds Rains and the first apparition of that admirable Phaenomenon which the Lord made use of to secure Noah against the apprehensions of a new Deluge when he promised him to shut up for ever those Cataracts which he had opened for his vengeance but this would carry us too far The THIRD DAY THe Third Day Moses observeth that the Waters covering the Globe of the Earth it was convenient to gather them together into certain places to the end that the other parts thereof remaining discovered the Earth might produce Herbs Plants and Trees of all kinds He saith that the same word which had operated the wonders of the precedent days wrought that also To which he adds that what appeared dry was called Earth and the collection of the Waters Sea Now it is evident that if the Earth had remained perfectly round the waters could not have been gathered into places to leave others dry We must therefore believe that the same day which saw the separation of the Waters from the Earth saw also the formation of the Hills and that certain parts of the Earth being raised above others left Vallies betwixt them for Beds to the waters and Cavities under their Elevations to receive a quantity of water approaching to that which should appear no more 'T is thus that M. Des Cartes explicateth the matter He declareth also how the Earth was enabled to produce herbs plants and trees and how the different Juices which run within the bosom of the Earth insinuate themselves into several Seeds whose pores are adapted to their figure I desire you in this place to observe that Moses saith not that God made any Soul for Plants he only saith that the Earth rendred fertile by the word of the Lord did produce them But those Philosophers who have alwaies had recourse to Souls when they would explicate the effects of certain Organical Bodies of which they could not discover the Springs have given one to every Plant. They have believed that it was impossible to give an accompt of Vegetation without it But M. Des Cartes without adding any thing to the Scripture where Moses speaketh of Plants of their Seeds of their increase and fruit without speaking of any Soul hath believed there needed none to be supposed to give a reason of their Nutrition and he hath so clearly shewed that Vegetation is performed by the local motion of the parts which come in afresh and by the fitness of their figure to the pores of that plant which they are proper to increase that I think I may assure that there is none how little soever accustomed to Ratiocination but will acknowledge after he hath examined what he saith on this Subject that there remains not the least probability to maintain that Plants have Souls Yet you know that there are yet some who will defend that there are Vegetative Souls But what I pray can authorize them Not Reason surely That tells us all that things ought not to be multiplied without necessity and since we do manifestly see that Figure and Motion may be the entire cause of Vegetation we ought not to no purpose have recourse to Souls Nor can it be the Authority either of Man or of the H. Scripture for that of Man cannot be considerable against the evidence of natural Notions and against the Experiments by which this Errour is convinced As to that of Sacred Writ it is manifest that that is not on their side and nothing appears there that may come near to what they would attribute to Plants viz. a Vegetative Soul The FOURTH DAY THe Fourth Word did form two great Luminaries in the Firmament to divide perfectly the Day from the Night and to mark the difference of Dayes Seasons and Years The same Word formed also the Stars according to the History of Moses M. Des Cartes explaining this as a Naturalist saith that the several Vortexes which had been formed of all the Celestial matter having been adapted to one another as was most convenient for the continuation of their motions there flowed so much of the most subtil matter towards the Center of each of them by the pressure of the Globules which tended to recede from it that at length each of the Whirlpools came to have in his middle so great a quantity of this matter that it was able to propel the globules to the extremities ' of the Whirlpool and by this action to form such Rays as those are whose force makes us see the shining Sun He adds that this subtil matter gathered at the Center of each Vortex may have force enough to thrust the Globules of the Neighbouring Vortexes and to make there its action sensible So that according to this Author the shining collection of subtil matter which was made in the Center of this Vortex wherein was the Earth was in respect of it the greatest Luminary that is the Sun Those that were made in the other Vortexes were Stars and that of all the great Masses which was found nearest and most disposed to propel towards it the Light of the Sun was the lesser Luminary that is the Moon I shall say no more of it and 't is so well known that the difference of Dayes Nights and Seasons comes from the different situation wherein the Earth the Sun other Stars are found that I should be tedious to repeat here what M. Des Cartes hath written on this Subject The FIFTH SIXTH DAY THe Fifth Day God said Let the Waters produce the Moving Creature that hath a living Soul and Fowl that fly above the Earth And the Sixth Day he said Let the Earth bring forth the Living Creature after its kind Cattel and creeping things and Beasts of the Earth I do not add the rest for it is

enough to say that God would have it so to let men know that it was so This Place teaching us that if it may be said that Fish and the other Brute Animals have Souls these Souls are produced by the Waters and the Earth M. Des Cartes had reason to believe that what is here called Soul is nothing else but little Bodies so adjusted to the Organs of Fishes and other Brutes that they make them live move and grow He hath admirably explained upon this Subject the Circulation of the Bloud the manner how it is heated in the Heart how it runs into the Arteries whose different pores let out the particles which their figure maketh fit for the nourishment of the Members and how the finest parts of all extricate themselves from the rest to go to the Brain whence they are distributed into Muscles where they serve for the motion of the whole Body He doth give such an accurate accompt of all these things only by the figure and the motion of the little Bodies and the disposition of the Organs that there can remain no doubt of them And that it may not seem a wonder what he saith of the heat of the Bloud which he maketh the chief Spring of all those Functions commonly called Vital and Animal he proves that they must necessarily be performed by Bodies without the need of any Soul adding to his Reasons the example of certain Liquors which are cold to the touch when they are asunder but grow presently hot even to a degree of ebullition when they are blended together As this effervescence happens to Liquors which are not so much as suspected to have Souls M. Des Cartes hath me thinks advanced nothing but what is rational when he saith That the heat of the Bloud joined to the disposition and the dependance of the Organs is able without a Soul to cause the nutrition and motion of Brutes Me thinks also that he had reason since what the Vulgar Translation calls a Living Soul was produced by the Waters and the Earth to believe that this kind of Souls were only Bodies And indeed there are so many places whereby we may know that this was the meaning of Moses that 't is a wonder to me to find men still doubting thereof I should tire you to recite them all to you let me only desire you to reflect a little on Lev. 17. 11. where you will plainly find what it is that enlivens Flesh and Beasts The Soul of all Flesh is in the Bloud The same saith M. Des Cartes But Deut. 12. 23. Moses expresseth himself yet more clearly to make us understand that Beasts have no other Souls than the Bloud Only be sure that thou eat not the Bloud for the Bloud is the Soul And that it might be yet more understood he adds And therefore thou maist not eat the Soul but shalt pour it upon the Earth as water Is there not then all the reason in the world that those Souls which the earth produceth which may be eaten and poured out upon the earth as water should be counted among Bodies I grant indeed that the bloud when it is heated is exhaled in very subtil parts and that these fine parts are those which do nourish and move But how subtil soever they be they are Bodies and they have nothing more of spiritual in them than flame composed of parts yet more subtil which yet never any man was so unadvised as to call spiritual I wonder for my part that those who have given Souls to all that is nourish'd have given none to a Flame which converts into it all the bodies it lays hold on And what is more I wonder how men could come to attribute to Souls the cause of Nutrition and Motion whereas we see nothing but Body that is capable to be moved and that Nutrition is nothing else but an addition of Bodies to Bodies But without insisting so much upon Ratiocination is it not visible that Moses who certainly ought to be believed acknowledges no other thing for the cause of the motion and nutrition of Beasts but the bloud I think not that any man who considers it will contend about it any longer But that you may the better know the force of all these passages which hitherto I have only taken according to the Vulgar Translation and which according to this version leave no difficulty although the word Soul have been there employed I shall now make use of a means which wil prevail upon your spirit and better perswade you than any other You know more than one Language and among others you know the Hebrew which I understand not I shall tell you then that a while ago reflecting on that place of Scripture where is described the work of the Fifth and that of the Sixth Day there appeared to me so great a difference betwixt the manner in which the formation of Brutes and that of Man was made that I believed what word soever was used in the Vulgar there must be used very differing Expressions in the Hebrew I saw that the Vulgar said that the Beasts have a Living Soul and that the same Translation used the same word to signifie the Life of Man But I found withal that besides that living Soul which the Vulgar gives to Man as it doth to Brutes 't is added that Man was made to the Image of his Maker whom I knew to be a pure Spirit Whence I concluded that since this Resemblance could not be drawn from the Body the Creator having none it must needs be taken from something of a superiour order and in a word from the Spirit To this I added what the Vulgar expresseth speaking of Man in the Second Chap. of Gen. Where I saw that the Lord who had made him a living Creature as the Beasts had breathed into him something which Beasts had not and which me thought should be in him the Principle of a Life altogether different from theirs and the cause of that advantageous resemblance which he was to have with his Maker All these things did already sway much with me for the advantage of Man but believing that I might yet better discover the sense of those places by getting the Interpretation of the Hebrew I consulted Monsieur de Compiegne who is known to be the ablest we have in this Language I prayed him to give me the Version of the first and second Chapter of Genesis and in this Version I found the full proof of what I always thought and of what M. Des Cartes had written on this Subject For I saw that in the place which speaks of the Production of Fishes and other Brutes where the Vulgar saith Let the Waters and the Earth bring forth Living Souls my Interpreter said Let the Earth and the Water produce Living Individuals which carrieth with it a very good sense and expresseth the thing in a far more conceivable manner For it is very intelligible that the Earth and Waters have

Design of the Prophet and also that of the Philosopher you will confess that this difference ought not to make us say that they have receded from one another Moses hath delivered the thing as 't was done He saith that God created the Earth the Waters the Celestial Parts then the Light and the rest so that when the Sun was created the Earth was already inriched with Fruits and adorned with Flowers Whereas M. Des Cartes maketh the Sun the Cause not only of the Fruits and Flowers but also of the gathering together of many inward parts of the Earth The same also maketh the Earth to have been formed a long time after the Sun although the Scripture noteth that it was created before But here we are to take notice of 2 things The one is that M. Des Cartes hath said himself that his Hypothesis was false in this that he supposeth that the formation of each Being is made successivly assuring that this way not being so proper for God we are to believe that his Omnipotency hath put every thing in the most perfect condition it could be in from the first moment of its production The other is that M. Des Cartes was like a Philosopher to explicate only the reason why things are conserved as they are and the different effects we now admire in Nature Now as 't is certain that things are naturally conserved by the same means which hath produced them so it was necessary for to find whether the Laws which he supposeth Nature follows to conserve her self are true that he should examine whether the same Laws could have disposed it as now it is And finding that according to the History of Moses it self although the Sun was formed after the Earth it is yet by the Sun that God conserveth the Earth as now it is the heat thereof being cause of all the Productions and Changes therein M. Des Cartes was to shew that this same Sun could have put it into that state we now find it in if the great Creator had not put it there in an instant by his Omnipotent power 'T is true indeed that the manner in which M. Des Cartes describeth that the Sun hath disposed the Earth is successive which he acknowledgeth as I have already noted to be not so sutable to God in producing things But however as that which God doth in conserving the World is successive and must be so that every thing may have a certain duration it was proper for our Philosopher to examine whether the Principles which he laid down to give an accompt of the duration of all Natural Beings could have produced them by succession of time which he hath done with an exactness which seems to me incomparable And so M. Des Cartes hath therein done nothing contrary to the Design of Moses Moses knew that 't is by the Sun that God conserveth the Earth and the Natural Beings those at least which are nearest unto us but lest it should be thought that that Luminary was the cause of all he would have us know that Light which depends most of all from the Sun was made before the Sun And this was necessary to give notice of to those who were to know these Wonders that God hath wrought them all by his sole will and if he conserveth them now with a kind of mutual Dependency yet they do not owe their Being nor their Conservation to one another but to God alone M. Des Cartes on his part being to explain that correspondence which God hath put between the things of Nature and being to give an accompt by the Sun of all that is done in that part of the World which is most known to men could not better declare to us how well the Sun is fitted and disposed by the First Power to maintain the natural state of all we see than by shewing that following this same disposition the Sun could have in progress of time put our World into the condition 't is in if it had not been more proper to form all the Creatures in an Order altogether contrary to that which was required by the dependance that now is between them and to produce each Being in a way which might shew that as the Author of the World had need of nothing to make all things so he needed no time to bring forth any of the things we admire Lastly If you consider that that Wisdom which put the first Man into his most perfect state from the first moment of his Production did subject his Conservation to the same Laws from which he hath made to depend the formation of those that are born of him and that for the right knowledge of the Nature of Man it would be much more proper to examine the different Changes which happen in the Seed from the time of Conception unto the Birth of those that are generated than to examine the miraculous formation of him whom Omnipotency finish'd in beginning him you will doubtless find that for the well knowing whether what is taught of the Laws which conserve the order of Nature be true there is no better way than to consider whether those Laws could have produced the same I will not examine here whether what is commonly believed of the stability of the Earth is better explicated by the Hypothesis of M. Des Cartes than by those which have preceded him Neither shall I examine whether it be more true than others himself hath said as I have already noted that it may be false And certainly among an Infinity of ways which God may use to make one and the same thing it is difficult to assure which that is he hath taken actually But me thinks that Men have reason to be content when they have found one of them which can give an accompt of all the Phaenomena and is not contrary to what the H. Scripture and the Church propose to us M. Des Cartes hath been so shy to advance any thing not conform to what they declare to us that he hath expresly submitted to the one what he seems to have wholly taken out of the other Thus whosoever shall read his Writings with the same Spirit wherein he wrote them will not be in any danger of being deceived and will be alwayes ready to acknowledge his Errors as soon as those that are to direct his Belief shall make him understand them As for me I am perswaded that if we should condemn what M. Des Cartes hath written touching the manner in which the several Aspects of the Sun the Earth are made and that upon judging it would not be a sufficient stability for the Earth to remain always at rest in the midst of all the Celestial matter which is found between the Body of the Moon and it we should come to determine that the Circle which M. Des Cartes makes all that matter run through in 1. year about the Sun is contrary to what we ought to believe of the rest of the Earth