very well known that he that puts on a Garment or touches it leaves upon it his Scent that is Corpuscles which proceed from his Body and which constitute part of it and by the help of these Corpuscles a Dog is able to know his Masters Handkerchief Hat or Garment from ten thousand others This being supposed if the Dead Man's Garment or Gloak be put into a Press or Chest first and for some days when the Body that is Buried begins to putrifie there will be a considerable noise and disturbance in the Press or Chest enough to frighten Children and other folks too and the Corpuscles of the dead Body being attracted by those that are going away by their motion make this noise among the Cloaths And whereas this attraction is made in a streight Line and these Corpuscles cannot pass through the Bords but obliquely the Wood suffering violence makes a noise as if it were crackt Any one may trye this and know whether this Experiment made by others be true or no I see no reason to doubt of it From hence appears that invisible Bond of the Parts with the Body from whence they did proceed A third Experiment may be made which will serve to the illustrating this Subject Take a piece of Veal or any other Flesh from the Shambles and with it rub the Warts of any ones Face or Hands then afterwards fling it upon the Dunghil or Bury it and as that putrifies the Warts will fall off which denotes that the Corpuscles of Flesh returning to their whole or greater part and being violently attracted do in the same manner attract the Warts and make them go away which some Learned Men say they have Experienced We may admire in all these things the Providence of God who hath Created Atoms and out of them hath compounded the Universe wherein we find so great a number of wonderful things which are the subject of our admiration and convince our Ignorance CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals SEeing that Man dyes other Animals cannot escape Death let us see wherein it consists The Followers of Aristotle are very much puzzled in explaining the Death of a Dog for when it is destitute of all Sense and Motion it is dead without doubt yet in the mean time it hath all its parts and Organs What therefore happens to this Animal It s Soul is separated from its Body say they and the Spirit of Life is not in him they do the Beast much honour who speak thus in his Favour But what becomes of this Soul Is it corrupted or annihilated or does it subsist apart in some other place or is it taken into some other Body No by no means say they it is not it is destroyed and that 's sufficient So it is sufficient to People who don 't seek after the Truth For if this Soul be a substance as they say it is a material one it is impossible but it must go into some other thing or else be reduced into nothing It is reduced into nothing say they therefore it is annihilated therefore it is Created and made out of nothing which is Ridiculous and unbecoming a Christian Philosopher It is true this Opinion is very common in the Schools but this Errour is detected and they who are wiser than others say with us that the Spirits of Life or Corpuscles of Light being altogether dissipated or hindred in their motion do withdraw and return to their Original and Copulate with others which are in the Air so dyes a Dog without the loss of that which God made the Parts are separated the Spirits seek the Air the Body the Earth Plants dye like other Living Creatures but their Death very much differs from the Death of Animals for as much as their Organical Parts do not appear so as they do in Animals nor does a Plant dye so easily as an Animal For a Plant is not dead so soon as it is pulled out of the ground its Life continues to the extream dryness or evaporation of the Radical moisture which contains all the Spirits of Life and though the Plant be calcined or burnt to Ashes part of the Spirits will remain in those Ashes for the Lixivium that is made or the Salt that is extracted gives all the Savour of the Plant and where that Lixivium is congealed by the Cold of the Night the Figure of the burnt Plant will appear in the very Ice But what is more to be observed is that a Plant dryed in a Kilne and put into a particular Water whose Virtue is Universal receives its pristine Greenness Leaves and Flowers without doubt in this dryed Plant some Vital Spirits were shut up which are relaxed by the Spirits of this Water or the Vital Spirits exhaling give way to the Spirits of the Water we speak of to take their places This Water is endued with Vital Spirits which can fill the place of those that exhale in us and with this sole Remedy Life may be prolonged and the losses of ruined Old-Age be repaired by filling up the Vacuities of the radical moisture which is dissipated But you will say where is this Water it is to be found in Light according to our Principles and certainly no where else This Water is the true Elixir-Vitae and the Universal Medicine of the Antients and it is meet that we use it to the preservation of the most Sacred Persons Mettals have a more abstruse Life than Plants nor is their Death more conspicuous Their Life consists in a certain disposition of Parts which permits a free motion to the Atoms of Life and Light. This is the State of Mettals in their Mines and when they are melted this Liberty is lost by the intervention of the Atoms of Fire and when after melting they grow cold they may be called Dead for they are deprived of motion nor do they perform any action Gold melted when it is grown cold is dead it Lived in the Mine it is dying whilst it is melting and it is dead when cast into Ingots In vain therefore do the Chymists seek for the Living among the Dead Common Gold is dead and good for nothing but to make Money of but if any one can dissolve this Body and bring the Dead to Life again by the benefit of that resuscitative Water which we spoke of before he may prepare a Medicine profitable to humane and Mettalick Bodies It is said before that Stones want Life But this I meant that they not a Life so notorious as Mettals whose Life hitherto is yet obscure enough for I have Learnt being convinced by Experience that the greatest part of Stones are multiplied and encrease according to all their dimensions and that Sand is turned into Shells And this very thing is the Cause that I conclude Light to be the Spirit of Life that by the benefit of it all things Live the very Stones also take their Life from hence Seeds owe all their Vigour to Light and seeing that Light is woven out of thin threads of Gold all things therefore Live by the Spirit of Gold. But the Soul of Man is Spiritual and a Ray of Divine Light and owes its Life to God and his Word as also it is an Immortal Substance as we shall say in the next and last Chpater
or that they are altogether stopped in their motion by a condensation of those alluminous matters whence the Gout becomes knotty and incurable CHAP. XIII Of Sublimate Arsenick and other sorts of Poisons and the deadly Effects which proceed from them THere are two sorts of Sublimate the one corrosive the other sweet The first is a most violent Poison The other is a most excellent Remedy for Worms in Children however it is not without some malignity and therefore it is given but in very small Doses and as to the first fortified by the Corrosive Spirits of Salt and Vitriol the least quantity of it cannot be administred without inconveniency nay Death it self In this place we are to enquire wherein doth that Poison which is so powerful consist for as soon as Sublimate is swallowed down it produces Ulcers Blisters and excoriation in the Tunicles or Coats of the Ventricle they â—re seized with an inflammation over-run with a Gangreen and unless a good Antidote be taken as I shall shew hereafter death it self is the consequence of it but let us see by what malignity that Sublimate produces these deadly Effects and wherein the force of this Poison doth consist That we may be able to comprehend this Truth and discover wherein the malignity of this Poison doth consist it is to be supposed That Sublimate is an artificial Poison being a Compound of the most subtile Particles of Quick-silver Salt and Vitriol sublimated together in the form of Crystal or white Powder like Sugar So that the Venomous and Corrosive Sublimate is made neither of Quick-silver Salt or Vitriol alone and apart but there ought to be the Spirit of Salt and Vitriol to separate the Quick-silver and that though before it was fluid like water is to be reduced into dry Earth which is done by reason that these two Spirits do separate the Mercury in the sublimation and in some manner kill it and do penetrate it as if they were Poison to the Quick-silver it self they corrupt it and force it to change its disposition because they divide it and reduce its Corpuscles into small stings whence it is that they are so sharp penetrating and Corrosive Which doth not happen if the Quick-silver be sublimated by it self for then it ascends in its own fluid and gliding Nature and in this manner it may be taken inward without any danger and also when the Sublimate is sublimated with Crude Quick-silver This being supposed I conclude That Sublimate is a Poison which suddenly operates in our Body to the destruction of it because its Corpuscles are reduced into Stings like the Corpuscles of Fire Salt and Vitriol which does sharpen the Corpuscles of the Quick-silver wherefore they produce the same effects in the Body as Fire or the Caustick Stone swallowed do for it presently burns every thing that it touches and Ulcerates the whole Stomach Gullet and all the Parts through which it passes because its Corpuscles being so sharpened do penetrate and dart thro' like flames of Fire therefore Antipathy hath nothing to do in this place no more hath that feigned Maligne and Occult Quality as the less learned would fain alledge All that is observed concerning this Subject ought to be ascribed to the Disposition subtilty and figure of the Corpuscles which renders them Corrosive and burning The same thing may be said of Arsenick except only that Arsenick is the work of Nature and Sublimate that of Art for in truth Arsenick is a perfect Mineral which is found in the Earth and Sublimate is prepared by Artists in sublimatory Vessels The Effects of Arsenick as well the White as the Red is near the same with those of the Sublimate and both of them by right may be ranked amongst the most prompt and violent Poisons in respect of the sharp and penetrating Particles whereof they do consist There is nothing which disappoint these Effects except proper Antidotes made use of in time which change this disposition and blunt the sharpness of those Corrosive Corpuscles Nevertheless by special preparations those Venomous Corpuscles may be taken away both from the Sublimate and the Arsenick And by our fortifying and changeing of the Compound a most excellent Remedy for the health of Man may be made of the most pernicious Poison as the Triacle is made of Vipers Flesh which is the best Antidote as we shall see in the following Chapter CHAP. XIV Of Antidotes ART together with Nature supplies us with as many sorts of Antidotes as there are Poisons The Viper no less than the Scorpion carries its Antidote if the Serpent begins to creep out of the Earth Nature affords us the Leaves of Ash which buds at the same time to heal its bite the same ground which bears a Thora hath also near an Anthora which is its Antidote There are also external Antidotes which do avert the Plague and preserve the Body from the Conragion as we said before speaking of Amulets where we did declare how this may be done and how the Body may be preserved from every Malignant Air without any fictitious Sympathy or Antipathy Antidotes are general and special or specifick they are general which resist every Poison they are particular which are appropriated only to certain Poisons That it may be rightly explained how Antidotes do work upon Poison and how they hinder its operation we must suppose that all Poisons and Toxicks are reducible to two kinds the first doth consist of emancipated Atoms which are properly Poisons under the second are comprehended Toxicks as Sublimate and the like and that consists in sharp penetrating cutting Particles such as the Particles of Fire which Burn Ulcerate and Tear the inward parts of the Person who takes them These things being supposed it will be no hard matter to explain the Nature of Antidotes Having made this difference between Poisons and Toxicks it is certain that there are Antidotes against Poisons and that they are diverse according to the diversity of the Toxicks Hence we see that Triacles of all the Antidotes which we have is most proper and most specifick against the Poison of Vipers because Triacle is made of Vipers flesh and the emancipated Atoms proceeding from it finding the Particles of that Flesh sit to receive them do adhere to them and are imbodied with them and in this manner losing their motion they lay aside their malignity and remain fixed and quiet in the same Condition as they were before their emancipation they can no longer offend the Heart or effect any Division of it so it is in the case of Pestilent Poisons which we draw as we suck in the Air wherein after a great Contagion these emancipated Atoms are found and with whom they enter into our Bodies Triacle and Cordial Confections are commonly used whose Corpuscles are disposed and figured in such a fashion as that the Pestiferous Atoms running through all the Parts of our Body are connexed with and do wholy adhere to them whence there is a
the Creator and necessity of Nature and some only by accident and the power and plenty of Matter encompassing them So the Atoms shut up in the Heart that they may give motion to it and to the whole Body were incarcerated at the beginning of its formation or rather being cast into seminal Bands when God created it afterwards they are translated out of this first Prison where they had little or no motion into another where they enjoy a more free and wandring motion as shall be more fully discoursed of in the following Chapters The third thing that flows from this Principle is That these same Atoms are the Cause of Motion and Life and that there is more of action and more of Life where these are in greater plenty and number provided the Corporeal Machine be disposed to motion For one of the principal Springs being broke the vital Atoms lose their action the greatest part of them exhale and withdraw themselves and others wandring about continue Vagabonds without any order or method So that it is necessary that the parts of a Compound Body should be disposed in some Order which when wanting the vital Atoms exert no motion but this order of parts would be to no purpose unless the vital Atoms were present to give them motion The same thing we observe in a Clock where an integrity and just disposition of the Wheels are required together with the force of a Spring to set all the Wheels in motion Although there be a great proportion and likeness between living Natural Bodies and these artificial Machines yet nevertheless there is a great difference between them for Atoms are Natural Springs and exist Originally in the seed out of which the Body is produced and they themselves are the Artificers of the Machines which give encrease to it and dispose the Parts of it in such manner that they may there exercise their motions and this is that great Artifice of Nature which operates by seeds produced from God which exceeds all that ever Art can devise CHAP. II. Of the Differences of Lives THe difference of Lives are only known by the difference of Vital Actions of which there are four kinds to wit the Mettallick Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Man the little World enjoys a Life under which all others are comprehended and chiefly in him we observe a vegetative Life as in Plants and a sensitive as in Brutes besides which two kinds of life He possesseth a third of his own which is a rational Life He is nourished that is and grows like Plants he is begotten of another he is sensible as an Animal and he speaketh and reasoneth as a Man all these different operations which we see in Man perswades us to consider him especially and to begin with the life of Plants which seems less considerable than the sensitive and rational and which comprehends under it their generation growth and nourishing which three are equally conspicuous in Man as in Plants though in a more noble and more eminent manner CHAP. III. Of the Vegetative Life common to Man and Plants THe Life of Plants appears from their growth which supposeth Nutrition and both these suppose a Birth and this implies a Generation For whatsoever grows in a vital manner and by Nature is nourished so likewise whatsoever is nourished hath a birth and every thing that is born is begotten We will therefore begin to speak of Man's generation and of the first forming of him The Generation we here speak of is the production of a thing out of Seed under this generation are comprehended Conception and Birth as Separation and Death are included in the Corruption of things This is that which is not found in the Works of Nature whose conception is made in the mind of the Artificer and its Formation depends upon his hand but all that is external to the work which may be afterwards broken and divided when in the mean time it cannot be said that we take away Life from it or bring Death upon it So that whatsoever is Begotten to speak properly Lives and whatsoever lives is produced out of Seed Now Seeds are created from the beginning and by the Author of Nature ingrafted into every Plant and kind of Tree bearing fruitful Seed So we see that there is a perpetual propagation and encrease of individuals in every Species in the Earth as well as in the Waters and in the Air. All and the only difficulty remains in explaining the Nature of this Seed and the manner of its propagation These two are Mysteries in Nature which seem to surpass all humane reason Nevertheless I will give you my meditations of them And first of all I suppose we may consider Seed in general and as it is to be found as we have said in Mettals Plants Animals and Man. For after this manner being looked upon in general it is nothing else but a Medium disposed by God to the propagation of these four several kinds in the World so that one Substance as to its kind produces its like in the same kind as Mettal is produced from Mettal and a Plant from another Plant c. From whence appears the fanciful Folly of Chymists who strive to multiply Mettals without a Mettallick Seed and to produce Gold without its peculiar Seed For the same thing that in general Seed is in respect of the four named generals the same in special is Seed in respect of the individuals which are produced of it For indeed to produce Plants the Seed is only to be sought for in the vegetable Kingdom So in like manner to produce Corn Seed is required that is a grain of Corn to produce an Apple there is need of the kernel of an Apple or at least a Sien of it which contains in it part of the Spirits and seminal Corpuscles which insinuate themselves into the wild Stock of the Tree in which they are ingraffed or inoculated and produce the same effect that a grain does which is thrown into Earth fit to receive it This is that vegetative Seed which we here speak of and in this regard we consider Man as he is partaker of the life of this Species and begotten out of Seed Nevertheless we are to distinguish the two substances in Man viz. the material part which is his Body and his spiritual part which is his Soul Created by God whereas the other is begotten So that we here speak of Man onely as he is a material Compound without medling with his Soul which is immortal These things being supposed I turn me to the two difficulties which I have obliged my self to explain and I design them a peculiar Chapter CHAP IV. Of the Nature of Seeds and of their Propagation THe Learned Fernelius affirms that Seeds contain an Astral and Coelestial Spirit but Galen that they contain something Divine These great Wits have spoken most wisely and have considered the seminal Spirit as a thing surpassing the Capacity of our Spirits
clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is