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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61885	Legends no histories, or, A specimen of some animadversions upon The history of the Royal Society wherein, besides the several errors against common literature, sundry mistakes about the making of salt-petre and gun-powder are detected and rectified : whereunto are added two discourses, one of Pietro Sardi and another of Nicolas Tartaglia relating to that subject, translated out of Italian : with a brief account of those passages of the authors life ... : together with the Plus ultra of Mr. Joseph Glanvill reduced to a non-plus, &c. / by Henry Stubbe ...	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.; Tartaglia, Niccolò, d. 1557. Quesiti et inventioni diverse. Libro 3. English.; Sardi, Pietro, b. 1559? Artiglieria. English. Selections.; Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676. Plus ultra reduced to a non plus.; Henshaw, Thomas, 1618-1700.	1670 (1670)	Wing S6053; Wing S6063_PARTIAL; ESTC R21316	289,570	380

company to be Poets to see and understand and write Plays to talk of and pretend to certain To●ish Experiments these are Cares of such high concernment that all Philology is but Pedantry and Polemical Divinity Controversies with which we are Satiated Howsoever one would have thought the ordinary stock of School-learning might have instru●ted Mr. Sprat in the Mythology of the Ancients better than to have ignored these things He might there have learned that the Thracians and particularly the Getes the most Iust and most Valiant Nation amongs● them did deifie and offer Sacrifice and pay all those Honor● which were held to be most Divine unto Zamolxis who whether the Servant or Predecessor of Pythagoras it matters not since Herodotus Strabo Laertius and the Author of the Etymologicon all agree that he was reputed and worshipped for a ●od 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So saith Strabo of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Laertius He was the Founder of Philosophical Opinions if Pythagoras was a follower of his and if ●●●hagoras taught him he was the Promulgator of Philosophical Opinions in Thrace and having taught them the Immortality and Transmigration of Souls and instructed them in their ways of worshiping God without any mention of his Experimental Philosophy it i● averred that he gained the esteem and wor●hip of a God Tha● Hercules was a Philosopher and disciple of Atlas who instructed him in the Do●trine of the Spheres and Astronomy is as confidently avowed as it is He was Deified So Schrevelius Con●●at● enim Herculem Philosophum fuisse Et ratio est cur omnia illa monstra vicisse dicatur It is manifest that Hercules was a Philosopher and for that reason he is said to have overcome so many Monsters which were but Monstrous Opinions and it is as notorious that for the subduing of those Monsters he was reckoned a God honoured with Tithes Temples Priests and Sacrifices That Plato derived all his repute from the Inventive and Experimental Philosophy is a thing I yet understand not but that there wanted not such as reckon him amongst the Demy-Gods in a time when men had given over the Deifying of Rat-catchers is certain Hunc Platonem Labeo inter Semi-deos Commemorandum putavit Semi-deos autem Heroibus anteponit utrosque inter Numina collocat Veruntamen istum quem Semideum appellat non Heroibus tantum sed etiam Diis ipsis praeferendum esse non dubito so saith August de civit Dei l. 2. c. 14. And that man of Stagyra that Idol of Disputers is termed an Heroe by Iul. Scaliger a man of as inquisitive and Experimental a Spirit as any of this age or Mechanical Society ever produced Read his Character and despair of the like that it will ever be given to any of the Virtuosi viz. de subtil exercit 194. Sect. 4. Barbara ingenia levissimis momentis impelluntur ad Divini atque incomparabilis Herois Obtrectationem Duae namque sunt Aquilae solae in natura rerum altera bellicae laudis altera literarariae Illa potentiae haec Sapientiae Caesar Aristoteles I am ashamed to be put upon the Proof of those things which their Country School-Masters should have taught them and so should have prevented me this trouble which I find not yet to be at an end Their Valiant men and Generals did seldome rise highe● than to Demy-Gods and Heroes But the Gods they Worshipped with Temples and Altars were those who instructed the world to Plowe c. By this Antithesis any one will conjecture that the Heroes and Demi-gods had no Temples and Altars which is a childish and unpardonable Error as any Boy conversant in the Roman Antiquities will tell him and I have shewed before Evander propter summam Sapientiam Iruditionem pro Deo cultus est ab Aboriginibus imo Romani Divinos ei honores tribuentes aram Condiderunt quotannis Sacrificia obtulerunt sicut aliis Heroibus iidem fecerunt ut testatur Dionysius H●licarnassaeus lib. Primo Ara Evandri erat in colle Aventino No man ever took Hercules or Zamolxis or ●astor and Pollux and Quirinus or those Roman Emperors that were Deified as Iulius Caesar Augustus and others for mo●e than Demy-Gods and Heroes yet had they Temples and Altars Priests and Sacrifices as every School-boy knows Let any man enquire into the Ethnick Theology and see if the Authors of Natural Discoveries either exceed in number or dignity the Heroes and Demi-Gods who gained an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their worth by being Legislators Generals or Kings and Emperors If they do not as 't is certain they do not what truth is there in what Mr. Sprat tells his Majesty that a diviner sort of honor was conferred on them than on the founders of Philosophical Opinions And how far will they be to seek that go to search Antiquity for proofs that an higher degree of Reputation is due to Discoverers than to the Teachers of Speculative Doctrines nay even to Conquerors themselves Nor hath the true God himself omitted to shew his value of Vulgar Arts In the whole History of the first Monarchs of the World from Adam to Noah there is no mention of their Wars or their Victories All that is Recorded is this they lived so many years and taught their Posterity to keep Sheep to till the Ground to plant Vineyards to dwell in Tents to build Citie● to play on the Harp and Organs to work in Brass Iron c. I have already demonstrated the Ignorance of Mr. Sprat in Philology and humane Learning Here he discovers himself to be as little acquainted with the Bible and seems to have as little of Divinity as other Scholar●ship in him It is more than the Text warrants him to say That God Almighty mentioned those Discoveries out of his Value of those Vulgar Arts. Who made him Privy to the Secret Counsels of Heaven or who impowred him to add to the Scripture Doth he not fear lest God should add unto him the plagues that are written in that Book It was good advice which Agur giveth Add not to his words lest he reprove thee and thou beest found a Lyar. Any man else who had considered how the thoughts of God are not as ou● thoughts or have imagined that God took notice of those Vulgar Arts out of a Value he placed on them wheras he no where shews such an esteem for them nor takes notice of more important discoveries which happened within the compass of Mose's writing and might have merited his regard as well as these He takes no notice who first discovered Minerals whose Inventions were Gold and Silver and precious stones whose project it was to make Linnen and Silks and the like If these Vulgar Arts deserved his sacred Remembrance as they were Arts it is certain then that all Arts deserved his Remembrance and he would have been Iust unto them I suppose him to have forgot his Logick and

thence that Adrianus Metius of Alkmaer did not invent them but one Zacharias Ioannides of Middleburgh in Zeland though perhaps Baptista Porta had obscurely proposed it and that he who may most justly come in for a second share in the glory of that invention is one Ioannes Lapreius of the same Town And whereas 't is generally written that Galilaeo was the first who applied those tubes to the contemplation of Celestial Objects even that appears to be false seeing that the first Inventor even Zacharias Ioannides together with his son Ioannes Zacharides did make use of them to discover several new Phaenomena in the Moon and Heavens Which mistake is unpardonable in our Virtuoso and his Assistants because that a more particular Enquiry hath been made of late years hereinto then ever before The Barometer he allows to have been first invented by Torricellius not to try the gravitation of the Aire but to prove a vacuum Afterwards the different ascent of the Quicksilver being tried on the top and at the bottom of Hills in France the opinion of the rising of the Quicksilver from the pressure of the Air was introduced and illustrated But net her is the gravitation or pressure of the Air a new opinion it is as old as Aristotle it is his and he essayed to weigh the Air in his book de coelo l. 4. sect 29 30 39. He proves the Air to ponderate because a bladder full of Air weighs heavier then one that is empty Concerning which Experiment I shall adde the words of Scipi Claramontius that learned Writer the truth of it having been questioned Possum tamen testari observationem Aristotelis dicto faventem fuitque diligens observatio à diligentissimo pensatore exactusque stateris lancibus peracta me praesente adsistente cum pluribus veritatis cupidis viris pensit avimus ergo primum follem novum penitusque vacuum primo statera quae solum unciarum differentiam indicabat invenimusque unciarum decemnovem totidem reperimus eundem follem diligenter inflatum solo spiritu nulloque humore immisso ac postea usi sumus lance quae semuncias quoque indicabat tumque follem inflatum unciarum decemnovem semis invenimus adeo tamen ut ibi libra in aequilibrio absque tractu ut vocant nostri adamussim permaneret at idem vacuus non amplius in eodem signo sine tractu sed cum tractu perstabat Quocirca verum dicit Aristoteles So that whether we consider the gravitation of the Aire or its being weighed which Mr. Glanvill in his Plus ultra thinks so strange of as he expresses To have said in elder Time That Mankind should light upon an Invention whereby those Bodies might be weigh'd would certainly have appeared very wilde and extravigant and it will be so accounted for some time yet till men have been longer and are better acquainted with this Instrument c The opinion it self and the attempt to weigh it is Aristotles Nor is this D●scou●se casually proposed once in Aristotle but sundry ti●es he avows the gravita●ion of the Air in his Problems viz. sect 11. probl 45 sect 21. probl 18. sect 25. probl 12 13. From hence we may judge how well Mr. Glanvill is acquainted with the tenets of Aristotle and how well read he is in him whom he condemns He and his Ph●losophick friends dealt only in some pitiful Compendium of Phys●cs and from thence learned that which was the opinion of Themistiu● Simplicius ● and o●her eminent Peripatetics as if it had been the avowed doctrine of their great Master and thereupon they thus deliver themselves And on this occasion Sir I observe the incompetency of their judgments who are E●emies to the real Experimental Philosophy in that they do not as I intimated at all or very little understand what they condemn This I have some reason to say since in the whole Compass of my Acquaintance which is not very narrow I profess I know not one who opposeth the Modern way that is not almost totally unacquainted with it And on the other side upon the most careful turn of my thoughts among my Philosophick friends I cann●t light on one of all those that are for the free and experimental procedure but who hath been very well instructed in the P●ripatetick doctrines which they have deserted and most of them much better than those who are yet zealous Contenders for them I might tell our Divine that the Gravitation of the Air seems proposed in Iob 28.25 Qui fecit ventis pondus God is said to make weight for the winde indeed neither the gravitation of the A●mosphear nor the notion of Aerial cylinders pressing upon subjacent bodies were any News in the world when the Society was first established But the News of the Barometer is so pleasant that I will insert the whole passage But IV. The BAROMETER is another late Instrument very helpful to useful Knowledge That there is gravity even in the Air it self and that that Element is only comparatively light is now made evident and palpa●le by Experience though Aristotle and his Schools held a different Theory And by the help of Quicksilver in a Tube the way is found to measure all the degrees of Compression in the Atmosphere and to estimate exactly any accession of weight which the Air receives from Winds Clouds or Vapors To have said in elder Times that Mankind should light upon an Invention whereby those bodies might be weigh'd would certainly have appeared very wilde and extravigant and it will be so accounted for some time yet till men have been longer and are better acquainted with this Instrument For we have no reason to believe it should have better luck than the Doctrine of the Circulation the Theory of Antipodes and all great Discoveries in their first Proposals 'T is impossible to perswade some of the Indians that live near the heats of the Line that there is any such thing as Ice in the World but if you talk to them of Water made hard and consistent by Cold they 'l laugh at you as a notorious Romancer And those will appear as ridiculous among the most of us who shall affirm it possible to determine any thing of the Weight of the Wind or Clouds But Experience turns the laugh upon the confident incredulity of the Scoffer and he that will not believe needs no more for his Conviction then the labour of a Trial. Let him then fill a Tube of Glass of some Feet in length with Quicksilver and having sealed one end let him stop the other with his Finger and immerge that which is so stop'd into a vessel of Mercury the Tube being perpendicularly erected let him then substract his Finger and he will perceive the Quicksilver to descend from the Tube into the subjacent vessel till it comes to 29 Digits or thereabouts there after some Vibrations it ordinarily rests The reason that

dubito fateri quoniam Chymica ars infinitis erroribus scatere visa est illud quoque Augiae stabulum re●urgandi laborem sumpsimus in quo felicius mihi versari licuit quod ob ineunte aetate magnae Artis studio captus summa diligentia sub excellentissimis praeceptoribus Arti huic studuerim Praeceptores enim fuerunt Wilhelmus Hohenheimius Pater alii infiniti praeter hos quoque scriptis adjutus sum Setthagii Episcopi Erhardi Laventalii Nicolai Hipponensis Episcopi Matthaei Schechtii Suffraganei Treisingensis Abbatis Spanheimii aliorumque doctissimorum Chemistarum Quin variis eorum experimentis factus sum locupletior inter quos honoris causa nominandus mihi venit nobilissimus vir Sigismundus Fueger Schwathensis qui magnis sumptibus pluribus ministris sustentatis Chemicam accessione locupletavit Haec ibi Paracelsus Neqne vero falsa scribere est putandus quandoquidem seculum istum exercitiis Chymicis voluminibus sca●uit cum jam plures tractatus typis publicis sint impressi nihilominus cernimus subinde ex tenebris prodire plures ita ut ne Thesauri quidem multi videantur sufficere cupiendis nec Theatra His followers confess that he borrowed much out of Basilius Valentinus and more out of Isaacus Hollandus as Penottus declares Cum incidissem in Isaaci librum de opere vegetabili reperi de verb● ad verbum doctrinam de tribus principiis de separatione quatuor Elementorum ab eo desumptam● Unde constat illum praecipua sua Opera suffuratum fuisse atque hinc inde expiscatum ut de gradationibus medicinarum ab Arnoldo Archidoxa a Raymundo Lullio ex sua Arte operativa de Arcanis a Rupescissa nihil prorsus a seipso praeter convitia maledicta a Trithemio varia The same is confessed by Quercetan somwhere as I remember and he himself intimates it by adding to many preparations the words Ex nostra correctione ex me a emendatione Out of all which it is evident that neither the Grecians nor the disputing Ages were so ignorant of Chymistry as Mr. Glanvill asserts as it is certain that the Arabians as well as the Grecians were disputers and followers of Aristotle and Galen and that particularly Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon were Schoolmen Nor can any man doubt the same of those other Bishops and Monks who knows with what perfect Veneration in those days Aristotle was regarded How useful and how luciferous their Processes w●re it is not for Mr. Glanvill to judge who is ignorant of them but any one will allow them● both the one and the other recommmendation who considers that their Chymical Processes which passed amongst them gave occasion to all and make a great part of the improvements in Chymistry in Dioptricks and other Subjects wherein our Virtuosi pride themselves Particularly as to Chymistry it is as clear that the disputing Ages and followers of Aristotle were acquainted with it and eminent for it as that there were Monks and Schoolmen Those men whom Mr. Glanvill so explodes and with whom the Historian disports himself had of late years before Paracelsus in a manner solely the knowledge of this Art by which Nature is unwound c. This Sennertus granteth Proximis seculis fere inter Monachos latuit Chymia quorum non pauci illud quo abundabant otium post sacras meditationes orationes arti huic praestantissimae honeste tribuerunt inter quos fuerunt Raymundus Lullius Albertus Magnus Ioannes de Rupescissa Savanarola Morienus Rogerius Trithemius Frater Basilius Valentinus quorum scripta multa hoc seculo in lucem edita sunt multa adhuc manuscripta passim latent I hope there is no exception against Sennertus how partial soever Erastus or Crato may seem And to af●ront our Virtuoso a little more it was a follower of Aristotle and those Disputers a pitiful School-Divine that discovered the making of Gun-Powder which single invention out does all that our Collegiates boast of In the year 1354. Bertholdus Schwarz a Benedictine Monk discovered it and I dare warrant him in those days no enemy to the man of Stagyra the Idol of disputers A very ancient Manuscript gives him this Character Bertholdus Schwarz Goslariensis Monachus ordinis Sancti Benedicti cum mire Chymicis delectaretur atque eorum peritia jam magnam sibi nominis existimationem acquisiisset c. Any one may read the rest in Kirchers Mundus subterraneus l. 12. sect 5. part 4. I shall relate some particular processes in Chymistry which are mentioned by such as were not Arabians but of a much more ancient date In the time of Iulianus and Valentinianus Emperours lived Aetius Amidenus he and Nicolaus Myrepsus who is indeed later then Mesue do mention the distillation of Oyls per descensum as Gesner shews and Vossius together with Conringius avow Nicolaus Myrepsus or Praepositus in quo illud miror nullam ab eo aquarum oleorumve Chymisticis instrumentis paratorum mentionem fieri Capnistum tantum oleum quod per descensum distilletur describit ut Aetius quoque As to the ways of making Chymical Extracts let any man judge whether the Grecians were ignorant of them by these passages as they are cited by Gunterus Billichius viz. Chylismata extrahuntur aut exprimuntur Extrahendi nec ars nova est nec novus modus quanquam Heurnio ita visum sit Method ad praxin lib. 1. lib. 2. c. 25. Rat●onem ejus a Dioscoride accipe verbis interpretis Ruellii lib. 3. c. de Gentiana● Contusa inquit radix quinque diebus aqua maceratur postea in eadem tantisper decoquitur dum extent radices ubi refrixit aqua linteo excolatur mox discoquitur dum mellis crassitudo fiat fictilique reconditur Similia cap. 9. ejusdem libri de Centaurio minore habet Dabo tibi ipsissima Dioscoridis verba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nequid ad plenitudinem artificii deesset subjungit Quod siquid concretum faucibus vasis adhaerescat deradunt reliquoque humori permiscent Item haec Quae autem ●iccis radicibus aut herbis liquamenta exprimuntur decocta ut in Gentianae mentione retulimus praeparantur Ita Lycium Abscynthium hypocistis consimilia coguntur De Lycio vide cap. 135. lib. 1. de hypocistide libri ejusdem cap. 128. Chylismatis den●que absynthini cap. 26. meminit Nec aliter Extractum Melampodii clarissimus Raymundus Mindeserus concinnavit quod in Pharmacopoeia Augustana inter Ecchylismata Cathortica locum non postremum reperit Ut liqueat extrahendi artificium dignum omnino fuisse quod erudita antiquitas inveniret non degener posteritas imitaretur Nec quicquam Chymia novi praeter liquorem attulit Concerning fixed and Alcalisate Salts the Chymists and Chymical Physicians make a great noise and undoubtedly the Invention is very extraordinary and their use very singugular in Medicine Yet both the preparation

and that his works have in them sundry Prop●sitions that are superstitious and magical is granted by Delci● such haply was that which Franciscus Picus says he had read in his book of the sixth Science where he affirms that a man may become a Prophet and foretel things to come by the means of the Glass Almucheti composed according to the rules of perspective provided he made use of it under a good constellation and had before-hand made his body very even and put it into a good temper by Chymistry As to what I say about Orontius I adde the words of Sir H● Savile in his Lectures p. 71. Iosephus Scaliger home omnium mortalium ne Orontio quidem excepto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereas I say p. 3. that the ancient Physicians did not only cure cut-fingers and invent●d Diapalma and and other Medicaments in order thereunto I adde what I know not how was omitted that it is notorious how all our Herbals and Druggists have explained the nature and use of Medicaments according to the Doctrine of the Elements and qualities either arising therfrom or from the peculiar mixture of the parts and whosoever hath acted or shall proceed according to those notions in compliance with the Ancients shall not stand in need of any novel Method from the Virtuosi to salve a cut-finger What I have said in the first and second sheet concerning the Barometer as they call it that it doth not determine exactly neither the weight nor pressure of the aire winde or clouds is an opinion which the more I think upon the more I am confirmed in nor do I doubt that others will be as scrupulous as I in their assent to our dogmatizing Virtuoso when they shall seriously consider what follows and accommodate it to the Elasticity and gravity of the Atmosphear First when our Virtuoso speaks of the Elasticity of the Air he understands thereby a body whose constituent particles ar● of a peculiar configuration and texture distinct from what can be ascribed to earth water or fire That the Air near the earth is such an heap of little bodies lying one upon another as may be resembled to a fleece of wooll for this to ●mit o●her likenesses betwixt them consists of many slender flexible hairs each of which may indeed like a little Spring be easily bent or rouled up but will also like a Spring be still endeavouring to stretch it self out again For though both these Hairs and the Aerial corpuscles to which we like them do easily yield to external pressures yet each of them by vertue of its structure is endowed with a power or principle of self-dilatation by vertue whereof though the Hairs may by a m●ns hand be bent and crowded closer together and into a narrower room then suits best with the nature of the body yet whilst the compression lasts there is in the fleece they compose or endeavour outwards whereby it continually thrusts against the hand that opposes its expansion And upon the removal of the external pressur● by opening the hand more or less the compressed wooll does as it were spontaneously expand or display it self towards the recovery of its former loose and free condition till the fleece have either regain'd its former dimensions or at least approved them as near as the compressing hand perchance not quite opened will permit Against this I except not only that this supposition is far from a sensible Philosophy but that whosoever would weigh the Air exactly and estimate the accession of weight which the Air receives from winds clouds or vapors the thing Mr. Glanvill promiseth us must weigh the Air singly first and in its utmost degree of expansion otherwise he can never tell what its gravity is or what accessional it receives by its Elasticity by exhalations and different mixtures But this is not done by the Barometer however it be essayed in the experiment of Aristotle very judiciously but only an imaginary column or Cylinder of Air and its pressure upon the Mercury is considered which procedure seems to me as ridiculous as if a man should lay a fleece of wooll or any other body upon any thing and there being above that an incumbent body of lead or the like bearing thereon yet should he proceed to say that he weighed the fleece of wooll and not the incumbent lead for as yet no discoveries have acquainted the world with the nature of that Aether which is above the Atmosphere whether it gravitate or press upon the subjacent Air which a very subtile but rapid body may do nor what effects the Libration of the Moon and other Planets may have by way of pressure upon the contiguous bodies which pressure may be communicated to the terrestrial Air and without the determination hereof it is as vain to pretend to weigh the Air by this Barometer as to determine of the weight of a board that presseth a Cheese in the Vat without considering the superincumbent stone Neither are we informed sufficiently what the Figure of the Aether is whether it make a convexe and so encompass the Atmosphear or also be interspersed with and differently move therein nor what effects those motions and agitations of it have upon the grosser corpuscles of the Atmosphere not only a abating of their gravity somtimes but adding to them a levitation nor is it explicated yet what effects the corpuscular rays of the fixed Stars and Planets may have in or upon the Atmosphere adding to its gravity as ●tis just to imagine since that eminent Virtuoso the Pliny of our Age for lying but a Virtuoso could wash his hands in the beams of the Moon or Elasticity of which those intercurrent corpuscles seem not void though not Aiery which constit●te Thunder Lightning c. or diminishing them both in order to the Phaenomena which occurre daily Secondly it doth not yet appear by any thing alledged by our Experimental Philosophers that for certain the Air which encompasseth the Earth is a distinct body of a different structure from the Earth and Water that compose the Terraqueous Globe Isaac Vossius doth think the Air to be nothing else but watrish exhalations drawn up by the Sunne Credimus Aerem esse Aquam seu humorem dilatatum ad legem aequilibrii quaquaversum se extendentem If it b● so it is a vain supposition which attributes such a structure to the Air as is repugnant to the water Others there are which make the Atmosphere to be an aggr●gate of heterogeneous particles exhal●d from this Globe whose structure must be as discrepant as the vapours are and what a difference there is in them we may guess by the infinite variety of Meteors Rains Snows Hail Winds Dews c. and their component corpuscles If this latter be true as 't is probabl● that it is at least that there is no more besides but an intercurrent Aether or materia subtilis of the Cartesians what becomes of this

a year after Mr. Hook and more after Mr. Boyle How unacquainted is He and his Assistants ● even with the Writings of their fellow Virtuosi And if we may be allowed to transfer the Fool 's Cap from the Ancients for concluding too soon may we no● crown the heads of our Virtuosi now therewith And how careful the R.S. is in making good their promise to Olaus Borrichius that what their Members should write the whole Society would be resp●nsible let any man judge that considers how Mr. Hooke and Mr. Glanvill I beg Mr. Hook's pardon for the unequal comparison disagree and Dr. Henshaw another Virtuoso differs also from Mr. Glanvill saying That the Quicksilver Tube will not give so exact an account of every small difference in the pressing Air as the THERMOMETER what confus●on shall we be reduced unto in time should these contradict●o●s Experimentators proceed as they have done I shall here adde that I do conceive that this notion of an Aerial column gravitating upon the Earth or subjacent body was framed in imitation of the Hypothesis of Simon Stevinus the Teacher of Mathematicks to Grave Maurice of Nassau in his fourth book of Hydrostaticks where he insists muc● upon this Aqueous Column but 't is observable that that judicious person the better to make out his Theoremes presupposeth such things as give some repute to my objections about the Aerial Cylinder or Column viz. 1. Aquam omnibus partibus esse ponderitatis Homogeneae 2. Cujusvis aquae superficiem planam horizonti parallel●m esse 3. Aquae fundo horiz●nti parallelo tantum insidet pondus quantum est Aqueae Columnae cujus b●sis fundo altitudo perpendiculari ab aquae superficie summa adimam demissae sit aequalis Out of this last Proposition and the demonstration and consectaries thereof in him 't is manif●st that he supposed not one of his assertions would hold though the Phaenomena were the same in nature as he worded and explained them if that he did not free his aqueous Column from any oblique pressures and make it rectangular And as for his Postulatum that the surface of the water is plain flat and level he confesses it is not so really viz. Quatenus pars est sphaericae sive mundanae superficiei mundanam autem superficiem dicimus sphaerae cujusvis mundo concentricae he only professeth to assume it as true because in hydrostatics things happen as if it really were so whereupon he scruples not to make use of a supposition which is really confessedly and demonstrably false as long as it conduceth to practice and serves his turn as if it were true without pursuing a more tedious and not more useful Hypothesis agreeable to Archimedes Which I take notice of by way of Apology for my self and those who think fit to acquiesce in or not to blame such Methods as are effectual though otherwise vain and groundless Another thing is that He supposeth there that the Earth is the Center of the world Out of all which I am more and more satisfied of the validity of my former doubts against this so much concluded upon Aerial Column to the explanation whereof I finde no such cautions or previous suppositions used to take off the edge and force of such objections neither indeed have I yet met with any thing of that subject proposed in a Scientifical way and therefore much how it comes to be concluded upon so as Mr. Glanvill represents it to be Whereas I have said that the gravitation of the Air even Elementary is an opinion of Aristotles and that his Experiment was tried by Claramontius I adde that the verity of that trial though indeed it extend only to the impure Atmosphere is attested by Ricciolus in these words Duo quarto Aquam Aerem nostrum habere aliquid levitatis gravitati admistum ut vi illius adscendant ut ●int supra id quod est ipsis gravius vi hujus descendant Hinc ●it ut folles lusorii Aere addensat● bene inflati etiam sine farinulae ac vim infusione plus ponderent quam flaccidi ut exquisita trutina deprehendes immo ego expendi vesicam bovinam quae flaccida erat scrupulorum 4. granorum quatuor esse inflatam scrup 4. grav 6. quaere Aer additus per inflationem appendebat grana duo Thus the incomparable Ricciolus whom I may as well reckon amongst the Peripateticks as Mr. Boyle doth Schottus and how true that Aristotelean Experiment is Mr. Boyle demonstrates in his pneumatick discourses And though the works of Galilaeo Kepler Mersennus Gassendus Pecquetus Paschal were lost and were is ignorant as some Virtuosi of their trials about the weight of the Air yet would not the Assertion have seemed so strange and incredible as Mr. Glanvill represents it to be for though Maynenus deny it yet he brings in this Objection Aer est gravis c. go probatur primo a Mathematicis qui de Aeris pondere scripserunt inveneruntque ejus ponderis momenta 2. A Francisco Mendoza qui in suo viridario problema instituit An in Aere navigari possit 3. A descensu lapidum aliorum gravium quae Aeris pondere praegrammata urgent suum descensum velocius in fine quam in principio moventur 4. Experimento adducto a Bassone qui follem inflatum citius descendere ait quam Aere vacuum ob additum Aeris pondus l. de motu intent 1. art 3. Berigardus also asserts the gravity of the Air and justifies it by this Barometer and the unequal ascent of the Mercury on the top and at the foot of a mountain I shall summe up all that may take off from the novelty of the thing and deprive the R.S. of the glory of pretending to any interest in the discovery in the words of Thomas Bartholinus de pulmon sect 3. p. 60. Ingeniosus Sanctorius in inveniendis instrumentis Medicis inter alia Com. in 1 Fen. Avic Stateram ponit qua ventorum vim impetum ponderat Inventis aliquid addam Vitream phialam lanci nostrae impone leni halitu inflato videbis quam parum ponderi accreverit In instrumento Magdeburgico testatur Otho Geriche Consul Magdeburgensis inventor ejus ponderari posse Aerem hoc pacto quanto levius est vitrum post Aerem extractum tantum ponderabat A●r antea in eo contentus Varios modos alios A●ris levitatem bilance expendendi tradit Caspar Ens Thaumat Mathemat Probl. 93. c. 15. Vesicam bovinam se expendisse ait Joannes Bapt. Ricciolus Tom. 1. Almag nov l. 2. c. 5. num 4. quae flaccida erat scrupulorum quatuor granorum quatuor deprebendisse ●andem inflatum scrupul●rum 4. granorum 6. Marcius Mersennus in Phaenom Propos. 29. asserit se Geometris praes●ntibus adjuvantibus ponder asse bilance Aeolipilam aeneam satis calefactam prop●modum candentem omnique humore destitutam

quam minimum Aeris continentem deprebendisseque pondus fuisse unoiarum quatuor drachmarum 6. granorum 15. postquam vero naturaliter refrixisset Aeolipila Aer antea rarefactus rediisset ad pristinum ac naturalem suum statum iterum ponderasse ipsam invenisse pondus praecedente pondere majus fuisse quatuor gravis Plura in hanc rem congessit cl Casp. Schottus in Mechan p. 1. protheor 4. c. 6. I have not Schottus by me at present neither is there need of any further Inquiries for I have sufficiently demonstrated that the Gravitation of the Air is an opinion of Aristotle Averroes and other Peripateticks though not generally received by that sort of Peilosophers and that it was truly and experimentally demonstrated by them especially as far as the Atmosphear is concerned in the Question I have also made it apparent that the Barometer or Mercurial Experiment doth not discover the weight of the Air with any certainty much less all the degrees of it That the pressure of the Air is not by way of a Cylinder or Column and that the Barometer had not its original but denomination from the R.S. they were as I may term them the God●fathers not Parents The World may justly say of the Honourable Mr. Boyle that he hath improved the Experiments of his Predecessors and represented them more accurately and of Mr. Glanvill and his Assistants what it pleaseth In the marginal note page 15. where I say that perhaps it is not true that Aristotle had any hand in or was privy to the impoisoning of Alexander I adde that Pausanias after he had spoke of the Stygian water and its strange property doubts whether Alexander were made away by such means or no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This he says in Arcadic without reflecting any way upon Aristotle as one concerned in the report And Arrianus who writ the life of Alexander out of the Memoires of Ptolomaeus Lagides who was present when that great Prince died avows that he died of a surfet yet he relates sundry rumors about his death one whereof is that Aristotle being fearful of Alexander after the death● of Calisthenes should prepare the poison for Antipater to be sent him but concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian de expedit Alexandr l. 7. Whereas I reflect page 16. upon that passage of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what Mr. Glanvill saith That without Geometry we cannot in any good degree understand the Artifice of the Omniscient Architect in the composure o● the great World and our selves and that the Universe must be known by the Art whereby it was made There should have been a Chasme made for some passages I know not why omitted I adde therefore that it is not revealed unto us that God made the Universe according to that Art and it seems an Additional to the first Fiat or let there be in Genesis to say his commands were regulated by the rules of Geometry and his powerful and omnipotent word confined thereunto Had Mr. Glanvill been pleased to consult the fathers he would have found that this Tenet of his is no primitive notion and that particularly Eusebius hath refuted it denying that God in his Works is obliged to Geometrical numbers and that Socrates whose authority is greater then Plato's did place no great value on those Sciences that the first Christians did slight the knowledge of them as useless to Piety and knowledge of God because my opinion about these things is agreeable to that of the first Christians and of Socrates I shall insert the whole passage as it is translated into Latine in the Paris Edition Euseb. praep Evangelicae l. 14. c. 10 11. edit Paris 1628. Primum tamen quoniam Mathematica illa sua tantopere jactare solent prorsusque necessarium esse dicti●ant ut quisquis comprehendendi veri studio tenebitur A●tron●miam Arithmetriam Geometriam Musicam illa nimirum ipsa quae ad eos a Barbaris profecta esse jam ostendimus persequatur his enim qui carebit doctum perfectumque Philosophum esse neminem imo rerum veritatem ne primoribus quidem labris digustare posse nisi qui harum ante rerum animo cognitionem impresserit deinde hanc suarum artium peritiam magnificentius ostentantes aethere sese medio sublimies propemodum incidere numerisque suis ipsum quoque Deum circumferre arbitrantur nos vero qui similium disciplinarum amore non flagremus nihil a pecudibus abesse existimant deique propterea nunquam nunquam reipaulo gravioris notitiam percepturos esse pronunciant Age hoc ipsum quam pravum sit atque distortum vera laminis loco ratione proposita sic tanquam ad libellam regulam exigamus Erit ea quidem ejusmodi quae Graecos innumerabiles infinitosque Barbaros complexa alios tametsi his artibus doctrinisque paratos nec Deum unquam nec honestae vitae rationes nec omnino praeclarum utile quid percepisse alios ut ab omnium disciplinarum studio destituti essent religiosissimos tamen ac sapientissimos extitisse demonstret Enimvero quaenam hoc in genere Socratis illius qui ab istis omnibus tantopere celebratur sententia fuerit e Xenophonte intelliges si modo ei suis in Memorabilibus haec scribente fidem adhibebis Docebat inquit ille praeterea quatenus cujusque rei peritum esse hominem bene institute oporteret principio Geometricae dandam eatenus operam esse dicebat ut siquando res pasceret dimensam rite terram vel accipere ab alio vel alii tradere vel eam dividere vel opus aliquod designare posset Id porro tam esse ad discendum facile ut qui dimensionem attendere voluerit idem simul quanta sit terrae magnitudo assequi possit quaenam ejus metiendae ratio breviter admodum expediteque cognoscere At ejusdem in Geometricae studio ad illas usque descriptiones intellectu difficiliores quenquam progredi Socrati non placebat Cui enim bono futurae illae essent videre se tametsi ne illarum quidem imperitus esset rogabat Enimvero ad exhauriendam hominis vitam cum satis illas esse tum aliarum interim plurimum utiliorum doctrinarum studia impedire Astronomiam similiter eatenus complecti solum jubebat ut noctis mensis annique tempora cognosceres atque hujus cognitionis ope siquando vel iter vel navigatio suscipienda esset vel agendae forent excubiae vel in aliud quidlibet quod noctis mensis annique spatio fieri solet incumbendum signis ad ea omnia suis quaeque temporibus obeunda certioribus uterere Atqui haec nihilo difficilius tam ex nocturnis venatoribus quam ex navium gubernatoribus aliis quamplurimis resci●i posse a quibus eorum peritiam suae cujusque partes officiumque deposcat At eandem artem eo usque persequi dum ea quae

the difficulti●s of the journey and that his lodging will be too ●ot for him adde in the Text these words page 43. Besides the other difficulties of the journey 't is further considerable that from the Centre of the Earth to the Moon according to the calculation of Tych● Brabe there is near 56 semidiameters of the Earth which is about 192416 miles and admit it be supposed that Mr. Glanvill fli● 20 miles every day in ascending towards that world he should be above 15 years before he could come to the Orbe of the Moon Where I speak against the accommodating of Scripture to common railing p. 49. I adde that not only the Council of Trent fas est ab hoste doceri hath prohibited Sess. 4. that any should apply the holy Scripture ad scurritia fabulosa vana adulationes but also that the first Council at Millain forbids the using it ad jocum ostentationem contumeliam superstitionem impietatem And to upbraid our Divine-Railleurs a little more an ancient African Council decrees Si Glericus aut Monachus verba scurritia jocularia risumque moventia loquitur acerrime corripiatur The words of which Canon viz. Scurritia jocularia are by a learned Frenchman rendred raillery Nous avons le Canon d' un ancient Concile d' Afrique qui parle en ces termes Si quelqu ' un du Clerge ou siun Religie●se dit des paroles de raillerie des choses plaisantes enjouces qui ' il soit chastie tres severement Qu' eussent ●it a vostre avis ces bons Peres si ces railleries eussent este terees de l' Escriture This Question hath been agitated with much wit and address in French betwixt Mr. de Girac and Mr. Costar in sundry books wherein any man of common reason and piety will give the advantage to adversary of Voiture who is justified by the concurrent opinion of Balzac in his remarks sur les deux sonnets and to these Writers I refer our Virtuosi such as reckon upon all other learning as Pedantry may inform themselves thence as out of Writers which transcend not their breeding and studies Whereas pag. 58. I speak somewhat in commendation of the ancient Aristotelean Monks I finde that their est●em is much advanced by the learned Gabriel Naudaeus in these words After the last taking of Constantinople Learning began to creep out of Monasteries which for all the time before had been as it w●re publike Christian Schools where not only youth but also such men as would apply themselves that way were instructed in all manner of Disciplines Sciences and Morality and that to such an height that not content with that so famous Quadrivium of the Mathematicks which besides all that is now shewn in Colledges was then taught Medicine both as to Theory and Practice was so well cu●●ivated that we need no more to convince us how expert they were therein then the Writings of Aegidius Constantine and Damascene Joanni●●●s ●●ter of Spain● and Turisanus So that it w●re ●as●e for me to ans●er t●●m who charge th●m with illiterature and ignorance Where I speak out of G. Hofman and others that it is sufficient for a Physician that he proc●ed upon such rules and methods as may most commodiously guide him in his practice without b●ing solicitous whether they be rigorously and philos●phically true pag. 75. I adde that there are others as eminent as any that ever pretended to cure which concurre with me in this opinion A● Avicenna and Riolanus the words of the latter in his Examen of H●rvey c. 9. are these Quapropter cum Avicenna doctr 6. cap. distingu● sermonem utilem a vero Medicus qua Medicus inquit ille non curat quid in veritate sit sed contentus est Phaenomenis quibusdam quae sunt satis illi in curatione marb●rum I adde unto the passages pag. 97. which relate unto the diligence of the Ancients in Di●●●ctions this That the Ancients and particularly the P●●●pateticks were very curious and inquisitive into Anatomy appears by this passage out of Chalcidius in his discourse upon the Timaeus of Plato he lived about one thousand one hundred and seventy years ago and the passage which relates to the Platonick notion about vision in the Latin Edition of Meur●i●s pag. 340 runs thus Q●are faciendum ut ad certam explorationem Platonici dogmatis commentum ve●us advocetur medicorum item Physicorum illustrium sane virorum qui ad comprehendendam s●n● naturae solertiam actus humani corporis facta membrorum exsectione rimati sunt qui existi●●abant it● d●mum se suspici●nibus atque opinionibus certiores futur●s si tam rationi visus quam visui ratio concineret Demonstranda igitur oculi natura est de qua cum plerique alii tum Al●maeus Crotoniensis in Physicis exercitatus quique primus exsectionem aggredi est ausus Callisthenes Aristotelis auditor Herophilus multa praeclar● in lucem protulerunt Out of which it is manifest that the Ancients especially the Aristotelians for such were Calisthenes and Herophilus did with some curiosity examine the Phaenomena of nature and regulated their opini●ns by sensible experiments and that this was the practice of most of the eminent Physicians and Naturalists of old The Letter of Hippocrates to Damaget●s mentioned pag. 89. though cited as genuine by Gal●n is suspected by Io. Baptista Cartes miscell medic dec 1. c. 4. Caeterum haec Epistola quae sub nomine Hippocratis circumfertur suspecta est mihi primum quia Diogenes Laertius lib. 9. in vita Democriti scribit illum nequaquam rident●m quanquam concedat ab Hippocrate fuis●e visitatum non quidem ut ipsum sanaret quo tempore jam Democritus erat decrepitus nec amplius aptus sectioni cadaveram nam Hippocrates 436 annos ●ate Christum natus Democritus vero 492 ita ut ita ut Democritum nativitate secutus sit Hippocrates 56 annis tum sive ad videndum sive ad sanandum eum conveniret vigesimum quintum annum attigisse verisimile videtur cum tunc temporis Hippocrates medici famam ad●ptus esset quod non potera● nisi per longum temporis cur●um varia experimenta in Medicina facta sibi comparare Sed probandam provectio●em Hippocratis aetatem majorem senectam Democriti ejusdem Laertii testimonium extat dicentis Ultimum quod in vita Democriti legitur dictum aut factum fuisse illam cum Hippocrate collocutionem atque annum agentem 109. ab hujus vitae Statione decessisse I finde also that Menagius suspects those L●tters though he confess them to be very ancient Extant ●odie Hippocratis de sua ad Democritum profectione Epistolae sed supposititiae licet perantiquae Whereas I say pag. 114. that I have observed in some that their pulses have suffered no alteration at least kept no time or palpitated as did their hearts I shall illustrate this with an