sinnewy circle wherevnto is fastened the case of the hart called the Pericardium This Diaphragma is very sensible receiuing its vertue of feeling from the aboue mentioned branch of the sixt couple of nerues and being of a trembling nature is by our respiration kept in continuall motion and flappeth vpon all occasions as a drumme head would do if it were slacke and moyst or as a sayle would do that were brought into the wind Out of this description of it it is obuious to conceiue that all the changes of motion in the hart must needes be expressed in the Diaphragma For the hart beating vpon the Pericardium and the Pericardium being ioyned to the Diaphragma such iogges and vibrations must needes be imprinted and ecchoed there as are formed in the hart which from thence can not choose but be carryed to the braine by the sixt couple of nerues And thus it cometh about that we feele and haue sensation of all the passions that are moued in our hart Which peraduenture is the reason why the Greekes do call this part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from it deriue the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in latine signifyeth Sapere with vs to sauour or to like for by this part of our body we haue a liking of any obiect or a motion of inclination towardes it from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is deriued by composition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prudent man is he that liketh and is moued to compasse wholesome and good thinges Which Etymology of the word seemeth vnto me more naturall then from the phrenesy from whence some deriue it because a great distemper or inflammation in the Diaphragma often causeth that disease Now because the obiect is cōueyed frō the braine to the hart some part of its way by the same passage as the motion of the hart is reconueyed backe to the braine it must of necessity follow that who is more attētiue to outward sense doth lesse consider or reflect vpō his passion and who is more attentiue to obserue and be gouuerned by what passeth in his hart is lesse wrought vpon by externall thinges For if his fantasy draweth strongly vnto it the emanations from outward agents vpon the senses the streame of those emanations will descend so strongly from the ouerfilled fantasy into the hart that it will hinder the ascent of any fewer and weaker spirits by the same pipe But if the current do sett strongest vpwardes from the hart by the Diaphragma to the braine then it will so fill the pipe by which it ascendeth that little of a weaker tyde can make a contrary eddy water in the same channell And by this meanes nature effecteth a second pleasure or paine in a liuing creature which moueth it oftentimes very powerfully in absence of the primary obiect as we may obserue when thinking of any pleasing or displeasing action we find about our hart a motion which enticeth vs to it or auerteth vs from it for as the first pleasure was occasioned by the stroake which the obiect applyed to the outward sense made vpon the fantasy which can iudge of nothing without being strucken by it so the second pleasure springeth from the spirits moued in the hart by messengers from the braine which by the Diaphragma do rebound a stroake backe againe vpon the fantasy And from hence it proceedeth that memory delighteth or afflicteth vs and that we think of past thinges with sweetenesse or with remorse and thereby assuefaction is wrought in beastes as farre as the appetitiue part doth contribute therevnto to perfect what was begunne in their cognoscitiue part by the ingression of corporeall speciefes into their fantasy in order to the same effect as we haue touched before But now lett vs examine how so small a quantity of a body as cometh from an obiect into our sense can be the cause of so great a motion about our hart To which purpose we are to remember that this motion is performed in the most subtile and thinne substance that can be imagined they are the vitall spirits that do all this worke which are so subtile so agile and so hoat that they may in some sort be termed fire Now if we reflect how violent fire is we neede not wonder at the suddaine and great motion of these passions But we must further take notice that they are not in the greatest excesse but where the liuing creature hath beene long inured and exercised vnto them eyther directly or indirectly so that they arriue not to that pitch so much out of the power of the agent as out of the preparation and disposition of the patient as when cold water hath beene often heated by extinguishing red hoat irons in it after some repetitions a few quenchinges will reduce it from cold to boyling that at the first would scarce haue made it lukewarme and accordingly we see a hart that for a long time hath loued and vehemently hath desired enioying is transported in a high degree at the least sight and renuance of stroakes from its beloued obiect and is as much deiected vpon any the least depriuation of it for to such an obiect the liuing creature is hurried away by a force much resembling the grauity or celerity of a dense body that is sett on running downe a steepe hill vnto which the only taking away of a weake lett or the least stoppe giueth a precipitate course not out of the force of what is done to it but out of the force which was formerly in the thing though for the present it lay there vndiscouered and so likewise in these cases the obiect rather giueth the occasion of the violent motion then the force or power to it These thinges being thus determined some peraduenture may aske how it cometh to passe that the spirits which cause motion being sent on their arrant by the braine do alwayes hitt the right way and light duely into those very sinnewes which moue the liuing creature according as is requisite for its nature Since all the passages are open what is it that gouerneth them so as they neuer mistake and the animal is neuer driuen towardes harme insteed of flying from it Who is their guide in these obscure pathes But it were to impute ignorance to the maker to think that he framed all the passages alike and so euery one of them promiscuously apt to receiue into them all sorts of spirits howsoeuer they be moued and therefore we may assure our selues that since in these diuersities of occasions there are likewise diuers kinds of motions from the hart◠eyther there is proportionable vnto them diuers kindes of passages fitt to receiue and entertaine the spirits according to the condition they are in so as the passages which are aiusted to one kind of spirits will not admitt any of an other nature or else the first motions of liking or disliking in the hart which as we haue said
actiue qualities heate and cold whereof the first was in its greatest excesse in fire and the latter in water To reconcile these we are to consider that the action of cold in its greatest height is composed of two partes the one is a kind of pressing and the other is penetration which requireth applicability Of which two the former ariseth out of density but the latter out of moderation of density as I haue declared in the precedent Chapter Wherefore the former will exceede more in earth though the whole be more eminent in water For though considering onely the force of moouing which is a more simple and abstracted notion then the determination and particularisation of the Elements and is precedent to it therein earth hath a precedency ouer water yet taking the action as it is determined to be the action of a particular Element and as it concurreth to the composition or dissolution of mixed bodies in that consideration which is the chiefe worke of Elements and requireth an intime application of the Agents water hath the principality and excesse ouer earth As for fire it is more actiue then eyther of them as it will appeare clearely if we consider how when fire is applyed to fewell and the violence of blowing is added to its owne motion it incorporateth it selfe with the fewell and in a small time conuerteth a great part of it into its owne nature and shattereth the rest into smoake and ashes All which proceedeth from the exceeding smallnesse and drynesse of the partes of fire which being mooued with violence against the fewell and thronging in multitudes vpon it they easily pierce the porous substance of it like so many extreme sharpe needles And that the force of fire is as greate and greater then of earth we may gather out of our former discourse where hauing resolued that density is the vertue by which a body is moued and doth cutt the medium and againe considering that celerity of motion is a kind of density as we shall by and by declare it is euident that since blowing must of necessity presse violently and with a rapide motion the partes of fire against the fewell and so condense them exceedingly there both by theire celerity and by bringing very many partes together there it must needes also giue them actiuity and vertue to pierce the body they are beaten against Now that celerity is a kind of density will appeare by comparing theire natures For if we consider that a dense body may be dilated so as to possesse and fill the place of a rare body that exceeded it in bignesse and by that dilatation may be diuided into as many and as greate partes as the rare body was diuisible into wee may conceiue that the substance of those partes was by a secret power of nature foulded vp in that litle extension in which it was before And euen so if we reflect vpon two riuers of equall channels and depths whereof the one goeth swifter then the other and determine a certaine length of each channell and a common measure of time wee shall see that in the same measure of time there passeth a greater bulke of water in the designed part of the channell of the swifter streame then in the designed part of the slower though those partes be equall Neither doth it import that in velocity we take a part of time whereas in density it seemeth that an instant is sufficient and consequently there would be no proportion betweene them For knowing Philosophers do all agree that there are no instants in time and that the apprehension of them proceedeth meerely from the manner of our vnderstanding And as for partes in time there can not be assumed any so litle in which the comparison is not true and so in this regard it is absolutely good And if the Reader haue difficulty att the disparity of the thinges which are pressed together in density and in celerity for that in density there is onely substance and in celerity there is also quantity crowded vp with the substance he will soone receiue satisfaction when he shall consider that this disparity is to the aduantage of what we say and maketh the nature of density more perfect in celerity and consequently more powerfull in fire then in earth Besides if there were no disparity it would not be a distinct species of density but the very same By what we haue spoken aboue it appeareth how fire getteth into fewell now lett vs consider how it cometh out for the actiuity of that fierce body will not lett it lye still and rest as long as it hath so many enemies round about it to rouse it vp Wee see then that as soone as it hath incorporated it selfe with the fewell and is growne master of it by introducing into it so many of its owne partes like so many soldiers into an enemies towne they breake out againe on euery side with as much violence as they came in For by reason of the former resistance of the fewell theire continuall streaming of new partes vpon it and one ouertaking an other there where theire iourney was stopped all which is encreased by the blowing doth so exceedingly condense them into a narrower roome then theire nature affecteth that as soone as they gett liberty and grow masters of the fewel which att the first was theire prison they enlarge theire place and consequently come out and flye abroad euer ayming right forwardes from the point where they begin theire iourney for the violence wherewith they seeke to extend themselues into a larger roome when they haue liberty to do so will admitt no motion but the shortest which is by a straight line So that if in our fantasie we frame an image of a round body all of fire wee must withall presently conceiue that the flame proceeding from it would diffuse it selfe euery way indifferently in straight lines in such sort that the source seruing for the center there would be round about it an huge sphere of fire and of light vnlesse some accidentall and externe cause should determine its motion more to one part then to an other Which compasse because it is round and hath the figure of a sphere is by Philosophers termed the sphere of its actiuity So that it is euident that the most simple and primary motion of fire is a fluxe in a direct line from the center of it to its circumference taking the fewell for its center as also that when it is beaten against a harder body it may be able to destroy it although that body be in its owne nature more dense then fire For the body against which it presseth eyther hath pores or hath none as the Elements haue none if it hath pores then the fire by reason of the violent motion of the impellent driueth out the litle bodies which fill vp those pores and succeeding in theire roome and being multiplyed there causeth those effects which in our discourse of the
gleweth their earthy partes together greater and greater doth make a wider and wider separation betweene those little earthy partes And so imbueth the whole body of the water with thē into which they are dispersed in little atomes Those that are of biggest bulke remaine lowest in the water And in the same measure as their quantities dissolue into lesse and lesse they ascend higher and higher in the water till att the length the water is fully replenished with them and they are diffused through the whole body of it whiles the more grosse and heauy earthy partes hauing nothing in them to make a present combination betweene them and the water do fall downe to the bottome and settle vnder the water in dust In which because earth alone doth predominate in a very great excesse we can expect no other vertue to be in it but that which is proper to meere earth to witt drynesse and weight Which ordinary Alchymistes looke not after and therefore call it Terra damnata but others find a fixing quality in it by which they performe very admirable operations Now if you powre the impregnated water from the Terra damnata and then euaporate it you will find a pure white substance remaining Which by its bulke sheweth it selfe to be very earthy and by its pricking and corrosiue tast will informe you much fire is in it and by its easy dissolution in a moist place that water had a great share in the production of it And thus the saltes of bodies are made and extracted Now as water doth dissolue salt so by the incorporation and vertue of that corrosiue substance it doth more then salt it selfe can doe for hauing gotten acrimony and more weight by the mixture and dissolution of salt in it it maketh it selfe a way into solide bodies euen into mettals as we see in brasse and iron which are easily rusted by salt dissoluing vpon them And according as the saltes are stronger so this corrosiue vertue encreaseth in them euen so much as neyther syluer nor gold are free from their eating quality But they as well as the rest are diuided into most small partes and are made to swimme in water in such sort as we haue explicated aboue and whereof euery ordinary Alchymist teacheth the practise But this is not all salts do helpe as well to melt hard bodies and mettalls as to corrode them for some fusible salts flowing vpon them by the heate of the fire and others dissolued by the streame of the mettall that incorporateth with them as soone as they are in fluxe they mingle with the naturall iuice of the mettall and penetrate them deeper then without them the fire could doe and swell them and make them fitt to runne These are the principall wayes of the two last instruments in dissoluing of bodies taking each of them by it selfe But there remaineth one more of very great importance as well in the workes of nature as of art in which both the former are ioyned and do concure and that is putrefraction Whose way of working is by gentle heate and moisture to wett and pierce the body it worketh vpon whereby it is made to swell and the hoat partes of it being loosened they are att length druncke vp and drowned in the moist ones from whence by fire they are easily separated as we haue already declared and those moist partes afterwardes leauing it the substance remaineth dry and falleth in pieces for want of the glew that held it together THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities af bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world OVt of what we haue determined concerning the naturall actions of bodies in their making and destroying one an other it is easy to vnderstand the right meaning of some termes and the true reason of some maximes much vsed in the schooles As first when Philosophers attribute vnto all sortes of corporeall Agents a Sphere of Actiuity The sense of that manner of expression in fire appeareth plainely by what we haue already declared of the nature and manner of operation of that Element And in like manner if we consider how the force of cold consisteth in a compression of the body that is made cold we may preceiue that if in the cooled body there be any subtile partes which can breake forth from the rest such compression will make them do so Especially if the compression be of little partes of the compressed body within themselues as well as of the outward bulke of the whole body round about for at first the compression of such causeth in the body where they are little holes or pores in the places they are compressed and driuen from which pores they filled vp when they were dilated att their owne naturall liberty But being thus forcibly shrunke vp into lesse roome afterwardes they squeese againe out of their croude all such very loose and subtile partes residing till then with them as can find their way out from among them And these subtile partes that thus are deliuered from the colds compression gett first into the pores that we haue shewed were made by this compression But they can not long stay there for the atomes of aduenient cold that obsesse the compressed body do likewise with all their force throng into those pores and soone driue out the subtile guestes they find there because they are more in number bigger in bulke and more violent in their course then they Who therefore must yield vnto them the little channels and capacities they formerly tooke vp Out of which they are thrust with such an impetuosity that they spinne from them with a vehemence as quickesiluer doth through leather when to purify it or to bring an Amalgame to a due consistence it is strained through the sides of it Now these shoures or streames of atomes issuing from the compressed body are on all sides round about it att exceeding little distances because the pores out of which they are driuen are so likewise And consequently there they remaine round about besieging it as though they would returne to their originall homes as soone as the vsurping strāgers that were too powerfull for thē will giue thē leaue And according to the multitude of thē and to the force with which they are driuen out the compasse they take vp round about the cōpressed body is greater or lesser Which besieging atomes are not so soone carried away by any exterior and accidentall causes but they are supplyed by new emanations succeeding them out of the said compressed body Now this which we haue declared by the example of cold cōpressing a particular body happeneth in all bodies wheresoeuer they be in the world for this being the vnauoydable effect of heate and of cold wheresoeuer they reside which are the actiue qualities by whose meanes not onely fire and water and the other two Elements but all other mixed bodies composed of the
when in Greeneland the extreme cold freeseth the whalefishers beere into yce so that the stewardes diuide it with axes and wedges and deliuer their portions of drink to their shippes company and their shallopes gings in their bare handes but in the innermost part of the butte they find some quantity of very strong liquor not inferior to moderate spiritt of wine Att the first before custome had made it familiar vnto them they wondered that euery time they drew att the tappe when first it came from their shippes to the shore for the heate of the hold would not lett it freese no liquor would come vnlesse they new tapped it with a longer gimlett but they thought that paines well recompenced by finding it in the tast to grow stronger and stronger till att the last their longest gimlets would bring nothing out and yet the vessell not a quarter drawne off which obliged them then to staue the caske that so they might make vse of the substance that remained The reason of this is euident that cold seeking to condense the beere by mingling its dry and cold partes with it those that would endure this mixture were imbibed and shrunke vp by them But the other rare and hoat partes that were squeesed out by the dense ones which entered to congeale the beere and were forced into the middle of the vessell which was the furthest part for them to retire vnto from their enuironing enemies did conserue themselues in their liquid forme in defyance of the assaulting cold whiles their fellowes remaining by their departure more grosse and earthy then they were before yielded to the conqueror they could not shift away from and so were dryed and condensed into yce which when the mariners thawed they found it like faire water without any spirits in it or comforting heate to the stomacke This māner of condensation which we haue described in the freesing of beere is the way most practised by nature I meane for immediate condensation for cōdentsation is secondarily wheresoeuer there is rarefaction which we haue determined to be an effect of heate And the course of it is that a multitude of earthy and dry bodies being driuen against any liquor they easily diuide it by meanes of their density their drynesse and their littlenesse all which in this case do accompany one an other and are by vs determined to be powerfull diuiders and when they are gotten into it they partly sucke into their owne pores the wett and diffused partes of the liquide body and partly they make them when themselues are full sticke fast to their dry sides and become as a glew to hold themselues strongly together And thus they dry vp the liquor and by the naturall pressing of grauity they contract it into a lesser roome No otherwise then when we force much wind or water into a bottle and by pressing it more and more make it lye closer then of its owne nature it would do Or rather as when ashes being mingled with water both those substances do sticke so close to one an other that they take vp lesse roome then they did each apart This is the methode of frostes and of snow and of yce both naturall and artificcall for in naturall freesing ordinarily the north or northeast wind by its force bringeth and driueth into our liquors such earthy bodies as it hath gathered from rockes couered with snow which being mixed with the light vapors whereof the wind is made do easily find way into the liquors and thē they dry thē into that consistēce which we call yce Which in token of the wind it hath in it swimmeth vpon the water and in the vessel where it is made riseth higher then the water did whereof it is cōposed and ordinarily it breaketh frō the sides of the vessell so giuing way to more wind to come in and freese deeper and thicker But because Galileus Nel discorso intorno alle cose che stanno in su l'acqua pag. 4. was of opinion that yce was water rarifyed and not condensed we must not passe ouer this verity without maintaining it against the opposition of so powerfull an aduersary His arguments are first that yce taketh vp more place then the water did of which it was made which is against the nature of condensation Secondly that quantity for quantity yce is lighter then water whereas thinges that are more dense are proportionally more heauy And lastly that yce swimmeth in water whereas we haue often taught that the more dense descendeth in the more rare Now to reply to these arguments we say first that we would gladly know how he did to measure the quantity of the yce with the quantity of the water of which it was made and then when he hath shewed it and shewed withall that yce holdeth more place then water we must tell him that his experiment concludeth nothing against our doctrine because there is an addition of other bodies mingled with the water to make yce of it as we touched aboue and therefore that compound may well take vp a greater place then the water alone did and yet be denser then it and the water also be denser then it was And that other bodies do come into the water and are mingled with it is euident out of the exceeding coldnesse of the ayre or some very cold wind one of which two neuer misseth to raigne whensoeuer the water freeseth and both of them do argue great store of little earthy dry bodies abounding in them which sweeping ouer all those that lye in their way and course must of necessity be mixed with such as giue them admittance which water doth very easily And accordingly we see that when in the freesing of water the yce groweth any thing deepe it eyther shrinketh about the borders or att the least lyeth very loose so as we can not doubt but that there is a free passage for more of such subtile bodies to gett still to the water and freese it deeper To his second argument we aske how he knoweth that yce quantity for quantity is lighter then water For although of a spunge that is full of water it be easy to know what the spunge weigheth and what the water that was soaked into it because we can part the one of them from the other and keepe each apart to examine their weights yet to do the like between yce and water if yce be throughout full of ayre as of necessity it must be we beleeue impossible And therefore it may be lighter in the bulke then water by reason of the great pores caused in it through the shrinking vp of the partes of water together which pores must then necessarily be filled with ayre and yet euery part by it selfe in which no ayre is be heauyer then so much water And by this it appeareth that his last argument grounded vpon the swimming of yce in water hath no more force then if he would proue that an iron or an earthen dish
were lighter and consequently more rare then water because it swimmeth vpon it which is an effect of the ayres being contained in the belly of it as it is in yce not a signe of the mettalls being more rare then water Whereas on the contrary side the proofe is positiue and cleare for vs for it can not be denyed but that the mingling of the water with other bodies more dense then it must of necessity make the compound and also the water it selfe become more dense then it was alone And accordingly we see that yce halfe thawed for then much of the ayre is driuen out and the water beginneth to fill the pores wherein the ayre resided before sinketh to the bottome as an iron dish with holes in it whereby the water might gett into it would do And besides we see that water is more diaphanous then yce and yce more consistent then water Therefore I hope we shall be excused if in this particular we be of a contrary opinion to this great personage But to returne vnto the thridde of our discourse The same that passeth here before vs passeth also in the skye with snow haile raine and wind Which that we may the better vnderstand lett vs consider how windes are made for they haue a maine influence into all the rest When the sunne or by some particular occurrent rayseth great multitudes of atomes from some one place and they eyther by the attraction of the sunne by some other occasion do take their course a certaine way this motion of those atomes we call a wind which according to the continuance of the matter from whence these atomes rise endureth a longer or a shorter time and goeth a farther or a shorter way like a riuer or rather like those eruptions of waters which in the Notherne partes of England they call Gypsies the which do breake out att vncertaine times and vpon vncertaine causes and flow likewise with an vncertaine duration So these windes being composed of bodies in a determinate proportion heauyer then the ayre do runne their course from their hight to the ground where they are supported as water is by the floore of its channell whiles they performe their carrire that is vntill they be wasted eyther by the drawing of the sunne or by their sticking and incorporating into grosser bodies Some of these windes according to the complexion of the body out of which they are extracted are dry as those which come from barren mountaines couered with snow others are moist as those that come out of marishy or watry places others haue other qualities as of heate or cold of wholesomenesse or vnwholesomenesse and the like partly from the source and partly frō the bodies they are mingled with in their way Such then being the nature and origine of windes if a cold one do meete in the ayre with that moist body whereof otherwise raine would haue been made it changeth that moist body into snow or into haile if a dry wind meete with a wett body it maketh it more dry and so hindereth the raine that was likely to be but if the wett body ouercome the dry wind it bringeth the wind downe along with it as we see when a shoure of raine allayeth a great wind And that all this is so experience will in some particulars instruct vs as well as reason from whence the rest may be euidently inferred For we see that those who in imitation of nature would conuert water into yce do take snow or yce and mingle it with some actiue dry body that may force the cold partes of the snow from it and then they sett the water in some fitt vessell in the way that those little bodies are to take which by that meanes entering into it do straight incorporate themselues therewith and of a soddaine do conuert it into yce Which processe you may easily trye by mingling salt armoniake with the snow but much more powerfully by setting the snow ouer the fire whiles the glasse of water to be congealed standeth in it after the manner of an egg in salt And thus fire it selfe though it be the enemy and destroyer of all cold is made the instrument of freesing And the same reason holdeth in the cooling of wine with snow or yce when after it hath beene a competent time in the snow they whose charge it is do vse to giue the vessell that containeth the wine three or foure turnes in the snow so to mingle through the whole body of the wine the cold receiued first but in the outward partes of it and by pressing to make that without haue a more forcible ingression But the whole doctrine of Meteores is so amply so ingeniously and so exactely performed by that neuer enough praysed Gentleman Monsieur Des Cartes in his Meteorologicall discourses as I should wrong my selfe and my Reader if I dwelled any longer vpon this subiect And whose Physicall discourses had they beene diuulged before I had entered vpon this worke I am persuaded would haue excused the greatest part of my paines in deliuering the nature of bodies It were a fault to passe from treating of condensation without noting so ordinary an effect of it as is the ioyning together of partes of the same body or of diuers bodies In which we see for the most part that the solide bodies which are to be ioyned together are first eyther heated or moistened that is they are rarifyed and then they are left to cold ayre or to other cold bodies to thicken and condense as aboue we mentioned of syrupes and gellies and so they are brought to sticke firmely together In the like manner we see that when two mettalls are heated till they be almost brought to runninge and then are pressed together by the hammer they become one continued body The like we see in glasse the like in waxe and in diuers other thinges On the contrary side when a broken stone is to be pieced together the pieces of it must be wetted and the ciment must be likewise moistened and then ioyning them aptly and drying them they sticke fast together Glew is moistened that it may by drying afterwardes hold pieces of wood together And the spectaclemakers haue a composition which must be both heated and moistened to ioyne vnto handles of wood the glasses which they are to grinde And broken glasses are cimented with cheese and chalke or with garlike All these effects our sense euidently sheweth vs arise out of condēsation but to our reasō it belōgeth to examine particularly by what steppes they are performed Frst then we know that heate doth subtilise the little bodies which are in the pores of the heated body and partly also it openeth the pores of the body it selfe if it be of a nature that permitteth it as it seemeth those bodies are which by heate are mollifyed or are liquefactible Againe we know that moysture is more subtile to enter into small creekes then dry bodies are especially
surfaces 9 A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores 10 A coÌ„firmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1 The coÌ„nexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2 That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire 3 The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4 The second sort of coniunction is coÌ„pactednesse in simple Elements and it proceedeth from density 5 The third coniunction is of partes of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together 6 The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly 7 That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately 8 How mixed bodies arâ— framed in generall 9 The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10 The rule wherevnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11 Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12 What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two 13 Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element 14 What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15 Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16 Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other threâ— Elements 17 Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominâ—t Element ouer the other two 18 Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant 19 Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20 All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density 21 That in the planets and starres there is a like varietâ— of mixed bodies caused by light as here vpon Earth 22 In what maÌ„ner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the compositioÌ„ of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue 23 A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls 1 Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies 2 How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies 3 The seuerall effects of fire the second and chiefest instrumeÌ„t to dissolue all coÌ„pounded bodies 4 The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire 5 The reason why fire molteth gold but can not consume it 6 Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7 Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are 8 How water the third iâ—strumeÌ„t to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata 9 How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies 10 How putrefactioÌ„ is caused 1 What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents 2 The reason why no body can worke in distance 3 An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiomâ— 4 Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each AgeÌ„t must suffer in acting and actâ— in suffering 5 The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6 Why some notions do admitt of intension and Remission and others do not 7 That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure ElemeÌ„ts are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke 1 The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2 That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward and inward heat and how this is performed 3 Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4 The first manner of condensation by heate 5 The second manner of condensation by cold 6 That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed 7 How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed 8 How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation 9 Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstaÌ„ding receiue more of an other 10 The true reason of the former effect 11 The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others 1 What AttractioÌ„ is and from whence it proceedeth 2 The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity 3 The true reasâ— of attraction 4 Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer 5 The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons 6 That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe 7 Concerning attraction caused by fire 8 Concerning attractioÌ„ made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. 9 The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall 1 What is Filtration and how it is effected 2 What causeth the water in filtration to ascend 3 Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water 4 Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5 Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely 6 Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch 7 How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles 8 Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it 9 Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motâ—ons 1 The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiacke draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone Chap. 18. §. 7. 2 The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other 3 By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuatâ—d from one Pole to the other 4 Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5 This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone 6 A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect 7 The Loadestones generatioÌ„ by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe 8 Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2 Obiections against the former positioÌ„ answered 3 The loadestone is imbued
the same biggenesse and consequently be conuerted into a greater Quantity of fire and ayre Oyle will make much more flame then spiritt of wine that is farre rarer then it These and such like considerations haue much perplexed Philosophers and haue driuen them into diuerse thoughts to find out the reasons of them Some obseruing that the diuiding of a body into litle partes maketh it lesse apt to descend then when it is in greater haue beleeued the whole cause of litghnesse and rarity to be deriued from diuision As for example they find that lead cutt into litle pieces will not goe downe so fast in water as when it is in bulke and it may be reduced into so small atomes that it will for some space swimme vpon the water like dust of wood Which assumption is prooued by the greate Galileus vnto whose excellent witt and admirable industry the world is beholding not onely for his wonderfull discoueries made in the heauens but also for his accurate and learned declaring of those very thinges that lye vnder our feete He about the 90th page of his first Dialogue of motion doth clearly demonstrate how any reall medium must of necessity resist more the descent of a litle piece of lead or any other weighty matter then it would a greater piece and the resistence will be greater and greater as the pieces are lesser and lesser So that as the pieces are made lesse they will in the same medium sinke the slower and do seeme to haue acquired a new nature of lightnesse by theire diminution not onely of hauing lesse weight in them then they had as halfe an ounce is lesse then a whole ounce but also of hauing in themselues a lesse proportion of weight to theire bulke then they had as a pound of corke is in regard of its magnitude lighter then a pound of lead so as they conclude that the thing whose continued partes are the lesser is in its owne nature the lighter and the rarer and other thinges whose continued partes are greater they be heauier and denser But this discourse reacheth not home for by it the weight of any body being discouered by the proportion it hath to the medium in which it descendeth it must euer suppose a body lighter then it selfe in which it may sinke and goe to the bottome Now of that lighter body I enquire what maketh it be so and you must answere by what you haue concluded that it is lighter then the other because the partes of it are lesse and more seuered from one an other for if they be as close together theire diuision auayleth them nothing since thinges sticking fast together do worke as if they were but one and so a pound of lead though it be filed into small dust if it be compacted hard together will sinke as fast as if it were in one bulke Now then allowing the litle partes to be seperated I aske what other body filleth vp the spaces betweene those litle partes of the medium in which your heauy body descended For if the partes of water are more seuered then the partes of lead there must be some other substance to keepe the partes of it a sunder lett vs suppose this to be ayre and I aske whether an equall part of ayre be as heauy as so much water or whether it be not If you say it is then the compound of water and ayre must be as heauy as lead seeing that theire partes one with an other are as much compacted as the partes of lead are For there is no difference whether those bodies whose litle partes are compacted together be of the same substance or of diuers or whether the one be diuided into smaller partes then the other or no so they be of equall weights in regard of making the whole equally heauy as you may experience if you mingle pinnedust with a sand of equall weight though it be beaten into farre smaller diuisions then the pinnedust and putt them in a bagge together But if you say that ayre is not so heauy as water it must be because euery part of ayre hath againe its partes more seuered by some other body then the partes of water are seuered by ayre And then I make the same instance of that body which seuereth the partes of ayre And so att the last since there can not actually be an infinite processe of bodies one lighter then an other you must come to one whose litle partes filling the pores and spaces between the partes of the others haue no spaces in themselues to be filled vp But as soone as you acknowledge such a body to be lighter and rarer then all the rest you contradict and destroy all you said before For by reason of its hauing no pores it followeth by your rule that the litle partes of it must be as heauy if not heauier then the litle partes of the same bignesse of that body whose pores it filleth and consequently it is proued by the experience we alleadged of pinnedust mingled with sand that the litle partes of it can not by theire mingling with the partes of the body in which it is immediately contained make that lighter then it would be if these litle partes were not mingled with it Nor would both theire partes mingled with the body which immediately containeth them make that body lighter And so proceeding on in the same sort through all the mingled bodies till you come to the last that is immediately mingled with water you will make water nothing the lighter for being mingled with all these and by consequence it should be as heauy and as dense as lead Now that which deceiued the authors of this opiniion was that they had not a right intelligence of the causes which made litle partes of bodies naturally heauy descend slowly in regard of the velocity of greater partes of the same bodies descending the doctrine of which we intend to deliuer hereafter Others therefore perceiuing this rule to fall short haue endeauoured to piece it out by the mixtion of vacuity among bodies belieuing it is that which maketh one rarer then an other Which mixtion they do not putt alwayes immediate to the maine body they consider but if it haue other rarer and lighter bodies mingled with it they conceiue this mixtion immediate onely to the rarest or lightest As for example a crystall being lighter and consequently rarer then a diamond they will not say that there is more vacuity in a crystall then in a diamond but that the pores of a crystall are greater and that consequently there is more ayre in a crystall to fill the pores of it then is in a diamond and the vacuities are in the ayre which abounding in a crystall more then in a diamond maketh that lighter and rarer then this by the more vacuities that are in the greater Quantity of ayre which is migled with it But against this supposition a powerfull aduersary is vrged for Aristotle in his 4th booke
Mathematically but Physically and that this infinite number of indiuisibles doth floate in an immense ocean of vacuum or imaginary space In this position lett any man who conceiueth theire groundes may be maintained explicate how one of these litle bodies is mooued For taking two partes of vacuum in which this body successiuely is it is cleare that really and not onely in my vnderstanding it is a difference in the said body to be now here now there wherefore when the body is gone thither the notion of being here is no more in the body and consequently is diuided from the body And therefore when the body was here there was a composition betweene the body and its being here which seeing it can not be betwixt two partes of Quantity must of necessity be such a kind of composition as wee putt betweene quantity and substance And certainely lett men wracke theire braines neuer so much they will neuer be able to shew how motion is made without some such composition and diuision vpon what groundes soeuer they proceede And if then they tell vs that they vnderstand not how there can be a diuisibility betweene substance and quantity wee may reply that to such a diuisibility two thinges are required first that the notions of substance and quantity be different secondly that the one of them may be changed without the other As for the first it is most euident wee make an absolute distinction betweene theire two notions both when wee say that Socrates was bigger a man then a boy and when wee conceiue that milke or water whiles it boyleth or wine whiles it worketh so as they runne ouer the vessels they are in are greater and possesse more place then when they were coole and quiet and filled not the vessell to the brimme For howsoeuer witty explications may seeme to euade that the same thing is now greater now lesser yett it can not be auoyded but that ordinary men who looke not into Phylosophy do both conceiue it to be so and in theire familiar discourse expresse it so which they could not do if they had not different notions of the substance and of the quantity of the thing they speake of And though wee had no such euidences the very names and definitions of them would putt it beyond strife all men calling substance a thing quantity biggenesse and referring a thing to Being as who would say that which is but biggenesse to some other of like nature vnto which it is compared as that it is halfe as bigge twice as bigge or the like This then being vnauoydable that the notions are distinguished there remaineth no difficulty but onely in the second namely that the one may be changed and the other not Which reason and demonstration do conuince as wee haue shewed Wherefore if any shall yett further reply that they do not vnderstand how such change is made wee shall answere by asking them whether they know how the change of being sometimes here sometimes there is made by locall motion in vacuum without a change in the body mooued Which question if they can not satisfy they must eyther deny that there is any locall motion in vacuum or else admitt a change in quantity without a change in substance for this latter is as euidently true as they suppose the former to be though the manner how they are effected be alike obscure in both and the reason of the obscurity the same in both With which wee will conclude the present Chapter adding onely this note That if all Physicall thinges and naturall changes do proceede out of the constitution of rare and dense bodies in this manner as we do putt them as the worke wee haue in hand intendeth to shew then so manifold effects will so conuince the truth of this doctrine which wee haue declared that there can remaine no doubt of it neither can there be any of the diuisibility of quantity from substance without which this doctrine can not consist For it can not be vnderstood how there is a greater proportion of quantity then of substance or contrariwise of substance then of quantity if there be not a reall diuisibility betweene quantity and substance And much lesse can it be conceiued that the same thing hath att one time a greater proportion of quantity and att an other time a lesse if the greater or lesser proportion be not seperable from it that is if there be not a diuisibility betwixt it and substance as well as there are different notions of them Which to prooue by the proper principles belonging to this matter would require vs to make a greater inroade into the very bowels of Metaphysickes and to take a larger circuite then is fitting eyther for the subiect or for the intended breuity of this treatise THE FOVRTH CHAPTER Of the foure first qualities and of the foure Elements THE subiect of our discourse hitherto hath been three simple notions Quantity Rarity and Density Now it shall be to inquire if by compounding these with grauity or weight which is one of the specieses of Quantity aboue mentioned and of which I shall speake at lardge hereafter wee may begett any further qualities and so produce the foure first bodies called Elements In imitation of Logitians who by compounding such propositions as of themselues are euident to mans nature assoone as they are proposed do bring forth new knowledges which thriddes they still entermixe and weaue together till they grow into a faire piece And thus the sciencies tehy so much labour for and that haue so great an extent do result out of few and simple notions in theire beginninges But before wee fall to mingling and comparing them together I thinke it will not be amisse to sett downe and determine what kind of thinges wee meane by rare and what by dense to the end that when the names are agreed vpon wee may slippe into no error by mistaking them So then although there be seuerall considerations in regard of which rarity and density may be differently attributed to bodies yet because mans discerning them to be able to discourse accordingly of them is the principall respect for which theire denominations are to be allotted them wee may with reason call those thinges dense wherein a man findeth a sensible difficulty to part them and those rare where the resistance is imperceptible And vnto these two notions of rarity and density wee must allow a great latitude farre from consisting in an indiuisible state for seeing that rarefaction maketh a lesser body equall to a bigger and that all inequality betwixt two bodies hath the conditions of a body it followeth that the excesse of one body ouer an other consisteth of infinite partes into which it might be diuided and consequently that what is rarified passeth as many degrees as the inequality or excesse hath partes And the same law being in condensation both dense and rare thinges must be acknowledged to be capable of infinite variety and diuersity
it findeth within its power to master be they light or heauy or of what contrary natures soeuer it compresseth them as much as it can and draweth them into a lesse compasse and holdeth them strongly together making them sticke fast to one an other Which effect Aristotle tooke for the proper notion of cold and therefore gaue for definition of the nature of it that it gathereth thinges of diuers natures and experience sheweth vs in freesing and all great coolinges that this effect proceedeth from cold But if wee examine which of the two sortes of dense bodies the fluide or the consistent is most efficacious in this operation wee shall find that the lesse dense one is more capable of being applyed round about the body it shall besiege and therefore will stoppe closer euery litle hole of it and will more easily send subtile partes into euery litle veine of it and by consequence shrinke it vp together and coagulate and constringe it more strongly then a body can that is extremely dense which by reason of its great density and the stubbornesse of its partes can not so easily bend and plye them to worke this effect And therefore a body that is moderately dense is colder then an other that is so in excesse seeing that cold is an actiue or working power and that which is lesse dense doth excell in working On the contrary side rare bodies being hoat because theire subtile partes enuironing a compounded body will sinke into the pores of it and to theire power seperate its partes it followeth that those wherein the grauity ouercometh the rarity are lesse hoat then such others as are in the extremity and highest excesse of rarity both because the former are not able to pierce so litle partes of the resisting dense body as extreme rare ones are and likewise because they more easily take plye by the obstacle of the solide ones they meete with then these doe So that out of this discourse wee gather that of such bodies that differ precisely by the proportion of Rarity and Density those which are extremely rare are in the excesse of heate and are dry withall that weighty rare bodies are extremely humide and meanely hoat that fluide dense bodies are moist though not in such excesse as rare ones that are so but are coldest of any and lastly that extreme dense bodies are lesse cold then fluide dense ones and that they are dry But whether the extreme dense bodies be more or lesse dry then such as are extremely rare remaineth yet to be decided Which wee shall easily doe if wee but reflect that it is density which maketh a thing hard to be diuided and that rarity maketh it easie for a facility to yield vnto diuision is nothing else but a plyablenesse in the thing that is to be diuided whereby it easily receiueth the figure which the thing that diuideth it doth cast it into Now this plyablenesse belongeth more to rare then to dense thinges and accordingly wee see fire bend more easily by the concameration of an ouen then a stone can be reduced into due figure by hewing And therefore since drynesse is a quality that maketh those bodies wherein it raigneth to conserue themselues in theire owne figure and limits and to resist the receiuing of any from an other body it is manifest that those are dryest wherein these effects are most seene which is in dense bodies and consequently excesse of drynesse must be allotted vnto them to keepe company with theire moderate coldnesse Thus wee see that the number of Elements assigned by Aristotle is truly and exactly determined by him and that there can be neither more nor lesse of them and that theire qualities are rightly allotted to them which to settle more firmely in our mindes it will not be misse-spent time to summe vp in short the effect of what wee haue hitherto said to bring vs vnto this conclusion First wee shewed that a body is made and constituted a body by quantity Next that the first diuision of bodies is into rare and dense ones as differing onely by hauing more and lesse quantity And lastly that the coniunction of grauity with these two breedeth two other sortes of combinations each of which is also twofold the first sort concerning rarity out of which ariseth one extremely hoat and moderately dry and an other extremely humide and moderately hoat the second sort concerning density out of which is produced one that is extremely cold and moderatly wett and an other extremely dry and moderatly cold And these are the combinations whereby are constituted fire ayre water and earth So that wee haue thus the proper notions of the foure Elements and haue both them and theire qualities driuen vp and resolued into theire most simple principles which are the notions of Quantity and of the two most simple differences of quantatiue thinges Rarity and Density Beyond which mans witt can not penetrate nor can his wishes ayme att more in this particular seeing he hath attained to the knowledge af what they are and of what maketh them be so and that it is impossible they should be otherwise and this by the most simple and first principles which enter into the composition of theire nature Out of which it is euident that these foure bodies are Elements since they can not be resolued into any others by way of physicall composition themselues being constituted by the most simple differences of a body And againe all other bodies whatsoeuer must of necessity be resolued into them for the same reason because no bodies can be exempt from the first differencies of abody Since then wee meane by the name of an Element a body not composed of any former bodies and of which all other bodies are composed wee may rest satisfyed that these are rightly so named But whether euery one of these foure elements do comprehend vnder its name one onely lowest species or many as whether there be one onely species of fire or seuerall and the like of the rest wee intend not here to determine Yet wee note that there is a greate latitude in euery kind seeing that Rarity and Density as wee haue said before are as diuisible as quantity Which latitudes in the bodies wee conuerse withall are so limited that what maketh it selfe and other thinges be seene as being accompanied by light is called fire What admitteth the illuminatiue action of fire and is not seene is called ayre What admitteh the same action and is seene in the ranke of Elements is called water And what through the density of it admitteth not that action but absolutely reflecteth it is called earth And out of all we said of these foure Elements it is manifest there can not be a fifth as is to be seene att large in euery Aristotelian Philosopher that writeth of this matter I am not ignorant that there are sundry obiections vsed to be made both against these notions of the first qualities and against
obiections answered against light being fire with a more ample proofe of its being such HAVING then said thus much to persuade vs of the corporeity of this subtile thing that so queintly playeth with our eyes wee will in the next place examine those obiections that at the beginning we did sett downe against its being a body and if after a through discussion of them we find they do in truth conclude nothing of what att the first sight they beare so great a shew of but that we shall be able perfectly to solue and enerue their force no body will thinke it rashnesse in vs to craue leaue of Aristotle that we may dissent from him in a matter that he hath not looked to the bottome of and whose opinion therein can not be defended from plaine contradictions and impossibilities It is true neuer any one man looked so farre as he into the bowels of nature he may rightly be termed the Gemus of it and whosoeuer followeth his principles in the maine can not be led into error but we must not beleeue that he or any man else that relyeth vpon the strength and negotiation of his owne reason euer had a priuiledge of infallibility entayled to all he said Lett vs then admire him for what he hath deliuered vs and where he falleth short or is weary in his search and suffereth himselfe to be borne downe by popular opinions against his owne principles which happeneth very seldome to him lett vs seeke to supply and relieue him But to pursue our intent wee will begin with answering the third obiection which is that if light were fire it must heat as well as enlighten where it shineth There is no doubt but it doth so as is euident by the weather glasses and other artificiall musicall instruments as organs and virginals that played by themselues which Cornelius Drebbel that admirable master of mechanikes made to shew the king All which depended vpon the rarefaction and condensation of some subtile body conserued in a cauity within the bulke of the whole instrument for as soone as the sunne shined they would haue motion and play their partes And there is no doubt but that grew out of the rarefaction of the subtile liquor he made vse of which was dilated as soone as the ayre was warmed by the sunne beames Of whose operation it was so sensible that they no sooner left the horizon but its motion ceased And if but a cloude came betweene the instrument and them the musike would presently goe slower time And the antient miracle of Memnons statue seemeth to be a iuggling of the Aehiopian Priests made by the like inuention But though he and they found some spirituall and refined matter that would receiue such notable impressions from so small alterations of temper Yet it is no wonder that our grosse bodies are not sensible of them for we can not feele heate vnlesse it be greater then that which is in our sense And the heate there must be in proportion to the heate of our blood which is in a high degree of warmeth And therefore it is very possible that an exceeding rarifyed fire may cause a farre lesse impression of heate then we are able to feele Consider how if you sett pure spiritt of wine on fire and so conuert it into actuall flame yet it will not burne nor scarce warme your hand and then can you expect that the light of a candle which filleth a great roome should burne or warme you as farre as it shineth If you would exactly know what degree of heate and power of burning that light hath which for example shineth vpon the wall in a great chamber in the middest whereof there standeth a candle doe but calculate what ouerproportion of quantity all the light in the whole roome beareth to the quantity of the litle flame att the toppe of the candle and that is the ouerproportion of the force of burning which is in the candle to the force of burning which is in so much light att the wall as in extension is equall to the flame of the candle Which when you haue considered you will not quarrell att it s not warming you att that distance although you grant it to be fire streaming out from the flame as from the spring that feedeth it and extremely dilated according to the nature of fire when it is att liberty by going so farre without any other grosse body to imprison or clogge it It is manifest that this rule of examining the proportion of burning in so much of the light as the flame is by calculating the proportion of the quantity or extension of all the light in the roome to the extension of the flame of the candle and then comparing the flame of the candle to a part of light equall in extension vnto it is a good and infallible one if we abstract from accidentall inequalities since both the light and the flame are in a perpetuall fluxe and all the light was first in the flame which is the spring from whence it continually floweth As in a riuer wherein euery part runneth with a settled streame though one place be straighter and an other broader yet of necessity since all the water that is in the broad place came out of the narrow it must follow that in equall portions of time there is no more water where it hath the liberty of a large channell then where the bankes presse it into a narrower bed so that there be no inequalities in the bottome In like manner if in a large stoue a basen of water be conuerted into steame that rarifyed water which then filleth the whole stoue is no more then what the basen contained before and consequently the power of moistening which is in a footes extension for example of the stoue wherein that steame is must be in proportion to the vertue of wetting in the footes extension of water as the quantity of that great roome which the steame filleth is to the quantity of the water contained in the basin for although the rarifyed water be not in euery least part of that great place it seemeth to take vp by reason that there is ayre in which it must swimme Yet the power of wetting that was in the basin of water is dilated through the whole roome by the coniunction of the miste or dew to all the sensible partes of the ayre that is in the roome and consequently the power of wetting which is in any foote of that roome is in a manner as much lesse then the power of wetting which was in the foote of water as if the water were rarifyed to the quantity of the whole roome and no ayre were left with it And in the same manner it fareth with dilated fire as it doth with dilated water with onely this difference peraduenture that fire groweth purer and more towardes its owne nature by dilatation whereas water becometh more mixed and is carried from its nature by suffering the like
ground in Philosophy Neuerthelesse if there be any certaine experience in this particular I should thinke that there might be some art by circulation of fewell to maintaine the same light for a great company of yeares But I should not easily be persuaded that eyther flame or light could be made without any manner of consuming the body which serueth them for fewell THE EIGHTH CHAPTER An answere to three other obiections formerly proposed against light being a substance HAVING thus defended our selues from their obiections who would not allow light to be fire and hauing satisfyed their inquisition who would know what becometh of it when it dyeth if it be a body we will now apply our selues to answere their difficulties who will not lett it passe for a body because it is in the same place with an other body as when the sunne beames enlighten all the ayre and when the seuerall lights of two distinct candles are both of them euery where in the same roome Which is the substance of the second maine obiection This of the iustling of the ayre is easily answered thus that the ayre being a very diuisible body doth without resistance yield as much place as is requisite for light And that light though our eyes iudge it diffused euery where yet is not truly in euery point or atome of ayre but to make vs see it euery where it sufficeth that it be in euery part of the ayre which is as bigge as the blacke or sight of our eye so that we can not sett our eye in any position where it receiueth not impressions of light In the same manner as perfumes which though they be so grosse bodies that they may be sensibly wasted by the wind neuerthelesse they do so fill the ayre that we can putt our nose in no part of the roome where a perfume is burned but we shall smell it And the like is of mistes as also of the sprouted water to make a perfume which we mentioned aboue But because pure discourses in such small thriddes as these do but weakly bind such readers as are not accustomed vnto them and that I woudl if it be possible render this treatise intelligible to euery rationall man how euer litle versed in scholastike learning among whom I expect it will haue a fairer passage then among those that are already deepely imbued with other principles lett vs try if we can herein informe our selues by our sense and bring our eyes for wittnesse of what we say He then that is desirous to satisfy himselfe in this particular may putt himselfe in a darke roome through which the sunne sendeth his beames by a cranie or litle hole in the wall and he will discouer a multitude of litle atomes flying about in that litle streame of light which his eye can not discerne when he is enuironed on all sides with a full light Then lett him examine whether or no there be light in the middest of those litle bodies and his owne reason will easily tell him that if those bodies were as perspicuous as the ayre they would not reflect vpon our eyes the beames by which wee see them And therefore he will boldly conclude that att the least such partes of them as reflect light vnto vs do not admitt it nor lett it sinke into them Then let him consider the multitude of them and the litle distance betwixt one an other and how neuerthelesse they hinder not our sight but we haue it free to discouer all obiects beyond them in what position soeuer we place our eye and when he thus perceiueth that these opacous bodies which are euery where do not hinder the eye from iudging light to haue an equall plenary diffusion through the whole place that it irradiateth he can haue no difficulty to allow ayre that is diaphanous and more subtile farre then they and consequently diuisible into lesser atomes and hauing lesser pores giueth lesse scope vnto our eyes to misse light then they do to be euery where mingled with light though we see nothing but light and can not discerne any breach or diuision of it Especially when he shall adde vnto this consideration that the subtile body which thus filleth the ayre is the most visible thing in the world and that whereby all other thinges are seene and that the ayre which it mingleth it selfe with is not at all visible by reason of the extreme diaphaneity of it and easy reception of the light into euery pore of it without any resistance or reflection and that such is the nature of light as it easily drowneth an obscure body if it be not too bigge and not onely such but euen other light bodies for so we know as well the fixed starrs as the planets are concealed from our sight by neerenesse to the sunne neither the lightnesse of the one nor the bignesse of the other preuailing against the darkening of an exuperant light and we haue dayly experience of the same in very pure chrystall glasses and in very cleare water which though we can not discerne by our sight if they be in certaine positions neuerthelesse by experience we find that they reflect much light and consequently haue great store of opacous partes and then he can not choose but conclude that it is impossible but light should appeare as it doth to be euery where and to be one continued thing though his discourse withall assure him it is euery where mingled with ayre And this very answere I thinke will draw with it by consequence the solution of the other part of the same obiection which is of many lights ioyning in the same place and the same is likewise concerning the images of colours euery where crossing one an other without hinderance But to raise this contemplation a straine higher lett vs consider how light being the most rare of all knowne bodies is of its owne nature by reason of the diuisibility that followeth rarity diuisible into lesser partes then any other and particularly then flame which being mixed with smoake and other corpulency falleth very short of light And this to the proportion in which it is more rare then the body it is compared vnto Now a great Mathematician hauing deuised how to measure the rarefaction of gunnepowder into flame found the diameter to times encreased and so concluded that the body of the flame was in proportion to the body of the gunnepowder it was made of as 125000 is to one Wherefore by the immediately proceeding consequence we find that 125000 partes of flame may be couched in the roome of one least part of gunnepowder and peraduenture many more considering how porous a body gunnepowder is Which being admitted it is euident that although light were as grosse as the flame of gunnepowder and gunnepowder were as solide as gold yet there might passe 125000 rayes of light in the space wherein one least part of gunnepowder might be contained which space would be absolutely inuisible vnto vs
and be contained many times in the bignesse of the sight of a mans eye Out of which we may gather what an infinity of obiects may seeme vnto us to crosse themselues in the same indiuisible place and yet may haue roome sufficient for euery one to passe his way without hindering his fellow Wherefore seeing that one single light could not send rayes enough to fill euery litle space of ayre that is capable of light and the lesse the further it is from the flame it is obuious enough to conceiue how in the space where the ayre is there is capacity for the rayes of many candles Which being well summed vp will take away the great admiration how the beames of light though they be corporeall can in such great multitudes without hindering one an other enter into bodies and come to our eye and will shew that it is the narrownesse of our capacities and not the defect of nature which maketh these difficulties seeme so great for she hath sufficiently prouided for all these subtile operations of fire as also for the entrance of it into glasse and into all other solide bodies that are diaphanous vpon which was grounded the last instance the second obiection pressed for all such bodies being constituted by the operation of fire which is alwayes in motion there must needes be wayes left for it both to enter in and to euaporate out And this is most euident in glasse which being wrought by an extreme violent fire and swelling with it as water and other thinges do by the mixture of fire must necessarily haue great store of fire in it selfe whiles it is boyling as we see by its being red hoat And hence it is that the workemen are forced to lett it coole by degrees in such relentinges of fire as they call their nealing heates least it should shiuer in pieces by a violent succeeding of ayre in the roome of the fire for that being of greater partes then the fire would straine the pores of the glasse too soddainly and breake it all in pieces to gett ingression whereas in those nealing heates the ayre being rarer lesser partes of it succeede to the fire and leisurely stretch the pores without hurt And therefore we neede not wonder that light passeth so easily through glasse and much lesse that it getteth through other bodies seeing the experience of Alchymistes doth assure vs that it is hard to find any other body so impenetrable as glasse But now to come to the answere of the first and in appearance most powerfull obiection against the corporeity of light which vrgeth that his motion is performed in an instant and therefore can not belong to what is materiall and clothed with quantity Wee will endeauour to shew how vnable the sense is to iudge of sundry sortes of motions of Bodies and how grossely it is mistaken in them And then when it shall appeare that the motion of light must necessarily be harder to be obserued then those others I conceiue all that is raised against our opinion by so incompetent a iudge will fall flatt to the ground First then lett mee putt the reader in minde how if euer he marked children when they play with firestickes they mooue and whirle them round so fast that the motion will cosen their eyes and represent an entire circle of fire vnto them and were it somewhat distant in a darke night that one played so with a lighted torch it would appeare a constant wheele of fire without any discerning of motion in it And then lett him consider how slow a motion that is in respect of what it is possible a body may participate of and he may safely conclude that it is no wonder though the motion of light be not descryed and that indeede no argument can be made from thence to prooue that light is not a body But lett vs examine this consideration a litle further and compare it to the motion of the earth or heauens lett the appearing circle of the fire be some three foote diameter and the time of one entire circulation of it be the sixtieth part of a minute of which minutes there are 60. in an houre so that in a whole day there will be but 86400. of these partes of time Now the diameter of the wheele of fire being but of three foote the whole quantity of space that it mooueth in that atome of time will be att the most 10. foote which is three paces and a foote of which partes there are neere eleuen millions in the compasse of the earth so that if the earth be mooued round in 24. houres it must go neere 130. times as fast as the boyes sticke doth which by its swift motion deceiueth our eye But if we allow the sunne the moone and the fixed starrs to moue how extreme swift must their flight be and how imperceptible would their motion be in such a compasse as our sight would reach vnto And this being certaine that whether the earth or they do moue the appearances to vs are the same it is euident that as now they can not be perceiued to moue as peraduenture they do not so it would be the very same in shew to vs although they did moue If the sunne were neere vs and galloped att that rate surely we could not distinguish betweene the beginning and ending of his race but there would appeare one permanent line of light from East to West without any motion att all as the torch seemeth to make with so much a slower motion one permanent immooueable wheele of fire But contrary to this effect we see that the sunne and starrs by onely being remooued further from our eyes do cosen our sight so grossely that we can not discerne them to be mooued att all One would imagine that so rapide and swift a motion should be perceiued in some sort or other which whether it be in the earth or in them is all one to this purpose Eyther we should see them change their places whiles we looke vpon them as arrowes and birdes do when they fly in the ayre or else they should make a streame of light bigger then themselues as the torch doth But none of all this happeneth lett vs gaze vpon them so long and so attentiuely that our eyes be dazeled with looking and all that while they seeme to stand immooueable and our eyes can giue vs no account of their iourney till it be ended They discerne it not whiles it is in doing so that if we consult with no better cownsailour then them we may wonder to see that body at night setting in the West which in the morning we beheld rising in the East But that which seemeth to be yett more strange is that these bodies mooue crosse vs and neuerthelesse are not perceiued to haue any motion att all Consider then how much easier it is for a thing that mooueth towardes vs to be with vs before we are aware A nimble fencer will put in
and giue the like motion to any body they find in their way if it be susceptible of such a motion which it is euident that all bodies are vnlesse they be strucken by some contrary impulse For since that a bodies being in a place is nothing else but the continuity of its outside to the inside of the body that containeth it and is its place it can haue no other repugnance to locall motion which is nothing else but a successiue changing of place besides this continuity Now the nature of density being the power of diuiding and euery least power hauing some force and efficacy as we haue shewed aboue it followeth that the stroake of euery atome eyther descending or ascending will worke some thing vpon any body though neuer so bigge it chanceth to encounter with and strike vpon in its way vnlesse there be as strong an impulse the contrary way to oppose it But it being determined that the descending atomes are denser then those that ascend it followeth that the descending ones will preuayle And consequently all dense bodies must necessarily tend downewardes to the center which is to be Heauy if some other more dense body do not hinder them Out of this discourse we may conclude that there is no such thing among bodies as positiue grauity or leuity but that their course vpwardes or downewardes happeneth vnto them by the order of nature which by outward causes giueth them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wheresoeuer they are as being of themselues indifferent to any motion But because our wordes expresse our notions and they are framed according to what appeareth vnto vs when we obserue any body to descend constantly towardes our earth we call it heauy and if it mooue contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such grauity and leuity as if they were Entities that worke such effects since vpon examination it appeareth that these wordes are but short expressions of the effects themselues the causes whereof the vulgar of mankinde who impose names to thinges do not consider but leaue that worke vnto Philosophers to examine whiles they onely obserue what they see done and agree vpon wordes to expresse that Which wordes neither will in all circumstances alwayes agree to the same thing for as corke doth descend in ayre and ascend in water so also will any other body descend if it lighteth among others more rare then it selfe and will ascend if it lighteth among bodies that are more dense then it And we terme bodies light and heauy onely according to the course which we vsually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or grauity it were irrationall to conceiue that all bodies should descend att the same rate and keepe equall pace with one an other in their iourney downewardes For as two knifes whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being pressed with equall strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cutt deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the other that which is so will cutt the ayre more powerfully and will descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the knifes edge since in it consisteth the power of diuiding as we haue heretofore determined And therefore the pressing them downewardes by the descending atomes being equall in both or peraduenture greater in the more dense body as anone we shall haue occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of diuision must be the greater where the diuider is the more powerfull Which the more dense body is and therefore cutteth more strongly through the resistance of the ayre and consequently passeth more swiftly that way it is determined to mooue I do not meane that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one an other as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we haue discoursed of aboue when we examined the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparison of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone resulteth the differences of their velocities and that neither but in as much as concerneth the consideration of the mooueables for to make the calculation exact the medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare for since the motion dependeth of all them together although there should be difference betweene the mooueables in regard of one onely and that the rest were equall yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference considered single in that regard will haue one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will haue an other As for example reckon the density of one mooueable to be double the density of an other mooueable so that in that regard it hath two degrees of power to descend whereas the other hath but one suppose then the other causes of their descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then ioyne these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the mooueables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other mooueable and you will find that thus altogether their difference of power to descend is no longer in a double proportion as it would be if nothing but their density were considered but is in the proportion of fiue to foure But after we haue considered all that concerneth the mooueables we are then to cast an eye vpon the medium they are to mooue in and we shall find the addition of that to decrease the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the medium Which if it be ayre the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men vse to take in making experiences of their descent in that yielding medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Euen as the difference of a sharpe or dull knife which is easily perceiued in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguished in diuiding of water or oyle And likewise in weights a pound and a scruple will beare downe a dramme in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet putt a pound in that scale instead of the dramme and then the difference of the scruple will be very notable So then those bodies whose difference of descending in water is very sensible because of the greater proportion of weight in water to the bodies that descend in it will yield no sensible difference of velocity when they descend in ayre by reason of the great disproportion of weight betweene
ayre and the bodies that descend in it The reason of this will clearely shew it selfe in abstracted proportions Thus suppose ayre to haue one degree of density and water to haue 400 then lett the mooueable A haue 410 degrees of density and the mooueable B haue 500. Now compare their motion to one an other in the seuerall mediums of ayre and water The exuperance of the density of A to water is 10 degrees but the exuperace of B vnto the same water is 100 degrees so that B must mooue in water swifter then A in the proportion of 100 to tenne that is of 10 to one Then lett vs compre the exuperance of the two mooueables ouer ayre A is 409 times more dense then ayre but B is 499 times more dense then it By which account the motion of B must be in that medium swifter then the motion of A in the proportion of 499 to 409 that is about 50 to 41 which to auoyde fractions we may account as 10 to 8. But in water they exceede one an other as 10 to one so that their difference of velocity must be scarce perceptible in ayre in respect of what it is in water Out of all which discourse I onely inferre in common that a greater velocity in motion will follow the greater density of the mooueable without determining here their proportions which I leaue vnto them who make that examination their taske for thus much serueth my present turne wherein I take a suruay of nature but in grosse And my chiefe drift in this particular is onely to open the way for the discouering how bodies that of themselues haue no propension vnto any determinate place do neuerthelesse mooue constantly and perpetually one way the dense ones descending and the rare ones ascending not by any intrinsecall quality that worketh vpon them but by the oeconomy of nature that hath sett on foote due and plaine causes to produce knowne effects Here we must craue patience of the great soule of Galileo whose admirable learning all posterity must reuerence whiles we reprehend in him that which we can not terme lesse then absurd and yet he not onely mainetaineth it in seuerall places but also professeth Dial. P o de motu pag. 8 to make it more cleare then day His position is that more or lesse grauity contributeth nothing att all to the faster or slower descending of a naturall body but that all the effect it giueth vnto a body is to make it descend or not descend in such a medium Which is against the first and most knowne principle that is in bodies to witt that more doth more and lesse doth lesse for he alloweth that grauity causeth a body to descend and yet will not allow that more grauity causeth it to descend more I wonder that he neuer marked how in a paire of scales a superproportion of ouerweight in one ballance lifted vp the other faster then a lesse proportion of ouerweight would do Or that more weight hanged to a iacke made the spitt turne faster or to the lines of a clocke made it goe faster and the like But his argument whereby he endeauoureth to prooue his position is yet more wonderfull for finding in pendants vnequall in grauity that the lighter went in the same time almost as fast as the heauyer he gathereth from thence that the different weights haue each of them the same celerity and that it is the opposition of the ayre which maketh the lighter body not reach so farre at each vndulation as the heauyer doth For reply wherevnto first we must aske him whether experience or reason taught him that the slower going of the lighter pendant proceeded onely from the medium and not from want of grauity And when he shall haue answered as he needes must that experience doth not shew this then we must importune him for a good reason but I do not find that he bringeth any att all Againe if he admitteth which he doth in expresse termes that a lighter body can not resist the medium so much as a heauyer body can we must aske him whether it be not the weight that maketh the heauyer body resist more which when he hath acknowledged that it is he hath therein likewise acknowledged that whensoeuer this happeneth in the descending of a body the more weight must make the heauyer body descend faster But we can not passe this matter without noting how himselfe maketh good those arguments of Aristotle which he seemeth by no meanes to esteeme of for since the grauity doth ouercome the resistance of the medium in some proportion it followeth that the proportions betweene the grauity and the medium may be multiplyed without end so as if he suppose that the grauity of a body do make it goe att a certaine rate in imaginary space which is his manner of putting the force of grauity then there may be giuen such a proportion of a heauy body to the medium as it shall goe in such a medium att the same rate and neuerthelesse there will be an infinite difference betwixt the resistance of the medium compared to that body and the resistance of the imaginary space compared to that other body which he supposeth to be mooued in it at the same rate which no man will sticke att confessing to be very absurd Then turning the scales because the resistance of the medium doth somewhat hinder grauity and that with lesse resistance the heauy body mooueth faster it must follow that since there is no proportion betwixt the medium and imaginary space there must neither be any proportion betwixt the time in which a heauy body shall passe through a certaine quantity of the medium and the time in which it shall passe through as much imaginary space wherefore it must passe ouer so much imaginary space in an instant Which is the argument that Aristotle is so much laughed att for pressing And in a word nothing is more euident then that for this effect which Galileo attributeth to grauity it is vnreasonable to putt a diuisible quality since the effect is indiuisible And therefore as euident it is that in his doctrine such aquality as intrinsecall grauity is conceiued to be ought not to be putt since euery power should be fitted to the effect or end for which it is putt An other argument of Galileo is as bad as this when he endeauoureth to prooue that all bodies goe of a like velocity because it happeneth that a lighter body in some case goeth faster then a heauyer body in an other case as for example in two pendants whereof the lighter is in the beginning of its motion and the heauyer towardes the end of it or if the lighter hangeth att a longer string and the heauyer att a shorter we see that the lighter will goe faster then the heauyer But this concludeth no more then if a man should prooue that a lighter goeth faster then a heauyer because a greater force can make it goe faster for it
of the ascending atomes and thereby determineth it to weigh to the centerwardes and not rise floating vpwardes which is all the sensible effect we can perceiue Next we may obserue that the first particulars of the obiection do not reach home to enfeeble our doctrine in this particular although we admitt them to be in such sort as they are proposed for they do withall implye such a perpetuall variation of causes euer fauourable to our position that nothing can be inferred out of them to repugne against it As thus when there are many atomes descending in the ayre the same generall cause which maketh them be many maketh them also be light in proportion to their multitude And so when they are few they are heauy likewise when the atomes are light the ayre is rarifyed and thinne and when they are heauy the ayre is thicke and so vpon the whole matter it is euident that we can not make such a precise and exact iudgement of the variety of circumstances as to be able to determine when there is absolutely more cause of weight and when lesse And as we find not weight enough in either side of these opposite circumstances to turne the scales in our discourse so likewise we find the same indifference in experience it selfe for the weights we vse do weigh equally in mysty weather and in cleare and yet in rigour of discourse we can not doubt but that in truth they do not grauitate or weigh so much though the difference be imperceptible to sense when the ayre is thicke and foggy as when it is pure and rarifyed which thickenesse of the medium when it arriueth to a very notable degree as for example to water maketh then a great difference of a heauy bobies grauitation in it and accordingly we see a great difference betweene heauy bodies descending in water and in ayre though betweene two kindes of ayre none is to be obserued their difference is so small in respect of the density of the body that descendeth in thē And therefore seeing that an assured and certaine difference in circumstances maketh no sensible inequality in the effect we can not expect any from such circumstances as we may reasonably doubt whether there be any inequality among thē or no. Besides that if in any of the proposed cases a heauy body should grauitate more and be heauyer one time then an other yet by weighing it we could not discerne it since that the counterpoise which is to determine its weight must likewise be in the same proportion heauyer then it was And besides weighing no other meanes remaineth to discouer its greater grauitation but to compare it to time in its descent and I beleeue that in all such distances as we can try it in its inequalities will be no whitt lesse difficult to be obserued that way then any other Lastly to bend our discourse particularly to that instance of the obiection where it is conceiued that if grauity or descending downewardes of bodies proceeded from atomes striking vpon them as they mooue downewardes it would follow that a stone or other dense body lying vnder shelter of a thicke hard and impenetrable adamantine rocke would haue no impulse downewardes and consequently would not weigh there We may note that no body whatsoeuer compacted by physicall causes and agents can be so dense and imporous but that such atomes as these we speake of must be in them and in euery part of them and euery where passe through and through them as water doth through a seeue or through a spunge and this vniuersall maxime must extend as farre as the sunne or as any other heate communicating with the sunne doth reach and is found The reason whereof is because these atomes are no other thing but such extreme litle bodies as are resolued by heate out of the maine stocke of those massy bodies vpon which the sunne and heate do worke Now then it being certaine out of what we haue heretofore said that all mixt bodies haue their temper and consistence and generation from the mingling of fire with the rest of the Elements that compose them and from the concoction or digestion which fire maketh in those bodies it is euident that no mixt body whatsoeuer nor any sensible part of a mixt body can be voyde of pores capable of such atomes nor can be without such atomes passing through those pores which atomes by mediation of the ayre that likewise hath its share in such pores must haue communication with the rest of the great sea of ayre and with the motions that passe in it And consequently in all and in euery sensible part of any such extreme dense and pretended impenetrable body to the notice whereof we can arriue this percussion of atomes must be found and they will haue no difficulty in running through nor by meanes of it in striking any other body lying vnder the shelter of it and thus both in and from that hard body there must be still an vninterrupted continuation of grauity or of descending towardes the center Vnto which we may adde that the stone or dense body can not lye so close to the rocke that couereth it but that some ayre must be betweene for if nothing were betweene they would be vnited and become one continued body and in that ayre which is a creeke of the great ocean of ayre spread ouer the world that is euery where bestrewed with moouing atomes and which is continually fed like a running streame with new ayre that driueth on the ayre it ouertaketh there is no doubt but there are descending atomes as well as in all the rest of its maine body and these descending atomes meeting with the stone must needes giue some stroake vpon it and that stroake be it neuer so litle can not choose but worke some effect in making the stone remooue a litle that way they goe and that motion whereby the space is enlarged betweene the stone and the sheltering rocke must draw in a greater quantity of ayre and atomes to strike vpon it And thus by litle and litle the stone passeth through all the degrees of tardity by which a descending body parteth from rest which is by so much the more speedily done by how much the body is more eminent in density But this difference of time in regard of the atomes stroakes onely and abstracting from the bodies density will be insensible to vs seeing as we haue said no more is required of them but to giue a determination downewardes And out of this we clearely see the reason why the same atomes striking vpon one body lying vpon the water do make it sinke and vpon an other they do not As for example if you lay vpon the superficies of some water a piece of iron and a piece of corke of equall biggenesse and of the same figure the iron will be beaten downe to the bottome and the corke will floate att the toppe The reason whereof is the different
proportions of the comparison of their densities with the density of water for as we haue said the efficacy and force of desceÌ„ding is to be measured by that So then the stroakes of the atomes being more efficacious vpon water then vpon corke because the density of water is greater then the density of corke considering the aboundance of ayre that is harboured in the large pores of it it followeth that the atomes will make the water goe downe more forcibly then they will corke But the density of iron exceeding the density of water the same stroakes will make the iron descend faster then the water and consequently the iron must sinke in the water and the corke will swimme vpon it And this same is the cause why if a piece of corke be held by force att the bottome of the water it will rise vp to the toppe of the water as soone as the violence is taken away that kept it downe for the atomes stroakes hauing more force vpon the water then vpon the corke they make the water sinke and slide vnder it first a litle thinne plate of water and then an other a litle thicker and so by degrees more and more till it hath lifted the corke quite vp to the toppe Fiâ—thly it may be obiected that these atomes do not descend alwayse perpendicularly be sometimes sloapingly and in that case if their stroakes be the cause of dense bodies mouing they should moue sloaping and not downeward Now that these atomes descend sometimes sloapingly is euident as when for example they meete with a streame of water or with a strong wind or euen with any other litle motion of the ayre such as carryeth feathers vp and downe hither and thither which must needes waft the atomes in some measure along with them their way seeing then that such a gentle motion of the ayre is able to putt a feather out of its way notwithstanding the percussions of the atomes vpon it why shall it not likewise putt a piece of iron out of its way downewardes since the iron hath nothing from the atomes but a determination to its way But much more why should not a strong wind or a current of water do it since the atomes themselues that giue the iron its determination must needes be hurryed along with them To this we answere that we must consider how any wind or water which runneth in that sort is it selfe originally full of such atomes which continually and euery where presse into it and cutt through it in pursuing their constant perpetuall course of descending in such sort as we haue shewed in their running through any hard rocke or other densest body And these atomes do make the wind or the water primarily tend downewardes though other accidentall causes impell them secondarily to a sloaping motion And still their primary naturall motion will be in truth strongest though their not hauing scope to obey that but their hauing enough to obey the violent motion maketh this become the more obseruable Which appeareth euidently out of this that if there be a hole in the bottome of the pipe that conueyeth water sloapingly be the pipe neuer so long and consequently the sloaping motion neuer so forcible yet the water will runne out att that hole to obey its more powerfull impulse to the centerwardes rather then continue the violent motion in which it had arriued to a great degree of celerity Which being so it is easy to conceiue that the atomes in the wind or water which mooue perpendicularly downewardes will still continue the irons motion downewardes notwithstanding the mediums sloaping motion since the preuailing force determineth both the iron and the medium downewardes and the iron hath a superproportion of density to cutt its way according as the preualent motion determineth it But if the descending atomes be in part carryed along downe the streame by the current of wind or water yet still the current bringeth with it new atomes into the place of those that are carryed away and these atomes in euery point of place wheresoeuer they are do of themselues tend perpendicularly downewardes howbeit they are forced from the complete effect of their tendance by the violence of the current so that in this case they are mooued by a declining motion compounded of their owne naturall motion and of the forced motion with which the streame carryeth them Now then if a dense body do fall into such a current where these different motions giue their seuerall impulses it will be carryed in such sort as we say of the atomes but in an other proportion not in a perpendicular but in a mixt declining line compounded of the seuerall impulses which the atomes and the current do giue it in which also it is to be remembred how the current giueth an impulse downewardes as well as sloaping and peraduenture the strongest downewardes and the declination will be more or lesse according as the violent impulse preuayleth more or lesse against the naturall motion But this is not all that is to be considered in estimating the declination of a dense bodies motion when it is sinking in a current of wind or water you must remember that the dense body it selfe hath a particular vertue of its owne namely its density by which it receiueth and prosecuteth more fully its determination downewardes and therefore the force of that body in cutting its way through the medium is also to be considered in this case as well as aboue in calculating its declining from the perpendicular and out of all these causes will result a middle declination coÌ„pounded of the motioÌ„ of the water or wind both wayse and of its owne motion by the perpendicular line And since of these three causes of a dense bodies motion it s owne vertue in prosecuting by its density the determination it requireth is the most efficacious by much after it hath once receiued a determination from without its declination will be but litle if it be very dense and heauy But if it recede much from density so as to haue some neere proportion to the density of the medium the declination will be great And in a word according as the body is heauyer or lighter the declination will be more or lesse in the same current though not exactly according to the proportion of the diminishing of its density as long as there is a superproportion of its density to the medium since that such a superproportion as we haue declared heretofore maketh the mediums operation vpon the dense body scarce considerable And hence you see why a stone or piece of iron is not carried out of its way as well as feather because the stones motion downewardes is greater and stronger then the motion of a feather downewardes And by consequence the force that can deturne a feather from its course downewardes is not able to deturne a stone And if it be replyed that it may be so ordered that the stone shall haue no motion before
it be in the streame of a riuer and notwithstanding it will still mooue downewardes we may answere that considering the litle decliuity of the bed of such a streame the strongest motion of the partes of the streame must necessarily be downewardes and consequently they will beate the stone downewardes And if they do not the like to a feather or other light body it is because other partes of the streame do gett vnder the light body and beate it vpwardes which they haue not power enough to do to the stone Sixthly it may be obiected that if Elements do not weigh in their owne spheres then their grauity and descending must proceede from some other cause and not from this percussion of the atomes we attribute it to which percussion we haue determined goeth through all bodies whatsoeuer and beateth vpon euery sensible part of them But that Elements weigh not in their owne spheres appeareth out of the experience of a syphon for though one legge of the syphon be suncke neuer so much deeper into the body of the water then the other legge reacheth below the superficies of the water neuerthelesse if once the outward legge become full of water it will draw it out of the other longer legge which it should not do if the partes of water that are comprised within their whole bulke did weigh seeing that the bulke of water is much greater in the sunke legge then in the other and therefore these should rather draw backe the other water into the cisterne then be themselues drawne out of it into the ayre To this we answere that it is euident the Elements do weigh in their owne spheres att least as farre as we can reach to their spheres for we see that a ballone stuffed hard with ayre is heauyer then an empty one Againe more water would not be heauyer then lesse if the inward partes of it did not weigh and if a hole were digged in the bottome of the sea the water would not runne into it and fill it if it did not grauitate ouer it Lastly there are those who vndertake to distinguish in a deepe water the diuers weights which seuerall partes of it haue as they grow still heauyer and heauyer towardes the bottome and they are so cunning in this art that they professe to make instruments which by their equality of their weight to a determinate part of the water shall stand iust in that part and neyther rise nor fall higher or lower but if it be putt lower it shall ascend to its exact equally weighing orbe of the water and if it be putt higher it shall descend vntill it cometh to rest precisely in that place Whence it is euident that partes of water do weigh within the bulke of their maine body and of the like we haue no reason to doubt in the other two weighty Elements As for the opposition of the syphon we referre that point to where we shall haue occasion to declare the nature of that engine of sett purpose And there we shall shew that it could not succeede in its operation vnlesse the partes of water did grauitate in their maine bulke into which one legge of the syphon is sunke Lastly it may be obiected that if there were such a course of atomes as we say and that their stroakes were the cause of so notable an effect as the grauity of heauy bodies we should feele it palpably in our owne bodies which experience sheweth vs we do not To this we answere first that their is no necessity we should feele this course of atomes since by their subtility they penetrate all bodies and consequently do not giue such stroakes as are sensible Secondly if we consider that dustes and strawes and feathers do light vpon vs without causing any sense in vs much more we may cōceiue that atomes which are infinitely more subtile and light can not cause in vs any feeling of them Thirdly we see that what is continuall with vs and mingled in all thinges doth not make vs take any especiall notice of it and this is the case of the smiting of atomes Neuerthelesse peraduenture we feele them in truth as often as we feele hoat and cold weather and in all catarres or other such changes which do as it were sinke into our body without our perceiuing any sensible cause of them for no question but these atomes are the immediate causes of all good and bad qualities in the ayre Lastly when we consider that we can not long together hold out our arme att length or our foote from the ground and reflect vpon such like impotencies of our resisting the grauity of our owne body we can not doubt but that in these cases we feele the effect of these atomes working vpon those partes although we can not by our sense discerne immediately that these are the causes of it But now it is time to draw our Reader out of a difficulty which may peraduenture haue perplexed him in the greatest part of what he hath hitherto gone ouer In our inuestigation of the Elements we tooke for a principle therevnto that grauity is sometimes more sometimes lesse then the density of the body in which it is But in our explication of rarity and density and againe in our explication of grauity we seeme to putt that grauity and density is all one This thorne I apprehend may in all this distance haue putt some to paine but it was impossible for mee to remedy it because I had not yet deliuered the manner of grauitation Here then I will do my best to asswage their greefe by reconciling these appearing repugnancies We are therefore to consider that density in it selfe doth signify a difficultie to haue the partes of its subiect in which it is seperated one from an other and that grauity likewise in it selfe doth signify a quality by which a heauy body doth descend towardes the center or which is consequent therevnto a force to make an other body descend Now this power we haue shewed doth belong vnto density so farre forth as a dense body being strucken by an other doth not yield by suffering its partes to be diuided but with its whole bulke striketh the next before it and diuideth it if it be more diuisible then it selfe is So that you see density hath the name of density in consideration of a passiue quality or rather of an impassibility which it hath and the same density is called grauity in respect of an actiue quality it hath which followeth this impassibility And both of them are estimated by the different respects which the same body or subiect in which they are haue vnto different bodies that are the termes whereunto it is compared for the actiue quality or grauity of a dense body is esteemed by its respect to the body it striketh vpon whereas its density includeth a respect singly to the body that striketh it Now it is no wonder that this change of comparison worketh a disparity
A to B is the proportion of CB to CA that is it goeth in the same time faster towardes D then it doth towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA. By which account the resistance it hath in the way towardes D must also be greater then the resistance it hath in the way towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA and therefore the more tardity must be in the way to D and not in the way to M and consequently the declination must be from Ewardes and to Mwardes For where there is most resistance that way likewise must the tardity be greatest and the declination must be from that way but which way the thickenesse to be passed in the same time is most that way the resistance is greatest and the thickenesse is clearely greater towardes E then towardes M therefore the resistance must be greatest towardes E and consequently the declination from the line BL must be towardes M and not towardes E. But the truth is that in his doctrine the ball would goe in a straight line as if there were no resistance vnlesse peraduenture towardes the contrary side of the cloth att which it goeth out into the free ayre for as the resistance of the cloth is greater in the way towardes D then in the way towardes M because it passeth a longer line in the same time as also it did formerly in the ayre so likewise is the force that mooueth it that way greater then the force which mooueth it the other And therefore the same proportions that were in the motion before it came to the resisting passage will remaine also in it att the least vntill coming neere the side att which it goeth out the resistance be weakned by the thinnenesse of the resistent there which because it must needes happen on the side that hath least thicknesse the ball must consequently turne the other way where it findeth greatest yielding and so att its getting out into the free ayre it will bend from the greater resistance in such manner as we haue said aboue Neither do the examples brought by Monsieur Des Cartes and others in maintenance of this doctrine any thing auayle them for when a canon bullett shott into a riuer hurteth the people on the other side it is not caused by refraction but by reflexion as Monsieur Des Cartes himselfe acknowledgeth and therefore hath no force to prooue any thing in refraction whose lawes are diuers from those of pure reflexion And the same answere serueth against the instance of a muskett bullett shott att a marke vnder water which perpetually lighteth higher then the marke though it be exactly iust aymed att For we knowing that it is the nature of water by sinking in one place to rise round about it must of necessity follow that the bullett which in entring hath pressed downe the first partes of the water hath withall thereby putt others further off in a motion of rising and therefore the bullet in its goeing on must meete with some water swelling vpwardes and must from it receiue a ply that way which can not faile of carrying it aboue the marke it was leuelled att And so we see this effect proceedeth from reflection or the bounding of the water and not from refraction Besides that it may iustly be suspected the shooter tooke his ayme too high by reason of the markes appearing in the water higher then in truth it is vnlesse such false ayming were duly preuented Neither is Monsieur Des Cartes his excuse to be admitted when he sayth that light goeth otherwise then a ball would do because that in a glasse or in water the etheriall substance which he supposeth to runne through all bodies is more efficaciously mooued then in ayre and that therefore light must go faster in the glasse then in the ayre and so turne on that side of the straight line which is contrary to the side that the ball taketh because the ball goeth not so swiftly For not to dispute of the verity of this proposition the effect he pretendeth is impossible for if the etheriall substance in the ayre before the glasse be slowly mooued the motion of which he calleth light it is impossible that the etheriall substance in the glasse or in the water should be more smartly mooued then it Well it may be lesse but without all doubt the impulse of the etheriall substance in the glasse can not be greater then its adequate cause which is the motion of the other partes that are in the ayre precedent to the glasse Againe after it is passed the glasse it should returne to be a straight line with the line that it made in the ayre precedent to the glasse seeing that the subsequent ayre must take off iust as much and no more as the glasse did adde the contrary whereof experience sheweth vs. Thirdly in this explication it would alwayes go one way in the ayre and an other way in the glasse whereas all experience testifyeth that in a glasse conuexe on both sides it still goeth in the ayre after its going out to the same side as it did in the glasse but more And the like happeneth in glasses on both sides concaue Wherefore it is euident that it is the superficies of the glasse that is the worker on both sides and not the substance of the ayre on the one side and of the glasse on the other And lastly his answere doth no wayes solue our obiection which prooueth that the resistance both wayes is proportionate to the force that mooueth and by consequence that the thing moued must go straight As we may imagine would happen if a bullett were shott sloaping through a greene mudde wall in which there were many round stickes so thinne sett that the bullett mighr passe with ease through them for as long as the bullett touched none of them which expresseth his case it would go straight but if it touched any of them which resembleth ours as by and by will appeare it would glance according to the quality of the touch and mooue from the sticke in an other line Some peraduenture may answere for Monsieur Des Cartes that this subtile body which he supposeth to runne through all thinges is stiffe and no wayes plyable But that is so repugnant to the nature of rarity and so many insuperable inconueniencies do follow out of it as I can not imagine he will owne it and therefore I will not spend any time in replying therevnto We must therefore seeke some other cause of the refraction of light which is made att the entrance of it into a diaphanous body Which is plainely as we said before because the ray striking against the inside of a body it can not penetrate turneth by reflexion towardes that side on which the illuminant standeth and if it findeth cleare passage through the whole resistent it followeth the course it first taketh if not then it is lost by many reflexions too and
find both the effects we haue already touched for two such partes must make one and moreouer they must haue some resistance to diuisibility The first of these effects we haue already assigned vnto the nature of quantity And it being the formall effect of quantity it can not wheresoeuer it is found haue any other formall cause then quantity and therefore eyther the two litle partes of different Elements do not become one body or if they doe we must agree that it is by the nature of quantity which worketh as much in heterogeneall partes as it doth in homogeneall ones And it must needes do so because Rarity and Dēsity which are the proper differencies of Quantity can not change the common nature of Quantity that is their Genus which by being so to them must be vniuocally in them both And this effect cometh precisely from the pure notion of the Genus and consequently must be seene as well in two partes of different natures as in two partes of the same nature but in partes of the same nature which once were two and afterwardes become one there can be no other reason why they are one then the very same for which those partes that were neuer seperated but that may be seperated are likewise one and this most euidently is the nature of quantity Experience seemeth to confirme thus much when pouring water out of a basin some of it will remaine sticking to the sides of the mettall for if the quantity of the basin and of the water had not beene one and the same by its owne nature the water considering the plyablenesse of its partes would certainely haue commen all away and haue glided from the vneuennesse of the basin by the attractive vnity of its whole and would haue preserued the vnity of its quantity within it selfe rather then by sticking to the basin haue suffered diuision in its owne quantity which we are sure was one whiles the water was altogether in the basin but that both the basin and the water making but one quantity and a diuision being vnauoydable in that one quantity it was indifferent in regard of the quantity considered singly by it selfe where this diuision should be made whether in the partes of the basin or in the partes of the water and then the other circumstances determined it in that part of the water which was neerest to the ioyning of it with the basin The second effect which was resistance to diuisibility we assigned vnto density And of that same cause must also depend the like effect in this case of the sticking together of the two partes of different Elements when they are ioyned to one an other for if the two partes whereof one is dense the other is rare do not exceede the quantity of some other part of one homogeneall rare Element for the diuiding whereof such a determinate force and no lesse can suffice then seeing that the whole composed of these two partes is not so diuisible as the whole consisting of that one part the assigned force will not be able to diuide them Wherefore it is plaine that if the rare part had beene ioyned to an other rare part in steed of the dense one it is ioyned vnto it had beene more easily diuidable from that then now it is from the dense part And by consequence it sticketh more closely to the dense part then it would to an other of its owne nature Out of what we haue said a steppe is made vs to vnderstand why soft and liqnid bodies do easily ioyne and incorporate into one continued body but hard and dry bodies so difficulty as by experience we find to be true Water with water or wine eyther with other wine or with water so vniteth that it is very hard to part them but sand or stones can not be made to sticke together without very great force and industry The reasons whereof must necessarily depend of what we haue said aboue To witt that two bodies can not touch one an other without becoming one and that if two bodies of one degree of density do touch they must sticke together according to the force of that degree of density Out of which two is manifestly inferred that if two hard thinges should come to touch they must needes be more difficultly seperated then two liquid thinges And consequently they can not come to touch without as much difficulty as that whereby they are made one But to deduce this more particularly lett vs consider that all the litle surfaces by which one hard body may be conceiued to touch an other as for example when a stone lyeth vpon a stone must of necessity be eyther plane or concaue or conuexe Now if a plane superficies should be supposed to touch an other plane one coming perpendicularly to it it must of necessity be granted to touch it as soone in the middle as on the sides Wherefore if there were any ayre as of necessity there must be betwixt the two surfaces before they touched it will follow that the ayre which was in the middle must haue fled quite out from betweene the two surfaces as soone as any part of the surfaces do touch that is as soone as the ayre which was betweene the vtmost edges of the surfaces did fly out and by consequence it must haue moued in an instant But if a plane surface be said to touch a conuexe surface it toucheth it onely by a line as Mathematicans demonstrate or onely by a point But to touch by a line or a point is in truth not to touch by the forme or notion of Quantity which requireth diuisibility in all that belongeth vnto it and dy consequence among bodies it is not to touch and so one such surface doth not touch the other Now for a plaine surface to touch a concaue euery man seeth is impossible Likewise for two cōuexe surfaces to touch one an other they must be allowed to touch eyther in a line or in a point which we haue shewed not to be a physicall touching And if a conuexe surface should bee said to touch a concaue they must touch all att once as we said of plane surfaces and therefore the same impossibility will arise therein so that it is euident that no two surfaces mouing perpendicularly towardes one an other can come to touch one an other if neyther of them yieldeth and changeth its hew Now then if it be supposed that they come slidingly one ouer an other in the same line whereby first the very tippes of the edges come to touch one an other and still as you shooue the vpermost on forwardes and that it slideth ouer more of the nether surface it gaineth to touch more of it I say that neither in this case do they touch immediately one an other for as soone as the two first partes should meete if they did touch and that there were no ayre betweene them they must presently become one quantity or body as we
other can be imagined vnlesse it were variety of figure But that can not be admitted to belong in any constant manner to those least particles where of bodies are framed as though determinate figures were in euery degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therefore the Elements would conserue themselues in those figures as well in their least atomes as in massye bulke for seeing how these litle partes are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily ioyne and take the figures which the dense ones giue them and that they againe iustling one an other do crush themselues into new shapes which their mixture with the liquide ones maketh them yield the more easily vnto it is impossible that the Elements should haue any other naturall figure in these their least partes then such as chance giueth them But that one part must be bigger then an other is euident for the nature of rarity and density giueth it the first of them causing diuisibility into litle partes and the latter hindering it Hauing then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies lett vs now beginne our mixture In which our ground to worke vpon must be earth and water for onely these two are the basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and that submitt themselues to tryall whereas if we should make the predominant Element to be ayre or fire and bring in the other two solide ones vnder their iurisdiction to make vp the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be eyther in continuall consumption as ordinary fire is or else imperceptible to our eyes or touch and therefore not a fitt subiect for vs to discourse of since the other two afford vs enough to speculate vpon Peraduenture our smell migh take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it selfe vpon our health but it concerneth not vs now to look so farre our designe requireth more maniable substances Of which lett water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three Elements in excesse ouer one an other by turnes but still all of them ouerswayed by a predominant quantity of water and then lett vs see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth preuayle aboue fire and ayre and arriue next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needes prooue hardly liquide and not easy to lett its partes runne a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holdeth it together Yet some inclination it will haue to fluidnesse by reason the water is predominant ouer all which also will make it be easily diuisible and giue very litle resistance to any hard thing that shall be applyed to make way through it In a word this mixture maketh the constitution of mudde durt honey butter and such like thinges where the maine partes are great ones And such are the partes of earth and water in themselues Lett the next proportion of excesse in a watry compound be of ayre which when it preuayleth it incorporateth it selfe chiefely with Earth for the other Elements would not so well retaine it Now because its partes are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it driueth the Earth and water likewise into lesser partes The result of such a mixture is that the partes of a boby compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibbe and generally it will burne and be easily conuerted into flame Of this kind are those which we call oyly or vnctuous bodies whose great partes are easily separated that is they are easily diuisible in bulke but the small ones very hardly Next the smallnesse and well working of the partes by meanes of the ayres penetrating euery dense one and sticking close to euery one of them and consequently ioyning them without any vneuennesse causeth that there can be no ruggednesse in it and therefore it is glibbe in like manner as we see plaster or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causeth it to be catcking and the shortenesse of euery part maketh that where it sticketh it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of ayre next vnto fire admitteth it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire vpon it And therefore oyles are the proper foode of that Element And accordingly we see that if a droppe of oyle be spilled vpon a sheete of paper and the paper be sett on fire att a corner as the fire cometh neere the oyle the oyle will disperse and spread it selfe vpon the paper to a broader compasse then it had which is because the heat rarifyeth it and so in oyle it selfe the fire rarifying the ayre maketh it penetrate the earthy partes adioyned vnto it more then it did and so subtiliseth them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate his owne nature vnto them and thus he turneth them into fire and carrieth them vp in his flame But if fire be predominant ouer earth and ayre in a watry compound it maketh the body so proportioned to be subtile rare penetratiue hoat in operation light in weight and subiect to burne Of this kind are all sortes of wines and distilled spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquauites in latine Aquae ardentes These will loose their vertues meerely by remaining vncouered in the ayre for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find meanes rayseth it selfe into the ayre as we see in the smoake of boyling water which is nothing else but litle bodies of fire that entring into the water do rarify some partes of it but haue no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can gett out they fly away but the humide partes of the water which they haue rarifyed being of a sticking nature do ioyne themselues vnto them and ascend in the ayre as high as the fiery atomes haue strength to carry them which when it faileth them that smoake falleth downe in a dew and so becometh water againe as it was All which one may easily discerne in a glasse vessell of water sett ouer the fire in which one may obserue the fire come in att the bottome and presently swimme vp to the toppe like a litle bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoake and that will att last conuert it selfe into droppes and settle vpon some solide substance thereabouts Of these fyry spirits some are so subtile as of themselues they will vanish and leaue no residue of a body behind them and Alchymistes profâ—sse to make them so etheriall and volatile that being poured out of a glasse from some reasonable height they shall neuer reach the ground but
that before they come thither they will be so rarifyed by that litle motion as they shall grow inuisible like the ayre and dispersing themselues all about in it they will fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seene The last excesse in watry bodies must be of water it selfe which is when so litle a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible out of this composition do arise all those seuerall sortes of iuices or liquors which we commonly call waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements haue peculiar properties beyond simple Elementall water The generall qualities whereof we shall not neede any further to expresse because by what we haue already said of water in common they are sufficiently knowne In our next suruay we will take earth for our ground to worke vpon as hitherto we haue done water which if in any body it be in the vtmost excesse of it beyond all the other three then rockes and stones will grow out of it whose dryenesse ad hardnesse may assure vs that Earth swayeth in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightnesse in respect of some other Earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceedeth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of pores wherewith their dryenesse causeth them to abound and hindereth not but that their reall solide partes may be very heauy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceede the fire and ayre but still inferior to the earth we shall produce mettalls whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainely telleth vs that the smallest of waters grosse partes are the glew that holdeth the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easye changing of partes being most proper to water Quickesiluer that is the generall matter whereof all the mettalls are immediately coÌ„posed giueth vs euidence hereof for fire worketh vpon it with the same effect as vpon water And the calcination of most of the mettalls proueth that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therefore must be rather of a watry then of an ayry substance Likewise the glibbenesse of Mercury and of melted mettalls without catching or sticking to other substances giueth vs to vnderstand that this great temper of a moyst Element with Earth is water and not ayre and that the watry partes are comprised and as it were shutt vp within the earthy ones for ayre catcheth and sticketh notably to all thinges it toucheth and will not be imprisoned the diuisibity of it being exceeding great though in neuer so short partes Now if ayre mingleth it selfe with earth and be predominant ouer water and fire it maketh such an oyly and fatt soile as husbandmen account their best mould which receiuing a betterment from the sunne and temperate heat assureth vs of the concurse of the ayre for wheresoeuer suâ—h heate is ayre can not faile of accompanying it or of being effected by it and the richest of such earth as port earth and marle will with much fire grow more compacted and sticke closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pottes or fine brickes Whereas if water were the glew betweene the dense partes fire would consume it and crumble them a sunder as it doth in those bodies it calcineth And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirmeth that ayre aboundeth in them for it is the nature of ayre to sticke so close where once it is kneaded in as it can not be seperated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscous holding together of the partes of glasse when it is melted sheweth euidently that ayre aboundeth in vitrifyed bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an ouerruling proportion ouer ayre and water And this I conceiue produceth those substances which we may terme coagulated iuices and which the latines do call Succi concreti whos 's first origine seemeth to haue beene liquors that haue beene afterwardes dryed by the force eyther of heate or of cold Of this nature are all kind of saltes niters sulfurs and diuers sortes of bitumens All which easily bewray the relikes an deffects of fire left in them some more some lesse according to their degrees And thus we haue in generall deduced from their causes the complexions of those bodies whereof the bulke of the world subiected to our vse consisteth and which serue for the production and nourishment of liuing creatures both animall and vegetable Not so exactly I confesse nor so particularly as the matter in it selfe or as a treatise confined to that subiect would require yet sufficiently for our intent In the performance whereof if more accurate searchers of nature shall find that we haue peraduenture beene mistaken in the minute deliuering of some particular bodies complexion their very correction I dare boldly say will iustify our principall scope which is to shew that all the great variety we see among bodies ariseth out of the coÌ„mixtion of the first qualities and of the Elements for they will not be able to correct vs vpon any other groundes then those we haue layed As may easily be perceiued if we cast a summary view vpon the qualities of composed bodies All which we shall find to spring out of rarity and density and to sauour of their origine for the most manifest qualities of bodies may be reduced to certaine paires opposite to one an other As namely some are liquide and flowing others are consistent some are soft others hard some are fatty viscous and smooth others leane gritty and rough some grosse othert subtile some tough others brittle and the like Of which the liquide the soft the fatt and the viscous are so manifestly deriued from rarity that we neede not take any further paines to trace out their origine and the like is of their contraries from the contrary cause to witt of those bodies that are consistent hard leane and gritty all which do euidently spring from density As for smoothnesse we haue already shewed how that proceedeth from an ayry or oyly nature and by consequence from a certaine degree of rarity And therefore roughnesse the contrary of it must proceede from a proportionable degree of density Toughnesse is also a kind of ductility which we haue reduced to watrynesse that is to an other degree of rarity and consequently brittlenesse must arise from the contrary degree of density Lastly grossenesse and subtilenesse do consist in a difficulty or facility to be diuided into small partes which appeareth to be nothing else but a certaine determination of rarity and density And thus we see how the seuerall complexions of bodies are reduced to the foure Elements that compound them and the qualities of those bodies to the two primary differencies of
between them it is wounded and enfeebled like those souldiers that first enter a breach in a owne from whence when they haue driuen the enemy they pursue him to the cittadell and force him from thence too and so how maymed soeuer they proue they make a free and easy way without resistance for the whole body of their army to follow them and take quiett possession of that which did cost them so much to winne And thus we see how it may happen that one of these mouing bodies doth not suffer so much as to be stayed in its iourney much lesse to be driuen backe And yet the other body att the same time worke in some measure vpon it by working vpon what is next to it which recoyling against it must needes make some impression vpon it since there can be no opposition but must haue some effect Now this impression or effect though it be not perceptible by causing a contrary motion yet it must needes enfeeble the vertue of the conquering Agent and deaden the celerity of its motion And thus it is euident that in all pure locall motions of corporeall Agents euery one of them must in some proportion suffer in acting and in suffering must act And what we haue said of this kind of action may easily be applyed to the other where the effect of locall motion is designed by a particular name as it is in the exāples we gaue of heating and cooling And in that the proceeding will appeare to be the very same as in this for if fire doth heate water the water reacteth againe eyther vpō the fire and cooleth it if it be immediate vnto it or else vpon the interiacent ayre if it be att a distance from the fire And so the ayre is in some measure cooled by the cold atomes that issue from the water whose compasse or sphere of actiuity being lesser then the fires they can not coole so farre off as the others can heate but where they do arriue they giue their proportion of cold in the very middest of the others army of fiery atomes notwithstanding their multitude and violence According to which doctrine our countryman Suisseth his argument that in the schooles is held insoluble hath not so much as any semblance of the least difficulty for it is euident that such atomes of fire and of water as we determine heate and cold to be may passe and croude by one an other into the subiects they are sent vnto by diuers little streames without hindering one an other as we haue declared of ayre and light and each of them be receiued in their owne nature and temper by the same subiect though sense can iudge onely according to which of them is predominant and according to the proportion of its superiority Vpon which occasion we can not choose but note how the doctrine of qualities is not onely vnable to giue account of the ordinary and plaine effects of nature but also vseth to end in cleere impossibilities and contradictions if it be driuen farre as this argument of Suisseth sheweth and many others of the like nature A fourth position among Philosophers is that some notions do admitt the denominations of Intension and Remission but that others do not The reason of which we shall cleerely see if we but consider how these termes of intension and remission do but expresse more or lesse of the thing that is said to be intended or remitted for the nature of more and lesse doth imply a latitude and diuisibility and therefore can not agree with the nature of such thinges as consist in an indiuisible being As for example to be a whole or to be an equall can not be sometimes more sometimes lesse for they consist in such a rigorous indiuisible being that if the least part imaginable be wanting it is no longer a whole and if there be the least excesse between two thinges they are no longer equall but are in some other proportion then of equality in regard of one an other And hence it is that Aristotle teacheth vs that substance and the species of Quantity do not admitt of intension and remission but that Quality doth For first in substance we know that the signification of this word is that which maketh a thing be what it is as is euident by our giuing it for an answere to the question what a thing is And therefore if there were any diuisibility in substance it would be in what the thing is and consequently euery diuision following that diuisibility would make the thing an other what that is an other thing And so the substance that is pretended to be changed by intension or remission would not be diuided as is supposed but would cease to be and an other substance would succeede in the roome of it Whereby you see that euery mutation in substance maketh a new thing and that more and lesse in Quiddity can not be pronounced of the same thing Likewise in Quantity it is cleere that its Specieses do consist in an indiuisible for as in numbers tenne lions for example or tenne Elephants are no more in regard of multitude then tenne fleas or tenne moates in the sunne and if you adde or take any thing from tenne it is no more tenne but some other number so likewise in continued extension a spanne an elle an ounce or any other measure whatsoeuer ceaseth to be a spanne and the rest if you adde to it or diminish from it the least quantity imaginable And peraduenture the same is also of figures as of a sphere a cube a circle a square c. though they be in the ranke of Qualities But if we consider such qualities as heat cold moysture drynesse softnesse hardnesse weight lightnesse and the like we shall find that they may be in any body sometimes more sometimes lesse according as the excesse of any Element or mixture is greater in it att one time then att an other and yet the body in which these qualities are intended or remitted remaine still with the same denomination As when durt continueth still softe though sometimes it be lesse softe other whiles softer and waxe remaineth figurable whether it be melted or congealed and wood is still hoat though it loose or gaine some degree of heate But such intension in any subiect whatsoeuer hath its determinate limits that it can not passe for when more of that quality that we say is intended that is more of the atomes of the actiue body is brought into the body that suffereth the intension then its complexion can brooke it resigneth its nature to their violence and becometh a new thing such an one as they are pleased to make it As when wood with extremity of heating that is with bringing into it so many atomes of fire that the fire is stronger in it then its owne nature is conuerted into fire smoake water and ashes and nothing remaineth of the nature of wood But before we end this chapter
or without by pressing vpon what containeth it and so making it selfe a way vnto it And that this latter way is able to worke this effect may be conuinced by the contrary effect from a contrary cause for take a bladder stretched out vnto its greatest extent by ayre shutt vp within it and hang it in a cold place and you will see it presently contract it selfe into a lesse roome and the bladder will grow wrinckeled and become too bigge for the ayre within it But for immediate proofe of this position we see that the addition of a very small degree of heate rarifyeth the ayre in a weather glasse the ayre receiuing the impression of heate sooner then water and so maketh it extend it selfe into a greater place and consequently it presseth vpon the water and forceth it downe into a lesse roome then formerly it possessed And likewise we see quickesyluer and other liquors if they be shutt vp in glasses close stopped and sett in sufficient heate and a little is sufficient for this effect they will swell and fill their glasses and att the last breake them rather then not find a way to giue themselues more roome which is then growne too straight in the glasse by reason of the rarefaction of the liquors by the fire working vpon them Now againe that this effect may be wrought by the inward heate that is enclosed in the bowels of the substance thus shutt vp both reason and experience do assure vs for they teach vs that if a body which is not extremely compacted but that by its loosenesse is easily diuisible into little partes such a one as wine or other spirittfull liquors be enclosed in a vessell the little atomes that perpetually moue vp and downe in euery space of the whole world making their way through euery body will sett on worke the little partes in the wine for example to play their game so that the hoat and light partes if they be many not enduring to be compressed and kept in by the heauy and cold ones do seeke to breake out with force and till they can free themselues from the dense ones that would imprison them they carry them along with them and make them to swell out as well as themselues Now if they be kept in by the vessell so that they haue not play enough they driue the dense ones like so many little hammers or wedges against the sides of it and att the length do breake it and so do make themselues way to a larger roome But if they haue vent the more fiery hoat spirits fly away and leaue the other grosser partes quiett and att rest On the other side if the hoat and light partes in a liquor be not many nor very actiue and the vessell be so full that the partes haue not free scope to remoue and make way for one an other there will not follow any great effect in this kind as we see in bottled beere or ale that worketh little vnlesse there be some space left empty in the bottle And againe if the vessell be very much too bigge for the liquor in it the fiery partes find roome first to swell vp the heauy ones and att the length to gett out from them though the vessell be close stopped for they haue scope enough to floate vp and downe between the surface of the liquor and the roofe of the vessell And this is the reason that if a little beere or small wine be left long in a great caske be it neuer so close stopped it will in time grow dead And then if att the opening of the bunge after the caske hath beene long vnstirred you hold a candle close to it you shall att the instant see a flash of flame enuironing the veâ—t Which is no other thing but the subtile spirits that parting from the beere or wine haue left it dead and flying abroad as soone as they are permitted are sett on fire by the flame that they meete with in their iourney as being more combustible because more subtile then that spiritt of wine which is kept in forme of liquor and yet that likewise though much grosser is sett on fire by the touch of flame And this happeneth not onely to wine and beere or ale but euen to water As dayly experience sheweth in the east Indian shippes that hauing beene 5. or 6. yeares att sea when they open some of their caskes of Thames water in their returne homewardes for they keepe that water till the last as being their best and most durable and that groweth lighter and purer by the often putrifyinges through violent motions in stormes euery one of which maketh new grosse and earthy partes fall downe to the bottome and other volatile ones ascend to the toppe a flame is seene about their bunges if a candle be neere as we said before of wine And to proceed with confirming this doctrine by further experience we dayly see that the little partes of heate being agitated and brought into motioÌ„ in any body they enter and pierce into other partes and incorporate themselues with them and sett them on fire if they be capable thereof as we see in wett hay or flaxe layed together in great quantity And if they be not capable of taking fire then they carry them with them to the outside and when they can transport them no further part flyeth away and other part stayeth with them as we see in new beere or ale and in must of wine in which a substance vsually called the mother is wrought vp to the toppe Which in wine will att the last be conuerted into Tartar when the spirits that are very volatile are flowne away and do leaue those partes from whence they haue euaporated more grosse and earthy then the others where the grosser and subtiler partes continue still mixed But in beere or rather in ale this mother which in them we call barme will continue longer in the same consistence and with the same qualities for the spirits of it are not so firy that they must presently leaue the body they haue incorporated themselues withall nor are hoat enough to bake it into a hard consistence And therefore bakers make vse of it to raise their bread which neyther it will do vnlesse it be kept from cold both which are euident signes that it worketh in force of heate and consequently that it continueth still a hoat and light substance And againe we see that after wine or beere hath wrought once a violent motion will make it worke anew As is dayly seene in great lightninges and in thunder and by much rocking of them for such motion rarifyeth and consequently heateth them partly by separating the little partes of the liquor which were before as glewed together and therefore lay quietly but now by their pulling asunder and by the liquors growing thereby more loose then it was they haue freedome to play vp and downe and partly by beating one part against an other which
when it is pressed for then it will be diuided into very little partes and will fill vp euery little chinke and neuerthesse if it be of a grosse and viscous nature all the partes of it will sticke together Out of these two properties we haue that since euery body hath a kind of orbe of its owne exhalations or vapors round about it selfe as is before declared the vapors which are about one of the bodies will more strongly and solidely that is in more aboundant and greater partes enter into the pores of the other body against which it is pressed when they are opened and dilated and thus they becoming common to both bodies by flowing from the one and streaming into the other and sticking to them both will make them sticke to one an other And then as they grow cold and dry these litle partes shrinke on both sides and by their shrinking draw the bodies together and withall do leaue greater pores by their being compressed together then were there when by heate and moysture they were dilated into which pores the circumstant cold partes do enter and thereby do as it were wedge in the others and consequently do make them hold firmely together the bodies which they ioyne But if art or nature should apply to this iuncture any liquor or vapour which had the nature and power to insinuate it selfe more efficaciously to one of these bodies then the glew which was between them did of necessity in this case these bodies must fall in pieces And so it happeneth in the separation of mettalls by corrosiue waters as also in the precipitation of mettalls or of saltes when they are dissolued in such corrosiue waters by meanes of other mettalls or saltes of a different nature in both which cases the enterance of a latter body that penetrateth more strongly and vniteth it selfe to one of the ioyned bodies but not to the other teareth them asunder and that which the piercing body reiecteth falleth into little pieces and if formerly it were ioyned with the liquor it is then precipitated downe from it in a dust Out of which discourse we may resolue the question of that learned and ingenious man Petrus Gassendus who by experience found that water impregnated to fullnesse with ordinary salt would yet receiue a quantity of other salt and when it would imbibe no more of that would neuerthelesse take into it a proportion of a third and so of seuerall kindes of saltes one after an other which effect he attributed to vacuites or porous spaces of diuers figures that he conceiued to be in the water whereof some were fitt for the figure of one salt and some for the figure of an other Very ingeniously yet if I misse not my marke most assuredly he hath missed his For first how could he attribute diuers sortes of vacuites to water without giuing it diuers figures And this would be against his owne discourse by which euery body should haue one determinate naturall figure Secondly I would aske him if he measured his water after euery salting And if he did whether he did not find the quantity greater then before that salt was dissolued in it Which if he did as without doubt he must then he might safely conclude that his saltes were not receiued in vacuities but that the very substance of the water gaue them place and so encreased by the receiuing of them Thirdly seeing that in his doctrine euery substance hath a particular figure we must allow a strange multitude of different shapes of vacuities to be naturally in water if we will haue euery different substance wherewith it may be impregnated by making decoctions extractions solutions and the like to find a fitt vacuity in the water to lodge it selfe in What a difforme nette with a strāge variety of mashes would this be And indeed how extremely vncapable must it be of the quantity of euery various kind of vacuity that you will find must be in it if in euery solution of one particular substance you calculate the proportion between it and the water that dissolueth it and then multiply it according to the number of seuerall kindes of substances that may be dissolued in water By this proceeding you will find the vacuities to exceed infinitely the whole body of the water euen so much that it could not afford subtile thriddes enough to hold it selfe together Fourthly if this doctrine were true it would neuer happen that one body or salt should precipitate downe to the bottome of the water by the solution of an other in it which euery Alchymist knoweth neuer fayleth in due circumstances for seeing that the body which precipitateth and the other which remayneth dissolued in the water are of different figures and therefore do require different vacuities they might both of them haue kept their places in the water without thrusting one an other out of it Lastly this doctrine giueth no account why one part of salt is separated from an other by being putt in the water and why the partes are there kept so separated which is the whole effect of that motion which we call dissolution The true reason therefore of this effect is as I conceiue that one salt maketh the water apt to receiue an other for the lighter salt being incorporated with the water maketh the water more proper to sticke vnto an heauyer and by diuiding the small partes of it to beare them vp that otherwise would haue sunke in it The truth and reason of which will appeare more plaine if att euery ioynt we obserue the particular steppes of euery saltes solution As soone as you putt the first salt into the water it falleth downe presently to the bottome of it and as the water doth by its humidity pierce by degrees the little ioyntes of this salt so the small partes of it are by little and little separated from one an other and vnited to partes of water And so infusing more and more salt this progresse will continue vntill euery part of water is incorporated with some part of salt and then the water can no longer worke of it selfe but in coniunction to the salt with which it is vnited After which if more salt of the same kind be putt into the water that water so impregnated will not be able to diuide it because it hath not any so subtile partes left as are able to enter between the ioyntes of a salt so closely compacted but may be compared to that salt as a thing of equall drynesse with it and therefore is vnapt to moysten and to pierce it But if you putt vnto this compound of salt and water an other kind of salt that is of a stronger and a dryer nature then the former and whose partes are more grossely vnited then the first salt dissolued in the water will be able to gett in betwixt the ioyntes of the grosser salt and will diuide it into little partes and will incorporate his already composed partes of salt
meanes she vseth to auoyde it For to putt it as an enemy that nature fighteth against or to discourse of effects that would follow from it in case it were admitted is a great mistake and a lost labour seeing it is nothing and therefore can do nothing but is meerely a forme of expression to declare in short nothing else but that it is a contradiction or implication in termes and an impossibility in nature for vacuity to haue or to be supposed to haue a Being Thus then since in our case after we haue cast all about we can pitch vpon nothing to be considered but that the two stones do touch one an other and that they are weighty we must apply our selues onely to reflect vpon the effects proceeding from these two causes their contiguity and their heauynesse and we shall find that as the one of them namely the weight hindereth the vndermost from following the vppermost so contiguity obligeth it vnto that course and according as the one ouercometh the other so will this action be continued or interrupted Now that contiguity of substances do make one follow an other is euident by what our Masters in Metaphysickes teach vs when they shew that without this effect no motion att all could be made in the world nor no reason could be giuen for those motions we dayly see For since the nature of quantity is such that whensoeuer there is nothing between two partes of it they must needes touch and adhere and ioyne to one an other for how should they be kept asunder when there is nothing betweene them to part them if you pull one part away eyther some new substance must come to de close vnto that which remoueth or else the other which was formerly close to it must still be close to it and so follow it for if nothing do come between it is still close to it Thus then it being necessary that something must be ioyned close to euery thing vacuity which is nothing is excluded from hauing any being in nature And when we say that one body must follow an other to auoyde vacuity the meaning is that vnder the necessity of a contradiction they must follow one an other and that they can not do otherwise For it would be a contradiction to say that nothing were between two thinges and yet that they are not ioyned close to one an other And therefore if you should say it you would in other wordes say they are close together and they are not close together In like manner to say that vacuity is any where is a pure contradiction for vacuity being nothing hath no Being att all and yet by those wordes it is said to be in such a place so that they affirme it to be and not to be att the same time But now lett vs examine if there be no meanes to auoyde this contradiction and vacuity other then by the adhesion and following of one body vpon the motion of an other that is closely ioyned to it and euery where contiguous For sense is not easily quieted with such Metaphysicall contemplations that seeme to repugne against her dictamens and therefore for her satisfaction we can do no lesse then giue her leaue to range about and cast all wayes in hope of finding some one that may better content her which when she findeth that she can not she will the lesse repine to yield her assent to the rigourous sequeles and proofes of reason In this difficulty then after turning on euery side I for my part can discerne no pretence of probability in any other meanes then in pulling downe the lower stone by one corner that so there may be a gaping between the two stones to lett in ayre by little and little And in this case you may say that by the interuention of ayre vacuity is hindered aud yett the lower stone is left att liberty to follow its owne naturall inclination and be gouerned by its weight But indeed if you consider the matter well you will find that the doing this requireth a much greater force then to haue the lower stone follow the vpper for it can not gape in a straight line to lett in ayre since in that position it must open at the bottome where the angle is made at the same time that it openeth at the mouth and then ayre requiring time to passe from the edges to the bottome it must in the meane while fall into the contradiction of vacuity So that if it should open to lett in ayre the stone to compasse that effect must bend in such sort as wood doth when a wedge is putt into it to cleaue it Iudge then what force it must be that should make hard marble of a great thicknesse bend like a wand and whether it would not rather breake and slide off then do so you will allow that a much lesse will raise vp the lower stone together with the vppermost It must then of necessity fall out that it will follow it if it be moued perpendicularly vpwardes And the like effect will be though it should be raysed at oblique angles so that the lowermost edge do rest all the way vpon some thing that may hinder the inferior stone from sliding aside from the vppermost And this is the very case of all those other experiments of art and nature which we haue mentioned aboue for the reason holdeth as well in water and in liquide thinges as in solide bodies vntill the weight of the liquide body ouercometh the continuity of it for then the thridde breaketh and it will ascend no higher Which height Galileo telleth vs from the workmen in the Arsenall of Venice is neere 40. foote if the water be drawne vp in a close pipe in which the aduantage of the sides helpeth the ascent But others say that the inuention is enlarged and that water may be drawne to what height one pleaseth Howsoeuer the force which nature applyeth to maintaine the continuity of quantity can haue no limitt seeing it is grounded vpon contradiction And therefore Galileo was much mistaken when he throught to make an instrument whereby to discouer the limits of this force We may then conclude that the breaking of the water must depend from the strength of other causes As for example when the grauity is so great by encreasing the bulke of the water that it will eyther ouercome the strength of the pipe or else make the sucker of the pumpe rather yield way to ayre then draw vp so great a weight for which defects if remedies be found the art may surely be enlarged without end This is particular in a syphon that when that arme of it which hangeth out of the water is lower then the superficies of the water then it will runne of it selfe after it is once sett on running by sucking The reason whereof is because the weight which is in water pendant is greater then the weight of the ascending water and thereby supplyeth
the want of a continuall sucker But if the nose of that arme that hangeth out of the water be but euen with the water then the water will stand still in both pipes or armes of the syphon after they are filled with sucking But if by the running out of the water the outward pipe do grow shorter then to reach as low as the superficies of the water in the fountaine from whence it runneth in this case the water in each arme of the syphon will runne backe into the fountaine Withall it is to be noted that though the arme which is out of the water be neuer so long yet if it reach not lower then the superficies of the fountaine the ouer quantity and weight of the water there more then in the other arme helpeth it nothing to make it runne out Which is because the decliuity of the other arme ouerrecompenceth this ouerweight Not that the weight in the shorter pipe hath so much force as the weight in the longer pipe but because it hath more force then the greater weight doth exercise there in its running for the greatest part of its force tendeth an other way then to the end of the pipe to witt perpendicularly towardes the center And so is hindered from effect by the great sloaping or little decliuity of the pipe vpon which it leaneth But some considering how the water that is in the longer arme of the syphon is more in quantity then the water that is in the other arme of it whereat it runneth out do admire why the greater quantity of water doth not draw backe the lesse into the cisterne but suffereth it selfe to be lifted vp and drayned away as if it runne steeply downewardes And they imagine that hence may be deduced that the partes of water in the cisterne doe not weigh as long as they are within the orbe of their owne body Vnto when we answere that they should consider how that to haue the greater quantity of water which is in the longer arme of the syphon which arme is immersed in the water of the cisterne to draw backe into the cisterne the water which is in the other arme of the syphon that hangeth out in the ayre it must both raise as much of the water of the cisterne as its owne bulke is aboue the leuell which att present the whole bulke of water hath and withall it must att the same time pull vp the water which is in the other arme Now it is manifest that these two quantities of water together are heauyer then the water in the sunke arme of the syphon since one of them single is equall vnto it And by consequence the more water in the sunke arme can not weigh backe the lesse water in the hanging arme since that to do that it must att the same time weigh vp ouer and aboue as much more in the cisterne as it selfe weigheth But turning the argument I say that if once the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre be supposed to draw any water be it neuer so little out of the cisterne whether occasioned by sucking or by whatsoeuer other meanes it followeth that as much water as is drawne vp aboue the leuell of the whole bulke in the cisterne must needes presse into the suncken arme from the next adiacent partes that is from the bottome to supply its emptying and as much must of it selfe presse downe from aboue according to its naturall course when nothing violenteth it to rest in the place that the ascending water which is lower then it leaueth att liberty for it to take possession of And then it can not be doubted but that this descending water hauing all its weight in pressing downe applyed to driue vp the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon and the water in the other arme of the syphon without hauing all its weight in running out applyed att the same time to draw vp the same water in the sunke arme this single resistant must yield to their double and mastering force And consequently the water in the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre must needes draw the water that is in the other immersed arme as long as the end of its pipe reacheth lower then the leuell of the water in the cisterne for so long it appeareth by what we haue said it must needes be more weighty since part of the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon is counterpoysed by as much descending water in the cisterne And thus it is euident that out of this experiment it can not be inferred that partes of water do not weigh within the orbe of their owne whole but onely that two equall partes of water in their owne orbe namely that which riseth in the sunken arme and that which presseth downe from the whole bulke in the cisterne are of equall weight and do ballance one an othet So that neuer so little oddes between the two counterpoysing parcells of water which are in the ayre must needes make the water runne out att that end of the syphon where the ouerweight of water is The attraction whose cause next to this is most manifest is that which is made by the force of heate or of fire for we see that fire euer draweth ayre vnto it so notably that if in a close roome there be a good fire a man that standeth att the dore or att the window especially without shall heare such a noise that he will thinke there is a great wind within the chamber The reason of this attraction is that fire rarifying the ayre which is next vnto it and withall spending it selfe perpetually causeth the ayre and his owne body mingled together to fly vp through the chimney or by some other passage Whence it followeth of necessity that the next body must succeed into the place of the body that is flowne away This next body generally is ayre whose mobility and fluidity beyond all other bodies maketh it of all others the fittest to be drawne and the more of it that is drawne the more must needes follow Now if there be floating in this ayre any other atomes subiect to the current which the ayre taketh they must also come with it to the fire and by it must be rarifyed and be exported out of that little orbe Hence it is that men with very good reason do hold that fire ayreth a chamber as we terme it that is purifyeth it both because it purifyeth it as wind doth by drawing a current of ayre into it that sweepeth through it or by making it purify it selfe by motion as a streame of water doth by running as also because those vapours which approach the fire are burned and dissolued So that the ayre being noysome and vnwholesome by reason of its grossenesse proceeding from its standing vnmoued like a stagnation of dead water in a marish place the fire taketh away that cause of annoyance By this very rule we learne that other hoat
vnto whom I intend this worke But to make these operations of nature not incredible lett vs remember how we haue determined that euery body whatsoeuer doth yield some steame or vent a kind of vapour from it selfe and consider how they must needes do so most of all that are hoat and moyst as blood and milke are and as all woundes and sores generally are We see that the foote of a hare or deere leaueth such an impression where the beast hath passed as a dog can discerne it a long time after and a foxe breatheth out so strong a vapour that the hunters themselues can wind it a great way of and a good while after he is parted from the place Now ioyning this to the experiences we haue already allowed of concerning the attraction of heate wee may conclude that if any of these vapours do light vpon a solide warme body which hath the nature of a source vnto them they will naturally congregate and incorporate there and if those vapors be ioyned with any medicatiue quality or body they will apply that medicament better then any surgeon can apply it Then if the steame of blood and spirits do carry with it from the weapon or cloth the balsamike qualities of the salue or pouder and with them do settle vpon the wound what can follow but a bettering in it Likewise if the steame of the corruption that is vpon the clodde do carry the drying quality of the wind which sweepeth ouer it when it hangeth high in the ayre vnto the sore part of the cowes foote why is it not possible that it should dry the corruption there as well as it dryeth it vpon the hedge And if the steame of burned milke caÌ„ hurt by carrying fire to the dugge why should not salt cast vpon it be a preseruatiue against it Or rather why should not salt hinder the fire from being carryed thither Since the nature of salt alwayes hindereth and suppresseth the actiuity of fire as we see by experience when we throw salt into the fire below to hinder the flaming of soute in the toppe of a chimney which presently ceaseth when new fire from beneath doth not continue it And thus we might proceed in sundry other effects to declare the reason and the possibility of them were we certaine of the truth of them therefore we remitt this whole question to the autority of the testimonies THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction AFter these lett vs cast our eye vpon an other motion very familiar among Alchymistes which they call Filtration It is effected by putting one end of a tongue or labell of flannen or of cotton or of flaxe into a vessell of water and letting the other end hang ouer the brimme of it And it will by little and little draw all the water out of that vessell so that the end which hangeth out be lower then the superficies of the water and will make it all come ouer into any lower vessell you will reserue it in The end of this operation is when any water is mingled with grosse and muddy partes not dissolued in the water to separate the pure and light ones from the impure By which we are taught that the lighter partes of the water are those which most easily do catch And if we will examine in particular how it is likely this businesse passeth wee may conceiue that the body or linguet by which â—hâ— water ascendeth being a dry one some lighter partes of the water whose chance it is to be neere the clymbing body of flaxe do beginne to sticke fast vnto it and then they require nothing neere so great force nor so much pressing to make them clymbe vp along the flaxe as they would do to make them mount in the pure ayre As you may see if you hold a sticke in running water sheluing against the streame the water will runne vp along the sticke much higher then it could be forced vp in the open ayre without any support though the Agent were much stronger then the current of the streame And a ball will vpon a rebound runne much higher vp a sheluing board then it would if nothing touched it And I haue beene told that if an eggeshell filled with dew bee sett att â—he foote of a hollow sticke the sunne will draw it to the toppe of the sheluing sticke whereas without a proppe it will not stirre it With much more reason then we may conceiue that water finding as it were little steppes in the cotton to facilitate its iourney vpwardes must ascend more easily then those other thinges do so as it once receiue any impulse to driue it vpwardes for the grauity both of that water which is vpon the cotton as also of so many of the confining partes of water as can reach the cotton is exceedingly allayed eyther by sticking vnto the cotton and so weighing in one bulke with â—hat dry body or else by not tending downe straight to the center but resting as it were vpon a steepe plaine according to what we said of the arme of a syphon that hangeth very sloaping out of the water and therefore draweth not after it a lesse proportion of water in the other arme that is more in a direct line to the center by which meanes the water as soone as it beginneth to clymbe cometh to stand in a kind of cone nether breaking from the water below its bulke being bigge enough to reach vnto it nor yet falling downe vnto it But our chiefe labour must be to find a cause that may make the water beginne to ascend To which purpose consider how water of its owne nature compresseth it selfe together to exclude any other body lighter then it is Now in respect of the whole masse of the water those partes which sticke to the cotton are to be accounted much lighter then water not because in their owne nature they are so but for the circumstances which accompany them and do giue them a greater disposition to receiue a motion vpwardes then much lighter bodies whiles they are destitute of such helpes Wherefore as the bulke of water weighing and striuing downewardes it followeth that if there were any ayre mingled with it it would to possesse a lesser place driue out the ayre so here in this case the water that is att the foote of the ladder of cotton ready to clymbe with a very small impulse may be after some sort compared in respect of the water to ayre by reason of the lightnesse of it and consequently is forced vp by the compressing of the rest of the water round about it Which no faster getteth vp but other partes att the foote of the ladder do follow the first and driue them still vpwardes along the towe and new ones driue the second and others the third and so forth So that with ease they clymbe vp to the toppe of the filter still driuing one
an other forwardes as you may do a fine towel through a muskett barrell which though it be too limber to be thrust straight through yet cramming still new partes into it att the length you will driue the first quite through And thus when these partes of water are gott vp to the toppe of the vessell on which the filter hangeth and ouer it on the other side by sticking still to the towe and by their naturall grauity against which nothing presseth on this side the labell they fall downe againe by little and little and by droppes breake againe into water in the vessell sett to receiue them But now if you aske why it will not droppe vnlesse the end of the labell that hangeth be lower then the water I conceiue it is because the water which is all along vpon the flannen is one continued body hanging together as it were a thridde of wyre and is subiect to like accidents as such a continued body is Now suppose you lay a wyre vpon the edge of the basin which the filter resteth vpon and so make that edge the center to ballance it vpon if the end that is outermost be heauyest it will weigh downe the other otherwise not So fareth it with this thridde of water if the end of it that hangeth out of the pott that is to be filtred be longer and consequently heauyer then that which riseth it must needes raise the other vpwardes and fall it selfe downewardes Now the raising of the other implyeth lifting more water from the cisterne and the sliding of it selfe further downewardes is the cause of its conuerting into droppes So that the water in the cisterne serueth like the flaxe vpon a distaffe and is spunne into a thridde of water still as it commeth to the flannen by the drawing it vp occasioned by the ouerweight of the thridde on the other side of the center Which to expresse better by a similitude in a solide body I remēber I haue oftētimes seene in a Mercers shoppe a great heap of massy goldlace lye vpon their stall and a little way aboue it a round smooth pinne of wood ouer which they vse to hale their lace when they wind it into bottomes Now ouer this pinne I haue putt one end of the lace and as long as it hung no lower thē the board vpō which the rest of the lace did lye it stirred not for as the weight of the loose end carried it one way so the weight of the other side where the whole was drew it the other way and in this manner kept it in equilibrity But as soone as I drew on the hāging end to be heauyer thē the clymbing side for no more weigheth thē is in the ayre that which lyeth vpon the board hauing an other cēter then it began to roule to the ground and still drew vp new partes of that which lay vpon the board vntill all was tumbled downe vpon the floore In the same manner it happeneth to the water in which the thridde of it vpon the filter is to be compared fittly vnto that part of the lace which hung vpon the pinne and the whole quantity in the cisterne is like the bulke of lace vpon the shoppeboard for as fast as the filter draweth it vp it is conuerted into a thridde like that which is already vpon the filter in like manner as the wheele conuerteth the flaxe into yarne as fast as it draweth it out from the distaffe Our next consideration will very aptly fall vpon the motion of those thinges which being bent do leape with violence to their former figure whereas others returne but a little and others do stand in that ply wherein the bending of them hath sett them For finding the reason of which effects our first reflection may be to note that a superficies which is more long then broad containeth a lesse floore then that whose sides are equall or neerer being equall and that of those surfaces whose lines and angles are all equall that which hath most sides and angles containeth still the greater floore Whence it is that Mathematicians conclude a circle to be the most capacious of all figures and what they say of lines in respect of a superficies the same with proportion they say of surfaces in respect of the body contained And accordingly we see by consequence that in the making a bagge of a long napkin if the napkin be sowed together longwise it holdeth a great deale lesse then if it be sowed together broadwise By this we see plainely that if any body which is in a thicke and short figure be forced into a thinner which by becoming thinner must likewise become eyther longer or broader for what it looseth one way it must gett an other then that superfieies must needes be stretched which in our case is a Physicall outside or materiall part of a solide body not a Mathematicall consideration of an indiuisible Entity We see also that this change of figures happeneth in the bending of all those bodies whereof we are now enquiring the reason why some of them restore themselues to their originall figures and others stand as they are bent Then to begin with the latter sort we find that they are of a moist nature as among mettalls lead and tinne and among other bodies those which we account soft And we may determine that this effect proceedeth partly from the humidity of the body that standeth bent and partly from a drynesse peculiar to it that comprehendeth and fixeth the humidity of it For by the first they are rendred capable of being driuen into any figure which nature or art desireth and by the second they are preserued from hauing their grauity putt them out of what figure they haue once receiued But because these two conditions are common to all solide bodies we may conclude that if no other circumstance concurred the effect arising out of them would likewise be common to all such and therefore where we find it otherwise we must seeke further for a cause of that transgression As for example if you bend the bodies of young trees or the branches of others they will returne to their due figure It is true they will sometime leane towardes that way they haue beene bent as may be seene euen in great trees after violent tempestes and generally the heades of trees and the eares of corne and the growne hedgerowes will all bend one way in some countries where some one wind hath a maine predominance and raigneth most continually as neere the sea-shore vpon the westerne coast of England where the southwest wind bloweth constantly the greatest part of the yeare may be obserued but this effect proceeding from a particular and extraordinary cause concerneth not our matter in hand We are to examine the reason of the motion of Restitution which we generally see in yong trees and branches of others as we said before In such we see that the earthy part which maketh them stiffe or
rather starke aboundeth more in them then in the others that stand as they are bent att the least in proportion to their natures but I conceiue this is not the cause of the effect we enquire about but that it is a subtile spirit which hath a great proportion of fire in it For as in rarefaction we found that fire which was eyther within or without the body to be rarifyed did cause the rarefaction eyther by entering into it or by working within it so seeing here the question is for a body to goe out of a lesser superficies into a greater which is the progresse of rarefaction and happeneth in the motion of restitution the worke must needes be done by the force of heate And because this effect proceedeth euidently out of the nature of the thing in which it is wrought and not from any outward cause we may conclude it hath its origine from a heate that is within the thing it selfe or else that was in it and may be pressed to the outward partes of it and would sinke into it againe As for example when a yong tree is bended both euery mans conceite is and the nature of the thing maketh vs beleeue that the force which bringeth the tree backe againe to its figure cometh from the inner side that is bent which is compressed together as being shrunke into a circular figure from a straight one for when solide bodies that were plaine on both sides are bent so as on each side to make a portion of a circle the conuexe superficies will be longer then it was before when it was plaine but the concaue will be shorter And therefore we may conceiue that the spirits which are in the contracted part being there squeezed into lesse roome then their nature well brooketh do worke themselues into a greater space or else that the spirits which are crushed out of the conuexe side by the extension of it but do remaine besieging it and do striue to gett in againe in such manner as we haue declared when we spoke of attraction wherein we shewed how the emitted spirits of any body will moue to their owne source and settle againe in it if they be within a conuenient compasse and accordingly do bring backe the extended partes to their former situation or rather that both these causes do in their kindes concurre to driue the tree into its naturall figure But as we see when a sticke is broken it is very hard to replace all the splinters euery one in its proper situation so it must of necessity fall out in this bending that certaine insensible partes both inward and outward are thereby displaced and can hardly be perfectly reioynted Whence it followeth that as you see the splinters of a halfe broken sticke meeting with one an other do hold the sticke somewhat crooked so these inuisible partes do the like in such bodies as after bending stand a little that way But because they are very little ones the tree or the branch that hath beene neuer so much bended may so nothing be broken in it be sett straight againe by paines without any notable detriment of its strength And thus you see the reason of some bodies returning in part to their naturall figure after the force leaueth them that did bend them Out of which you may proceed to those bodies that restore themselues entirely whereof steele is the most eminent And of it we know that there is a fiery spirit in it which may be extracted out of it not only by the long operations of calcining digesting and distilling it but euen by grosse heating it and then extinguishing it in wine and other conuenient liquors as Physitians vse to do Which is also confirmed by the burning of steele dust in the flame of a candle before it hath beene thus wrought vpon which afterwardes it will not do whereby we are taught that originally there are store of spirits in steele till they are sucked out Being then assured that in steele there is such aboundance of spirits and knowing that it is the nature of spirits to giue a quicke motion and seeing that duller spirits in trees do make this motion of Restitution we neede seeke no further what it is that doeth it in steele or in any other thinges that haue the like nature which through the multitude of spirits that abound in them especially steele do returne backe with so strong a ierke that their whole body will tremble a great while after by the force of its owne motion By what is said the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch may easily be vnderstood for they are generally composed of stringy partes vnto which if humidity happen to arriue they grow thereby thicker and shorter As we see that droppes of water getting into a new roape of a welle or into a new cable will swell it much thicker and by consequence make it shorter Galileus noteth such wetting to be of so great efficacy that it will shrinke a new cable and shorten it notably notwithstanding the violence of a tempest and the weight and ierkes of a loaden shippe do straine it what is possible for them to stretch it Of this nature leather seemeth to be and parchment and diuers other thinges which if they be proportionably moystned and no exterior force be applyed to extend them will shrinke vp but if they be ouerwetted they will become flaccide Againe if they be soddainely dryed they will shriuell vp but if they be fairely dryed after moderate wetting they will extend themselues againe to their first length The way hauing been opened by what we haue discoursed before we came to the motion of Restitution towardes the discouery of the manner how heauy bodies may be forced vpwardes contrary to their naturall motion by very small meanes in outward appearance lett vs now examine vpon the same groundes if like motions to this of water may not be done in some other bodies in a subtiler manner In which more or lesse needeth not trouble vs since we know that neyther quantity nor the operations of it do consist in an indiuisible or are limited to determined periodes they may not passe It is enough for vs to find a ground for the possibility of the operation and then the perfecting of it and the reducing it to such a height as att the first might seeme impossible and incredibile we may leaue to the oeconomy of wise nature He that learneth to read write or to play on the lute is in the beginning ready to loose hart att euery steppe when he considereth with what labour difficulty and slownesse he ioyneth the letters spelleth syllabes formeth characters fitteth and breaketh his fingers as though they were vpon the racke to stoppe the right frettes and to touch the right stringes And yet you see how strange a dexterity is gained in all these by industry and practise and a readinesse beyond what we could imagine possible if we saw
all the ayre in this our hemisphere is as it were strewed ouer and sowed with aboundance of northerne atomes and that some brookes of them are in station others in a motion of retrogradation backe to their owne north pole the southerne atomes which coming vpon them att the equator do not onely presse in among them wheresoeuer they can find admittance but do also go on fowardes to the north pole in seuerall files by themselues being driuen that way by the same accidentall causes which make the others retire backe seising in their way vpon the northerne ones in such manner as we described in filtration and thereby creeping along by them wheresoeuer they find them standing still and going along with them wheresoeuer they find them going backe must of necessity find passage in great quantities towardes and euen to the north pole though some partes of them will euer and anone be checked in this their iourney by the maine current preuayling ouer some accidentall one and so be carried backe againe to the aequator whose line they had crossed And this effect can not choose but be more or lesse according to the seasons of the yeare for when the sunne is in the Tropike of Capricorne the southerne atomes will flow in much more aboundance and with farre greater speede into the torride zone then the northerne atomes can by reason of the sunnes approximation to the south and his distance from the north pole since he worketh faintest where he is furthest off and therefore from the north no more emanations or atomes will be drawne but such as are most subtilised and duly prepared for that course And since onely these selected bandes do now march towardes the aequator their files must needes be thinner then when the sunnes being in the aequator or Tropike of Cancer wakeneth and mustereth vp all their forces And consequently the quiett partes of ayre betweene their files in which like atomes are also scattered are the greater whereby the aduenient southerne atomes haue the larger filter to clymbe vp by And the like happeneth in the other hemisphere when the sunne is in the Tropike of Cancer as who will bestow the paines to compare them will presently see Now then lett vs consider what these two streames thus incorporated must of necessity do in the surface or vpper partes of the earth First it is euident they must needes penetrate a pretty depth into the earth for so freesing persuadeth vs and much more the subtile penetration of diuers more spirituall bodies of which we haue sufficiently discoursed aboue Now lett vs conceiue that these steames do find a body of a conuenient density to incorporate themselues in in the way of density as we see that fire doth in iron and in other dense bodies and this not for an houre or two as happeneth in fire but for yeares as I haue beene told that in the extreme cold hilles in the Peake in Darbyshire happeneth to the dry atomes of cold which are permanently incorporated in water by long continuall freesing and so make a kind of chrystall In this case certainely it must come to passe that this body will become in a māner wholy of the nature of these steames which because they are drawne from the Poles that abound in cold and drynesse for others that haue not these qualities do not contribute to the intended effect the body is aptest to become a stone for so we see that cold and drought turneth the superficiall partes of the earth into stones and rockes and accordingly wheresoeuer cold and dry windes raigne powerfully all such countries are mainely rocky Now then lett vs suppose this stone to be taken out of the earth and hanged in the ayre or sett conueniently vpon some little pinne or otherwise putt in liberty so as a small impulse may easily turne it any way it will in this case certainely follow that the end of the stone which in the earth lay towardes the north pole will now in the ayre conuert it selfe in the same manner towardes the same point and the other end which lay towardes the south turne by consequence to the south I speake of these countries which lye betweene the aequator and the North in which it can not choose but that the streame going from the north to the aequator must be stronger then the opposite one Now to explicate how this is done suppose the stone hanged east and west freely in the ayre the streame which is drawne from the north pole of the earth rangeth along by it in its course to the aequator and finding in the stone the south steame which is growne innate to it very strong it must needes incorporate it selfe with it and most by those partes of the steame in the stone which are strongest which are they that come directly from the North of the stone by which I meane that part of the stone that lay northward in the earth and that still looketh to the north pole of the earth now it is in the ayre And therefore the great flood of atomes coming from the north pole of the earth will incorporate it selfe most strongly by the north end of the stone with the little flood of southerne atomes it findeth in the stone for that end serueth for the coming out of the southerne atomes and sendeth them abroad as the south end doth the northerne steame since the steames do come in att one end and do go out att the opposite end From hence we may gather that this stone will ioyne and cleaue to its attractiue whensoeuer it happeneth to be within the sphere of its actiuity Besides if by some accident it should happen that the atomes or steames which are drawne by the sunne from the Polewardes to the aequator should come stronger from some part of the earth which is on the side hand of the Pole then from the very Pole it selfe in this case the stone will turne from the Pole towardes that side Lastly whatsoeuer this stone will do towardes the Pole of the earth the very same a lesser stone of the same kind will do towardes a greater And if there be any kind of other substance that hath participation of the nature of this stone such a substance will behaue it selfe towardes this stone in the same manner as such a stone behaueth it selfe towardes the earth all the Phenomens whereof may be the more plainely obserued if the stone be cutt into the forme of the earth And thus we haue found a perfect delineation of the loadestone from its causes for there is no man so ignorant of the nature of a loadestone but he knoweth that the properties of it are to tend towardes the North to vary sometimes to ioyne with an other loadestone to draw iron vnto it and such like whose causes you see deliuered But to come to experimentall proofes and obseruations vpon the loadestone by which it will appeare that these causes are well esteemed and
applyed we must be beholding to that admirable searcher of the nature of the loadestone Doctor Gilbert by meanes of whom and of Doctor Haruey our Natiō may claime euen in this latter age as deserued a crowne for solide Philosophicall learning as for many ages together it hath done formerly for acute and subtile speculations in Diuinity But before I fall to particulars I thinke it worth warning my Reader how this great man arriued to discouer so much of Magneticall Philosophy that he likewise if he be desirous to search into nature may by imitation aduance his thoughts and knowledge that way In short then all the knowledge he gott of this subiect was by forming a little loadestone into the shape of the earth By which meanes he compassed a wonderfull designe which was to make the whole globe of the earth maniable for he found the properties of the whole earth in that little body which he therefore called a Tertella or little earth and which he could manage and trye experiences vpon att his will And in like manner any man that hath an ayme to aduance much in naturall sciencies must endeauour to draw the matter he enquireth of into some small modell or into some kind of manageable methode which he may turne and wind as he pleaseth And then lett him be sure if he hath a competent vnderstanding that he will not misse of his marke But to our intent the first thing we are to proue is that the loadestone is generated in such sort as we haue described for proofe whereof the first ground we will lay shall be to consider how in diuers other effects it is manifest that the differences of being exposed to the north or to the south do cause very great variety in the same thing as hereafter we shall haue occasion to touch in the barkes and graines of trees and the like Next we find by experience that this vertue of the loadestone is receiued into other bodies that resemble its nature by heatinges and coolinges for so it passeth in iron barres which being throughly heated and then layed to coole north and south are thereby imbued with a Magnetike vertue heate opening their bodies and disposing them to sucke in such atomes as are conuenient to their nature that flow vnto them whiles they are cooling So that we can not boubt but that conuenient matter fermenting in its warme bed vnder the earth becometh a loadestone by the like sucking in of affluent streames of a like complexion to the former And it fareth in like manner with those fiery instruments as fireforkes tonges shouels and the like which do stand constantly vpwardes and downewardes for they by being often heated and cooled againe do gaine a very strong verticity or turning to the Pole and indeede they can not stand vpwardes and downewardes so little a while but that they will in that short space gaine a manifest verticity and change it att euery turning Now since the force and vigour of this verticity is in the end that standeth downewardes it is euident that this effect proceedeth out of an influence receiued from the earth And because in a loadestone made into a globe or considered so to the end you may reckon hemispheres in it as in the great earth eyther hemisphere giueth vnto a needle touched vpon it not onely the vertue of that hemisphere where it is touched but likewise the vertue of the contrary hemisphere we may boldly conclude that the vertue which a loadestone is impregnated with in the wombe or bed of the earth where it is formed and groweth proceedeth as well from the contrary hemisphere of the earth as from that wherein it lyeth in such sort as we haue aboue described And as we feele oftentimes in our owne bodies that some cold we catch remaineth in vs a long while after the taking it and that sometimes it seemeth euen to change the nature of some part of our body into which it is chiefely entered and hath taken particular possession of so that whensoeuer new atomes of the like nature do againe range about in the circumstant ayre that part so deepely affected with the former ones of kinne to these doth in a particular manner seeme to rissent them and to attract them to it and to haue its guestes within it as it were wakened and roused vp by the stroakes of the aduenient ones that knocke att their dores Euen so but much more strongly by reason of the longer time and lesse hinderances we may conceiue that the two vertues or atomes proceeding from the two different hemispheres do constitute a certaine permanent and constant nature in the stone that imbideth them which then we call a loadestone and is exceeding sensible as we shall hereafter declare of the aduenience to it of new atomes alike in nature and complexion to those that it is impregnated with And this vertue consisting in a kind of softer and tenderer substance then the rest of the stone becometh thereby subiect to be consumed by fire From whence we may gather the reason why a loadestone neuer recouereth its magnetike vertue after it hath once lost it though iron doth for the humidity of iron is inseparable from its substance but the humidity of a loadestone which maketh it capable of this effect may be quite consumed by fire and so the stone be left too dry for euer being capable of imbibing any new influence from the earth vnlesse it be by a kind of new making it In the next place we are to proue that the loadestone doth worke in that manner as we haue shewed for which end lett vs consider how the atomes that are drawne from each Pole and hemisphere of the earth to the aequator making vp their course by a manuduction of one an other the hindermost can not choose but still follow on after the foremost And as it happeneth in filtration by a cotton cloth if some one part of the cotton haue its disposition to the ascent of the water more perfect and ready then the other partes haue the water will assuredly ascend faster in that part then in any of the rest so if the atomes do find a greater disposition for their passage in any one part of the medium they range through then in an other they will certainely not faile of taking that way in greater aboundance and with more vigour and strength then any other But it is euident that when they meete with such a stone as we haue described the helpes by which they aduance in their iourney are notably encreased by the floud of atomes which they meete coming out of that stone which being of the nature of their opposite pole they seise greedily vpon them and thereby do plucke themselues faster on like a ferryman that draweth on his boate the swiftlyer the more vigourously he tuggeth and pulleth att the rope that lyeth thwart the riuer for him to hale himselfe ouer by And therefore we
the distance of working vpon vs those only within whose sphere of actiuity we are planted can offend or aduantage vs and of them some are neere vs others further from vs. Those that are next vnto vs we discerne according as they are qualifyed eyther by our touch or by our tast or by our smelling which three senses do manifestly appeare to consist in a meere gradation of more or lesse grosse and their operations are leuelled to the three Elements that presse vpon vs earth water and ayre By our other two senses our hearing and our seeing we haue notice of thinges further off and the agents which worke vpon them are of a more refined nature But we must treat of them all in particular and that which we will beginne with shall be the touch as being the grossest of them and that which conuerseth with none but the most materiall and massye obiects We see it dealeth with heauy consistent bodies and iudgeth of them by coniunction vnto them and by immediate reception of something from them And according to the diuers impressions they make in it it distinguisheth them by diuers names which as we said of the qualities of mixed bodies are generally reduced to certaine payres as hoat and cold wett and drye soft and hard smooth and rough thicke and thinne and some others of the like nature which were needelesse to enumerate since we pretend not to deliuer the science of them but only to shew that they and their actions are all corporeall And this is sufficiently euident by meere repeating but their very names for it is plaine by what we haue already said that they are nothing else but certaine affections of quantity arising out of different degrees of rarity and density compounded together And it is manifest by experience that our sense receiueth the very same impressions from them which an other body doth for our body or our sense will be heated by fire and will also be burned by it if the heate be too great as well as wood it will be constipated by cold water moystened by humide thinges and dryed by dry bodies in the same manner as any other body whatsoeuer likewise it may in such sort as they be wounded and haue its continuity broken by hard thinges be pleased and polished by those that are soft and smooth be pressed by those that are thicke and heauy and be rubbed by those that are rugged c. So that those masters who will teach vs that the impressions vpon sense are made by spirituall or spiritelike thinges or qualities which they call intentionall specieses must labour att two workes the one to make it appeare that there are in nature such thinges as they would persuade vs the other to proue that these materiall actions we speake of are not able to performe those effects for which the senses are giuen vnto liuing creatures And vntill they haue done that I conceiue we should be much too blame to admitt such thinges as we neyther haue ground for in reason nor can vnderstand what they are And therefore we must resolue to rest in this beliefe which experience breedeth in vs that these bodies worke vpon our senses no other wayes then by a corporeall operation and that such a one is sufficient for all the effects we see proceede from them as in the processe of this discourse we shall more amply declare The element immediately next to earth in grossenesse is water And in it is the exercise of our tast our mouth being perpetually wett within by meanes of which moysture our tongue receiueth into it some litle partes of the substance which we chewe in our teeth and which passeth ouer it You may obserue how if we take any herbe or fruite and hauing chopped or beatē it small we thē putt it into a wooden dish of water and do squeese it a litle the iuice communicating and mingling it selfe with the water infecteth it with the tast of it selfe and remaining a while in the bowle sinketh by litle and litle into the very pores of the wood as is manifest by its retaining a long time after the tast and smell of that herbe In like manner nature hath taught vs by chewing our meate and by turning it into our mouthes and pressing it a litle that we may the more easily swallow it to imbue our spittle with such litle partes as easily diffuse themselues in water And then our spittle being continuate to the moysture which is within our tongue in such sort as we declared of the moysture of the earth that soaketh into the roote of a plant and particularly in the sinewes of it must of necessity affect those litle sensible stringes with the qualities which these petty bodies mixed euery where with the moysture are themselues imbued withall And if you aske what motions or qualities these be Physitians vnto whom it belongeth most particularly to looke into them will tell you that some dilate the tongue more and some lesse as if some of these litle bodies had an aereall and others a watry disposition and these two they expresse by the names of sweete and fatty That some do contract and draw the tongue together as choaky and rough thinges do most and next to them crabby and immature sharpenesse That some do corrode and pierce the tongue as salt and soure thinges That bitter thinges do search the outside of it as if they swept it and that other thinges do as it were pricke it as spices and hoat drinkes Now all these are sensible materiall thinges which admitt to be explicated clearely by the varieties of rarity and density concurring to their compositions and are so proportionable to such materiall instruments as we can not doubt but that they may be throughly declared by our former principles The next element aboue water is ayre which our nosethrilles being our instrument to sucke in we can not doubt but what affecteth a man by his nose must come vnto him in breath or ayre And as humidity receiueth grosser and weightier partes so those which are more subtile and light do rise vp into the ayre and these we know attaine vnto this lightnesse by the commixtion of fire which is hoat and dry And therefore we can not doubt but that the nature of smell is more or lesse tending to heate and drought which is the cause that their commixtion with the braine proueth comfortable vnto it because of its owne disposition it is vsually subiect to be too moyst and too cold Whether there be any immediate instrument of this sense to receiue the passion or effect which by it other bodies make vpon vs or whether the sense it selfe be nothing but a passage of these exhalations and litle bodies vnto the braine fittly accommodated to discerne what is good or hurtfull for it and accordingly to moue the body to admitt or reiect them importeth not vs att present to determine lett Physitians and Anatomistes resolue that question
which I spoke of aboue in the round tower In the like manner they that are called ventriloqui do persuade ignorant people that the Diuell speaketh from within them deepe in their belly by their sucking their breath inwardes in a certaine manner whiles they speake whence it followeth that their voice seemeth to come not from them but from somewhat else hidden within them if att the least you perceiue it cometh out of them but if you do not then it seemeth to come from a good way off To this art belongeth the making of sarabatanes or trunkes to helpe the hearing and of Eccho glasses that multiply soundes as burning glasses do light All which artes and the rules of them do follow the lawes of motion and euery effect of them is to be demonstrated by the principles and proportions of motion and therefore we can not with reason imagine them to be any thing else Wee see likewise that great noises not only offend the hearing but euen shake houses and towers I haue beene told by inhabitants of Douer that when the Arch Duke Albertus made his great battery against Calais which for the time was a very furious one for he endeauoured all he could to take the towne before it could be relieued the very houses were shakē and the glasse windowes were shiuered with the report of his artillery And I haue beene told by one that was in Seuill when the gunnepouder house of that towne which was some two miles distant from the place where he liued was blowne vp that it made the wodden shutters of the windowes in his house beate and clappe against the walles with greate violence and did splitte the very walles of a faire church that standing next it though att a good distance had no other building betweene to shelter it from the impetuosity of the ayres soddaine violent motion And after a fight I once had with some galleasses and Galliones in the roade of Scanderone which was a very hoat one for the time and a scarce credible number of pieces of ordinance were shott from my fleete the English Consull of that place coming afterwardes aboard my shippe tould me that the report of our gunnes had during all the time of the fight shaken the drinking glasses that stood vpon shelues in his house and had splitte the paper windowes all about and had spoyled and cracked all the egges that his pigeons were then sitting vpon which losse he lamented exceedingly for they were of that kind which commonly is called Carriers and serue them dayly in their commerce betweene that place and Aleppo And I haue often obserued att sea in smooth water that the ordinance shott of in a shippe some miles distant would violently shake the glasse windowes in an other And I haue perceiued this effect in my owne more then once att the report of a single gunne from a shippe so farre off that we could not descry her I remember how one time vpon such an occasion we altered our course and steared with the sound or rather with the motion att the first obseruing vpon which poynt of the compasse the shaking appeared for as yet we heard nothing though soone after with much attention and silence we could discerne a dull clumsy noise and such a motion groweth att the end of it so faint that if any strong resisting body checke it in its course it is presently deaded and will afterwardes shake nothing beyond that body and therefore it is perceptible only att the outside of the shippe if some light and very moueable body do hang loosely on that side it cometh to receiue the impression of it as this did att the gallery windowes of my cabin vpon the poope which were of light moscouia glasse or talke and by then we had runne somewhat more then a watch with all the sayles abroad we could make and in a faire loome gale we found our salues neere enough to part the fray of two shippes that in a litle while longer fighting would haue sunke one an other But besides the motions of the ayre which receiueth them easily by reason of the fluidity of it we see that euen solide bodies do participate of it As if you knocke neuer so lightly att one end of the longest beame you can find it will be distinctly hard att the other end the trampling of men and horses in a quiet might will be heard some miles off if one lay their eare to the ground and more sensibly if one make a litle hole in the earth and putt ones eare into the mouth of it but most of all if one sett a drumme smooth vpon the ground and lay ones eare to the vpper edge of it for the lower membrane of the drumme is shaked by the motion of the earth and then multiplyeth that sound by the hollow figure of the drumme in the conueying it to the vpper membrane vpon which your eare leaneth Not much vnlike the tympane or drumme of the eare which being shaked by outward motion causeth a second motion on the inside of it correspondent to this first and this hauing a free passage to the braine striketh it immediately and so informeth it how thinges moue without which is all the mystery of hearing If any thing do breake or stoppe this motion before it shake our eare it is not heard And accordingly we see that the sound of belles or artillery is heard much further if it haue the conduct of waters then through the pure ayre because in such bodies the great continuity of them maketh that one part can not shake alone and vpon their superficies there is no notable vneuenesse nor no dense thing in the way to checke the motion as in the ayre hilles buildinges trees and such like so that the same shaking goeth a great way And to confirme that this is the true reason I haue seuerall times obserued that standing by a riuers side I haue heard the sound of a ring of belles much more distinctly and lowde then if I went some distance from the water though neerer to the steeple from whence the sound came And it is not only the motion of the ayre that maketh sound in our eares but any motion that hath accesse to them in such a manner as to shake the quiuering membranous tympane within them will represent vnto vs those motions which are without and so make such a sound there as if it were conueyed only by the ayre Which is plainely seene when a man lying a good way vnder water shall there heare the same soundes as are made aboue in the ayre but in a more clumsie manner according as the water by being thicker and more corpulent is more vnwieldy in its motions And this I haue tryed often staying vnder water as long as the necessity of breathing would permitt me Which sheweth that the ayre being smartly moued moueth the water also by meanes of its continuity with it and that liquid element being
Optikes will by refractions and by reflexions make all sortes of colours out of pure light as we see in Rainebowes in those triangular glasses or prismes which some do call fooles Paradises and in other inuentions for this purpose Wherefore in briefe to shew what colour is lett vs lay for a ground that light is of all other thinges in the worlâ— the greatest and the most powerfull agent vpon our eye eyther by it selfe or by what cometh in with it and that where light is not darkenesse is then consider that light being diuersly to be cast but especially through or from a transparent body into which it sinketh in part and in part it doth not and you will conclude that it can not choose but come out from such a body in diuers sortes mingled with darkenesse which if it be in a sensible quantity doth accordingly make diuers appearances and those appearances must of necessity haue diuers hues representing the colours which are middle colours betweene white and blacke since white is the colour of light and darkenesse seemeth blacke Thus those colours are ingendred which are called apparent ones And they appeare sometimes but in some one position as in the raynebow which changeth place as the looker on doth but att other times they may be seene from any part as those which light maketh by a double refraction through a triangular glasse And that this is rightly deliuered may be gathered out of the conditions requisite to their production for that crystall or water or any refracting body doth not admitt light in all its partes is euident by reason of the reflexion that it maketh which is exceeding great and not only from the superficies but euen from the middle of the body within as you may see plainely if you putt it in a darke place and enlighten but one part of it for then you may perceiue as it were a current of light passe quite through the body although your eye be not opposite to the passage so that manifestly it reflecteth to your eye from all the inward partes which it lighteth vpon Now a more oblique reflexion or refraction doth more disperse the light and admitteth more priuations of light in its partes then a lesse oblique one as Galileo hath demonstrated in the first Dialogue of his systeme Wherefore a lesse oblique reflexion or refraction may receiue that in quality of light which a more oblique one maketh appeare mingled with darkenesse and consequently the same thing will appeare colour in one which sheweth it selfe plaine light in the other for the greater the inclination of an angle is the greater also is the dispersion of the light And as colours are made in this sort by the medium through which light passeth so if we conceiue the superficies from which the light reflecteth to be diuersly ordered in respect of reflexion it must of necessity follow that it will haue a diuers luster and sight as we see by experience in the neckes of pigeons and in certaine positions of our eye in which the light passing through our eye browes maketh an appearance as though we saw diuers colours streaming from a candle we looke vpon And accordingly we may obserue how some thinges or rather most do appeare of a colour more inclining to white when they are irradiated with a great light then when they stand in a lesser And we see painters heighten their colours and make them appeare lighter by placing deepe shadowes by them euen so much that they will make obiects appeare neerer and further of meerly by their mixtion of their colours Because obiects the neerer they are the more strongly and liuely they reflect light and therefore appeare the clearer as the others do more dusky Therefore if we putt the superficies of one body to haue a better disposition for the reflexion of light then an other hath we can not but conceiue that such difference in the superficies must needes begett variety of permanent colours in the bodies And according as the superficies of the same body is better or worse disposed to reflexion of light by polishing or by compressure together or the like so the same body remaining the same in substance will shew it selfe of a different colour And it being euident that white which is the chiefest colour doth reflect most light and as euident that blacke reflecteth least light so that it reflecteth shadowes in lieu of colours as the Oâ—sidian stone among the Romanes doth witnesse And it being likewise euident that to be dense and hard and of small partes is the disposition of the obiect which is most apt to reflect light we can not doubt but that white is that disposition of the superficies That is to say it is the superficies of a body consisting of dense of hard and of small partes and on the contrary side that blacke is the disposition of the superficies which is most soft and full of greatest pores for when light meeteth with such a superficies it getteth easily into it and is there as it were absorpt and hidden in caues and cometh not out againe to reflect towardes our eye This doctrine of ours of the geneâ—ation of colours agreeth exactly with Aristotles principles and followeth euidently out of his definitions of light and of colours And for summing vp the generall sentiments of mankind in making his Logicall definitions I thinke no body will deny his being the greatest Master that euer was He defineth light to be actus Diaphani which we may thus explicate It is that thing which maketh a body that hath an aptitude or capacity of being seene quite through it in euery interior part of it to be actually seene quite through according to that capacity of it And he defineth colour to be The terme or ending of a diaphanous body the meaning whereof is that colour is a thing which makâ—th a diaphanous body to reach no further or that colour is the cause why a body is no further diaphanous then vntill where it beginneth or that colour is the reason why we can see no further then to such a degree through or into such a body Which definition fitteth most exactly with the thing it giueth vs the nature of For it is euident that when we see a body the body we see hindereth vs from seeing any other that is in a straight line beyond it And therefore it can not be denyed but that colour terminateth and endeth the diaphaneity of a body by making it selfe be seene And all men do agree in conceiuing this to be the nature of colour and that it is a certaine disposition of a body whereby that body cometh to be seene On the other side nothing is more euident then that to haue vs see a body light must reach from that body to our eye Then adding vnto this what Aristotle teacheth concerning the production of seeing which he sayth is made by the action of the seene body vpon our sense it
followeth that the obiect must worke vpon our sense eyther by light or att the least with light for light rebounding from the obiect round about by straight lines some part of it must needes come from the obiect to our eye Therefore by how much an obiect sendeth more light vnto our eye by so much that obiect worketh more vpon it Now seeing that diuers obiects do send light in diuers manners to our eye according to the diuers natures of those obiects in regard of hardenesse density and litlenesse of partes we must agree that such bodies do worke diuersely and do make different motions or impressiōs vpon our eye and consequētly the passion of our eye from such obiects must be diuers But there is no other diuersity of passion in the eye from the obiect in regard of seeing but that the obiect appeare diuers to vs in point of colour Therefore we must conclude that diuers bodies I meane diuers or different in that kind we here talke of must necessarily seeme to be of diuers colours meerely by the sending of light vnto our eye in diuers fashions Nay the very same obiect must appeare of different colours whensoeuer it happeneth that it reflecteth light differently to vs. As we see in cloth if it be gathered together in fouldes the bottomes of those fouldes shew to be of one kind of colour and the toppes of them or where the cloth is stretched out to the full percussion of light it appeareth to be of an other much brighter colour And accordingly painters are faine to vse almost opposite colours to expresse them In like manner if you looke vpon two pieces of the same cloth or plush whose graines lye contrawise to one an other they will likewise appeare to be of different colours Both which accidents and many others like vnto them in begetting various representations of colours do all of them arise out of lightes being more or lesse reflected from one part then from an other Thus then you see how colour is nothing else but the disposition of a bodies superficies as it is more or lesse apt to reflect light sithence the reflexion of light is made from the superficies of the seene body and the variety of its reflexion begetteth variety of colours But a superficies is more or lesse apt to reflect light according to the degrees of its being more or lesse penetrable by the force of light striking vpon it for those rayes of light that gaine no entrance into a body they are darted vpon must of necessity fly backe againe from it But if light doth gett entrance and penetrate into the body it eyther passeth quite through it or else it is swallowed vp and lost in that body The former constituteth a diaphanous body as we haue already determined And the semblance which the latter will haue in regard of colour we haue also shewed must be blacke But lett vs proceede a little further We know that two thinges render a body penetrable or easie to admitt an other body into it Holes such as we call pores and softnesse or humidity so that dryenesse hardnesse and compactednesse must be the properties which render a body impenetrable And accordingly we see that if a diaphanous body which suffereth light to runne through it be much compressed beyond what it was as when water is compressed into yce it becometh more visible that is it reflecteth more light and consequently it becometh more white for white is that which reflecteth most light On the cōtrary side softnesse vnctuousnesse and viscousnesse encreaseth blacknesse as you may experience in oyling or in greasing of wood which before was but browne for thereby it becometh more blacke by reason that the vnctuous partes added vnto the other do more easily then they single admitt into them the light that striketh vpon them and when it is gotten in it is so entangled there as though the winges of it were birdlimed ouer that it can not fly out againe And thus it is euident how the origine of all colours in bodies is plainely deduced out of the various degrees of rarity and density variously mixed and compounded Likewise out of this discourse the reason is obuious why some bodies are diaphanous and others are opacous for sithence it falleth out in the constitution of bodies that one is composed of greater partes then an other it must needes happen that light be more hindered in passing through a body composed of bigger partes then an other whose partes are lesse Neyther doth it import that the pores be supposed as great as the partes for be they neuer so large the corners of the thicke partes they belong vnto must needes breake the course of what will not bowe but goeth all in straight lines more then if the partes and pores were both lesser since for so subtile a piercer as light no pores can be too litle to giue it entrance It is true such great ones would better admitt a liquid body into them such a one as water or ayre but the reason of that is because they will bowe and take any plye to creepe into those cauities if they be large enough which light will not do Therefore it is cleare that freedome of passage can happen vnto light only there where there is an extreme great multitude of pores and partes in a very litle quantity or bulke of body which pores and partes must consequently be extreme litle ones for by reason of their multitude there must be great variety in their situation from whence it will happen that many lines must be all of pores quite through and many others all of partes although the most will be mixed of both pores and partes And so we see that although the light do passe quite through in many places yet it reflecteth from more not only in the superficies but in the very body it selfe of the diaphanous substance But in an other substāce of great partes and pores there can be but few whole lines of pores by which the light may passe from the obiect to make it be seene and consequently it must be opacous which is the contrary of Diaphanous that admitteth many rayes of light to passe through it from the obiect to the eye whereby it is seene though the Diaphanous hard body do interuene betweene them Now if we consider the generation of these two colours white and blacke in bodies we shall find that likewise to iustify and second our doctrine for white thinges are generally cold and dry and therefore are by nature ordained to be receptacles and conseruers of heat and of moysture as Physitians do note Contrariwise blacke as also greene which is neere of kinne to blacke are growing colours and are the dye of heate incorporated in aboundance of wett as we see in smoake in pittecoale in garden ground and in chymicall putrefactions all which are blacke as also in yong herbes which are generally greene as long as they are yong
as soone as the mastering violence leaueth them at liberty Pleasure therefore must be contrary to this and consist in a moderate dilatation for an immoderate one would cause a compression in some adherent partes and there would become paine And conformable to this we experience that generally they are hard thinges which breed paine vnto vs and that these which breed pleasure are oyly and soft as meates and odours which are sweete to the taste and smell and soft substances which are gratefull to the touch the excesse of all which proueth offensiue and painefull so that from the extremity of pleasure one entereth presently vpon the confines of paine Now then lett vs consider how the little similitudes of bodies which from without do come into the fantasy must of necessity worke there according to their little power effects proportionable to what they wrought first in the outward senses from whence they were conueyed to the braine for the senses that is the nerues and the Septum Lucidum hauing both of them their origine from the very substance of the braine and differing only in degrees of purity and refinement the same obiect must needes workelike effects in both compressing or dilating them proportionably to one an other which compression or dilatation is not paine or pleasure as it is in the outward sense but as it is reported to the hart and that being the seate of all paines or pleasures wrought in other partes and that as it were dyeth them into those qualities is not capable of feeling eyther it selfe so that the stroakes of any little similitudes vpon the fantasy do make only compressions or dilatations there not paines or pleasures Now their bodies or similitudes if they be reuerberated from the fantasy or septum Lucidum vpon the little rootes of the nerues of the sixt couple which goe to the hart they must needes worke there a proportionable impression to what they wrought vpon the fansy eyther compressing or dilating it and the hart being extremely passiue by reason of its exceeding tendernesse and heate can not choose but change its motion at the least in part if not in whole and this with relation to two causes the one the disposition of the hart it selfe the other the vehemency of the stroake This change of motion and different beating of the hart is that which properly is called passion and is euer accompanyed with pleasure or with griefe according to the nature of the impression that eyther contracteth or dilateth the hart and the spirirs about it and is discouered by the beating of the arteries and of the pulse Conformable wherevnto Physitians do tell vs that euery passion hath a distinct pulse These pulses are diuided in common by aboundance or by want of spirits yet in both kinds they may haue common differencies for in aboundance the pulse may be quicke or slow regular or irregular equall or vnequall and the like may happen in defect of spirits according to the motions of the hart which are their causes Againe the obiect by being present or absent neerer or further off maketh the stroake greater or lesser and accordingly varyeth the motion of the hart Lett vs then call to mind how we haue formerly declared that life consisteth in heate and humidity and that these two ioyned together do make a thing great and we may conclude that of necessity the motion which is most liuely must haue a great full and large stroake like the euē rolling waues of a wyde and smooth sea and not too quicke or smart like the breaches of a narrow Fretum agitated by tempestuous windes From this other motions may vary eyther by excesse or by deficiency the first maketh the stroake become smart violent and thicke the other slackeneth it and maketh it grow little slow weake and thinne or seldome And if we looke into the motions of our hart we shall see these three differencies of them follow three seuerall chiefe passions The first followeth the passion of ioy the second the passion of anger and the third the passion of griefe Nor neede we looke any further into the causes of these seuerall motions for we see that ioy and griefe following the stroake of sense the one of them must consist in an oyly dilatation that is the spirits about the hart must be dilated by a gentle large great and sweete motion in a moderation between velocity and slownesse the other contrarywise following the stroake of sense in paine as the first did in pleasure must contract the spirits and consequently make their motion or stroake become little and deficient from all the properties we haue aboue sett downe As for anger the motion following that passion is when the aboundance of spirits in the hart is a little checked by the contrary stroake of sense but presently ouercometh that opposition and then as we see a hindered water or a man that suddainely or forcibly breake through what withstood their motion go on with a greater violence then they did and as it were precipitately so the hart hauing ouercome the contraction which the sense made in it dilateth it selfe with a fury and maketh its motion smart and vehement Whence also it followeth that the spirits grow hoater then they were and accordingly it is often seene that in the scoulding of a woman and in the irritation of a dogg if euer now and then one thwart them and interpose a little opposition their fury will be so sharpened and heightened that the woman will be transported beyond all limits of reason and the dogg will be made madde with nothing else done to him but angring him at conuenient times and some men likewise haue by sleight oppositions iterated speedily vpon them before their spirits could relent their vehement motion and therefore must still encrease it beene angred into feauers This passion of anger seemeth almost to be solitary on the side of excesse beyond ioy which is as it were the standard and perfection of all passions as light or whitenesse is of all colours but on the otherside of deficiency there are seuerall middle passions which participate more or lesse of ioy and griefe as particularly those two famous ones which gouerne mans life Hope and Feare Concerning which Physitians tell vs that the pulse or beating of feare is quicke hard and vnequall vnto which I conceiue we may safely adde that it must also be small and feeble the perfection of ioy decreasing in it on one side to witt from greatnesse and largenesse but not intirely so that a kind of quicknesse supplyeth in part the other defect Hope on the other side is in such sort defectiue from ioy that neuerthelesse it hath a kind of constancy and moderate quantity and regularity in its motion and therefore is accounted to be the least hurtfull of all the passions and that which most prolongeth mans life And thus you see how those motions which we call passions are engendred in the hart and what
last their resoluing vpon some one of them and their steady pursuance of that afterwardes will not be matter of hard digestion to him that shall haue well relished and meditated vpon the contents of the last Chapter for it is euident that if seuerall obiects of different natures do at the same time present themselues vnto a liuing creature they must of necessity make diuers impressions in the hart of it proportionable vnto the causes from whence they proceed so that if one of them be a motion of hope and the other be of feare it can not choose but follow thence that what one of them beginneth the other will presently breake off by which meanes it will come to passe that in the beastes hart there must needes be such wauinges as we may obserue in the sea when at the beginning of a tide of stood it meeteth with a banke that checketh the coming in of the waues and for a while beateth them backe as fast as they presse vpon it they offer at getting ouer it and by and by retire backe againe from the steepenesse of it as though they were apprehēsiue of some danger on the other side and then againe attempt it a fresh and thus continue labouring one while one way an other while an other vntill at the length the flood encreasing the water seemeth to grow bolder and breaketh a maine ouer the banke and then floweth on till it meeteth with an other that resisteth it as the first did and thus you see how the sea can doubt and resolue without any discoursing In the like manner it fareth with the hart of a beast whose motions do steere the rest of his body when it beateth betwixt hope and feare or between any other two contrary passions without requiring any other principles from whence to deduce it then those we haue already explicated But now to speake of their inuention I must confesse that among seuerall of them there appeareth so much cunning in laying of their plots which when they haue compassed they seeme to grow carelesse and to vnbend their attention as hauing obtained what with earnestnesse they desired that one might thinke they wrought by designe and had a distinct view of an end for the effecting of which they vsed discourse to choose the likeliest meanes To this purpose the subtilities of the foxe are of most note They say he vseth to lye as if he were dead thereby to make hennes and duckes come boldly to him That in the night whē his body is vnseene he will fixe his eyes vpon poultry and so make them come downe to him from their rooste That to ridde himselfe of the fleas that afflict him in the summer he will sinke his body by litle and litle into the water while the fleas creepe vp to his head to saue themselues from drowning and from thence to a bough he holdeth in his mouth and will then swimme away leauing them there That to cosen the badger of his earth he will pisse in it as knowing that the ranke smell of his vrine will driue the othe cleanelier beast to quitt it That when doggs are close vpon him and catching at him he will pisse vpon his tayle and by firking that vp and downe will endeauour you may beleeue to make their eyes smarte and so retarde their pursuite that he may escape from them And there are particular stories that expresse yet more cunning then all these as of a foxe that being sore hunted hanged himselfe by the teeth among dead vermine in a warren vntill the dogges were passed by him and had lost him Of an other that in the like distresse would take into his mouth a broome bush growing vpon a steepe cliffe on the side hand neere his denne which had an other way to it easy enough of accesse and by helpe of that would securely cast himselfe into his hole whiles the doggs that followed him hastily and were ignorant of the danger would breake their neckes downe the rockes It is said that in Thracia the country people so know whether the riuers that are frozen in the winter will beare them or no by marking whether the foxes venture boldely ouer them or retire after they haue layed their eares to the yce to listen whether or no they can heare the noyse of the water running vnder it from whence you may imagine they collect that if they heare the current of the streame the yce must needes be thinne and consequently dangerous to trust their weight vnto it And to busye my selfe no longer with their suttleties I will conclude with a famous tale of one of these crafty animals that hauing killed a goose on the other side of the riuer and being desirous to swimme ouer with it to carry it to his denne before he would attempt it least his prey might proue too heauy for him to swimme withall and so he might loose it he first weighed the goose with a piece of wood and then tryed to carry that ouer the riuer whiles he left his goose behind in a safe place which when he perceiued he was able to do with ease he then came backe againe and ventured ouer with his heauy birde They say it is the nature of the Iacatray to hide it selfe and imitate the voyce of such beasts as it vseth to prey vpon which maketh them come to him as to one of their owne fellowes and then he seiseth vpon them and deuoureth them The Iaccall that hath a subtile sent hunteth after beasts and in the chace by his barking guideth the lyon whose nose is not so good till they ouertake what they hunt which peraduenture would be too strong for the Iaccall but the lyon killeth the quarry and hauing first fed himselfe leaueth the Iaccall his share and so between them both by the ones dexterity and by the others strength they gett meate for nourishment of them both Like storyes are recorded of some fishes And euery day we see the inuentions of beasts to saue themselues from catching as hares when they are hunted seeke alwayes to confound the sent sometimes by taking hedges other whiles waters sometimes running among sheepe and other beasts of stronger sents sometimes making doubles and treading the same path ouer and ouer and sometimes leaping with great iumpes hither and thither before they betake themselues to their rest that so the cōtinuatenesse of the sent may not lead doggs to their forme Now to penetrate into the causes of these and of such like actions we may remember how we shewed in the last Chapter that the beating of the hart worketh two thinges the one is that it turneth about the specieses or litle corporeities streaming from outward obiects which remaine in the memory the other is that it is alwayes pressing on to some motion or other out of which it happeneth that when the ordinary wayes of getting victuals or of escaping from enemies do faile a creature whose constitution is actiue it lighteth
sometimes though peraduenture very seldome vpon doing something out of which the desired effect followeth as it can not choose but fall out now and then although chance only do gouerne their actions and when their action proueth successefull it leaueth such an impression in the memory that whensoeuer the like occasion occurreth that animal will follow the same methode for the same specieses do come together from the memory into the fantasy But the many attēpts that miscarry and the ineffectuall motions which straightes do cast beasts vpon are neuer obserued nor are there any stories recorded of them no more then in the temple of Neptune were kept vpon the registres the relations of those vnfortunate wretches who making vowes vnto that god in their distresse were neuerthelesse drowned Thus peraduenture when the foxe seeth his labour in chaceing the hennes to be to no purpose and that by his pursuite of them he driueth them further out of his reach he layeth himselfe downe to rest with a watchfull eye and perceiuing those silly animals to grow bolder and bolder by their not seing him stirre he continueth his lying still vntill some one of them cometh within his reach and then on a suddaine he springeth vp and catcheth her or peraduenture some poultry might haue strayed within his reach whiles he was asleepe and haue then wakened him with some noise they made and so he happen to seise vpon one of them without eyther designe or paines taking before hand by such degrees he might chance to catch one the first time and they being settled in his memory together with the effect it happened that an other time when hunger pressed him and sent vp to his braine like spirits vnto those which ascended thither whiles he lay watching the hennes these spirits brought the other from his memory into his fantasy in such sort as we haue shewed in the last Chapter and so droue him to the same course vntill by frequent repetitions it became ordinary and familiar with him and then they that looke only vpon the performance of the artifice are apt to inferre discourse and a designe of reason out of the orderly conduct of it But how can we conceiue the foxe hath iudgement to know when the henne is come within his leape and accordingly offereth not art her till then vnlesse we resort to some other principle then what is yet declared The answere vnto this obiection I thinke will not be hard to find for if the motion which the presence of the obiect maketh in the hart be proportioned out by nature as there is no doubt but it is it will not be so great and powerfull as to make the foxe leape att it vntill it be arriued so neere him that by his nimblenesse he can reach it and so without any ayme further then by the meere fluxe of his passion conueniently raysed he doth the feate but if his passion be too violent it maketh him misse his ayme as we may frequently obserue both in men and beasts and particularly when feare presseth eyther of them to leapeouer a ditch which being too broad he lighteth in the middest of it The same watchfullnesse and desire to haue the poulen that sitt vpon a tree out of his reach maketh him fixe his eyes vpon them when they are att rooste and att length eyther the brightnesse and sparkling of them dazeleth the birdes and maketh them come downe to them as flyes do in the night about the flame of a candle or as fishes do to a light in a boates head or else they are affraid and their feare encreasing their spirits returne to the hart which thereby is oppressed and their outward partes are bereaued of strength and motion from whence it followeth necessarily that their footing looseth their hold fast and they tumble downe halfe dead with feare which happeneth also frequently to catts when they looke wistly vpon litle birdes that sitt quietly Or peraduenture their feare maketh them giddy as when some man looking downe a precipice from a dangerous standing he falleth by the turning of his braine though nothing be behind him to thrust him forewardes Or it may be some steame cometh from the foxe which draweth such creatures to him as it is reported that a great and very poysonous toade will do a weasell who will runne about the toade a great while and still make his circle lesser and lesser till at length he perisheth in the center where his foe sitteth still and draweth him to him which he doth in such sort as animated Mercury will draw leafe gold duely prepared or as the loadestone attracteth iron and yet it is apparent the weasell cometh not with his good will but that there are some powerfull chaines steaming from the body of the toade which plucke him thither against his liking for by his motions and running he will expresse the greatest feare that can be The methode which foxes do practise to ridde themselues of their fleas if it be true is obuious enough for them to fall vpon for in summer their fleas together with their thicke furred coate can not choose but cause an exceeding great itching and heate in their bodies which will readily inuite them to go into the water to coole themselues as the marchantes at the Isles of Zante and of Cephalonia told me when I was there it was the custome of our English doggs who were habituated vnto a colder clyme to runne into the sea in the heate of summer and lye there most part of the day with only their noses out of the water that they might draw breath and would sleepe there with their heads layed vpon some stone which raysed them vp whiles their bodies were couered with the sea and those doggs which did not thus would in one summer vsually be killed with heate and fleas Now when the foxe feeleth the ease that the coolenesse of the water affordeth that part of him which sitteth in it he goeth further and further yet would not putt himselfe to swimme which is a labour and would heate him and therefore he auoydeth it so that whiles he thus cooleth himselfe in some shady place for it is naturall vnto him in such an occasion to resort vnto the coole shade rather then to lye in the sunne and in such there being for the most part some boughes hanging ouer the water it happeneth naturally enough that he taketh some of the lowest in his mouth to support him and saue him the labour of swimming whiles he lyeth at his ease soaking and cooling himselfe in the riuer By which meanes it cometh to passe that the fleas finding no part of him free from water do creepe vp to the bough to rescue themselues from drowning and so when he is cooled enough he goeth away and leaueth them there In all which finding a benefitt and satisfaction whensoeuer the like occasion bringeth those specieses from his memory into his fantasy he betaketh himselfe to the same course and therein
conception of Being is from all others that enter by our senses as from the conceptions of colours of soundes and the like if we but reflect vpon that act in vs which maketh it and then compare it with the others for we shall find that all they do consist in or of certaine respects betwixt two thinges whereas this of Being is an absolute and simple conception of it selfe without any relation to ought else and can not be described or expressed with other wordes or by comparing it to any other thing only we are sure we vnderstand and know what it is But to make this point the clearer it will not be amisse to shew more particularly wherein the other sort of apprehensions are different from this of Being and how they consist in certaine respects betweene differēt thinges and are knowne only by those respects whereas this is knowne only in it selfe abstracting from all other thinges whatsoeuer An example will do it best when I apprehend the whitenesse in the wall I may consider how that white is a thing which maketh such an impression vpon my fantasy and so accordingly I know or expresse the nature of white by a respect or proportion of the wall to worke vpon my fantasy In like manner if we take a notion that ariseth out of what entereth immediately by our senses for by ioyning such also to the notion of Being we make ordinary apprehensions we shall find the same nature as when I consider how this white wall is like to an other white wall the apprehension of likenesse that I haue in my mind is nothing else but a notion arising out of the impression which both those walles together do make vpon my fantasy so that this apprehension is as the former a certaine kind of respect or proportion of the two walles to my imagination not as they make their impressions immediately vpon it but as an other notion ariseth out of comparing the seuerall impressions which those two white walles made in it Lett vs proceede a litle further and examine what kind of thing that is which we call respect or proportion and where it resideth We shall find that there is a very great difference betweene what it is in it selfe or in its owne essence and what it is in the thinges that are respectiue for in them it is nothing else but the thinges being plainely and bluntly what they are really in themselues as for example two white walles to be like is in them nothing else but each of them to be white and two quantities to be halfe and whole is in them nothing else but each quantity to be iust what it is But a respect in its owne nature is a kind of tye comparison tending or order of one of those thinges to an other and is no where to be found in its formall subsistence but in the apprehension of man and therefore it can not be described by any similitude nor be expressed by any meanes but like Being by the sound of a word which we are agreed vpon to stirre vp in vs such a notion for in the thinges it is not such a thing as our notion of it is which notion is that which we vse to expresse by prepositions and coniunctions and which Aristotle and Logitians expresse in common by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ad and therefore there is nothing out of vs to paint it by as I could do white or square or round or the like because these haue a being in the thinges that are white or square c and consequently they may be expressed by others of the like nature but the likenesse that one white hath to an other or the respect that eyther of them hath to mans imagination is only in Man who by comparing them giueth birth to the nature and Being of respect Out of this discourse we may collect two singularities of man which will much import vs to take particular notice of the one is that Being or a thing the formall notion of both which is meerely Being is the proper affection of man for euery particular thing is in him by being as I may say grafted vpon the stocke of Existence or of Being and accordingly we see that whatsoeuer we speake of we say it is something and whatsoeuer we conceiue we giue it the nature of a thing as when we haue said the wall is white we frame whitenesse as a thing so did we immediately before speaking of Respect we tooke respect as it were a thing and enquired where it is so that it is euident that all the negotiation of our vnderstanding tradeth in all that is apprehended by it as if they were thinges The other singularity we may obserue in man is that he is a comparing power for all his particular knowledges are nothing else but respects or comparisons betweene particular thinges as for example for a man to know heate or cold c is to know what effects fire or water c can worke vpon such or such bodies Out of the first of these proprieties it followeth that what affecteth a man or maketh impression vpon his vnderstanding doth not thereby loose its owne peculiar nature nor is it modifyed to the recipient the contrary of which we see happeneth perpetually in bodies obserue the sustenance we take which that it may be once part of our body is first changed into a substance like our body and ceaseth being what it was whē water or any liquid body is receiued into a vessell it looseth its owne figure and putteth on the figure of the vessell it is in if heate entereth into a body that is already hoat that heate becometh thereby more heate if into a cold body it is conuerted into warmeth and in like manner all other corporeall thinges are accommodated to the qualities of the recipient and in it they loose their owne proper termes and consistences but what cometh into the vnderstanding of a man is in such sort receiued by him or ioyned to him that it still retaineth its owne proper limitations and particular nature notwithstanding the assūption of it vnto him for Being is ioyned to euery thing there since as we haue said it is by Being that any thing cometh thither and consequently this stocke of Being maketh euery graft that is inoculated into it Be what of its owne nature it is for Being ioyned to an other notion doth not change that notion but maketh it be what it was before sithence if it should be changed Being were not added to it as for example adde Being to the notion of knife and it maketh a knife or that notion to Be a knife and if after the addition it doth not remaine a knife it was not Being that was added to a knife Out of the later of the singularities proper to man it followeth that multitude of thinges may be vnited in him without suffering any confusion among themselues but euery one of them
phlegmes and earth Now these are not pure and simple partes of the dissolued body but new coÌ„pounded bodies made of the first by the operation of heat As smoake is not pure water but water and fire together and therefore becometh not water but by cooling that is by the fire flying away from it So likewise those spirits salts oyles and the rest are but degrees of thinges which fire maketh of diuers partes of the dissolued body by seperating them one from an other and incorporating it selfe with them And so they are all of them compounded of the foure Elements and are further resoluable into them Yet I intend not to say that there are not originally in the body before its dissolution some loose partes which haue the properties of these bodies that are made by the fire in the dissoluing of it for seeing that nature worketh by the like instruments as art vseth she must needes in her excesses and defects produce like bodies to what art doth in dissolution which operation of art is but a kind of excesse in the progresse of nature but my meaning is that in such dissolution there are more of these partes made by the working of fire then were in the body before Now because this is the naturall and most ordinary dissolution of thinges lett vs see in particular how it is done suppose then that fire were in a conuenient manner applyed to a body that hath all sortes of partes in it and our owne discourse will tell vs that the first effect it worketh will be that as the subtile partes of fire do diuide and passe through that body they will adhere to the most subtile partes in it which being most agile and least bound and incorporated to the bowels of the body and lying as it were loosely scattered in it the fire will carry them away with it Thâ—se will be the first that are seperated from the maine body which being retained in a fitt receiuer will by the coldenesse of the circumdant ayre grow outwardly coole themselues and become first a dew vpon the sides of the glasse and then still as they grow cooler condense more and more till att the length they fall downe congealed into a palpable liquor which is composed as you see of the hoatest partes of the body mingled with the fire that carried them out and therefore this liquor is very inflammable and easily turned into actuall fire as you see all spirits and Aquae ardentes of vegetables are The hoat and loose partes being extracted and the fire continuing and encreasing those that will follow next are such as though they be not of themselues loose yet are easyest to be made so and are therefore most separable These must be humide and those little dry partes which are incorporated with the ouerflowing humide ones in them for no partes that we can arriue vnto are of one pure simple nature but all are mixed and composed of the 4 Elements in some proportion must be held together with such grosse glew as the fire may easily penetrate and separate them And then the humide partes diuided into little atomes do sticke to the lesser ones of the fire which by their multitude of number and velocity of motion supplying what they want of them in bulke do carry them away with them And thus these phlegmaticke partes fly vp with the fire and are afterwardes congealed into an insipide water which if it haue any sauour is because the first ardent spirits are not totally separated from it but some few of them remaine in it and giue some little life to the whole body of that otherwise flatt liquor Now those partes which the fire separateth next from the remaining body after the firy and watry ones are carryed away must be such as it can worke vpon and therefore must abound in humidity But since they stirre not till the watry ones are gone it is euident that they are composed of many dry partes strongly incorporated and very subtilely mixed with the moist ones and that both of them are exceeding small and are so closely and finely knitt together that the fire hath much adoe to gett betweene them and cutt the thriddes that tye them together and therefore they require a very great force of fire to cary them vp Now the composition of these sheweth them to be aeriall and together with the fire that is mingled with them they congeale into that consistence which we call oyle Lastly it can not be otherwise but that the fire in all this while of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiseth hath hardned and as it were rosted some partes into such greatnesse and drynesse as they will not fly nor can be carried vp with any moderate heate But greate quantity of fire being mingled with the subtiler partes of his baked earth maketh them very pungent and acrimonious in tast so that they are of the nature of ordinary salt and are so called and by the helpe of water may easily be separated from the more grosse partes which then remaine a dead and vselesse earth By this discourse it is apparant that fire hath been the instrument which hath wrought all these partes of an entire body into the formes they are in for whiles it carryed away the fiery partes it swelled the watry ones and whiles it lifted vp them it digested the aeriall partes and whiles it droue vp the oyles it baked the earth and salt Againe all these retaining for the most part the proper nature of the substance from whence they are extracted it is euident that the substance is not dissolued for so the nature of the whole would be dissolued and quite destroyed and extinguished in euery part but that onely some partes containing the whole substance or rather the nature of the whole substance in them are separated from other partes that haue likewise the same nature in them The third instrument for the separation and dissolution of bodies is water Whose proper matter to worke vpon is salt And it serueth to supply what the fire could not performe which is the separation of the salt from the earth in calcined bodies All the other partes fire was able to seuer But in these he hath so baked the little humidity he hath left in them with their much earth as he can not diuide them any further And so though he incorporateth him selfe with them yet he can carry nothing away with him If then pure water be putt vpon that chalke the subtilest dry partes of it do easily ioyne to the superuenient moysture and sticking close to it do draw it downe to them but because they are the lighter it happeneth to them as when a man in a boate pulleth the land to him that cometh not to him but he remoueth himselfe and his boate to it so these ascend in the water as they dissolue And the water more and more penetrating them and by addition of its partes making the humidity which