shew vs that the lesse the atomes should penetrate into a moouing body by reason of the extreme density of it the more efficaciously they would worke and the greater celerity they would cause in its motion And hence we may giue the fullest solution to the obiection aboue which was to this effect that seeing diuision is made onely by the superficies or exteriour part of the dense body and that the vertue whereby a dense body doth worke is onely its resistance to diuision which maketh it apt to diuide it would follow that a hollow boule of brasse or iron should be as heauy as a solide one For we may answere that seeing the atomes must stricke through the body and that a cessible body doth not receiue their stroakes so firmely as a stiffe one nor can conuey them so farre if vnto a stiffe superficies there succeede a yielding inside the stroakes must of necessity loose much of their force and consequently can not mooue a body full of ayre with so much celerity or with so much efficacy as they may a solide one But then you may peraduenture say that if these stroakes of the descending atomes vpon a dense body were the cause of its motion downewardes we must allow the atomes to mooue faster then the dense body that so they may still ouertake it and driue it along and enter into it whereas if they should mooue slower then it none of them could come in their turne to giue it a stroake but it would be past them and out of their reach before they could strike it But it is euident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes can not mooue so swiftly downewardes as a great dense body since their litlenesse and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion and therefore this can not be the cause of that effect which we call grauity To this I reply that to haue the atomes giue these blowes to a descending dense body doth not require that their naturall and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasioneth their striking it for as it falleth and maketh it selfe a way through them they diuide themselues before it and swell on the sides and a litle aboue it and presently close againe behind it and ouer it as soone as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a suddaine one and thereby attaineth great velocity which would carry the atomes in that degree of velocity further then the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retarde them which encounter and retarding implyeth such stroakes vpon the dense body as we suppose to cause this motion And the like we see in water into which letting a stone fall presently the water that was diuided by the stone and swelleth on the sides higher then it was before closeth vpon the backe of the descending stone and followeth it so violently that for a while after it leaueth a purling hole in the place where the stone went downe till by the repose of the stone the water returneth likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becometh euen In the third place an enquiry occurreth emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moouing vpwardes and downewardes Which is whether there would be any naturall motion deepe in the earth beyond the actiuity of the sunnes beames For out of these principles it followeth that there would not and consequently there must be a vast orbe in which there would be no motion of grauity or of leuity for suppose that the sunne beames might pierce a thousand miles deepe into the body of the earth yet there would still remaine a masse whose diameter would be neere 5000 miles in which there would be no grauitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as farre as concerneth motion caused by our sunne for what inconuenience would follow out of it But I will not offer att determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymistes talke of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the center like the hart in animals which may raise vp vapours and boyle an ayre out of them and diuide grosse bodies into atomes and accordingly giue them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or sunne is situated since the farre-searching Author of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation vndecided after he had touched vpon it in the 12 knott of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be obiected that if such descending atomes as we haue described were the cause of a bodies grauity and descending towardes the center the same body would att diuers times descend more and lesse swiftly for example after midnight when the atomes begin to descend more slowly then likewise the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heate of the day The same may be said of summer and winter for in winter time the atomes seeme to be more grosse and consequently to strike more strongly vpon the bodies they meete with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seeme in the summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroake and more vigourous impulse vpon the body they hitt And the like may be obiected of diuers partes of the world for in the torride zone it will alwayes happen as in summer in places of the temperate zone and in the polar climes as in deepest winter so that no where there would be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended vpon so mutable a cause And it maketh to the same effect that a body which lyeth vnder a thicke rocke or any other very dense body that can not be penetrated by any great store of atomes should not be so heauy as it would be in the open and free ayre where the atomes in their complete numbers haue their full stroakes For answere to these and such like instances we are to note first that it is not so much the number or the violence of the percussion of the striking atomes as the density of the thing strucken which giueth the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chiefe thing which the stroake of the atomes giueth vnto a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cutt vnto it selfe therefore multiplication or lessening of the atomes will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where many atomes do strike and an other body of the same density where but few do strike so that the stroake downewardes of the descending atomes be greater then the stroake vpwardes
of intension and Remission and others do not ibid. § 7. That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure Elements are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke pag. 142. CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies pag. 144. § 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters ibid. § 2. That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward heat aud how this is performed pag. 145. § 3. Of the great effects fo Rarefaction pag. 147. § 4. The first manner of condensation by heate pag. 148. § 5. The second manner of condensation by cold pag. 149. § 6. That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed pag. 151. § 7. How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed pag. 152. § 8. How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation pag. 153. § 9. Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receiue more of an other pag. 154. § 10. The true reason of the former effect pag. 155. § 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others pag. 156. CHAP. XVIII Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall pag. 157. § 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceedeth ibid. § 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity pag. 158. § 3. The true reason of attraction pag. 159. § 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer pag. 160. § 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons ibid § 6. That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe pag. 161. § 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire pag. 162. § 8. Concerning attraction made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. pag. 163. § 9. The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall ibid. CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction pag. 166. § 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected ibid. § 2. What causeth the water in filtration to ascend pag. 167. § 3. Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water ibid. § 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not pag. 168. § 5. Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely pag. 170. § 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch pag. 171. § 7. How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles ibid. § 8. Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it pag. 172. § 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motions pag. 174. CHAP. XX. Of the Loadestones generation and its particular motions pag. 175. § 1. The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiake draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone ibid. § 2. The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other pag. 176. § 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to te other pag. 177. § 4. Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone pag. 179. § 5. This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone ibid. § 6. A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect pag. 181. § 7. The loadestones generation by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe ibid. § 8. Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames pag. 182. CHAP. XXI Positions drawne out of the former doctrine and confirmed by experimentall proofes pag. 185. .1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities ibid. § 2. Obiections against the former position answered pag. 186. § 3. The loadestone is imbued with his vertue from an other body ibid. § 4. The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 188. § 5. The vertue of the laodestone worketh more strongly in the Poles of it then in any other part ibid. § 6. The laodestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out ibid. § 7. Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one laodestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone pag 189. § 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone it toucheth ibid. § 9. The vertue of the laodestone goeth from end to end in lines almost paralelle to the axis pag. 191. § 10. The vertue of loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such pag. 192. § 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies ibid. § 12. The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone ibid. § 13. The laodestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth pag. 193. § 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges ibid. CHAP. XXII A solution of certaine Problemes concerning the loadestone and a short summe of the whole doctrine touching it pag. 194. § 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone ibid. § 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue ibid. § 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes pag. 195. § 4. Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other ibid. § 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe ibid. § 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted pag. 196. § 7. The Authors solution to the former questions pag. 197. § 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iron from the greater pag. 198. § 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole pag. 199. § 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the north and att an other time lesse pag. 200. § 11. The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short pag. 201. CHAP. XXIII A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plantes and Animals and how they are framed in common
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
our Reader without a hinte which way to driue his inquisition we will note thus much that Aristotele and other naturall Philosophers and Physitians do affirme that in some persons the passioÌ„ is so great in the time of their accoupling that for the present it quite bereaueth them of the vse of reason and that they are for the while in a kind of short fitt of an epylepsie By which it is manifest that aboundance of animal spirits do then part from the head and descend into those partes which are the instruments of generation Wherefore if there be aboundance of specieses of any one kind of obiect then strong in thâ— imagination it must of necessity be carryed downe together with the spirits into the seede and by consequence when the seede infected with this nature beginneth to seperate and distribute it selfe to the forming of the seuerall partes of the Embryon the spirits which do resort into the braine of the child as to their proper Element and from thence do finish all the outward cast of its body in such sort as we haue aboue described do sometimes happen to fill certaine places of the childes body with the infection and tincture of this obiect and that according to the impression with which they were in the mothers faÌ„tasy for so we haue said that thinges which come together into the fantasy do naturally sticke together in the animall spirits The hairynesse therefore will be occasioned in those partes where the mother fansyed it to be the colour likewise and such extancies or defects as may any way proceed from such a cause will happen to be in those partes in which they were fansyed And this is as farre as is fitt to wade into this point for so generall a discourse as ours is and more theÌ„ was necessary for our turne to the seruing whereof the verity of the fact only and not the knowledge of the cause was required for we were to shew no more but that the apprehensions of the parents may descend to the children Out of this discourse the reason appeareth why beastes haue an auersion from those who vse to do them harme and why this auersion descendeth from the old ones to their broode though it should neuer haue happened that they had formerly encountred with what at the first sight they flye from and auoyde But yet the reason appeareth not why for example a sheepe in EnglaÌ„d where there are no wolues bred nor haue beene these many ages should be affraide and tremble at sight of a wolfe since neyther he nor his damme or sire nor theirs in multitudes of generations euer saw a wolfe or receiued hurt by any In like manner how should a tame weasell brought into England from Ireland where there are no poysonous creatures be affraide of a toade as soone as he seeth one Neyther he nor any of his race euer had any impressions following harme made vpon their fantasies and as litle can a lyon receiue hurt from a household cocke therefore we must seeke the reasons of these and such like antipathies a litle further and we shall find them hanging vpon the same string with sympathies proportionable to them Lett vs goe by degrees we dayly see that dogges will haue an auersion from glouers that make their ware of dogges skinnes they will barke at them and be churlish to them and not endure to come neere them although they neuer saw theÌ„ before The like hatred they will expresse to the dogge killers in the time of the plague and to those that flea dogges I haue knowne of a man that vsed to be employed in such affaires who passing sometimes ouer the groundes neere my mothers house for he dwelled at a village not farre off the dogges would winde him at a very great distance and would all runne furiously out the way he was and fiercely fall vpon him which made him goe alwayes well prouided for them and yet he hath beene sometimes hard put to it by the fierce mastifes there had it not beene for some of the seruantes coming in to his reskew who by the frequent happening of such accidents were warned to looke out when they obserued so great commotion and fury in the dogges and yet perceiued no present cause for it Warreners obserue that vermine will hardly come into a trappe wherein an other of their kind hath beene lately killed and the like happeneth in mouse-trappes into which no mouse will come to take the bayte if a mouse or two haue already beene killed in it vnlesse it be made very cleane so that no sent of them remaine vpon the trappe which can hardly be done on the suddaine otherwise then by fire It is euident that these effects are to be referred to an actiuity of the obiect vpon the sense for some smell of the skinnes or of the dead dogges or of the vermine or of the mice can not choose but remaine vpon the men and vpon the trappes which being altered from their due nature and temper must needes offend â—hâ—m Their conformity on the one side for something of the canine nature remaineth maketh them haue easy ingression into them and so they presently make a deepe impression but on the other side their distemper from what they should be maketh the impression repugnant to their nature and be disliked by them and to affect them worse then if they were of other creatures thaâ— had no conformity with them as we may obserue that stinkes offend vs more when they are accompanied with some weake perfume then if they sett vpon vs single for the perfume getteth the stinke easyer admittance into our sense and in like manner it is said that poisons are more dangerous when they are mingled with a cordiall that is not able to resist them for it serueth to conuey them to the hart though it be not able to ouercome their malignity From hence then it followeth that if any beast or bird do prey vpon some of an other kind there will be some smell about them exceedingly noysome to all others of that kind and not only to beastes of that same kind but for the same reason euen to others likewise that haue a correspondence and agreement of temper and constitution with that kind of beast whose hurt is the originall cause of this auersion Which being assented vnto the same reason holdeth to make those creatures whose constitutions and tempers do consist of thinges repugnant and odious to one an other beat perpetuall enmity and flye from one an other at the first sight or at the least the sufferer from the more actiue creature as we see among those men whose vnhappy trade and continuall exercises it is to empty iakeses such horride stinkes are by time growne so conformable to their nature as a strong perfume will as much offend them and make them as sicke as such stinks would do an other man bred vp among perfumes and a cordiall to their spirits is some
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
cleared the third obiection as I conceiue lett vs goe on to the fourth which requireth that we satisfy their inquisition who aske what becometh of that vast body of shining light if it be a body that filleth all the distance betweene heauen and earth and vanisheth in a moment as soone as a cloude or the moone interpâ—seth it selfe betweene the sunne and vs or that the sunne quitteth our hemisphere No signe att all remaineth of it after the extinction of it as doth of all other substances whose destruction is the birth of some new thing Whither then is it flowne We may be persuaded that a mist is a corporeall substance because it turneth to droppes of water vpon the twigges that it enuironeth and so we might beleeue light to be fire if after the burning of it out we found any ashes remaining but experience assureth vs that after it is extinguished it leaueth not the least vestigium behind it of hauing beene there Now before we answere this obiection we will entreate our aduersary to call to minde how we haue in our solution of the former declared and proued that the light which for example shineth from à candle is no more then the flame is from whence it springeth the one being condensed and the other dilated and that the flame is in a perpetuall fluxe of consumption about the circumference and of restauration att the center where it sucketh in the fewell and then we will enquire of him what becometh of that body of flame which so continually dyeth and is renewed and leaueth no remainder behind it as well as he doth of vs what becometh of our body of light which in like manner is alwayes dying and alwayes springing fresh And when he hath well considered it he will find that one answere will serue for both Which is that as the fire streameth out from the fountaine of it and groweth more subtile by its dilatation it sinketh the more easily into those bodies it meeteth withall the first of which and that enuironeth it round about is ayre With ayre then it mingleth and incorporateth it selfe and by consequence with the other litle bodies that are mingled with the ayre and in them it receiueth the changes which nature worketh by which it may be turned into the other Elements if there be occasion or be still conserued in bodies that require heate Vpon this occasion I remember a rare experiment that a noble man of much sincerity and a singular frind of mine told me he had seene which was that by meanes of glasses made in a very particular manner and artificially placed one by an other he had seene the sunne beames gathered together and precipitated downe into a brownish or purplish red pouder There could be no fallacy in this operation for nothing whatsoeuer was in the glasses when they were placed and disposed for this intent and it must be in the hoat time of the yeare else the effect would not follow And of this Magistery he could gather some dayes neere two ounces in a day And it was of a strange volatile nature and would pierce and imprint his spirituall quality into gold it selfe the heauiest and most fixed body we conuerse withall in a very short time If this be plainely so without any mistaking then mens eyes and handes may tell them what becometh of light when it dyeth if a great deale of it were swept together But from what cause soeuer this experience had its effect our reason may be satisfyed with what we haue said aboue for I confesse for my part I beleeue the appearing body might be some thing that came along with the sunne beames and was gathered by them but not their pure substance Some peraduenture will obiect those lampes which both auncient and moderne writers haue reported to haue been found in tombes and vrnes long time before closed vp from mens repayre vnto them to supply them with new fewell and therefore they beleeue such fires to feede vpon nothing and consequently to be inconsumptible and perpetuall Which if they be then our doctrine that will haue light to be nothing but the body of fire perpetually flowing from its center and perpetually dying can not be sound for in time such fires would necessarily spend themselues in light although light be so subtile a substance that an exceeding litle quantity of fewell may be dilated into a vast quantity of light Yet still there would be some consumption which how imperceptible soeuer in a short time yet after a multitude of reuolutions of yeares it must needes discouer it selfe To this I answere that for the most part the wittnesses who testify originally the stories of these lights are such as a rationall man can not expect from them that exactnesse or nicety of obseruation which is requisite for our purpose for they are vsually grosse labouring people who as they digge the ground for other intentions do stumble vpon these lampes by chance before they are aware and for the most part they breake them in the finding and they imagine they see a glimpse of light which vanisheth before they can in a manner take notice of it and is peraduanture but the glistering of the broken glasse or glased pott which reflecteth the outward light as soone as by rummaging in the ground and discouering the glasse the light striketh vpon it in such manner as some times a diamond by a certaine encountring of light in a dusky place may in the first twincling of the motion seeme to sparkle like fire and afterwardes when they shew their broken lampe and tell their tale to some man of a pitch of witt aboue them who is curious to informe himselfe of all the circumstances that may concerne such lights they straine their memory to answere him satisfactorily vnto all his demandes and thus for his sake they persuade themselues to remember what they neuer saw And he againe on his side is willing to helpe out the story a litle And so after awhile a very formall and particular relation is made of it As happeneth in like sort in reporting of all strange and vnusuall thinges which euen those that in their nature abhorre from lying are naturally apt to straine a litle and fashion vp in a handsome mould and almost to persuade themselues they saw more then they did so innate it is vnto euery man to desire the hauing of some preeminence beyond his neighbours be it but in pretending to haue seene some thing which they haue not Therefore before I engage my selfe in giuing any particular answere to this obiection of pretended inconsumptible lights I would gladly see the effect certainely auerred and vndoubtedly proued for the testimonies which Fortunius Licetus produceth who hath been very diligent in gathering them and very subtile in discoursing vpon them and is the exactest author that hath written vpon this subiect do not seeme vnto mee to make that certainty which is required for the establishing of a
in the time EF is greater then the force B in so much time the force B will be able to mooue A through CD Which discourse is euident if we take it in the common termes but if it be applyed to action wherein physicall accidents intervene the artificer must haue the iudgement to prouide for them according to the nature of his matter Vpon this last discourse doth hang the principle which gouerneth Mechanikes to witt that the force and the distance of weights counterpoising one an other ought to be reciprocall That is that by how much the one weight is heauyer then the other by so much must the distance of the lighter from the fixed point vpon which they are mooued be greater then the distance of the greater weight from the same point for it is plaine that the weight which is more distant must be mooued a greater space then the neerer weight in the proportion of the two distāces Wherefore the force moouing it must carry it in a velocity of the said proportion to the velocity of the other And consequently the Agent or moouer must be in that proportion more powerfull then the contrary moouer And out of this practise of Geometricians in Mechanikes which is confirmed by experience it is made euident that if other conditions be equall the excesse of so much grauity will make so much velocity And so much velocity in proportion will recompence so much grauity Out of the precedent conclusions an other followeth which is that nothing recedeth frō quiet or rest and attaineth a great degree of celerity but it must passe through all the degrees of celerity that are below the obtained degree And the like is in passing from any lesser degree of velocity vnto a greater because it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity For by the declaration of velocity which we haue euen now made we see that there is as much resistance in the medium to be ouercome with speede as there is for it to be ouercome in regard of the quantity or line of extent of it because as we haue said the force of the Agent in counterpoises ought to be encreased as much as the line of extent of the medium which is to be ouercome by the Agent in equall time doth exceede the line of extent of the medium along which the resistent body is to be mooued Wherefore it being prooued that no line of extent can be ouercome in an instant it followeth that no defect of velocity which requireth as great a superproportion in the cause can be ouercome likewise in an instant And by the same reason by which we prooue that a mooueable can not be drawne in an instant from a lower degree of velocity to a higher it is with no lesse euidence concluded that no degree of velocity can be attained in an instant for diuide that degree of velocity into two halfes and if the Agent had ouercome the one halfe he could not ouercome the other halfe in an instant much lesse therefore is he able to ouercome the whole that is to reduce the mooueable from quiet to the said degree of velocity in an instant An other reason may be because the moouers themselues such moouers as we treate of here are bodies likewise mooued and do consist of partes whereof not euery one part but a competent number of them doth make the moouing body to be a fitt Agent able to mooue the proposed body in a proposed degree of celerity Now this Agent meeting with resistance in the mooueable and not being in the vtmost extremity of density but condensable yet further because it is a body and that euery resistance be it neuer so small doth worke something vpon the moouer though neuer so hard to condense it the partes of the moouer that are to ouercome this resistance in the mooueable must to worke that effect be condensed and brought together as close as is needefull by this resistance of the mooueable to the moouer and so the remote partes of the moouer become neerer to the mooueable which can not be done but successiuely because it includeth locall motion And this application being likewise diuisible and not all the partes flocking together in an instant to the place where they are to exercise their power it followeth that whiles there are fewer moouing partes knitt together they must needes mooue lesse and more weakely then when more or all of them are assembled and applyed to that worke So that the motiue vertue encreasing thus in proportion to the multiplying of the partes applyed to cause the motion of necessity the effect which is obedience to be mooued and quicknesse of motion in the mooueable must do so too that is it must from nothing or from rest passe through all the degrees of celerity vntill it arriue to that which all the partes together are able to cause As for example when with my hand I strike a ball till my hand toucheth it it is in quiet but then it beginneth to mooue yet with such resistance that although it obey in some measure the stroke of my hand neuerthelesse it presseth the yielding flesh of my palme backwardes towardes the vpper and bony part of it That part then ouertaking the other by the continued motion of my hand and both of them ioyning together to force the ball away the impulse becometh stronger then att the first touching of it And the longer it presseth vpon it the more the partes of my hand do condense and vnite themselues to exercise their force and the ball therefore must yield the more and consequently the motion of it groweth quicker and quicker till my hand parteth from it Which condensation of the partes of my hand encreasing successiuely by the partes ioyning closer to one an other the velocity of the balles motion which is an effect of it must also encrease proportionably thereunto And in like manner the motion of my hand and arme must grow quicker and quicker and passe all the degrees of velocity betweene rest and the vtmost degree it attaineth vnto for seeing they are the spirits swelling the nerues that cause the armes motion as we shall hereafter shew vpon its resistance they flocke from other partes of the body to ouercome that resistance And since their iourney thither requireth time to performe it in and that the neerest come first it must needes follow that as they grow more and more in number they must more powerfully ouercome the resistance and consequently encrease the velocity of the motion in the same proportion as they flocke thither vntill it attaine that degree of velocity which is the vtmost periode that the power which the Agent hath to ouercome the resistance of the medium can bring it selfe vnto Betweene which and rest or any inferiour degree of velocity there may be designed infinite intermediate degrees proportionable to the infinite diuisibility of time and space in which the moouer doth moue Which degrees
done the former of the encrease it selfe in velocity because the reason of it is common to all motions Which is that all motion as may appeare out of what we haue formerly said proceedeth from two causes namely the Agent or the force that mooueth and the disposition of the body mooued as it is composed of the three qualities we lately explicated In which is to be noted that the Agent doth not mooue simply by its owne vertue but it applyeth also the vertue of the body mooued which it hath to diuide the medium when it is putt on As when we cutt with a knife the effect proceedeth from the knife pressed on by the hand or from the hand as applying and putting in action the edge and cutting power of the knife Now this in Physickes and nature is cleerely parallel to what in Geometry and Arithmetike the Mathematicians call drawing one number or one side into an other for as in Mathematikes to draw one number into an other is to apply the number drawne vnto euery part of the number into which it is drawne as if we draw three into seuen we make twenty one by making euery vnity or part of the number seuen to be three and the like is of lines in Geometry So in the present case to euery part of the handes motion we adde the whole vertue of the cutting faculty which is in the knife and to euery part of the motion of the knife we adde the whole pressing vertue of the hand Therefore the encrease of the effect proceeding from two causes so working must also be parallel to the encrease of the quantities arising out of the like drawing in Mathematikes But in those it is euident that the encrease is according to the order of the odde numbers and therefore it must in our case be the like that is the encrease must be in the said proportion of odde numbers Now that in those the encrease proceedeth so will be euident if you consider the encrease of an Equicrure triangle which because it goeth vpon a certaine proportion of length and breadth if you compare the encreases of the whole triangle that gaineth on each side with the encreases of the perpendicular which gaineth onely in length you will see that they still proceede in the foresaid proportion of odde numbers But we must not imagine that the velocity of motion will alwayse encrease thus for as long as we can fancy any motion but when it is arriued vnto the vtmost periode that such a mooueable with such causes is capable of then it keepeth constantly the same pace and goeth equally and vniformely att the same rate For since the density of the mooueable and the force of the Agent mouing it which two do cause the motion haue a limited proportion to the resistance of the medium how yielding soeuer it be it must needes follow that when the motion is arriued vnto that height which ariseth out of this proportion it can not exceede it but must continue at that rate vnlesse some other cause giue yet a greater impulse to the moueable For velocity consisting in this that the moueable cutteth through more of the medium in an equall time it is euident that in the encrease of velocity the resistance of the medium which is ouercome by it groweth greater and greater and by litle and litle gaineth vpon the foree of the Agent so that the superproportion of the Agent groweth still lesser and lesser as the velocity encreaseth and therefore att the length they must come to be ballanced And then the velocity can encrease no more And the reason of the encrease of it for a while att the beginning is because that coming from rest it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity before it can attaine to the height of it which requireth time to performe and therefore falleth vnder the power of our sense to obserue But because we see it do so for some time we must not therefore conclude that the nature of such motion is still to encrease without any periode or limit like those lines that perpetually grow neerer and yet can neuer meete for we see that our reason examining the causes of this velocity assureth vs that in continuance of time and space it may come to its height which it can not exceede And there would be the pitch att which distance weights being lett fall would giue the greatest stroakes and make greatest impressions It is true that Galileus and Mersenius two exact experimenters do thinke they find this verity by their experiences But surely that is impossible to be done for the encrease of velocity being in a proportion euer diminishing it must of necessity come to an insensible encrease in proportion before it endeth for the space which the moueable goeth through is still encreased and the time wherein it passeth through that space remaineth still the same litle one as was taken vp in passing a lesse space immediately before and such litle differences of great spaces passed ouer in a litle time come soone to be vndiscernable by sense But reason which sheweth vs that if velocity neuer ceased from encreasing it would in time arriue to exceede any particular velocity and by consequence the proportion which the moouer hath to the medium because of the adding still a determinate part to its velocity concludeth plainely that it is impossible motion should encrease for euer without coming to a periode Now the impression which falling weights do make is of two kindes for the body into which impression is made either can yield backward or it can not If it can yield backward then the impression made is a motion as we see a stroak with a rackett vpon a ball or with a pailemaile beetle vpon a boule maketh it fly from it But if the strucken body can not yield backwardes then it maketh it yield on the sides And this in diuerse manners for if the smitten body be dry and brittle it is subiect to breake it and make the pieces fly round about but if it be a tough body it squeeseth it into a larger forme But because the effect in any of these wayse is eminently greater then the force of the Agēt seemeth to be it is worth our labour to looke into the causes of it To which end we may remember how we haue already declared that the force of the velocity is equall to a reciprocall force of weight in the vertue mouent wherefore the effect of a blow that a man giueth with a hammer dependeth vpon the weight of the hammer vpon the velocity of the motion and vpon the hand in case the hand accompanieth the blow But if the motion of the hand ceaseth before as when we throw a thing then onely the velocity and the weight of the hammer remaine to be considered Howsoeuer lett vs putt the hand and weight in one summe which we may equalise by some other vertue or weight Then lett vs
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
is manifest that in a violent motion the force which mooueth a body in the end of its course is weaker then that which mooueth it in the beginning and the like is of the two stringes But here it is not amisse to solue a Probleme he putteth which belongeth to our present subiect He findeth by experience that if two bodies descend att the same time from the same point and do goe to the same point the one by the inferiour quarter of the cercle the other by the chord to that arch or by any other lines which are chordes to partes of that arch he findeth I say that the mooueable goeth faster by the arch then by any of the chordes And the reason is euident if we consider that the neerer any motion doth come vnto a perpendicular one downewardes the greater velocity it must haue and that in the arch of such a quadrant euery particular part of it inclineth to the perpendicular of the place where it is more then the part of the chord answerable vnto it doth THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER An answere to obiections against the causes of naturall motion auowed in the former chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion BVt to returne to the thridde of our doctrine there may peraduenture be obiected against it that if the violence of a bodies descent towardes the center did proceede onely from the density of it which giueth it an aptitude the better to cutt the medium and from the multitude of litle atomes descending that strike vpon it and presse it the way they goe which is downewardes then it would not import whether the inner part of that body were as solide as the outward partes for it cutteth with onely the outward and is smitten onely vpon the outward And yet experience sheweth vs the contrary for a great bullet of lead that is solide and lead throughout descendeth faster then if three quarters of the diameter were hollow within and such a one falling vpon any resisting substance worketh a greater effect then a hollow one And a ball of brasse that hath but a thinne outside of mettall will swimme vpon the water when a massie one sinketh presently Whereby it appeareth that it is rather some other quality belonging to the very bulke of the metall in it selfe and not these outward causes that occasion grauity But this difficulty is easily ouercome if you consider how subtile those atomes are which descending downewardes and striking vpon a body in their way do cause its motion likewise downewardes for you may remember how we haue shewed them to be the subtilest and the minutest diuisions that light the subtilest and sharpest diuider in nature can make It is then easye to conceiue that these extreme subtile bodies do penetrate all others as light doth glasse and do runne through them as sand doth through a small sieue or as water through a spunge so that they strike not onely vpon the superficies but aswell in euery most interiour part of the whole body running quite through it all by the pores of it And then it must needes follow that the solider it is and the more partes it hath within as well as without to be strucken vpon the faster it must goe and the greater effect it must worke in what it falleth vpon whereas if three quarters of the diameter of it within should be filled with nothing but with ayre the atomes would fly without any considerable effect through all that space by reason of the rarity and cessibility of it And that these atomes are thus subtile is manifest by seuerall effects which we see in nature Diuers Authors that write of Egypt do assure vs that though their houses be built of strong stone neuerthelesse a clodde of earth layed in the inmost roomes and shutt vp from all appearing communication with ayre will encrease its weight so notably as thereby they can iudge the change of weather which will shortly ensue Which can proceede from no other cause but from a multitude of litle atomes of saltpeter which floating in the ayre do penetrate through the strongest walls and all the massie defences in their way and do settle in the clodde of earth as soone as they meete with it because it is of a temper fitt to entertaine and to conserue and to embody them Delights haue shewed vs the way how to make the spirits or atomes of snow and saltpeter passe through a glasse vessell which Alchimists hold to be the most impenetrable of all they can find to worke with In our owne bodies the aches which feeble partes do feele before change of weather and the heauynesse of our heades and shoulders if we remaine in the open ayre presently after sunnesett do aboundantly testify that euen the grosser of these atomes which are the first that fall do vehemently penetrate our bodies so as sense will make vs beleeue what reason peraduenture could not But besides all this there is yet a more conuincing reason why the descending atomes should mooue the whole density of a body euen though it were so dense that they could not penetrate it and gett into the bowels of it but must be content to strike barely vpon the outside of it For nature hath so ordered the matter that when dense partes sticke close together and make the length composed of them to be very stiffe one can not be mooued but that all the rest which are in that line must likewise be thereby mooued so that if all the world wery composed of atomes close sticking together the least motion imaginable must driue on all that were in a straight line to the very end of the world This you see is euident in reason And experience confirmeth it when by a litle knocke giuen att the end of a long beame the shaking which maketh sound reacheth sensibly to the other end The blind man that gouerneth his steppes by feeling in defect of eyes receiueth aduertisements of remote thinges through a staffe which he holdeth in his handes peraduenture more particularly then his eyes could haue directed him And the like is of a deafe man that heareth the sound of an instrument by holding one end of a sticke in his mouth whiles the other end resteth vpō the instrumēt And some are of opiniō and they not of the ranke of vulgar Philosophers that if a staffe were as long as to reach from the sunne to vs it would haue the same effect in a moment of time Although for my part I am hard to beleeue that we could receiue an aduertisement so farre vnlesse the staffe were of such a thicknesse as being proportionable to the length might keepe it from facile bending for if it should be very plyant it would do vs no seruice as we experience in a thridde which reaching from our hand to the ground if it knocke against any thing maketh no sensible impression in our hand So that in fine reason sense and authority do all of them
the cause of the plummets remounting as long as grauity is said to be a quality for still grauity must be the cause of an effect contrary to its owne inclination by setting on foote the immediate cause to produce it The second thing we are to note in this experiment of the plummets ascent is that if grauity be a quality there must bee as much resistance to its going vp as there was force to its coming downe Therefore there must be twice as much force to make it ascend as there was to make it descend that is to say there must be twice as much force as the naturall force of the grauity is for there must be once as much to equalise the resistance of the grauity and then an other time as much to carry it as farre through the same medium in the same time But it is impossible that any cause should produce an effect greater then it selfe Againe the grauity must needes be in a determinate degree and the vertue that maketh the plummett remount whatsoeuer it be may be putt as litle as we please and consequently not able to ouersway the grauity alone if it be an intrinsecall quality and yet the plummet will remount in which case you putt an effect without a cause An other experience we may take from the force of sucking for take the barrell of a long gunne perfectly bored and sett it vpright with the breech vpon the ground and take a bullett that is exactly fitt for it but so as it sticke not any where both the barrell and it being perfectly polished and then if you sucke att the mouth of the barrell though neuer so gently the bullett will come vp so forcibly that it will hazard the striking out of your teeth Now lett vs consider what force were necessary to sucke the bullett vp and how very slowly it would ascend if in the barrell it had as much resistance to ascend as in the free ayre it hath inclination to goe downe But if it had a quality of grauity naturall to it it must of necessity haue such resistance whereas in our experiment we see it cometh as easily as the very ayre So that in this example as well as in the other nature teacheth vs that grauity is no quality And all or most of the arguments which we haue vrged against the quality of grauity in that explication we haue considered it in haue force likewise against it although it be said to be an inclination of its subiect to mooue it selfe vnto vnity with the maine stocke of its owne nature as diuers witty men do putt it for this supposition doth but chāge the intention or end of grauity and is but to make it an other kind of intellectuall or knowing Entity that determineth it selfe to an other end which is as impossible for a naturall quality to do as to determine it selfe to the former endes And thus much the arguments we haue proposed do conuince euidently if they be applyed against this opinion THE TWELTH CHAPTER Of Violent Motion ANd thus we haue giuen a short scātling whereby to vnderstand in some measure the causes of that motion which we call naturall by reason it hath its birth from the vniuersall oeconomy of nature here among vs that is from the generall working of the sunne whereby all naturall thinges haue their course and by reason that the cause of it is att all times and in all places constantly the same Next vnto which the order of discourse leadeth vs to take a suruay of those forced motions whose first causes the more apparent they are the more obscurity they leaue vs in to determine by what meanes they are continued When a tennis ball is strucken by a rackett or an arrow is shott from a bow we plainely see the causes of their motion namely the stringes which first yielding and then returning with a greater celerity do cause the missiues to speed so fast towardes their appoynted homes Experience informeth vs what qualities the missiues must be endued withall to mooue fast and steadily They must be so heauy that the ayre may not breake their course and yet so light that they may be within the command of the stroake which giueth them motion the striker must be dense and in its best velocity the angle which the missiue is to mount by if we will haue it goe to its furthest randome must be the halfe of a right one and lastly the figure of the missiue must be such as may giue scope vnto the ayre to beare it vp and yet not hinder its course by taking too much hold of it All this we see but when withall wee see that the moouer deserteth the moueable as soone as he hath giuen the blow wee are att a stand and know not where to seeke for that which afterwardes maketh it flye for motion being a transient not a permanent thing as soone as the cause ceaseth that begott it in that very point it must be att an end and as long as the motion continueth there must be some permanent cause to make it do so so that as soone as the rackett or bowstring goe backe and leaue the ball or arrow why should not they presently fall straight downe to the ground Aristotle and his followers haue attributed the cause hereof to the ayre but Galileo relisheth not this conception His arguments against it are as I remember to this tenor first ayre by reason of its rarity and diuisibility seemeth not apt to conserue motion next we see that light thinges are best carried by the ayre and it hath no power ouer weighty ones lastly it is euident that ayre taketh most hold of the broadest superficies and therefore an arrow would flye faster broadwayes then longwayes if this were true Neuerthelesse since euery effect must haue a proportionable cause from whence it immediately floweth and that a body must haue an other body to thrust it on as long as it mooueth lett vs examine what bodies do touch a moueable whilest it is in motion as the onely meanes to find an issue out of this difficulty for to haue recourse vnto a quality or impressed force for deliuerance out of this straight is a shift that will not serue the turne in this way of discourse we vse In this Philosophy no knott admitteth such a solution If then we enquire what body it is that immediately toucheth the ball or arrow whiles it flyeth we shall find that none other doth so but the ayre and the atomes in it after the stringes haue giuen their stroake and are parted from the missiue And although we haue Galileos authority and arguments to discourage vs from beleeuing that the ayre can worke this effect yet since there is no other body besides it left for vs to consider in this case lett vs att the least examine how the ayre behaueth it selfe after the stroake is giuen by the stringes First then it is euident that as soone
as the rackett or bowstring shrinketh backe from the missiue and leaueth a space betweene the missiue and it as it is cleare it doth as soone as it hath strucken the resisting body the ayre must ' needes clappe in with as much velocity as they retire and with some what more because the missiue goeth forward att the same time and therefore the ayre must hasten to ouertake it least any vacuity should be left betweene the string and the arrow It is certaine likewise that the ayre on the sides doth also vpon the diuision of it slide backe and helpe to fill that space which the departed arrow leaueth voyde Now this forcible cloosing of the ayre att the nocke of the arrow must ' needes giue an impulse or blow vpon it if it seeme to be but a litle one you may consider how it is yet much greater then what the ayre and the bodies swimming in it do att the first giue vnto a stone falling frō high and how att the last those litle atomes that driue a stone in its naturall motion do with their litle blowes force it peraduenture more violenty and swiftly then any impelling Agent we are acquainted with can do So that the impulse which they make vpon the arrow pressing violently vpon it after such a vehement concussion and with a great velocity must needes cause a powerfull effect in that which of it selfe is indifferent to any motion any way But vnlesse this motion of the ayre do continue to beate still vpon the arrow it will soone fall to the ground for want of a cause to driue it forward and because the naturall motion of the ayre being then the onely one will determine it downewardes Lett vs consider then how this violent rending of the ayre by the blow that the bowstring giueth vnto the arrow must needes disorder the litle atomes that swimme too and fro in it and that being heauyer then the ayre are continually descending downewardes This disorder maketh some of the heauyer partes of them gett aboue others that are lighter then they which they not abiding do presse vpon those that are next them and they vpon their fellowes so that there is a great commorion and vndulation caused in the whole masse of ayre round about the arrow which must continue some time before it can be settled and it being determined by the motion of the arrow that way that it slideth it followeth that all this commotion and vndulation of the ayre serueth to continue the arrow in its flight And thus faster then any part behind can be settled new ones before are stirred till the resistance of the medium do grow stronger then the impulse of the moouers Besides this the arrow pressing vpon the ayre before it with a greater velocity then the ayre which is a liquide rare body can admitt to moue all of a piece without breaking it must of necessity happen that the partes of the ayre immediately before the arrow be driuen vpon others further of before these can be moued to giue place vnto them so that in some places the ayre becometh condensed and consequently in others rarifyed Which also the wind that we make in walking which will shake a paper pinned loosely att the wall of a chamber towardes which we walke and the cooling ayre caused by fanning when we are hoat do euidently confirme So that it can not be doubted but that condensation and rarefaction of the ayre must necessarily follow the motion of any solide body which being admitted it is euident that a great disorder and for some remarkable time must necessarily be in the ayre since it can not brooke to continue in more rarity or density then is naturall vnto it Nor can weighty and light partes agree to rest in an equal height or lownesse which the violence of the arrowes motion forceth them vnto for the present Therefore it can not be denyed but that though the arrow slide away neuerthelesse there still remaineth behind it by this condensation and confusion of partes in the ayre motion enough to giue impulse vnto the arrow so as to make it continue its motion after the bowstring hath left it But here will arise a difficulty which is how this clapping in and vndulation of the ayre should haue strength and efficacy enough to cause the continuance of so smart a motion as is an arrowes shott from a bow To this I neede no other argument for an answere then to produce Galileos testimony how great a body one single mans breath alone can in due circumstances giue a rapide motion vnto and withall lett vs consider how the arrow and the ayre about it are already in a certaine degree of velocity that is to say the obstacle that would hinder it from moouing that way namely the resistance of the ayre is taken away and the causes that are to produce it namely the determining of the ayres and of the atomes motion that way are hightened And then we may safely conclude that the arrow which of it selfe is indifferent to be mooued vpwardes or downewardes or forwardes must needes obey that motion which is caused in it by the atomes and the ayres pressing vpon it either according to the impulse of the string or when the string beginneth to flagge according to the beatinges that follow the generall constitution of nature or in a mixt manner according to the proportions that these two hold to one an other Which proportions Galileus in his 4th Dialogue of motion hath attempted to explicate very ingeniously but hauing missed in one of his suppositions to witt that forced motion vpon an horizontall line is throughout vniforme his great labours therein haue taken litle effect towardes the aduancing the knowledge of nature as he pretended for his conclusions succeede not in experience as Mersenius assureth vs after very exact trials nor can they in their reasons be fitted to nature So that to conclude this point I find no difficulty in allowing this motion of the ayre strength enough to force the mooueable onwardes for some time after the first moouer is seuered from it and long after we see no motions of this nature do endure so that we neede seeke no further cause for the continuance of it but may rest satisfyed vpon the whole matter that since the causes and circumstances our reason suggesteth vnto vs are after mature and particular examination proportionable to the effects we see the doctrine we deliuer must be sound and true For the establishing whereof we neede not considering what we haue already said spend much time in soluing Galileos arguments against it seeing that out of what we haue sett downe the answeres to them appeare plaine enough for first we haue assigned causes how the ayre may continue its motion long enough to giue as much impression as is needefull vnto the arrow to make it goe on as it doth Which motion is not requisite to be neere so great in the ayre
behind the arrow that driueth it on as what the arrow causeth in the ayre before it for by reason of the density of it it must needes make a greater impression in the ayre it cutteth then the ayre that causeth its motion would do of it selfe without the mediation of the arrow As when the force of a hand giueth motion vnto a knife to cutt a loafe of bread the knife by reason of the density and of the figure it hath mâ—kâ—th a greater impression in the loafe thâ—n the hand alone would do And this is the same that we declared in the naturall motion of a heauy thing downewardes vnto which we assigned two causes namely the beating of the atomes in the ayre falling downe in their naturall coursâ— to determine it the way it is to goe and the density of the body that cutting more powerfully then those atomes can do giueth together with their helpe a greater velocity vnto the mooueable then the atomes of themselues can giue Nor doth it import that our resolution is against the generall nature of rare and dense bodies in regard of conseruing motion as Galileo obiecteth for the reason why dense bodies do conserue motion longer then rare bodies is because in regard of their diuiding vertue they gett in equall times a greater velocity Wherefore seeing that velocity is equall vnto grauity it followeth thâ—t resistance worketh not so much vpon them as vpon rare bodies and therefore can not make them cease from motion so easily as it doth rare bodies This is the generall reason for the conseruation of motion in dense bodies But because in our case there is a continuall cause which conserueth motion in the ayre the ayre may continue its motion longer then of it selfe it would do not in the same part of ayre which Galileus as it seemeth did ayme att but in diuers partes in which the mooueable successiuely is Which being concluded lett vs see how the forced motion cometh to decrease and to be ended To which purpose we may obserue that the impression which the arrow receiueth from the ayre that driueth it forwardes being weaker then that which it receiued att the first from the string by reasoÌ„ that the ayre is not so deÌ„se and therefore caÌ„ not strike so great a blow the arrow doth not in this second measure of time wherein we coÌ„sider the impulse giuen by the ayre onely cutt so strongly the ayre before it nor presse so violently vpon it as in the first measure when the string parting from it did beate it forwardes for till then the velocity encreaseth in the arrow as it doth in the string that carryeth it along which proceedeth from rest att the singers loose from it to its highest degree of velocity which is when it arriueth to the vtmost extent of its ierke where it quitteth the arrow And therefore the ayre now doth not so swiftly nor so much of it rebound backe from before and clappe it selfe behind the arrow to fill the space that else would be left voyde by the arrowes moouing forward and consequently the blow it giueth in the third measure to driue the arrow on can not be so great as the blow was immediately after the stringes parting from it which was in the second measure of time and therefore the arrow must needes mooue slower in the third measure then it did in the second as formerly it mooued slower in the second which was the ayres first stroake then it did in the first when the string droue it forwardes And thus successiuely in euery moment of time as the causes grow weaker and weaker by the encrease of resistance in the ayre before and by the decrease of force in the subsequent ayre so the motion must be slower and slower till it come to pure cessation As for Galileus second argument that the ayre hath litle power ouer heauy thinges and therefore he will not allow it to be the cause of continuing forced motions in dense bodies I wish he could as well haue made experience what velocity of motion a mans breath might produce in a heauy bullett lying vpon an euen hard and slippery plaine for a table would be too short as he did how admirable great a one it produced in pendants hanging in the ayre and I doubt not but he would haue granted it as powerfull in causing horizontall motions as he found it in the vndulations of his pendantes Which neuerthelesse do sufficiently conuince how great a power ayre hath ouer heauy bodies As likewise the experience of windgunnes assureth vs that ayre duly applyed is able to giue greater motion vnto heauy bodies then vnto light ones For how can a straw or feather be imagined possibly to fly with halfe the violence as a bullett of lead doth out of one of those engines And when a man sucketh a bullett vpwardes in a perfectly bored barrell of a gunne which the bullett fitteth exactly as we haue mentioned before with what a violence doth it follow the breath and ascend to the mouth of the barrell I remember to haue seene a man that was vncautious and sucked strongly that had his foreteeth beaten out by the blow of the bullett ascending This experiment if well looked into may peraduenture make good a greate part of this doctrine we now deliuer For the ayre pressing in behind the bullett att the touch hole giueth it its impulse vpwardes vnto which the density of the bullett being added you haue the cause of its swiftnesse and violence for a bullett of wood or corke would not ascend so fast and so strongly and the sucking away of the ayre before it taketh away that resistance which otherwise it would encounter with by the ayre lying in the way of it and its following the breath with so great ease sheweth as we touched before that of it selfe it is indifferent to any motion when nothing presseth vpon it to determine it a certaine way Now to Galileos last argument that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then longwayes if the ayre were cause of its motion there needeth no more to be saide but that the resistance of the ayre before hindereth it as much as the impulse of the ayre behind helpeth it on so that nothing is gained in that regard but much is lost in respect of the figure which maketh the arrow vnapt to cutt the ayre so well when it flyeth broadwayes as when it is shott longwayes and therefore the ayre being weakely cutt so much of it can not clappe in behind the arrow and driue it on against the resistance before which is much greater Thus farre with due respect and with acknowledging remembrance of the many admirable mysteries of natute which that great man hath taught the world we haue taken liberty to dispute against him because this difficulty seemeth to haue driuen him against his Genius to beleeue that in such motions there must be allowed a quality imprinted into the mooued body to cause them which
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
fro And taking a body of concaue surfaces we shall according to this doctrine of ours find the causes of refraction iust contrary and accordingly experience likewise sheweth vs the effects to be so too And therefore since experience agreeth exactly with our rules we can not doubt but that the principles vpon which we goe are well layd But because crooked surfaces may haue many irregularities it will not be amisse to giue a rule by which all of them may be brought vnto a certainety And this it is that reflexions from crooked superficieses are equall to the reflexions that are made from such plaine superficieses as are tangents to the crooked ones in that point from whence the reflexions are made Which principall the Masters of Optikes do take out of a Mathematicall supposition of the vnity of the reflecting point in both the surfaces the crooked and the plaine But we take it out of the insensibility of the difference of so litle a part in the two different surfaces as serueth to reflect a ray of light for where the difference is insensible in the causes there likewise the difference is so litle in the effects as sense can not iudge of them which is as much as is requisite to our purpose Now seeing that in the Mathematicall supposition the point where the reflexion is made is indifferent to both the surfaces it followeth that it importeth not whether superficies you take to know the quality of reflexion by This principle then being settled that the reflexion must follow the nature of the tangent surfaces and it being prooued that in plaine surfaces it will happen in such sort as we haue explicated it followeth that in any crooked superficies of what figure soeuer the same also will happen Now seeing we haue formerly declared that refractions are but a certaine kind of reflexions what we haue said here of reflexions may be applyed to refractions But there remaineth yet vntouched one affection more of refractions which is that some diaphanous bodies do in their inward partes reflect more then others which is that which we call refraction as experience sheweth vs. Concerning which effect we are to consider that diaphanous bodies may in their composition haue two differences for some are composed of greater partes and greater pores others of lesser partes and lesser pores It is true there may be other combinations of pores and partes yet by these two the rest may be esteemed As for the first combination we see that because the pores are greater a greater multitude of partes of light may passe together through one pore and because the partes are greater likewise a greater multitude of rayes may reflect from the same part and may find the same passage quite throughout the diaphanous body On the contrary side in the second combination where both the pores and the partes of the diaphanous body are litle the light must be but litle that findeth the same passage Now that refraction is greater or lesser happeneth two wayes for it is eyther when one diaphanous body reflecteth light att more angles then an other and by consequence in a greater extent of the superficies or else when one body reflecteth light from the same point of incidence in a shorter line and in a greater angle then an other doth In both these wayes it is apparant that a body composed of greater partes and greater pores exceedeth bodies of the opposite kind for by reason that in the first kind more light may beate against one part a body in which that happeneth will make an appearance from a further part of its superficies whereas in a body of the other sort the light that beateth against one of the litle partes of it will be so litle as it will presently vanish Againe because in the first the part att the incidence is greater the surface from which the reflexion is made inwardes hath more of a plaine and straight superficies and consequently doth reflect att a greater angle then that whose superficies hath more of inclining But we must not passe from this question without looking a litle into the nature of those bodies in which refraction is made for if they as well as the immediate causes of refraction do likewise fauour vs it will not a litle aduance the certainety of our determination To this purpose we may call to mind how experience sheweth vs that great refractions are made in smoake and in mistes and in glasses and in thicke bodied waters and Monsieur Des Cartes addeth certaine oyles and spirits or strong waters Now most of these we see are composed of litle consistent bodies swimming in an other liquide body As is plaine in smoake and mistes for the litle bubbles which rise in the water before they gett out of it and that are smoake when they gett into the ayre do assure vs that smoake is nothing else but a company of litle round bodies swimming in the ayre and the round consistence of water vpon herbes leafes and twigges in a rynde or dew giueth vs also to vnderstand that a mist is likewise a company of litle round bodies that sometimes stand sometimes floate in the ayre as the wind driueth them Our very eyes beare wittnesse to vs that the thicker sort of waters are full of litle bodies which is the cause of their not being cleare As for glasse the blowing of it conuinceth that the litle dartes of fire which pierce it euery way do naturally in the melting of it conuert it into litle round hollow bodies which in their cooling must settle into partes of the like figure Then for crystall and other transparent stones which are found in cold places it can not be otherwise but that the nature of cold piercing into the maine body and contracting euery litle part in it selfe this contraction must needes leaue vacant pores betweene part and part And that such transparent stones as are made by heate haue the like effect and property may be iudged out of what we see in brickes and tiles which are left full of holes by the operation of the fire And I haue seene in bones that haue layne a long time in the sunne a multitude of sensible litle pores close to one an other as if they had beene formerly stucke all ouer with subtile sharpe needles as close as they could be thrust in by one other The Chymicall oyles and spirits which Monsieur Des Cartes speaketh of are likely to be of the same composition since that such vse to be extracted by violent fires for a violent fire is made by the coniunction of many rayes together and that must needes cause great pores in the body it worketh vpon and the sticking nature of these spirits is capable of conseruing them Out of all these obseruations it followeth that the bodies in which greatest refractions do happen are compounded as we haue said of great partes and great pores And therefore by onely taking light to be
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
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
will turne away and the end of it will conuert it selfe to the pole of the loadestone The seuenth position is that if a touched needle and a loadestone do come together and touch one an other in their agreeing partes whatsoeuer partes of them those be the line of the needles length will bend towardes the pole of the stone excepting if they touch by the aequator of the stone and the middle of the needle yet not so that if you draw out the line of the needles length it will go through the pole of the stone vnlesse they touch by the end of the one and the pole of the other But if they touch by the aequator of the one and the middle of the other then the needle will lye parallele to the axis of the stone And the reason of this is manifest for in that case the two poles being equidistant to the needle they draw it equally and by consequence the needle must remaine parallele to the axis of the stone Nor doth it import that the inequality of the two poles of the stone is materially or quantitatiuely greater then the inequality of the two poles of the needle out of which it may att the first sight seeme to follow that the stronger pole of the stone should draw the weaker pole of the needle neerer vnto it selfe then the weaker pole of the stone can be able to draw the stronger pole of the needle and by consequence that the needle should not lye parallele to the axis of the stone but should incline somewhat to the stronger pole of it For after you haue well considered the matter you will find that the strength of the pole of the stone can not worke according to its materiall greatnesse but is confined to worke only according to the susceptibility of the needle the which being a slender and thinne body can not receiue so much as a thicker body may Wherefore seeing that the strongest pole of the stone giueth most strength to that pole of the needle which lyeth furthest from it it may well happen that this superiority of strength in the pole of the needle that is applyed to the weaker pole of the stone may counterpoise the excesse of the stronger pole of the stone ouer its opposite weaker pole though not in greatnesse and quantity yet in respect of the vertue which is communicable to the poles of the needle whereby its comportment to the poles of the stone is determined And indeed the needles lying parallele to the axis of the stone when the middle of it sticketh to the aequator of the stone conuinceth that vpon the whole matter there is no excesse in the efficacious working of eyther of the stones poles but that their excesse ouer one an other in regard of themselues is balanced by the needles receiuing it But if the needle happeneth to touch the loadestone in some part neerer one pole then the other in this case it is manifest that the force of the stone is greater on the one side of the needles touch then on the other side because there is a greater quantity of the stone on the one side of the needle then on the other and by consequence the needle will incline that way which the greater force draweth it so farre forth as the other part doth not hinder it Now we know that if the greater part were diuided from the rest and so were an entire loadestone by it selfe that is if the loadestone were cutt of where the needle toucheth it then the needle would ioyne it selfe to the pole that is to the end of that part and by consequence would be tending to it in such sort as a thing that is sucked tendeth towardes the sucker against the motion or force which cometh from the lesser part and on the other side the lesser part of the stone which is on the other side of the point which the needle toucheth must hinder this inclination of the needle according to the proportion of its strength and so it followeth that the needle will hang by its end not directly sett to the end of the greater part but as much inclining towardes it as the lesser part doth not hinder by striuing to pull it the other way Out of which we gather the true cause of the needles declination to witt the proportion of working of the two vnequall partes of the stone betweene which it toucheth and is ioyned to the stone And we likewise discouer their errour who iudge that the part which draweth iron is the next pole vnto the iron For it is rather the contrary pole which attracteth or to speake more properly it is the whole body of the stone as streaming in lines almost parallele to the axis from the furthermost end to the other end which is next to the iron and in our case it is that part of the stone which beginneth from the contrary pole and reacheth to the needle For besides the light which this discourse gaue vs experience assureth vs that a loadestone whose poles lye broad wayes not long wayes the stone is more imperfect and draweth more weakely then if the poles lay longwayes which would not be if the fluours did streame from all partes of the stone directly to the pole for then howsoeuer the stone were cast the whole vertue of it would be in the poles Moreouer if a needle were drawne freely vpon the same meridian frō one pole to the other as soone as it were passed the aequator it would leape soddainely att the very first remooue off of the aequator where it is parallele with the axis of the loadestone from being so parallele to make an angle with the axis greater then a halfe right one to the end that it might looke vpon the pole which is supposed to be the only attractiue that draweth the needle which great change wrought all att once nature neuer causeth nor admitteth but in all actions or motions vseth to passe through all the mediums whensoeuer it goeth from one extreme to an other Besides there would be no variation of the needles aspect towardes the north end of the stone for if euery part did send its vertue immediately to the poles it were impossible that any other part whatsoeuer should be stronger then the polar part seeing that the polar part had the vertue euen of that particular part and of all the other partes of the stone besides ioyned in it selfe This therefore is euident that the vertue of the loadestone goeth from end to end in parallele lines vnlesse it be in such stones as haue their polar partes narrower then the rest of the body of the stone for in them the streame will tend with some little declination towardes the pole as it were by way of refraction because without the stone the fluours from the pole of the earth do coarct themselues and so do thicken their streame to croude into the stone as soone as they are sensible
are or may be made in this matter And first of that which Doctour Gilbert disputeth against all former writers of the loadestone to witt which is the North and which the South pole of a stone Which seemeth vnto me to be only a question of the name for if by the name of north and south we vndersâ—aÌ„d that end of the stone which hath that vertue that the north or south pole of the earth haue then it is certaine that the end of the stone which looketh to the south pole of the earth is to be called the north pole of the loadestone and conrrariwise that which looketh to the north is to be called the south pole of it But if by the names of north and south pole of the stone you meane those endes of it that lye and point to the north and to the south poles of the earth then you must reckon their poles contrariwise to the former account So that the termes being once defined there will remaine no further controuersye about this point Doctor Gilbert seemeth also to haue an other controuersy with all writers to witt whether any bodies besides magneticall ones be attractiue Which he seemeth to deny all others to affirme But this also being fairely putt will peraduenture proue no controuersy for the question is eyther in common of attraction or else in particular of such an attraction as is made by the loadestone Of the first part there can be no doubt as we haue declared aboue and as is manifest betwixt gold and quickesiluer when a man holding gold in his mouth it draweth vnto it the quickesiluer that is in his body But for the attractiue to draw a body vnto it selfe not wholy but one determinate part of the body drawne vnto one determine part of the drawer is an attraction which for my part I can not exemplify in any other bodies but magneticall ones A third question is whether an iron that standeth long time vnmoued in a window or any other part of a building perpendicularly to the earth doth contract a magneticall vertue of drawing or pointing towardes the north in that end which looketh downewardes For Cabeus who wrote since Gilbert affirmeth it out of experience but eyther his experiment or his expression was defectiue For assuredly if the iron standeth so in the northerne hemisphere it will turne to the north and if in the southerne hemisphere it will turne to the south for seeing the vertue of the loadestone proceedeth from the earth and that the earth hath different tempers towardes the north and towardes the south pole as hath beene already declared the vertue which cometh out of the earth in the northerne hemisphere will giue vnto the end of the iron next it an inclination to the north pole and the earth of the southerne hemisphere will yield the contrary disposition vnto the end which is neerest it The next question is why a loadestone seemeth to loue iron better then it doth an other loadestone The answere is because iron is indifferent in all its partes to receiue the impression of a loadestone whereas an other loadestone receiueth it only in a determinate part and therefore a loadestone draweth iron more easily then it can an other loadestone because it findeth repugnance in the partes of an other loadestone vnlesse it be exactly situated in a right position Besides iron seemeth to be compared to a loadestone like as a more humide body to a dryer of the same nature and the difference of male and female sexes in animals do manifestly shew the great appetence of coniunction between moysture and drynesse when they belong to bodies of the same species An other question is that great one why a loadestone capped with steele taketh vp more iron then it would do if it were without that capping An other conclusion like vnto this is that if by a loadestone you take vp an iron and by that iron a second iron and then you pull away the second iron the first iron in some position will leaue the loadestone to sticke vnto the second iron as long as the second iron is within the sphere of the loadestones actiuity but if you remoue the second out of that sphere then the first iron remaining within it though the other be out of it will leaue the second and leape backe to the loadestone To the same purpose is this other conclusion that the greater the iron is which is entirely within the compasse of the loadestones vertue the more strongly the loadestone will be moued vnto it and the more forcibly it will sticke to it The reasons of all these three wee must giue att once for they hang all vpon one string And in my conceite neyther Gilbert nor Galileo haue hitt vpon the right As for Gilbert he thinketh that in iron there is originally the vertue of the loadestone but that it is as it were a sleepe vntill by the touch of the loadestone it be awaked and sett on worke and therefore the vertue of both ioyned together is greater then the vertue of the loadestone alone But if this were the reason the vertue of the iron would be greater in euery regard and not only in sticking or in taking vp whereas himselfe confesseth that a capped stone draweth no further then a naked stone nor hardly so farre Besides it would continue its vertue out of the sphere of actiuity of the loadestone which it doth not Againe seeing that if you compare them seuerally the vertue of the loadestone is greater then the vertue of the iron why should not the middle iron sticke closer to the stone then to the further iron which must of necessity haue lesse vertue Galileo yieldeth the cause of this effect that when an iron toucheth an iron there are more partes which touch one an other then when a loadestone toucheth the iron both because the loadestone hath generally much impurity in it and therefore diuers partes of it haue no vertue whereas iron by being melted hath all its partes pure and secondly because iron can be smoothed and polisked more then a loadestone can be and therefore its superficies toucheth in a manner with all its partes whereas diuers partes of the stones superficies can not touch by reason of its ruggednesse And he confirmeth his opinion by experience for if you putt the head of a needle to a barestone and the point of it to an iron and then plucke away the iron the needle will leaue the iron and sticke to the stone but if you turne the needle the other way it will leaue the stone and sticke to the iron Out of which he inferreth that it is the multitude of partes which causeth the close and strong sticking And it seemeth he found the same in the capping of his loadestones for he vsed flatt irons for that purpose which by their whole plane did take vp other irons whereas Gilbert capped his with coÌ„uexe irons which not applying
themselues to other iron so strongly or with so many partes as Galileos did would not by much take vp so great weightes as his Neuerthelesse it seemeth not to me that his answere is sufficient or that his reasons conuince for we are to consider that the vertue which he putteth in the iron must according to his owne supposition proceed from the loadestone and then what importeth it whether the superficies of the iron which toucheth an other iron be so exactly plaine or no Or that the partes of it be more solide then the partes of the stone For all this conduceth nothing to make the vertue greater then it was since no more vertue can go from one iron to the other then goeth from the loadestone to the first iron and if this vertue can not tye the first iron to the loadestone it can not proceed out of this vertue that the second iron be tyed to the first Againe if a paper be putt betwixt the cappe and an other iron it doth not hinder the magneticall vertue from passing through it to the iron but the vertue of taking vp more weight then the naked stone was able to do is thereby rendered quite vselesse Therefore it is euident that this vertue must be putt in something else and not in the application of the magneticall vertue And to examine his reasons particularly it may very well fall out that whatsoeuer the cause be the point of a needle may be too little to make an exact experience in and therefore a new doctrine ought not lightly be grounded vpon what appeareth in the application of that And likewise the greatnesse of the surfaces of the two irons may be a condition helpefull to the cause whatsoeuer it be for greater and lesser are the common conditions of all bodies and therefore do auayle all kindes of corporeall causes so that no one cause can be affirmed more then an other meerely out of this that great doth more and little doth lesse To come then to our owne solution I haue considered how fiâ—â— hath in a manner the same effect in iron as the vertue of the loadestone hath by meanes of the cappe for I find that fire coming through iron red glowing hoat will burne more strongly then if it should come immediately through the ayre as also we see that in pittecoale the fire is stronger then in charcoale And neuerthelesse the fire will heat further if it come immediately from the source of it then if it come through a red iron that burneth more violently where it toucheth and likewise charcoale will heat further then pittcoale that neere hand burneth more fiercely In the same manner the loadestone will draw further without a cappe then with one but with a cappe it sticketh faster then without one Whence I see that it is not purely the vertue of the loadestone but the vertue of it being in iron which causeth this effect Now this modification may proceed eyther from the multitude of partes which come out of the loadestone and are as it were stopped in the iron and so the sphere of their actiuity becometh shorter but stronger or else from some quality of the iron ioyned to the influence of the loadestone The first seemeth not to giue a good account of the effect for why should a little paper take it away seeing we are sure that it stoppeth not the passage of the loadestones influence Againe the influence of the loadestone seemeth in its motion to be of the nature of light which goeth in an insensible time as farre as it can reach and therefore were it multiplyed in the iron it would reach further then without it and from it the vertue of the loadestone would beginne a new sphere of actiuity Therefore we more willingly cleaue to the latter part of our determination And there vpon enquiring what quality there is in iron whence this effect may follow we find that it is distinguished from a loadestone as a mettall is from a stone Now we know that mettalls haue generally more humidity then stones and we haue discoursed aboue that humidity is the cause of sticking especially when it is little and dense These qualities must needes be in the humidity of iron which of all mettalls is the most terrestriall and such humidity as is able to sticke to the influence of the loadestone as it passeth through the body of the iron must be exceeding subtile and small and it seemeth necessary that such humidity should sticke to the influence of the loadestone when it meeteth with it considering that the influence is of it selfe dry and that the nature of iron is akinne to the loadestone wherefore the humidity of the one and the drought of the other will not faile of incorporating together Now then if two irons well polished and plaine be vnited by such a glew as resulteth out of this composition there is a manifest appearance of much reason for them to sticke strongly together This is confirmed by the nature of iron in very cold countries and very cold weather for the very humidity of the ayre in times of frost will make vpon iron sooner then vpon other thinges such a sticking glew as will pull off the skinne of a mans hand that toucheth it hard And by this discourse you will perceiue that Galileos arguments do confirme our opinion as well as his owne and that according to our doctrine all circumstances must fall out iust as they do in his experiences And the reason is cleare why the interposition of an other body hindereth the strong sticking of iron to the cappe of the loadestone for it maketh the mediation between them greater which we haue shewed to be the generall reason why thinges are easily parted Lett vs then proceed to the resolution of the other cases proposed The second is already resolued for if this glew be made of the influence of the loadestone it can not haue force further then the loadestone it selfe hath and so farre it must haue more force then the bare influence of the loadestone Or rather the humidity of two irons maketh the glew of a fitter temper to hold then that which is betweene a dry loadestone and iron and the glew entereth better when both sides are moist then when only one is so But this resolution though it be in part good yet it doth not euacuate the whole difficulty since the same case happeneth betweene a stronger and a weaker loadestone as betweene a loadestone and iron for the weaker loadestone whilst it is within the sphere of actiuity of the greater loadestone draweth away an iron sett betwixt them as well as a second iron doth For the reason therefore of the little loadestones drawing away the iron we may consider that the greater loadestone hath two effects vpon the iron which is betwixt it and a lesser loadestone and a third effect vpon the little loadestone it selfe The first is that it impregnateth the iron and giueth
it a permanent vertue by which it worketh like a weake loadestone The second is that as it maketh the iron worke towardes the lesser loadestone by its permanent vertue so also it accompanyeth the steame that goeth from the iron towardes the little loadestone with its owne steame which goeth the same way so that both these steames do in company clymbe vp the steame of the little loadestone which meeteth them and that steame clymbeth vp the enlarged one of both theirs together The third effect which the greater loadestone worketh is that it maketh the steame of the little loadestone become stronger by augmenting its innate vertue in some degree Now then the going of the iron to eyther of the loadestones must follow the greater and quicker coniunction of the two meeting steames and not the greatnesse of one alone So that if the coniunction of the two steames between the iron and the little loadestone be greater and quicker then the coniunction of the two steames which meete between the greater loadestone and the iron the iron must sticke to the lesser loadestone And this must happen more often then otherwise for the steame which goeth from the iron to the greater loadestone will for the most part be lesse then the steame which goeth from the lesser loadestone to the iron And though the other steame be neuer so great yet it can not draw more then according to the proportion of its Antagonists coming from the iron Wherefore seeing the two steames betwixt the iron and the little loadestone are more proportionable to one an other and the steame coming out of the little loadestone is notably greater then the steame going from the iron to the greater loadestone the coniunction must be made for the most part to the little loadestone And if this discourse doth not hold in the former part of the Probleme betwixt a second iron and a loadestone it is supplyed by the former reason which we gaue for that particular purpose The third case dependeth also of this solution for the bigger an iron is so many more partes it hath to sucke vp the influence of the loadestone and consequently doth it thereby the more greedily and therefore the loadestone must be carried to it more violently and when they are ioyned sticke more strongly The sixt question is why the variations of the needle from the true north in the northerne hemisphere are greater the neerer you go to the Pole and lesser the neerer you approach to the Aequator The reason whereof is plaine in our doctrine for considering that the magnetike vertue of the earth streameth from the north towardes the aequator it followeth of necessity that if there be two streames of magnetike fluours issuing from the north one of them precisely from the pole and the other from a part of the earth neere the pole and that the streame coming from the point by side the pole be but a little the stronger of the two there will appeare very little differencies in their seuerall operations after they haue had a long space to mingle their emanations together which thereby do ioyne and grow as it were into one streame Whereas the neerer you come to the pole the more you will find them seuered and each of them working by its owne vertue And very neere the point which causeth the variation each streame worketh singly by it selfe and therefore here the point of variation must be master and will carry the needle strongly vnto his course from the due north if his streame be neuer so little more efficacious then the other Againe a line drawne from a point of the earth wyde of the pole to a point of the meridian neere the aequator maketh a lesse angle then a line drawne from the same point of the earth to a point of the same meridian neerer the pole wherefore the variation being esteemed by the quantities of the said angles it must needes be greater neere the pole then neere the aequator though the cause be the same But because it may happen that in the partes neere the aequator the variation may proceed from some piece of land not much more northerly then where the needle is but that beareth rather easterly or westerly from it and yet Gilberts assertion goeth vniuersally when he sayth the variations in southerne regions are lesse then in northerne ones we must examine what may be the reason thereof And presently the generation of the loadestone sheweth it plainely for seeing the nature of the loadestone proceedeth out of this that the sunne worketh more vpon the torride zone then vpon the poles and that his too strong operation is contrary to the loadestone as being of the nature of fire it followeth euidently that the landes of the torride zone can not be so magneticall generally speaking as the polar landes are and by consequence that a lesser land neere the pole will haue a greater effect then a larger continent neere the aequator and likewise a land further off towardes the pole will worke more strongly then a neerer land which lyeth towardes the aequator The seuenth question is whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the true north point and att an other time lesse In which Gilbert was resolute for the negatiue part but our latter Mathematiciens are of an other mind Three experiences were made neere London in three diuers yeares The two first 42 yeares distant from one an other and the third 12 yeares distant from the second And by them it is found that in the space of 54 yeares he loadestone hath att London diminished his variation from the north the quantity of 7 degrees and more But so that in the latter yeares the diminution hath sensibly gone faster then in the former These obseruations peraduenture are but little credited by strangers but we who know the worth of the men that made them can not mistrust any notable errour in them for they were very able mathematicians and they made their obseruations with very greate exactnesse and there were seuerall iuditious wittnesses att the making of them as may be seene in Mr. Gillebrand his print concerning this subiect And diuers other particular persons do confirme the same whose creditt though each single might peraduenture be slighted yet all in body make a great accession We must therefore cast about to find what may be the cause of an effect so paradoxe to the rest of the doctrine of the loadestone for seeing that no one place can stand otherwise to the north of the earth att one time then att an other how is it possible that the needle should receiue any new variation since all variation proceedeth out of the inequality of the earth But when we consider that this effect proceedeth not out of the maine body of the earth but only out of the barke of it and that its barke may haue diuers tempers not as yet
is euident out of many experiences as for example in trees the barke which is opposed to the north wind is harder and thicker then the contrary side which is opposed to the south and a great difference will appeare in the graine of the wood euen so much that skilfull people will by feeling and seeing a round piece of the wood after the tree is felled tell you in what situation it grew and which way each side of that peece looked And Iosephus Acosta writeth of a tree in America that on the one side being situated towardes great hills and on the other being exposed to the hoat sunne the one halfe of it flourisheth att one time of the yeare and the other halfe att the opposite season And some such like may be the cause of the strāge effects we sometimes see of trees flourishing or bearing leafes att an vnseasonable time of the yeare as in particular in the famous oake in the Newforest and in some others in our Iland in which peraduenture the soyle they grow in may do the same effect as the windes and sunne did in the tree that Acosta maketh mention of For we dayly see how some soyles are so powerfull ouer some kind of corne that they will change the very nature of it so that you shall reape oates or rye after you haue sowen wheate there Which sheweth euidently that since the outward circumstances can make the partes or the whole of any substance become different from what they were att the first generation is not made by aggregation of like partes to presupposed like ones nor by a specificall worker within but by the compounding of a seminary matter with the iuice which accreweth to it from without and with the steames of circumstant bodies which by an ordinary course of nature are regularly imbibed in it by degrees and which att euery degree do change it into a different thing such an one as is capable to result out of the present compound as we haue said before vntill it arriue to its full perfection Which yet is not the vtmost periode of natures changes for from that for example from corne or an animal it carryeth it on still changing it to be meale or a cadauer from thence to be bread or durte after that to be bloud or grasse And so still turning about her wheele which suffereth nothing to remaine long in the state it is in she changeth all substances from one into an other And by reiterated reuolutions maketh in time euery thing of euery thing as when of mudde she maketh tadpoles and frogges of them and afterwardes mudde againe of the frogges or when she runneth a like progresse from earth to wormes and from them to flyes and the like so changing one animal into such an other as in the next precedent steppe the matter in those circumstances is capable of being changed into or rather to say better must necessarily be changed into To confirme this by experience I haue beene assured by one who was very exact in noting such thinges that he once obserued in Spaine in the spring season how a sticke lying in a moyst place grew in tract of time to be most of it a rotten durty matter and that att the durty end of the sticke there began a rude head to be formed of it by litle and litle and after a while some litle legges began to discouer themselues neere this vnpolished head which dayly grew more and more distinctly shaped And then for a pretty while for it was in a place where he had the conueniencye to obserue dayly the progresse of it and no body came neere to stirre it in the whole course of it he could discerne where it ceased to be a body of a liuing creature and where it began to be dead stiche or durt all in one continuate quantity or body But euery day the body grew longer and longer and more legges appeared till att the length when he saw the animal almost finished and neere seperating it selfe from the rest of the sticke he stayed then by it and saw it creepe away in a catarpillar leauing the sticke and durt as much wanting of its first length as the wormes body tooke vp Peraduenture the greatest part of such creatures maketh their way by such steppes into the world But to be able to obserue their progresse thus distinctly as this Gentleman did happeneth not frequently Therefore to satisfy our selues herein it were well we made our remarkes in some creatures that might be continually in our power to obserue in them the course of nature euery day and houre Sir Ihon Heydon the Lieutenant of his Maiesties ordinance that generous and knowing Gentleman and consummate souldier both in theory and practise was the first that instructed me how to do this by meanes of a furnace so made as to imitate the warmeth of a sitting henne In which you may lay seuerall egges to hatch and by breaking them at seuerall ages you may distinctly obserue euery hourely mutation in them if you please The first will bee that on one side you shall find a great resplendent clearnesse in the white After a while a litle spott of red matter like bload will appeare in the middest of that clearnesse fastened to the yolke which will haue a motion of opening and shutting so as sometimes you will see it and straight againe it will vanish from your sight and indeede att the first it is so litle that you can not see it but by the motion of it for att euery pulse as it openeth you may see it and immediately againe it shutteth in such sort as it is not to be discerned Frō this red specke after a while there will streame out a number of litle almost imperceptible red veines Att the end of some of which in time there will be gathered together a knotte of matter which by litle and litle will take the forme of a head and you will ere long beginne to discerne eyes and a beake in it All this while the first red spott of blood groweth bigger and solider till att the length it becometh a fleshy substance and by its figure may easily be discerned to be the hart which as yet hath no other enclosure but the substance of the egge But by litle and litle the rest of the body of an animal is framed out of those red veines which streame out all aboute from the hart And in processe of time that body incloseth the heart within it by the chest which groweth ouer on both sides and in the end meeteth and closeth it selfe fast together After which this litle creature soone filleth the shell by conuerting into seuerall partes of itselfe all the substance of the egge And then growing weary of so straight an habitation it breaketh prison and cometh out a perfectly formed chicken In like manner in other creatures which in latin are called Viuipara because their yong ones are quicke in their mothers
leafe doth not incorporate it selfe with an other but as soone as they feele the heate of the sunne after they are broken out into liberty their tender branches by litle and litle grow more straight the concaue partes of them drawing more towardes the sunne because he extracteth and sucketh their moysture from their hinder partes into their former that are more exposed to his beames and thereby the hinder partes are contracted and grow shorter and those before grow longer Which if it be in excesse maketh the leafe become crooked the contrary way as we see in diuers flowers and in sundry leafes during the summers heate wittenesse the yuy roses full blowne tulipes and all flowers in forme of bells and indeede all kindes of flowers whatsoeuer when the sunne hath wrought vpon them to that degree we speake of and that their ioyning to their stalke and the next partes thereunto allow them scope to obey the impulse of those outward causes And when any do vary from this rule we shall as plainely see other manifest causes producing those different effects as now we do these working in this manner As for fruites though we see that when they grow att liberty vpon the tree they seeme to haue a particular figure alloted them by nature yet in truth it is the ordered series of naturall causes and not an intrinsecall formatiue vertue which breedeth this effect as is euident by the great power which art hath to change their figures att pleasure whereof you may see examples enough in Campanella and euery curious gardner can furnish you with store Out of these and such like principles a man that would make it his study with lesse trouble or tediousnesse then that patient contemplator of one of natures litle workes the Bees whom we mentioned a while agone might without all doubt trace the causes in the growing of an Embryon till he discouered the reason of euery bones figure of euery notable hole or passage that is in them of the ligaments by which they are tyed together of the membranes that couer them and of all the other partes of the body How out of a first masse that was soft and had no such partes distinguishable in it euery one of thē came to be formed by contracting that masse in one place by dilating it in an other by moystening it in a third by drying it here hardening it there Vt his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener hominis concreuerit orbis till in the end this admirable machine and frame of mans body was composed and fashioned vp by such litle and almost insensible steppes and degrees Which when it is looked vpon in bulke and entirely formed seemeth impossible to haue beene made and to haue sprung meerely out of these principle without an Intelligence immediately working and moulding it att euery turne from the beginning to the end But withall we can not choose but breake out into an extasye of admiration and hymnes of prayse as great Galen did vpon the like occasion when we reuerently consider the infinite wisedome and deepe farrelooking prouidence of the allseeing Creator and orderer of the world in so punctually adapting such a multitude and swarme of causes to produce by so long a progresse so wonderfull an effect in the whole course of which if any one the very least of them all went neuer so litle awry the whole fabrike would be discomposed and changed from the nature it is designed vnto Out of our short suruay of which answerable to our weake talents and slender experience I persuade my selfe it appeareth euident enough that to effect this worke of generation there needeth not be supposed a forming vertue or Vis formatrix of an vnknowne power and operation as those that consider thinges soddainely and but in grosse do vse to putt Yet in discourse for conueniency and shortenesse of expression we shall not quite banish that terme from all commerce with vs so that what we meane by it be rightly vnderstood which is the complexe assemblement or chayne of all the causes that concurre to produce this effect as they are sett on foote to this end by the great Architect and Moderator of them God almighty whose instrument nature is that is the same thing or rather the same thinges so ordered as we haue declared but expressed and comprised vnder an other name THE SIX AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How motion beginneth in liuing creatures And of the motion of the hart circulation of the bloud Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death BVt we must not take our leaue of this subiect vntill we haue examined how motion beginneth in liuing thinges as well plants as sensitiue creatures We can readily pitch vpon the part we are to make our obseruations in for retriuing the origine of this primary motion for hauing concluded that the rootes of plants and the harts of animals are the partes of them which are first made and from which the forming vertue is deriued to all the rest it were vnreasonable to seeke for their first motion any where else But in what manner and by what meanes doth it beginne there For rootes the difficulty is not great for the moysture of the earth pressing vpon the seede and soaking into it the hoat partes of it which were imprisoned in cold and dry ones are thereby stirred vp and sett on worke then they mingling themselues with that moysture do ferment and distend the whole seede till making it open and breake the skinne more iuice cometh in which incorporating it selfe with the heate those hoat and now moyst partes will not be contained in so narrow a roome as att the first but struggling to gett out on all sides and striuing to enlarge thēselues they thrust forth litle partes which if they stay in the earth do grow white and make the roote but those which ascēd and make their way into the ayre being lesse compressed and more full of heate and moysture do turne greene and as fast as they grow vp new moysture coming to the roote is sent vp through the pores of it and this faileth not vntill the heate of the roote it selfe doth faile For it being the nature of heate to rarify and eleuate there must of necessity be caused in the earth a kind of sucking in of moysture into the roote frō the next partes vnto it to fill those capacities which the dilating heate hath made that else would be empty and to supply the roomes of those which the heate continually sendeth vpwardes for the moysture of the roote hath a continuity with that in the earth and therefore they adhere together as in a pumpe or rather as in filtration and do follow one an other when any of them are in motion and still the next must needes come in and fill the roome where it findeth an empty space immediate to it The like of which happeneth to the ayre when we breath for our lunges being like a bladder
my Reader if he be curious to entertaine himselfe with a full variety of such shining wonders to our ingenious countryman and my worthy frend Mr. Hall who at my last being at Liege shewed me there most of the experiences I haue mentioned together with seuerall other very fine and remarkable curiosities concerning light which he promised me he would shortly publish in a worke that he had already cast and almost finished vpon that subiect and in it I doubt not but he will giue entire satisfaction to all the doubts and Problemes that may occurre in this subiect whereas my litle exercise formerly in making experiments of this kind and my lesse conueniency of attempting any now maketh me content my selfe with thus spinning of a course thridde froÌ„ wooll carded me by others that may runne through the whole doctrine of colours whose causes haue hitherto beene so much admired and that it will do so I am stroÌ„gly persuaded both because if I looke vpoÌ„ the causes which I haue assigned a priori me thinkes they appeare very agreeable to nature and to reason and if I apply them to the seuerall PhoenomeÌ„s which Mr. Hall shewed me and to as many others as I haue otherwise mett with I find they agree exactly with them and render a full account of them And thus you haue the whole nature of luminous colours resolued into the mixtion of light and darkenesse by the due ordering of which who hath skill therein may produce any middle colour he pleaseth as I my selfe haue seene the experience of infinite changes in such sort made so that it seemeth vnto me nothing can be more manifest then that luminous colours are generated in the way that is here deliuered Of which how that gentle and obedient Philosophy of Qualities readily obedient to what hard taske soeuer you assigne it will render a rationall account and what discreet vertue it will giue the same thinges to produce different colours and to make different appearances meerely by such nice changes of situation I do not well vnderstand but peraduenture the Patrones of it may say that euery such circumstance is a Conditio sine qua non and therewith no doubt their Auditors will be much the wiser in comprehending the particular nature of light and of the colours that haue their origine from it The Rainebow for whose sake most men handle this matter of luminous colours is generated in the first of the two wayes we haue deliuered for the production of such colours and hath its origine from refraction when the eye being at a conuenient distance from the refracting body looketh vpon it to discerne what appeareth in it The speculation of which may be found in that excellent discourse of Monsieur des Cartes which is the sixt of his Meteors where he hath with great acuratenesse deliuered a most ingenious doctrine of this mystery had not his bad chance of missing in a former principle as I conceiue somewhat obscured it For he there giueth the cause so neate and so iustly calculated to the appearances as no man can doubt but that he hath found out the true reason of this wonder of nature which hath perplexed so many great witts as may almost be seene with our very eyes when looking vpon the fresh deaw in a sunneshiny morning we may in due positions perceiue the raynebow colours not three yardes distant from vs in which we may distinguish euen single droppes with their effects But he hauing determined the nature of light to consist in motion and proceeding consequently he concludeth colours to be but certaine kindes of motion by which I feare it is impossible that any good account should be giuen of the experiences we see But what we haue already said in that point I conceiue is sufficient to giue the reader satisfaction therein and to secure him that the generation of the colours in the rainebow as well as all other coulours is likewise reduced to the mingling of light and darkenesse which is our principall intent to proue adding therevnto by way of aduertissement for others whose leisure may permitt them to make vse thereof that who shall ballance the proportions of luminous colours may peraduenture make himselfe a steppe to iudge of the natures of those bodies which really and constantly do weare like dyes for the figures of the least partes of such bodies ioyntly with the connexion or mingling of them with pores must of necessity be that which maketh them reflect light vnto our eyes in such proportions as the luminous colours of their tincture and semblance do For two thinges are to be considered in bodies in order to reflecting of light eyther the extancies and cauities of them or their hardenesse and softenesse As for the first the proportions of light mingled with darkenesse will be varied according as the extancies or the cauities do exceed and as each of them is great or small since cauities haue the nature of darknesse in respect of extancies as our moderne Astronomers do shew when they giue account of the face as some call it in the orbe of the moone Likewise in regard of soft or of resistent partes light will be reflected by them more or lesse strongly that is more or lesse mingled with darkenesse for whereas it reboundeth smartly backe if it striketh vpon a hard and a resistent body and accordingly 〈◊〉 â—hew it selfe in a bright colour it must of necessity not reflect at all 〈…〉 very fâ—ebly if it penetrateth into a body of much humidity or if â—â—â—oseth it selfe in the pores of it and that litle which cometh so weakely from it must consequently appeare of a dusky dye and these two being all the causes of the great variety of colours we see in bodies according to the quality of the body in which the reall colour appeareth it may easily be determined from which of them it proceedeth and then by the colour you may iudge of the composition and mixture of the rare and dense partes which by reflecting light begetteth it In fine out of all we haue hitherto said in this Chapter we may conclude the primary intent of our so long discourse which is that as well the senses of liuing creatures as the sensible qualities in bodies are made by the mixtion of rarity and density as well as the naturall qualities we spoke of in their place for it can not be denyed but that heate and cold and the other couples or payres which beate vpon our touch are the very same as we see in other bodies the qualities which moue our tast and smell are manifestly a kinne and ioyned with them lighâ— we haue concluded to be fire and of motion which affecteth our eare it is not disputable so that it is euident how all sensible qualities are as truly bodies as those other qualities which we call naturall To this we may adde that the proprieties of these sensible qualities are such as proceed euidently from rarity and
gett into the eye whose fabrike is fitt to gather and vnite those species as you may see by the anatomy of it and from the eye their iourney is but a short one to the braine in which we can not suspect that they should loose their force considering how others that come from organes further off do conserue theirs and likewise considering the nature of the optike spirits which are conceiued to be the most refined of all that are in mans body Now that light is mingled with such litle atomes issuing out of the bodies from which it is reflected appeareth euidently enough out of what wee haue Sayed of the nature and operations of fire and light and it seemeth to be confirmed by what I haue often obserued in some chambers where people seldome come which hauing their windowes to the south so as the sunne lyeth vpon them a great part of the day in his greatest strength and their curtaines being continually drawne ouer them the glasse becometh dyed very deepe of the same colour the curtaine is of which can proceed from no other cause but that the beames which shoote through the glasse being reflected backe from the courtaine do take something along with them from the superficies of it which being of a more solide corpulence then they is left behind as it were in the strainer when they come to presse themselues through passages and pores too litle for it to accompany them in and so those atomes of colour do sticke vpon the glasse which they can not penetrate An other confirmation of it is that in certaine positions the sunne reflecting from strong colours will cast that very colour vpon some other place as I haue often experienced in liuely scarlet and cloth of other smart colours and this not in that gloating wise as it maketh colours of pure light but like a true reall dye and so as the colour will appeare the same to a man wheresoeuer he standeth Hauing thus shewed in all our senses the conueniency and agreeablenesse of our opinion with nature which hath been deduced out of the nature of the obiects the nature of our spirits the nature and situation of our nerues and lastly from the property of our braine our next consideration shall be of the difficulty that occurreth in Mr. des Cartes his opinion First we know not how to reconcile the repugnaÌ„cies appearing in his position of the motion of the Ether especially in light for that Ethereall substance being extreme rare must perforce by eyther extreme liquid or extreme brittle if the first it can not choose but bowe and be pressed into fouldes and bodies of vnequall motions swimming euery where in it and so it is impossible that it should bring vnto the eye any constant apparition of the first mouer But lett vs suppose there were no such generall interruptions euery where encountring and disturbing the conueyance of the first simple motion yet how can we conceiue that a push giuen so farre off in so liquid an element can continue its force so farre We see that the greatest thunders and concussions which at any time happen among vs can not driue and impart their impulse the ten thousandeth part of the vast distance which the sunne is remoued from our eye and can we imagine that a little touch of that luminous body shâ—uld make an impression vpon vs by mouing an other so extremely liquid and subtile as the Ether is supposed which like an immense Ocean tossed with all varieties of motion lyeth betweene it and vs. But admitt there were no difficulty nor repugnance in the medium to conuey vnto vs a stroke made vpon it by the sunnes motion lett vs at the least examine what kind of motions we must allow in the sunne to cause this effect Certainely it must needes be a motion towardes vs or else it can not stricke and driue the medium forward to make it striâ—ke vpon vs. And if it be so eyther the sunne must perpetually be coming neerer and neerer to vs or else it must euer and anone be receding backwardes as well as mouing forwardes Both which are too chymericall for so great a witt to conceite Now if the Ether be brittle it must needes reflect vpon euery rubbe in meeteth with in its way and must be broken and shiuered by euery body that moueth acrosse it and therefore must alwayes make an vncertaine and most disorderly percussion vpon the eye Then againe after it is arriued to the sense it is no wayes likely it should be conueyed from thence to the braine or that nature intended such a kind of instrument as a nerue to continue a precise determinate motion for if you consider how a lute string or any other such medium conueyeth a motion made in it you will find that to do it well and clearely it must be stretched throughout to its full extent wâ—â—h â— kind of stiffenesse whereas our nerues are not straight but lye crooked in our body and are very lither till vpon occasion spirits coming into them do swell them out Besides they are bound to flesh and to other partes of the body which being cessible must needes dull the stroake and not permitt it to be carried farre And lastly the nerues are subiect to be at euery turne contracted and dilated vpon their owne account without any relation to the stroakes beating vpon them from an externe agent which is by no meanes a conuenient disposition for a body thâ—t is to be the porter of any simple motion which should alwayes lye watching in great quietnesse to obserue scrupulously and exactly the arrant he is to carry so that for my part I can not conceiue nature intended any such effect by mediation of the sinnewes But Monsieur des Cartes endeauoureth to confirme his opinion by what vseth to fall out in palsies when a man looseth the strength of mouing his handes or other members and neuerthelesse retaineth his feeling which hâ— imputeth to the remaining intire of the stringes of the nerues whiles the spirits are someway defectiue To this we may answere by producing examples of the contrary in some men who haue had the motion of their limbes intire and no wayes preiudiced but haue had no feeling at all quite ouer their whole case of skinne and flesh as particularly a seruant in the colledge of Physitians in London whom the learned Haruey one of his Masters hath told me was exceeding strong to labour and very able to carry any necessary burthen and to remoue thinges dexterously according to the occasion and yet he was so voyde of feeling that he vsed to grind his handes against the walles and against course lumber when he was employed to rummage any in so much that they would runne with bloud through grating of the skinne without his feeling of what occasioned it In our way the reason of both these conditions of people the paralitike and the insensible is easy to be rendered for they proceed out
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
and by materiall impressions vpon them without being constrained to resort vnto an immateriall principle which must furnish birdes with reason and discourse in which it is not necessary for my purpose to determine precisely euery steppe by which these actions are performed and to settle the rigorous of them but leauing that vnto those who shall take paines to deliuer the history of their nature I will content my selfe with the possibility and probability of my coÌ„iectures The first of which qualities I am obliged to make plaine but the later concerneth this treatise no more then it would do a man to enquire anxiously into the particulars of what it is that a beast is doing whiles looking vpon it at a great distance he perceiueth plainely that it moueth it seâ—fe and his arrant is but to be assured whether it be aliue or dead which the mouing of it selfe in common doth sufficiently demonstrate without descending into a particular search of what his motions are But lett vs come to the matter first I conceiue no man will make any difficulty in allowing that it is the temper of the bloud and spirits in birdes brought therevnto by the quality of their foode and by the season of the yeare which maketh them accouple with one an other and not any ayme or desire of hauing yong ones that occasioneth this action in theÌ„ Then it followeth that the hennes egges will encrease in her belly and wheÌ„ they grow bigge they can not choose but be troublesome vnto her and therefore must of necessity breede in her an inclination to rest in some soft place and to be ridde of them And as we see a dogg or a catt pressed by nature searcheth about to find a conuenient place to disburthen themselues in not only of their yong ones but euen of their excrements so do birdes whose egges within them making them heauy and vnfitt to flye they beginne to sitt much and are pleased in a soft and warme place and therevpon they are delighted with strawes and mosse and other gentle substances and so carry them to their sitting place which that they do not by designe is euident by the manner of it for when they haue mette with a straw or other fitt materiall they fly not with it directly to their nest but first to a bough of some tree or to the toppe of a house and there they hoppe and dance a while with it in their beakes and from thence skippe to an other place where they entertaine themselues in like manner and at the last they gett to their nest where if the strawes should lye confusedly their endes would pricke and hurt them and therefore they turne and alter their positions till they lye smooth which we that looke vpon the effect and compare them with our performing of like actions if we had occasion may call a iuditious ordering of them whereas in them it is nothing but remouing such thinges as presse vpon their sense vntill they cause them no more paine or vnquietnesse Their plastering of their nestes may be attributed to the great heat raigning in them at that time which maketh them still be dabbling in moist clay and in water and in grauell without which all birdes will soone grow sicke blind and at length dye which for the coolenesse of it they bring home to their nestes in their beakes and vpon their feete and when it groweth dry and consequently troublesome to them they wipe it off and rubbe their durty partes vpon the place where they vse to sitt and then flye for more refresh themselues withall Out of all which actions sett on foote by the wise orderer of nature to compasse a remote end quite different from the immediate end that euery one of them is done for there resulteth a fitt and conuenient place for these litle builders that know not whay they do whiles they build themselues houses to lye in and to lay their egges in Which the next yeare when the like occasion occurreth they build againe peraduenture then as much through memory of the former as vpon their temper and other circumstances mouing their fantasy in such sort as we haue sett downe In like manner that whiles the Halcyon layeth and hatcheth her egges the sea is calme needeth no more be attributed to the wisedome and prouidence of that bird in choosing a fitt season then to any good nature or discourse in that rouling and mercilesse Element as though it had a pious care of preseruing the egges committed to his trust no such supplements are requisite to be added vnto the distributions of nature who hath sett materiall causes on foote to produce a coniuncture of both those effects at the same periode of time for the propagation of this animals species In fine both the time and the place of the Halcyons breeding and the manner and order and season of all birdes making their nestes proceedeth from secret motions which do require great obseruing and attention to vnderstand them and do serue for directions vnto euery bird according to her kind to make her neste fittest for her vse Which secret motions we can not doubt but are materiall ones and do arise out of the constitution and temper of their bodies and spirits which in like circumstances are alike in them all for all the birdes of one kind do make their nestes exactly alike which they would not do if this worke proceeded from reason in them and were gouerned by their owne election and designe as we see it happen amoÌ„g men vpon all occasions eyther of building houses or of making clothes or of what action soeuer is guided by their reason gouerning their fantasy in all which we see so great variety and inconstancy And therefore this in variability in the birdes operations must proceed from a higher intellect that hath determinately and precisely ordered a complexe or assembly of sundry causes to meete infaillibly and by necessity for the production of an effect that he hath designed and so the birdes are but materiall instruments to performe without their knowledge or reflection a superiour reasons counselles euen as in a clocke that is composed of seuerall pieces and wheeles all the partes of it do conspire to giue notice of the seuerall effluxes and periodes of time which the maker hath ordered it for And although this be a worke of reason and discourse in him that dâ—d sett it together yet the instrumentall performance of it dependeth meerely of locall motion and of the reuolutions of bodies so orderly proportioned to one an other that their effects can not faile when once the engine is wound vp in like manner then the bird is the engine of the Artificer infinitely more perfect and knowing and dexterous then a poore clockemaker and the plummets which do make it goe are the rowe and order of causes chained together which by the designe of the supreme workeman do bring to passe such effects as we see in the building of their
Aristotles Whether the motion of weighty and light thinges and of such as are forced be not by him as well as by vs atttibuted to externe causes In which all the differēce betweene vs is that we enlarge ourselues to more particulars then he hath done Lett any man reade his bookes of Generation and Corruption and say whether he doth not expressely teach that mixtion which he deliuereth to be the generation or making of a mixt body is done per minima that is in our language and in one word by atomes and signifyeth that all the qualities which are naturall qualities following the composition of the Elements are made by the mingling of the least partes or atomes of the said Elements which is in effect to say that all the nature of bodies their qualities and their operations are compassed by the mingling of atomes the shewing and explicating of which hath beene our labour in this whole Treatise Lett him reade his bookes of Meteores and iudge whether he doth not giue the causes of all the effects he treateth of there by mingling and seperating of great and litle grosse and subtile fiery and watry aery and earthy partes iust as we do The same he doth in his Problemes and in his Parua naturalia and in all other places wheresoeuer he hath occasion to render Physically the causes of Physicall effects The same do Hippocrates and Galen the same their Master Democritus and with them the best sort of Physitians the same do Alchymistes with their Master Geber whose maxime to this purpose we cited aboue the same do all naturall Philosophers eyther auncient commentatours of Aristotle or else moderne inquirers into naturall effects in a sensible and vnderstandable way as who will take the paines to looke into them will easily perceiue Wherefore lett any iuditious Reader that hath looked further into Aristotle then only vpon his Logicall and Metaphysicall workes iudge whether in bulke our doctrine be not conformable to the course of his and of all the best Philosophers that haue beene and are though in detaile or particulars we sometimes mingle therewith our owne priuate iudgements as euery one of them hath likewise shewed vs the way to do by the liberty themselues haue taken to dissent in some pointes from their predecessours And were it our turne to declare and teach Logike and Metaphisikes we should be forced to goe the way of matter and of formes and of priuations in such sort as Aristotle hath trodden it out to vs in his workes of that straine But this is not our taske for the present for no man that contemplateth nature as he aught can choose but see that these notions are no more necessary when we consider the framing of the elements then when we examine the making of compounded bodies and therefore these are to be sett apart as higher principles and of an other straine then neede be made vse of for the actuall composition of compounded thinges and for the resolution of them into their materiall ingredients or to cause their particular motions which are the subiects we now diseourse of Vpon this occasion I thinke it not amisse to touch how the latter sectatours or rather pretenders of Aristotle for truly they haue not his way haue introduced a modell of doctrine or rather of ignorance out of his wordes which he neuer so much as dreamed of howbeit they alleage textes out of him to confirme what they say as Heretikes do out of scripture to prooue their assertions for whereas he called certaine collections or positions of thinges by certaine common names as the art of Logike requireth terming some of them Qualities others actions others places or habites or relatiues or the like these his latter followers haue conceited that these names did not designe a concurrence of sundry thinges or a diuers disposition of the partes of any thing out of which some effect resulted which the vnderstanding considering all together hath expressed the notion of it by one name but haue imagined that euery one of these names had correspondent vnto it some reall positiue entity or thing seperated in its owne nature from the maine thing or substance in which it was and indifferent to any other substance but in all vnto which it is linked working still that effect which is to be expected from the nature of such a quality or action c. And thus to the very negatiues of thinges as to the names of pointes lines instantes and the like they haue imagined positiue Entities to correspond likewise to the names of actions places and the like they haue framed other Entities as also to the names of colours soundes tastes smels touches and the rest of the sensible qualities they haue vnto euery one of them allotted speciall Entities and generally to all qualities whatsoeuer Whereas nothing is more euidēt then that Aristotle meaned by qualities no other thing but that disposition of partes which is proper to one body and is not found in all as you will plainely see if you but examine what beauty health agility science and such other qualities are for by that name he calleth them and by such examples giueth vs to vnderstand what he meaneth by the word Quality the first of which is nothing else but a composition of seuerall partes and colours in due proportion to one an other the next but a due temper of the humours and the being of euery part of the body in the state it should be the third but a due proportion of the spirits and strength of the sinnewes and the last but ordered Phantasmes Now when these peruerters of Aristotle haue framed such Entities vnder that conception which nature hath attributed to substances they do immediately vpon the nicke with the same breath that described them as substances deny them to be substances and thus they confound the first apprehensions of nature by seeking learned and strained definitions for plaine thinges After which they are faine to looke for glew and paste to ioyne these entities vnto the substance they accompany which they find with the same facility by imagining a new Entity whose nature it is to do that which they haue neede of And this is the generall course of their Philosophy whose great subtility and queint speculations in enquiring how thinges do come to passe afford no better satisfaction then to say vpon euery occasion that there is an Entity which maketh it be so As if you aske them how a wall is white or blacke They will tell you there is an Entity or Quality whose essence is to be whitenesse or blackenesse diffused through the wall If you continue to aske how doth whitenesse sticke to the wall They reply that it is by meanes of an Entity called Vnion whose nature it is actually to ioyne whitenesse and the wall together And then if you enquire how it cometh to passe that one white is like an other They will as readily answere that this is wrought by an
other Entity whose nature is to be likenesse and it maketh one thing like an other The consideration of which doctrine maketh me remember a ridiculous tale of a trewant schooleboyes latine who vpon a time when he came home to see his frendes being asked by his father what was latine for bread answered breadibus and for beere beeribus and the like of all other thinges he asked him adding only a termination in Bus to the plaine English word of euery one of them which his father perceiuing and though ignorant of Latine yet presently apprehending that the mysteries his sonne had learned deserued not the expence of keeping him at schoole bad him immediately putt of his hosibus and shoosibus and fall to his old trade of treading Morteribus In like manner these great Clerkes do as readily find a pretty Quality or moode whereby to render the nature or causes of any effect in their easy Philosophy as this Boy did a Bus to stampe vpon any English word and coyne it into his mockelatine But to be serious as the weight of the matter requireth lett these so peremptory pretenders of Aristotle shew me but one text in him where he admitteth any middle distinction such as those moderne Philosophers do and must needes admitt who maintaine the qualities we haue reiected betwixt that which he calleth Numericall and that which he calleth of Reason or of Notion or of Definition the first of which we may terme to be of or in thinges the other to be in our heades or discourses or the one Naturall the other Logicall and I will yield that they haue reason and that I haue grossely mistaken what he hath written and that I do not reach the depth of his sense But this they will neuer be able to do Besides the whole scope of his doctrine and all his discourses and intentions are carryed throughout and are built vpon the same foundations that we haue layed for ours Which being so no body can quarrell with vs for Aristotles sake who as he was the greatest Logician and Metaphysitian and Vniuersall scholler peraduenture that euer liued and was so highly esteemed that the good turne which Sylla did the world in sauing his workes was thought to recompence his many outragious cruelties and tyranny so his name must neuer be mentioned among schollers but with reuerence for his vnparalleled worth and with gratitude for the large stocke of knowledge he hath enriched vs with Yet withall we are to consider that since his raigne was but at the beginning of sciences he could not chose but haue some defects and shortenesses among his many great and admirable perfections THE SECOND TREATISE DECLARING THE NATVRE AND OPERATIONS OF MANS SOVLE OVT OF WHICH THE IMMORTALITY OF REASONABLE SOVLES IS CONVINCED Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata libelli THE PREFACE IT is now high time for vs to cast an eye vpon the other leafe of our accounts or peraduenture I may more properly say to fall to the perusall of our owne accountes for hitherto our time and paines haue beene taken vp in examining and casting the accountes of others to the end that from the foote and totall of them we may driue on our owne the more smoothly In ours then we shall meete with a new Capitall we shall discouer a new world of a quite different straine and nature from that which all this while we haue employed ourselues about We will enter into them with taking a suruay of the great Master of all that large family we haue so summarily viewed I meane of Man as he is Man that is not as he is subiect to those lawes whereby other bodies are gouerned for therein he hath no praeeminence to raise him out of their throng but as he exceedeth the rest of creatures which are subiect to his managing and as he ruleth ouer nature herselfe making her serue his designes and subiecting her noblest powers to his lawes and as he is distinguished from all other creatures whatsoeuer To the end we may discouer whether that principle in him from whence those actions do proceede which are properly his be but some refined composition of the same kind we haue already treated of or whether it deriueth its source and origine from some higher spring and stocke and be of a quite different nature Hauing then by our former Treatise mastered the oppositions which else would haue taken armes against vs when we should haue beene in the middest of our aedifice and hauing cleared the obiections which lay in our way from the peruerse Qualities of the soules neighbours the seuerall common wealthes of Bodies we must now beginne with Dauid to gather together our Materialls and to take a suruay of our owne prouisions that so we may proceed with Salomon to the sacred building of Gods temple But before we goe about it it will not be amisse that we shew the reason why we haue made our porch so great and haue added so long an entry that the house is not likely to haue therevnto a correspondent bulke and when the necessity of my doing so shall appeare I hope my paines will meete with a fauourable censure and receiue a faire admittance We proposed vnto our selues to shew that our soules are immortall wherevpon casting about to find the groundes of immortality and discerning it to be a negatiue we conceiued that we ought to beginne our search with enquiring What Mortality is and what be the causes of it Which when we should haue discouered and haue brought the soule to their teste if we found they trēched not vpon her nor any way concerned her condition we might safely conclude that of necessity she must be immortall Looking then into the causes of mortality we saw that all bodies round about vs were mortall whence perceiuing that mortality extended it selfe as farre as corporeity we found our selues obliged if we would free the soule from that law to shew that she is not corporeall This could not be done without enquiring what corporeity was Now it being a rule among Logitians that a definition can not be good vnlesse it comprehend and reach to euery particular of that which is defined we perceiued it impossible to know compleatly what a Body is without taking a generall view of all those thinges which we comprise vnder the name and meaning of Bodies This is the cause we spent so much time in the first Treatise and I hope to good purpose for there we found that the nature of a Body consisted in being made of partes that all the differencies of bodies are reduced to hauing more or lesse partes in comparison to their substance thus and thus ordered and lastly thall all their operations are nothing else but locall motion which followeth naturally out of hauing partes So as it appeareth euidently from hence that if any thing haue a being and yet haue no partes it is not a body but a substance of an other quality and condition
thing to be true now according to the persuasion we haue of his knowledge and veracity our beliefe is strong or mingled with doubt so that if we haue absolute assurance and certainety that he knoweth the truth and will not lye then we may be assured that the faith which we yield to what he sayth is certaine as well as euident knowledge is certaine and admitteth no comparison with opinion be it neuer so probable but so it may happen that we may be certainely assured that a man doth know the truth of what he speaketh of and that he will not lye in reporting it to vs for seeing no man is wicked without a cause and that to tell a lye in a serious matter is a great wickednesse if once we come to be certaine that he hath no cause as it may fall out we may then it followeth that we are assured of the thing which he reporteth to vs. Yet still such faith falleth short of the euidence of knowledge in this regard that its euidence sticketh one degree on this side the thing it selfe and at the push in such a case we see but with an others eyes and consequently if any opposition do arise against our thought thereabout it is not the beames and light of the thing it selfe which strengthen vs against such opposition but the goodnesse of the party vpon whom we rely Before I go any further I must needes remember one thing that our Masters teach vs which is that truth and falsehood are first found in sayings or Enuntiations and that although single apprehensions are in our mind before these iudgements yet are they not true or false themselues nor is the vnderstanding so by them To comprehend the reason of this maxime lett vs consider what truth and falsehood are surely truth is nothing else but the confirmity of our vnderstanding with the thinges that make impression vpon it and consequently falsehood is a disagreeing betweene our mind and those thinges if the existence which the thinges haue in vs be agreeable to the Existence they haue in themselues then our vnderstanding is true otherwise it is false Now the naturall perfection of our Soule or vnderstanding is to be fraught with the rest of the whole world that is to haue the knowledge of all thinges that are the knowledge of their essences of their natures of their proprieties of their operations and of whatsoeuer else belongeth to them all in generall and to euery one of them in particular but our soule can not be stored or fraught with any thing by other meanes then by her assent or deeming wherevpon it followeth that she can not haue her perfection vntill her deemings or iudgements be perfect which is that they be agreeable vnto the thinges in the world when they are so then are they true And this is the reason why truth is the ayme and perfection of the soule Now then truth residing only in the assents and iudgements of the soule which are the trafficke whereby she enricheth her selfe with the rest of the world and they being framed by her discerning an identity betweene two thinges which she expresseth by affirming one of them of the other it followeth that nothing can be true or false but where there is a composition of two extremes made by the ones being affirmed of the other which is done only in Enuntiations or iudgements whiles single apprehensions assent to nothing and therefore settle no knowledge in the soule and consequently are not capable of verity or falsity but are like pictures made at fansy some one of which may happen to be like some Person but can not be said to be the picture of him because it was not drawne from him so these bare apprehensions because there is not in the man vnion of the soule to the outward world or to the Existence which actuateth its obiect therefore they make not the soule to be the image of the thinges existent but the iudgement which still taketh a thing existent or as existent in the subiect of the proposition draweth its picture from the thing it selfe and therefore it maketh the soule to be well or ill painted in respect of the thing that is true or false And this is the reason why in one sense doubtfull propositions which the vnderstanding not being yet resolued maketh inquiringly to informe it selfe of the truth of them can not be said to be true or false for all that while the soule yieldeth no assent vnto them eyther one way or other yet in an other sense they may which is taking them as subiects that the vnderstanding determineth vnto it selfe to treate of for there being two extremes in them and the proposition consisting in this whether these extremes be identifyed or no it followeth that since one part must of necessity be such a proposition spoken at randome or written by chance without designe is of necessity eyther true or false according as the extremes of it are or are not one thing There occurreth no more vnto my consideration to be said in this place concerning the assents and iudgements of the mind vnlesse it be to explicate in a word or two the seuerall qualities of them which are found in seueral Persons and to point at the reason why they are called by those names which they are vniuersally knowne by To which purpose we may obserue that iudgement or deeming being a quieting of the mind it followeth that the mind must needes be in disquiet and at vnrest before it cometh to iudge so that we may conclude that iudgement or thinking is a good attained by a former motion Now according to the quality of this motion the iudgement or assent is qualifyed and denominated We must therefore consider what belongeth to motion which when we haue done we shall in iudgements find something proportionable therevnto We know there is a beginning and an ending in motion and that there are partes by which it is drawne out in length all which must be particularly considered in our comparing of motions vnto iudgemeÌ„ts Now then as he that would know precisely the nature of any motion must not beginne his suruay of it after it hath beene some time in fluxe nor must giue ouer his obseruing it before it haue arriued vnto its vtmost periode but ought to carry his attention along from its first origine and passe with it through all its partes vntill it ceasing giue him leaue to do so too for otherwise it may happen that the course of it be differing in those partes he hath not obserued from those that he hath and accordingly the picture he shall make of it by that imperfect sâ—nâ—tling will proue an erroneous one so in like manner when a man is to make a iudgement of any matter in question to giue a good account of it he must beginne at the roote and follow successiuely all the branches it diuideth it selfe into and driue euery one of them to
range abroad at randome doth also conuince this assertion but I confesse ingeniously the testimony of it seemeth not cleare to me and therefore I ranke it not with those that I would haue if it may be solidely weighty and vndenyable to who shall consider maturely the bottome and full efficaciousnesse of them Of such a few or any one is enough to settle ones mind in the beliefe of a truth and I hope that this which we haue laboured for in this Chapter is so sufficiently proued as we neede not make vp our euidence with number of testimonies But to shew the exceptions I take against this argument lett vs examine how this act within vs which we call watchfullnesse is performed truly me thinketh it appeareth to be nothing else but the promptitude and recourse of some spirits that are proper for this effect which by a mans earnestnesse in his resolutiō do take a strōg impression and so are still ready to knocke frequently at the dore of our vnderstāding and thereby enable it with power to recall our strayed thougths Nay the very reflexion it selfe which we make vpon our thoughts seemeth vnto me to be only this that the obiect beating vpon the fansie carryeth backe with it at its retiring from thence some litle particle or atome of the braine or Septum Lucidum against which it beateth sticking vpon it in like manner as vpon an other occasion we instanced in a ball rebounding from a greene mudde wall vnto which some of the matter of the wall must needes adhere now this obiect together with the addition it getteth by its stroake vpon the fansie rebounding thēce and hauing no more to do there at present betaketh it selfe to rest quietly in some cell it is disposed into in the braine as we haue deliuered at large in our former Treatise where we discoursed of Memory but whensoeuer it is called for againe by the fansie or vpon any other occasion returneth thither it cometh as it were capped with this additional piece it acquired formerly in the fansie and so maketh a representation of its owne hauing beene formerly there Yet be these actions performed how they will it can not be denyed but that both of them are such as are not fitt nor would be any wayes vsefull to creatures that haue not the power of ordering their owne thoughts and fansies but are gouerned throughout meerely by an vniforme course of nature which ordering of thoughts being an operation feasible only by rationall creatures and by none others these two actions which would be in vaine where such ordering is not vsed seeme to be specially ordained by nature for the seruice of Reason and of the Vnderstanding although peraduenture a precise proper working of the vnderstanding do not cleerely shine in it Much lesse can we by experience find among all the actions we haue hitherto spoken of that our Reason or Vnderstanding worketh singly and alone by it selfe without the assistance and consortshippe of the fantasie and as litle can I tell how go about to seeke any experience of it But what Reason may do in this particular we shall hereafter enquire and end this Chapter with collecting out of what is said how it fareth with vs when we do any thing against Reason or against our owne knowledge If this happen by surprise it is plaine that the watch of Reason was not so strong as it should haue beene to preuent the admittance or continuance of those thoughts which worke that transgression Againe if it be occasioned by Passion it is euident that in this case the multitude and violence of those spirits which Passion sendeth boyling vp to the fantasie is so great as the other spirits which are in the iurisdiction and gouernement of Reason are not able for the present to ballance them and stay their impetuosity whiles she maketh truth appeare Sometimes we may obserue that Reason hath warning enough to muster together all her forces to encounter as it were in sett battaile the assault of some concupiscence that sendeth his vnruly bandes to take possession of the fansie and constraine it to serue their desires and by it to bring Reason to their bente Now if in this pitched field she loose the bridle and be carryed away against her owne resolutions and be forced like a captiue to obey the others lawes it is cleare that her strength was not so great as the contrary factions The cause of which is euident for we know that she can do nothing but by the assistance of the spirits which inhabite the braine now then it followeth that if she haue not the command of those spirits which flocke thither she must of necessity be carryed alōg by the streame of the greater and stronger multitude which in our case is the throng of those that are sent vp into the braine by the desired obiect and they come thither so thicke and so forcibly that they displace the others which fought vnder Reasons standard which if they do totally and excluding reasons party do entirely possesse the fansie with their troupes as in maddenesse and in extremity of suddaine passion it happeneth then must Reason wholy follow their sway without any struggling at all against it for whatsoeuer beateth on the fansie occasioneth her to worke and therefore when nothing beateth there but the messengers of some sensuall obiect she can make no resistance to what they impose but if it bappen that these tumultuary ones be not the only spirits which beate there but that Reason hath likewise some vnder her iurisdiction which keepe possession for her though they be too weake to turne the others out of dores then it is true she can still direct fairely how in that case a man should gouerne himselfe but when he cometh to execute he findeth his sinewes already posessed and swelled with the contrary spirits and they keeping out the smaller and weaker number which reason hath ranked in order and would furnish those partes withall he is drawne euen against his iudgement and Reason to obey their appetites and to moue himselfe in prosecution of what they propose in such sort as the Poet expresseth that Medea found in her selfe when she complained and bemoaned her selfe in these wordes Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor and in this case a man foreseeth his misery all the way he rouleth towardes it and leapeth into the precipice with his eyes open which sheweth that the army of thoughts on Reasons side should be encreased in number to haue her strong enough to wage battaile with the rebellious aduersary or else that her aduersary should be so much weakened that she though not growne stronger in her selfe yet might through the others enfeebling be able to make her party good and hence is the vse of corporeall mortifications to subiect our Passions to the beheast of Reason euen as when we see that when we are in health our armes and legges and all our limbes obey our will reaching
vpon her yet so that of her selfe she still is what she is And therefore as soone as she is out of the passible oore in which she suffereth by reason of that oore she presently becometh impassible as being purely of her owne nature a fixed substance that is a pure Being Both which states of the soule may in some sort be aduÌ„brated by what we see passeth in the coppelling of a fixed mettall for as long as any lead or drosse or allay remaineth with it it continueth melted flowing and in motion vnder the muffle but as soone as they are parted from it and that it is become pure without any mixture and singly it selfe it contracteth it selfe to a narrower roome and at that very instant ceaseth from all motion groweth hard permanent resistent vnto all operations of fire and suffereth no change or diminution in its substance by any outward violence we can vse vnto it THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body ONe thing may peraduenture seeme of hard digestion in our past discourse and it is that out of the groundes we haue layed it seemeth to follow that all soules will haue an equality since we haue concluded that the greatest shall see or know no more then the least and indeed there appeareth no cause why this great and noble creature should lye imprisoned in the obscure dungeon of noysome flesh if in the first instant in which it hath its first knowledge it hath then already gained all whatsoeuer it is capable of gaining in the whole progresse of a long life afterwardes Truly the Platonike Philosophers who are persuaded that a humane soule doth not profitt in this life nor that she acquired any knowledge here as being of her selfe completely perfect and that all our discourses are but her remembringes of what she had forgotten will find themselues ill bestedd to render a Philosophicall and sufficient cause of her being locked into a body for to putt forgettfulnesse in a pure spiritt so palpable an effect of corporeity and so great a corruption in respect of a creature whose nature is to know of it selfe is an vnsufferable errour Besides when they tell vs that she can not be changed because all change would preiudice the spirituall nature which they attribute to her but that well she may be warned and excitated by being in a body they meerely trifle for eyther there is some true mutation made in her by that which they call a warning or there is not if there be not how becometh it a warning to her Or what is it more to her then if a straw were wagged at the Antipodes But if there be some mutation be it neuer so litle made in her by a corporeall motion what should hinder why she may not by meanes of her body attaine vnto science she neuer had as well as by it receiue any the least intrinsecall mutation whatsoeuer For if once we admitt any mutability in her from any corporeall motion it is farre more conformable vnto reason to suppose it in regard of that which is her naturall perfection and of that which by her operations we see she hath immediately after such corporeall motions and whereof before them there appeared in her no markes at all then to suppose it in regard of a darke intimation of which we neyther know it is nor how it is performed Surely no Rationall Philosopher seeing a thing whose nature is to know haue a being whereas formerly it existed not and obseruing how that thing by little and little giueth signes of more and more knowledge can doubt but that as she could be changed from not being to being so may she likewise be changed from lesse knowing to more knowing This then being irrefragably settled that in the body she doth encrease in knowledge lett vs come to our difficulty and examine what this encrease in the body auaileth her seeing that as soone as she parteth from it she shall of her owne nature enioy and be replenished with the knowledge of all thinges why should she laboriously striue to anticipate the getting of a few droppes which but encrease her thirst and anxiety when hauing but a litle patience she shall at one full and euerlasting draught drinke vp the whole sea of it We know that the soule is a thing made proportionably to the making of its body seeing it is the bodies compartener and we haue concluded that whiles it is in the body it acquireth perfection in that way which the nature of it is capable of that is in knowledge as the body acquireth perfection its way which is in streÌ„gth and agility Now then lett vs coÌ„pare the proceedinges of the one with those of the other substance and peraduenture we may gaine some light to discerne what aduantage it may proue vnto a soule to remaine long in its body if it make right vse of its dwelling there Lett vs coÌ„sider the body of a man well and exactly shaped in all his members yet if he neuer vse care nor paines to exercise those well framed limbes of his he will want much of those corporeall perfections which others will haue who employ them sedulously Though his legges armes and handes be of an exact symmetry yet he will not be able to runne to wrestle or to throw a dart with those who labour to perfect themselues in such exercises though his fingers be neuer so neately moulded or composed to all aduantages of quicke and smart motion yet if he neuer learned and practised on the lute he will not be able with them to make any musike vpon that instrument euen after he seeth plainely and comprehendeth fully all that the cunningest Lutenist doth nether will he be able to playe as he doth with his fingers which of themselues are peraduenture lesse apt for those voluble motions then his are That which maketh a man dexterous in any of these artes or in any other operations proper to any of the partes or limbes of his body is the often repetitions of the same actes which do amend and perfect those limbes in their motions and which make them fitt and ready for the actions they are designed vnto In the same manner it fareth with the soule whoâ—e essence is that which she knoweth her seuerall knowledges may be compared to armes handes fingers legges thighes c in a body and all her knowledges taken together do compose as I may say and make her vp what she is Now those limbes of hers though they be when they are at the worst entire and well shaped in bulke to vse the comparison of bodies yt they are susceptible of further perfection as our corporeall limbes ae by often and orderly vsage of them When we iterate our acts of our vnderstanding any obiect the second act is of the same nature as she first the third as the second and so of
that can be imagined in nature For we haue already shewed how a separated soule comprehendeth at once all place and all times so that her actiuity requireth no application to place or time but she is of her selfe mistresse of both comprehending all quantity whatsoeuer in an indiuisible apprehension and ranking all the partes of motion in their complete order and knowing at once what is to happen in euery one of them On the other side an incorporated soule by reason of her being confined to the vse of her senses can looke vpon but one single definite place or time at once and needeth a long chaine of many discourses to comprehend all the circumstances of any one action and yet after all how short she is of comprehending all So that comparing the one of these with the other it is euident that in respect of time and place and in respect of any one singular action the proportion of a separated soule to one in the body is as all time or all place in respect of any one piece or least parcell of them or as the entire absolute comprehender of all time and all place is to the discouerer of a small measure of them For whatsoeuer a soule willeth in that state she willeth it for the whole extent of her duration because she is then out of the state or capacity of changing and wisheth for whatsoeuer she wisheth as for her absolute good and therefore employeth the whole force of her iudgement vpon euery particular wish Likewise the eminency which a separated soule hath ouer place is also then entirely employed vpon euery particular wish of hers since in that state there is no variety of place left vnto her to wish for such good in one place and to refuse it in an other as whiles she is in the body happeneth to euery thing she desireth Wherefore whatsoeuer she then wisheth for she wisheth for it according to her comparison vnto place that is to say that as such a soule hath a power to worke at the same time in all place by the absolute comprehension which she hath of place in abstract so euery wish of that soule if it were concerning a thing to be made in place were able to make it in all places through the excessiue force and efficacy which she employeth vpon euery particular wish The third effect by which among bodies we gather the vigour and energy of the cause that produceth it to witt the doing of the like action in a lesser time and in a larger extent is but a combination of the two former and therefore it requireth no further particular insistance vpon it to shew that likewise in this the proportion of a separated to an incorporated soule must needes be the selfe same as in the others seeing that a separated soules actiuity is vpon all place in an indiuisible of time Therefore to shutt vp this point there remaineth only for vs to consider what addition may be made vnto the efficacity of a iudgement by the concurrence of other extrinsecall helpes We see that when an vnderstanding man will settle any iudgement or conclusion in his mind he weigheth throughly all that followeth out of such a iudgement and considereth likewise all the antecedents that lead him vnto it and if after due reflection and examination of whatsoeuer concerneth that conclusion which he is establishing in his mind he findeth nothing to crosse it but that euery particular and circumstance goeth smoothly along with it and strengtheneth it he is then satisfyed and quiett in his thoughts and yieldeth a full assent therevnto which assent is the stronger by how many the more concurrent testimonyes he hath for it And although he should haue a perfect demonstration or sight of the thing in it selfe yet euery one of the other extrinsecall proofes being as it were a new persuasion hath in it a further vigour to strengthen and content his mind in the forehad demonstration for if euery one of these be in it selfe sufficient to make the thing euident it can not happen that any one of them should hinder the others but contrariwise euery one of them must needes coucurre with all the rest to the effectuall quieting of his vnderstanding in its assent to that iudgement Now then according to this rate lett vs calculate if we can what concurrence of proofes and wittnesses a separated soule will haue to settle and strengthen her in euery one of her iudgemēts We know that all verities are chained and connected one to an other and that there is no true conclusion so farre remote from any other but may by more or lesse consequences and discourses be deduced euidently out of it it followeth then that in the abstracted soule where all such consequences are ready drawne and seene in themselues without extension of time or employing of paines to collect them euery particular verity beareth testimony to any other so that euery one of them is beleeued and worketh in the force and vertue of all Out of which it is manifest that euery iudgement in such a separated soule hath an infinite strength and efficacity ouer any made by an embodyed one To summe all vp in a few wordes we find three rootes of infinity in euery action of a separated soule in respect of one in the body first the freedome of her essence or substance in it selfe next that quality of hers by which she comprehendeth place and time that is all permanent and successiue quantity and lastly the concurrence of infinite knowledges to euery action of hers Hauing then this measure in our handes lett vs apply it to a well ordered and to a disordered soule passing out of this world lett vs consider the one of them sett vpon those goodes which she shall there haue present and shall fully enioy the other languishing after and pining away for those which are impossible for her euer to obtaine What ioy what content what exultation of mind in any liuing man can be conceiued so great as to be compared with the happinesse of one of these soules And what griefe what discontent what misery can be like the others These are the different effects which the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in soules after they are deliuered from their bodies out of which and out of the discourse that hath discouered these effects vnto vs we see a cleare resolution of that so maine and agitated question among the Philosophers why a rationall soule is imprisoned in a grosse body of flesh and bloud In truth the question is an illegitimate one as supposing a false ground for the soules being in the body is not an imprisonnement of a thing that was existent before the soule and body mett together but her being there is the naturall course of beginning that which can no other way come into the listes of nature for should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body eyther
she would in the first instant of her being be perfect in knowledge or she would not if she were then would she be a perfect and complete immateriall substance not a soule whose nature is to be a compartner to the body and to acquire her perfection by the mediation and seruice of corporeall senses but if she were not perfect in science but were only a capacity therevnto and like vnto white paper in which nothing were yet wâ—â—tten then vnlesse she were putt in a body she could neuer arriue to know any thing because motion and alteration are effects peculiar to bodies therefore it must be agreed that she is naturally designed to be in a body but her being in a body is her being one thing with the body she is said to be in and so she is one part of a whole which from its weaker part is determined to be a body Againe seeing that the matter of any thing is to be prepared before the end is prepared for which that matter is to serue according to that Axiome Quod est primum in intentione est vltimum in executione we may not deny but that the body is in being some time before the soule or at the least that it existeth as soone as she doth and therefore it appeareth wholy vnreasonable to say that the soule was first made out of the body and was afterwardes thrust into it seeing that the body was prepared for the soule before or at the least as soone as she had any beginning and so we may conclude that of necessity the soule must be begunne layed hatched and perfected in the body And although it be true that such soules as are separated from their bodies in the first instant of their being there are notwithstanding imbued with the knowledge of all thinges yet is not their longer abode therein vaine not only because thereby the species is multiplyed for nature is not content with barely doing that without addition of some good to the soule it selfe but as well for the wonderfull and I may say infinite aduantage that may thereby accrew to the soule if she make right vse of it for as any act of the abstracted soule is infinite in comparison of the acts which men exercise in this life according to what we haue already shewed so by consequence must any encrease of it be likewise infinite and therefore we may conclude that a long life well spent is the greatest and most excellent guift which nature can bestow vpon a man The vnwary reader may perhapps haue difficulty at our often repeating of the infelicity of a miserable soule since we say that it proceedeth out of the iudgements she had formerly made in this life which without all doubt were false ones and neuerthelesse it is euident that no false iudgements can remaine in a soule after she is separated from her body as we haue aboue determined How then can a soules iudgements be the cause of her misery But the more heedefull reader will haue noted that the misery which we putt in a soule proceedeth out of the inequality not out of the falsity of her iudgements for if a man be inclined to a lesser good more then to a greater he will in action betake himselfe to the lesser good and desert the greater wherein neyther iudgemeÌ„t is false nor eyther inclination is naught meerely out of the improportion of the two inclinations or iudgements to their obiects for that a soule may be duely ordered and in a state of being well she must haue a lesser inclination to a lesse good and a greater inclination to a greater good and in pure spirits these inclinations are nothing else but the strength of their iudgements which iudgements in soules whiles they are in their bodies are made by the repetition of more acts from stronger causes or in more fauourable circumstances And so it appeareth how without any falsity in any iudgement a soule may become miserable by her conuersation in this world where all her inclinations generally are good vnlesse the disproportion of them do make them bad THE TWELFTH CHAPTER Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth her selfe in at her first separation from her body THus we haue brought mans soule out of the body she liued in here and by which she conuersed and had commerce with the other partes of this world and we haue assigned her her first array and stole with which she may be seene in the next world so that now there remaineth only for vs to consider what shall betide her afterwardes and whether any change may happen to her and be made in her after the first instant of her being a pure spiritt separated from all consortshippe with materiall substances To determine this point the more clearely lett vs call to minde an axiome that Aristotle giueth vs in his logike which teacheth vs That as it is true if the effect be there is a cause so likewise it is most true that if the cause be in act or causing the effect must also be Which Axiome may be vnderstood two wayes the one that if the cause hath its effect then the effect also is and this is no great mystery or for it are any thankes due to the teacher it being but a repetition and saying ouer againe of the same thing The other way is that if the cause be perfect in the nature of being a cause then the effect is which is as much as to say that if nothing be waÌ„ting to the cause abstracting precisely from the effect then neyther is the effect wanting And this is the meaning of Aristotles Axiome of the truth and euidence whereof in this sense if any man should make the least doubt it were easy to euince it as thus if nothing be wanting but the effect and yet the effect doth not immediately follow it must needes be that it can not follow at all for if it can and doth not then something more must be done to make it follow which is against the supposition that nothing was wanting but the effect for that which is to be done was wanting To say it will follow without any change is senselesse for if it follow without change it followeth out of this which is already putt but if it do follow out of this which is precisely putt then it followeth against the supposition which was that it did not follow although this were putt This then being euident lett vs apply it to our purpose and lett vs putt three or more thinges namely A. B. C. and D whereof none can worke otherwise then in an instant or indiuisibly and I say that whatsoeuer these foure thinges are able to do without respect to any other thing besides them is completely done in the first instant of their being putt and if they remayne for all eternity without communication or respect to any other thing there shall neuer be any innouation in any of them or
sense the Author doth admitt of qualities 3 Fiue arguments proposed to proue that light is not a body 4 The two first reasoÌ„s to proue light to be a body are the resemblance it hath with fire and because if it were a quality it would alwayes produce an equall to it selfe 5 The third reason because if we imagine to our selues the substance of fire to be rarifyed it will haue the same appearances which light hath 6 The fourth reason from the manner of the generation and corruption of light which agreeth with fire 7 The fifth reason because such properties belong to light as agree only vnto bodies 1 That all light is hoat and apt to heate 2 The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feele the heate of pure light 3 The experience of burning-glasses and of soultry gloomy weather proue light to be fire 4 Philosophers ought not to iudge of thinges by the rules of vulgar people 5 The different names of light and fire proceede from different notions of the same substance 6 The reason why many times fire and heate are depriued of light 7 What becometh of the body of light when it dyeth 8 An experiment of some who pretend that light may be precipitated into pouder 9 The Authors opinion concerning lampes pretended to haue been found in tombes with inconsumptible lights 1 Light is not really in euery part of the roome it enlighteneth not filleth entirely any sensible part of it though it seeme to vs to do so 2 The least sensible poynt of a diaphanous body hath roome sufficient to containe both ayre and light together with a multitude of beames issuing from seuerall lights without penetrating one an other Willebrord Snell 3 That light doth not enlight en any roome in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion doth make it imperceptible to our senses 4 The reason why the motion of light is not discerned coming towardes vs and that there is some reall tardity in it 5 The planets are not certainely euer in that place where they appeare to be 6 The reason why light being a body doth not by its motion shatter other bodies into pieces 7 The reason why the body of lighlt is neuer perceiued to be fanned by the wind 8 The reasons for and against lights being a body compared together 9 A summary repetition of the reasons which proue that light is fire 1 No locall motion can be performed without succession 2 Time is the common measure of all succession 3 What velocity is and that it can not be infinite 4 No force so litle that is not able to moue the greatest weight imaginable 5 The chiefe principle of Mechanikes deduced out of the former discourse 6 No moueable can passe from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degrees which are below the obtained degree 7 The conditions which helpe to motioÌ„ in the moueable are three in the medium one Dialog 1. of Motion 8 No body hath any intrinsecall vertue to moue it selfe towardes any determinate part of the vniuerse 9 The encrease of motion is alwayse made in the proportion of the odde numbers 10 No motion can encrease for euer without coming to a periode 11 Certaine problemes resolued concerning the proportion of some mouing Agents compared to their effects 12 When a moueable cometh to rest the motion doth decrease according to the rules of encrease 1 Those motions are called naturall which haue constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them 2 The first and most generall operation of the sunne is the making and raising of atomes 3 The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causeth two streames in the ayre the one ascending the other desceÌ„ding and both of them in a perpendicular line 4 A dense body placed in the ayre betweene the ascending and descending streame must needes descend 5 A more particular explicatioÌ„ of all the former doctrine touching grauity 6 Grauity and leuity do not signify an intrinsecall inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselues which are termed heauy and light 7 The more deÌ„se a body is the more swiftly it descendeth 8 The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be betweene their seuerall densities 9 More or lesse grauity doth produce a swifter or a slower descending of a heauy body Aristotles argument to disproue motion in vacuo is made good 10 The reason why att the inferiour quarter of a circle a body doth descend faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord â—f it 1 The first obiection answered why a hollow body descendeth slower then a solide one 2 The second obiection answered and the reasons shewne why atomes do continually ouertake the descending dense body 3 A curious question left vndecided 4 The fourth obiection answered why the descent of the same heauy bodies is equall in so great inequality of the atomes which cause it 5 The reason why the shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder ti 6 The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme 7 The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames 8 The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres 9 The 7th obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beat coÌ„tinually vpon vs. 10 How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing 11 The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason 12 The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences 1 The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2 That the medium is the onely cause which continueth â—â—â—lent motioÌ„ 3 A further explication of the former doctrine 4 That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable Dial. 1. of motion pag. 98. 5 An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent moâ—â— cometh to cease 6 An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies 7 An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then loÌ„gwayes 1 That reflexion is a kind of violeÌ„t motion 2 Reflexion is made at equall angles 3 The causes and properties of vndulation 5 A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction 6 An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion 7 The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and att its going out from the reflecting body 8 A generall rule to know the nature of reflexions and refractions in all sortes of