a little more slowly For you may have observed that when it snows in the South Parts the flakes of Snow are not so great as in the North which is a probable sign they fall in the South from a greater height and consequently disperse themselves more as water does that falls down from a high and steep Rock A. 'T is not improbable B. In natural causes all you are to expect is but probability which is better yet then making Gravity the cause when the cause of Gravity is that you desire to know and better then saying the Earth draws it when the Question is how it draws A. Why does the Earth cast off Air more easily than it does Water or any other heavy bodies B. It is indeed the Earth that casteth off that Air which is next unto it But it is that Air which casteth off the next Air and so continually Air moveth Air which it can more easily do then any other thing because like bodies are more susceptible of one anothers motions as you may see in two Lute-strings equally strained what motion one string being stricken communicates to the Air the same will the other receive from the Air but strained to a differing note will be less or not at all moved For there is no body but Air that hath not some internal though invisible motion of its parts And it is that internal motion which distinguisheth all natural bodies one from another A. What is the cause why certain Squibs though their substance be either Wood or other heavy matter made hollow and filled with Gunpowder which is also heavy do nevertheless when the Gunpowder is kindled fly upwards B. The same that keeps a man that swims from sinking though he be heavier then so much water He keeps himself up and goes forward by beating back the water with his Feet and so does a Squib by beating down the Air with the stream of the fired Gunpowder that proceeding from its Tail makes it recoil A. Why does any Brass or Iron Vessel if it be hollow flote upon the water being so very heavy B. Because the Vessel and the Air in it taken as one body is more easily cast off than a body of water equal to it A. How comes it to pass that a Fish especially such a broad Fish as a Turbut or a Plaice which are broad and thin in the bottom of the Sea perhaps a mile deep is not press'd to death with the weight of water that lies upon the back of it B. Because all heavy bodies descend towards one point which is the Center of the Earth and consequently the whole Sea descending at once does arch it self so as that the upper parts cannot press the parts next below them A. It is evident Nor can there be possibly any weight as some suppose there is of a Cylinder of Air or Water or of any other liquid thing while it remains in its own Element or is sustained and inclosed in a Vessel by which one part cannot press the other CHAP. II. Problems of Tides A. WHat makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea twice in a natural day B. We must come again to our Basen of water wherein you have seen whilst it was moved how the water mounteth up by the sides and withal goes circling round about Now if you should fasten to the inside of the Basen some bar from the bottom to the top you would see the water instead of going on go back again from that bar ebbing and the water on the other side of the bar to do the same but in counter-time and consequently to be highest where the contrary streams meet together and then return again marking out four quarters of the Vessel two by their meeting which are the high waters and two by their retiring which are the low waters A. What bar is that you find in the Ocean that stops the current of the water like that you make in the Basen B. You know that the main Ocean lies East and West between India and the Coast of America and again on the other side between America and India If therefore the Earth have such a motion as I have supposed it must needs carry the current of the Sea East and West In which course the bar that stoppeth it is the South part of America which leaves no passage for the water but the narrow Streight of Magellan The Tide rises therefore upon the Coast of America And the rising of the same in this part of the world proceedeth from the swelling chiefly of the water there and partly also from the North Sea which lieth also East and West and has a passage out of the South Sea by the Streight of Anian between America and Asia A. Does not the Mediterranean Sea lie also East and West why are there not the like Tides there B. So there are proportionable to their lengths and quantity of water A. At Genoa at Ancona there are none at all or not sensible B. At Venice there are and in the bottom of the Streights and a current all along both the Mediterranean-Sea and the Gulf of Venice And it is the current that makes the Tides unsensible at the sides but the check makes them visible at the bottom A. How comes it about that the Moon hath such a stroke in the business as so sensibly to encrease the Tides at Full and Change B. The motion I have hitherto supposed but in the Earth I suppose also in the Moon and in all those great Bodies that hang in the Air constantly I mean the Stars both fixed and errant And for the Sun and Moon I suppose the Poles of their motion to be the Poles of the Aequinoctial which supposed it will follow because the Sun the Earth and the Moon at every Full and Change are almost in one streight line that this motion of the Earth will be made swifter than in the Quarters For this motion of the Sun and Moon being communicated to the Earth that hath already the like motion maketh the same greater and much greater when they are all three in one streight line which is only at the Full and Change whose Tides are therefore called Spring Tides A. But what then is the cause that the Spring-Tides themselves are twice a year namely when the Sun is in the Equinoctial greater than at any other times B. At other times of the year the Earth being out of the Aequinoctial the motion thereof by which the Tides are made will be less augmented by so much as a motion in the obliquity of 23 degrees or thereabout which is the distance between the Aequinoctial and Ecliptick Circles is weaker then the motion which is without obliquity A. All this is reasonable enough if it be possible that such motions as you suppose in these bodies be really there But that is a thing I have some reason to doubt of For the throwing off of Air consequent to these motions is the cause
empty space in the Vial before it was sucked And then why does not the water rise to fill that when a man sucks the Vial he draws nothing out neither into his Belly nor into his Lungs nor into his Mouth only he sets the Air within the glass into a circular motion giving it at once an endeavour to go forth by the sucking and an endeavour to go back by not receiving it into his mouth And so with a great deal of labour glues his lips to the neck of the Vial. Then taking it off and dipping the neck of the Vial into the water before the circulation cease the Air with the endeavour it hath now gotten pierces the water and goes out And so much Air as goes out so much matter comes up into the room of it CHAP. IIII. Problems of Heat and Light A. WHat is the cause of Heat B. How know you that any thing is Hot but your self A. Because I perceive by sense it Heats me B. It is no good argument The thing Heats me therefore it is Hot. But what alteration do you find in your body at any time by being Hot A. I find my skin more extended in Summer than in Winter and am sometimes fainter and weaker then ordinary as if my Spirits were exhaled and I sweat B. Then that is it you would know the cause of I have told you before that by the motion I suppose both in the Sun and in the Earth the Air is dissipated and consequently that there would be an infinite number of small empty places but that the World being full there comes from the next parts other Air into the spaces they would else make empty When therefore this motion of the Sun is excercised upon the Superficies of the Earth if there do not come out of the Earth it self some corporal substance to supply that tearing of the Air we must return again to the admission of Vacuum If there do then you see how by this motion fluid bodies are made to exhale out of the Earth The like happens to a mans body or hand which when he perceives he says he is Hot. And so of the Earth when it sendeth forth Water and Earth together in Plants we say it does it by Heat from the Sun A. 'T is very probable and no less probable that the same action of the Sun is that which from the Sea and moist places of the Earth but especially from the Sea fetcheth up the water into the Clouds But there be many ways of Heating besides the action of the Sun or of Fire Two pieces of Wood will take Fire if in Torning they be prest together B. Here again you have a manifest laceration of the Air by the reciprocal and contrary motions of the two pieces of wood which necessarily causeth a coming forth of whatsoever is Aereal or fluid within them and the motion pursued a dissipation also of the other more solid parts into Ashes A. How comes it to pass that a man is warmed even to sweating almost with every extraordinary labour of his body B. It is easie to understand how by that labour all that is liquid in his body is tossed up and down and thereby part of it also cast forth A. There be some things that make a man Hot without sweat or other evaporation as Caustiques Nettles and other things B. No doubt But they touch the part they so Heat and cannot work that effect at any distance A. How does Heat cause light and that partially in some bodies more in some less though the Heat be equal B. Heat does not cause Light at all But in many Bodies the same cause that is to say the same motion causeth both together so that they are not to one another as cause and effect but are concomitant Effects sometimes of one and the same motion A. How B. You know the rubbing or heard pressing of the Eye or a stroke upon it makes an apparition of Light without and before it which way soever you look This can proceed from nothing else but from the restitution of the Organ pressed or stricken unto its former ordinary situation of parts Does not the Sun by his thrusting back the Air upon your eyes press them Or does not those bodies whereon the Sun shines though by reflection do the same though not so strongly And do not the Organs of Sight the Eye the Heart and Brains resist that pressure by an endeavour of restitution outwards Why then should there not be without and before the Eye an apparition of Light in this case as well as in the other A. I grant there must But what is that which appears after the pressing of the eye For there is nothing without that was not there before or if there were methinks another should see it better or as well as he or if in the dark methinks it should enlighten the place B. It is a fancy such as is the appearance of your face in a Looking-glass such as is a Dream such as is a Ghost such as is a spot before the Eye that hath stared upon the Son or Fire For all these are of the Regiment of Fancy without any body concealed under them or behind them by which they are produced A. And when you look towards the Sun or Moon why is not that also which appears before your Eyes at that time a fancy B. So it is Though the Sun it self be a real Body yet that bright Circle of about a foot Diameter cannot be the Sun unless there be two Suns a greater and a lesser And because you may see that which you call the Sun both above you in the Skie and before you in the Water and two Suns by distorting your Eye in two places of the Skie one of them must needs be Fancy And if one both All sense is Fancy though the cause be always in a real Body A. I see by this that those things which the Learned call the Accidents of Bodies are indeed nothing else but diversity of Fancy and are inherent in the Sentient and not in the Objects except Motion and Quantity And I perceive by your Doctrine you have been tampering with Leviathan But how comes Wood with a certain degree of Heat to shine and Iron also with a greater degree but no Heat at all to be able to make water shine B. That which shineth hath the same Motion in its parts that I have all this while supposed in the Sun and Earth In which Motion there must needs be a competent degree of swiftness to move the sense that is to make it visible All Bodies that are not fluid will shine with Heat if the Heat be very great Iron will shine and Gold will shine but water will not because the parts are carried away before they attain to that degree of swiftness which is requisite A. There are many fluid Bodies whose parts evaporate and yet they make a flame as Oyl and Wine and other
in pieces A. 'T is like enough to be so And if nature have betrayed her self in any thing I think it is in this and in that other experience of the Cross-bow which strongly and evidently demonstrates the internal reciprocation of the Motion which you suppose to be in the internal parts of every Hard body And I have observed somewhat in Looking-glasses which much confirms that there is some such Motion in the internal parts of Glass as you have supposed for the cause of Hardness For let the Glass be AB and let the Object at C be a Candle and the Eye at D. Now by divers Reflections and Refractions in the two superficies of the Glass if the Lines of Vision be very oblique you shall see many images of the Candle as E F G in such order and position as is here described But if you remove your Eye to C and the Candle to D they will appear in a situation manifestly different from this Which you will yet more plainly perceive if the Looking-Glass be coloured as I have observed in Red and Blew Glasses and could never conceive any probable cause of it till now you tell me of this secret Motion of the parts across the grain of the Glass acquired by cooling it this or that way B. There be very many kinds of Hard bodies Metals Stones and other kinds in the bowels of the Earth that have been there ever sence the beginning of the World and I believe also many different sorts of Juices that may be made Hard But for one general cause of Hardness it can be no other then such an internal Motion of parts as I have already described whatsoever may be the cause of the several concomitant qualities of their Hardness in particular A. We see water Hardened every Frosty day It 's likely therefore you may give a pribable cause of Ice What is the cause of Freezing of the Ocean towards the Poles of the Earth B. You know the Sun being always between the Tropicks and as we have supposed always casting off the Air and the Earth likewise casting it off from it's self there must needs on both sides be a great Stream of Air towards the Poles shaving the superficies of the Earth and Sea in the Northern and Southern Climates This shaving of the Earth and Sea by the Stream of Air must needs contract and make to shrink those little Circles of the internal parts of Earth and Water and consequently Harden them first at the superficies into a thin skin which is the first Ice and afterwards the same Motion continuing and the first Ice co-operating the Ice becomes thicker And this I conceive to be the cause of the Freezing of the Ocean A. If that be the cause I need not ask how a Bottle of water is made to Freeze in warm weather with Snow or Ice mingled with Salt For when the Bottle is in the midst of it the Wind that goeth out both of the Salt and of the Ice as they dissolve must needs shave the superficies of the Bottle and the Bottle work accordingly on the water without it and so give it first a thin skin and at last thicken it into a solid piece of Ice But how comes it to pass that water does not use to Freeze in a deep Pit B. A deep Pit is a very thick Bottle and such as the Air cannot come at but only at the top or where the Earth is very loose and spungy A. Why will not Wine Freeze as well as Water B. So it will when the Frost is great enough But the internal Motion of the parts of Wine and other Heating Liquors is in greater Circles and stronger then the Motion of the parts of water and therefore less easily to be Frozen especally quite through because those parts that have the strongest Motion retire to the center of the Vessel CHAP. VI. Problems of Rain Wind and other WEATHER A. WHat is the original cause of Rain and how is it generated B. The motion of the Air such as I have described to you already tending to the dis-union of the parts of the Air must needs cause a continual endeavour there being no possibility of Vacuum of whatsoever fluid parts there are upon the face of the Earth and Sea to supply the place which would else be empty This makes the water and also very small and loose parts of the Earth and Sea to rise and mingle themselves with the Air and to become mist and Clouds Of which the greatest quantity arise there where there is most water namely from the large parts of the Ocean which are the South Sea the Indian Sea and the Sea that divideth Europe and Africa from America over which the Sun for the greatest part of the year is perpendicular and consequently raiseth a greater quantity of water Which afterwards gathered into Clouds falls down in Rain A. If the Sun can thus draw up the water though but in small drops why can it not as easily hold it up B. It is likely it would also hold them up if they did not grow greater by meeting together nor were carried away by the Air towards the Poles A. What makes them gather together B. It is not improbable that they are carried against Hills and there stopt till more overtake them And when they are carried towards the North or South where the force of the Sun is more oblique and thereby weaker they descend gently by their own weight And because they tend all to the center of the Earth they must needs be united in their way for want of room and so grow bigger And then it Rains A. What is the reason it Rains so seldom but Snows so often upon very high Mountains B. Because perhaps when the water is drawn up higher then the highest Mountains where the course of the Air between the Aequator and the Poles is free from stopping the Stream of the Air Freezeth it into Snow And 't is in those places only where the Hills shelter it from that Stream that it falls in Rain A. Why is there so little Rain in Egypt and yet so much in other parts nearer the Aequinoctial as to make the Nile overflow the Countrey B. The cause of the falling of Rain I told you was the the stopping and consequently the collection of Clouds about great Mountains especially when the Sun is near the Aequinoctial and thereby draws up the water more potently and from greater Seas If you consider therefore that the Mountains in which are the springs of Nile lye near the Aequinoctial and are exceeding great and near the Indian Sea you will not think it strange there should be great store of Snow This as it melts makes the Rain of Nile to rise which in April and May going on toward Egypt arrived there about the time of the Solstice and overflow the Countrey A. Why should not the Nile then overflow that Countrey twice a year For it comes twice
pass through a Body of less into a Body of greater resistance and to the Point of the Superficies it falleth on you draw a Line Perpendicular to the same superficies the Action will proceed not in the same Line by which it fell on but in another Line bending toward that Perpendiculare A. What is the reason of that B. I told you before that the falling on worketh only in the Perpendicular But as soon as the Action proceedeth further inward then a meer touch it worketh partly in the Perpendicular and partly forward and would proceed in the same line in which it fell on but for for the greater resistance which now weakneth the Motion forward and makes it to incline towards the Perpendicular A. In transparent Bodies it may be so but there be Bodies through which the Light cannot pass at all B. But the Action by which Light is made passeth through all Bodies For this Action is Pression and whatsoever is prest presseth that which is next behind and so continually But the cause why there is no Light seen through it is the uneveness of the parts within whereby the Action is by an infinite number of Reflections so diverted and weakned that before it hath proceeded through it hath not strength left to work upon the Eye strongly enough to produce sight A. If the Body being transparent the Action proceed quite through into a Body again of less resistance as out of Glass into the Air which way shall it then proceed in the Air B. From the Point where it goeth forth draw a Perpendicular to the superficies of the Glass the Action now freed from the resistance it suffered will go from that Perpendicular as much as it did before come towards it A. When a Bullet from out of the Air entreth into a Wall of Earth will that also be Refracted towards the Perpendicular B. If the Earth be all of one kind it will For the parallel Motion will there also at the first entrance be resisted which it was not before it entred A. How then comes a Bullet when shot very Obliquely into any broad Water and having entred yet to rise again into the Air B. When a Bullet is shot very Obliquely though the Motion be never so swift yet approach downwards to the Water is very slow and when it cometh to it it casteth up much Water before it which with its weight presseth downwards again and maketh the Water to rise under the Bullet with force enough to master the weak Motion of the Bullet downwards and to make it rise in such manner as Bodies use to rise by Reflection A. By what Motion seeing you ascribe all Effects to Motion can a Load-stone draw Iron to it B. By the same Motion hitherto supposed But though all the smallest parts of the Earth have this Motion yet it is not supposed that their Motions are in equal Circles nor that they keep just time with one another nor that they have all the same Poles If they had all Bodies would draw one another alike For such an agreement of Motion of Way of Swiftness of Poles cannot be maintained without the conjunction of the Bodies themselves in the Center of their common Motion but by violence If therefore the Iron have but so much of the Nature of the Load-stone as redily to receive from it the like Motion as one String of a Lute doth from another String strained to the same Note as it is like enough it hath the Load-stone being but one kind of Iron Ore it must needs after that Motion received from it unless the greatness of the weight hinder come nearer to it because at distance their Motions will differ in time and oppose each other whereby they will be forced to a common Center If the Iron be lifted up from the Earth the Motion of the Load-stone must be stronger or the Body of it nearer to overcome the Weight and then the Iron will leap up to the Load-stone as as Swiftly as from the same distance it would fall down to the Earth but if both the Stone and the Iron be set floating upon the Water the attraction will begin to be manifest at a greater distance because the hindrance of the weight is in part removed A. But why does the Load-stone if it float on a Calm Water never fail to place it self at last in the Meridian just North and South B. Not so just in the Meridian but almost in all places with some variations But the cause I think is that the Axis of this Magnetical Motion is parallel to the Axis of the Ecliptique which is the Axis of the like Motion in the Earth and consequently that it cannot freely exercise its Natural Motion in any other Scituation A. Whence may this consent of Motion in the Load-stone and the Earth proceed Do you think as some have written that the Earth is a great Load-stone B. Dr. Gilbert that was the first that wrote any thing of this Subject rationally inclines to that opinion Decartes thought the Earth excepting this upper crust of a few Miles depth to be of the same Nature with all other Stars and bright For my part I am content to be ignorant but I believe the Load-stone hath given its virtue by a long habitude in the Mine the Vein of it lying in the plain of some of the Meridians or rather of some of the great Circles that pass through the Poles of the Ecliptique which are the same with the Poles of the like Motion supposed in the Earth A. If that be true I need not ask why the filings of Iron laid on a Load-stone equally distant from its Poles will lie parallel to the Axis but one each side incline to the Pole that is next it Nor why by drawing a Load-stone all a long a Needle of Iron the Needle will receive the same Poles Nor why when the Load-stone and Iron or two Load-stones are put together floating upon Water will fall one of them a Stern of the other that their like parts may look the same way and their unlike touch in which Action they are commonly said to Repel one another For all this may be deriv'd from the union of their Motions One thing more I desire to know and that is What are those things they call Spirits I mean Ghosts Fairies Hobgoblins and the like Apparitions B. They are no part of the Subject of Natural Philosophy A. That which in all Ages and all places is commonly seen as those have been unless a great part of Mankind by Lyers cannot I think be supernatural B. All this that I have hitherto said though upon better ground than can be had for a discourse of Ghosts you ought to take but for a Dream A. I do so But there be some Dreams more like sense then others And that which is like sense pleases me as well in natural Philosophy as if it were the very truth B. I was Dreaming also once of these
they call the rational Soul is also wholly in the whole man and wholly in every part of the man What is this but to make the humane Soul the same thing in respect of mans Body that God is in respect of the World These his Lordship calls here rational men and some of them which applaud this Doctrine would have the High Court of Parliament corroborate such Doctrines with a Law I said in my Leviathan that it is no honourable attribute to God to say he is in a place because infinite is not confined within a place To which he replies T. H. his God is not wholly every where I confess the consequence For I understand in English he that says any thing to be all here means that neither all nor any of the same thing is else where He says further I take a Circumscriptive a Definitive and a Repletive being in a place to be Heathen Language Truly if this Dispute were at the Bar I should go near to crave the assistance of the Court lest some trick might be put upon me in such obscurity For though I know what these Latin words singly signifie yet I understand not how any thing is in a Place Definitively and not Circumscriptively For Definitively comes from definio which is to set bounds And therefore to be in a Place Definitively is when the bounds of the place are every way marked out But to be in a place Circumscriptively is when the bounds of the place are described round about To be in a Place Repletive is to fill a place Who does not see that this dictinction is Canting and Fraud If any man will call it Pious Fraud he is to prove the Piety as clearly as I have here explained the Fraud Besides no Fraud can be Pious in any man but him that hath a lawful Right to govern him whom he beguileth whom the Bishop pretends to govern I cannot tell Besides his Lordship ought to have considered that every Bishop is one of the Great Councel trusted by the King to give their advice with the Lords Temporal for the making of good Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical and not to offer them such obscure Doctrines as if because they are not versed in School-divinity therefore they had no Learning at all nor understood the English Tongue Why did the Divines of England contend so much heretofore to have the Bible translated into English if they never meant any but themselves should read it If a Lay-man be publickly encouraged to search the Scriptures for his own Salvation what has a Divine to do to impose upon him any strange interpretation unless if he make him err to Damnation he will be damned in his stead J. D. Our God is immutable without any shadow of turning by change to whom all things are present nothing past nothing to come But T. H. his God is measured by time losing somthing that is past and acquiring somthing that doth come every minute That is as much as to say That our God is infinite and his God is finite for unto that which is actually infinite nothing can be added neither time nor parts Hear himself Nor do I understand what derogation it can be to the divine perfection to attribute to it Potentiality that is in English Power so little doth he understand what Potentiality is and successive duration And he chargeth it upon us as a fault that will not have eternity to be an endless succession of time How successive duration and an endless succession of time in God Then God is infinite then God is elder to day than he was yesterday Away with Blasphemies Before he destroyed the Ubiquity of God and now he destroyeth his Eternity T. H. I shall omit both here and henceforth his preambulatory impertinent and uncivil calumnies The thing he pretends to prove is this That it is a derogation to the Divine Power to attribute to it Potentiality that is in English Power and Successive Duration One of his reasons is God is infinite and nothing can be added to infinite neither of time nor of parts It is true And therefore I said God is infinite and eternal without beginning or end either of Time or Place which he has not here confuted but confirmed He denies Potentiality and Power to be all one and says I little understand what Potentiality is He ought therefore in this place to have defined what Potenality is For I understand it to be the same with Potentia which is in English Power There is no such word as Potentiality in the Scriptures nor in any Author of the Latin Tongue It is found only in School-Divinity as a word of Art or rather as a word of Craft to amaze and puzzle the Laity And therefore I no sooner read than intepreted it In the next place he says as wondring How an endless succession of time in God! Why not Gods mercy endureth for ever and surely God endureth as long as his mercy therefore there is duration in God and consequently endless succession of time God who in sundry times and divers manners spake in time past c. But in a former dispute with me about Free-will he hath defined Eternity to be Nunc stans that is an ever standing now or everlasting instant This he thinks himself bound in honour to defend What reasonable soul can digest this We read in Scripture that a thousand years with God is but as yesterday And why but because he sees as clearly to the end of a thousand years as to the end of a day But his Lordship affirms That both a thousand years and a day are but one instant the same standing Now or Eternity If he had shewed an holy Text for this Doctrine or any Text of the Book of Common Prayer in the Scripture and Book of Common Prayer is contained all our Religion I had yielded to him but School-Divinity I value little or nothing at all Though in this he contradict also the School-men who say the Soul is eternal only à parte post but God is eternal both à parte post and à parte ante Thus there are parts in eternity and eternity being as his Lordship says the divine substance the divine substance has parts and Nunc stans has parts Is not this darkness I take it to be the Kingdom of Darkness and the teachers of it especially of this Doctrine That God who is not only Optimus but also Maximus is no greater than to be wholly contained in the least Atome of earth or other body and that his whole duration is but an instant of time to be either grosly ignorant or ungodly Deceivers J. D. Our God is a perfect pure simple indivisible infinite Essence free from all composition of matter and form of substance and accidents All matter is finite and he who acteth by his infinite Essence needeth neither Organs nor Faculties id est no power note that nor accidents to render him more compleat But T. H.
directly but as the Rudder inclines to the stern so will the Ship turn But this is too well known to insist upon you have observed that the Rudders of the greatest Ships are not very broad but go deep into the Water whereas Western Barges though but small Vessels have their Rudders much broader which argues that the holding of Water from passing is the office of a Rudder and therefore to a Ship that draws much Water the Rudder is made deep accordingly and in Barges that draw little Water the Rudders as less deep must so much the more be extended in breadth A. What makes Snow B. The same cause which speaking of Hardness I supposed for the cause of Ice For the Stream of Air proceeding from That both the Earth and the Sun cast off the Air and consequently maketh a stream of Air from the Aequinoctial towards the Poles passing amongst the Clouds shaving those small drops of Water whereof the Clouds consist and congeals them as they do the Water of the Sea or of a River And these small frozen drops are that which we call Snow A. But then how are great drops frozen into Hailstones and that especially as we see they are in Summer B. It is especially in Summer and hot weather that the drops of Water which make the Clouds are great enough but it is then also that Clouds are sooner and more plentifully carryed up And therefore the current of the Air strengthned between the Earth and the Clouds becomes more swift and thereby freezeth the drops of Water not in the Cloud it self but as they are falling Nor does it freeze them throughly the time of their falling not permitting it but gives them only a thin coat of Ice as is manifest by their suddain dissolving A. Why are not somteimes also whole Clouds when pregnant and ready to drop frozen into one piece of Ice B. I belive they are so whensoever it Thunders A. But upon what ground do you believe it B. From the manner or kind of noise they make namely a crack which I see not how it can possibly be made by Water or any other soft Bodies whatsoever A. Yes the Powder they call Aurum Fulminans when throughly warm gives just such another crack as Thunder B. But why may not every small grain of that Aurum Fulminans by it self be heard though a heap of them together be soft as is any heap of Sand. Salts of all sorts are of the nature of Ice But Gold is dissolved into Aurum Fulminans by Nitre and other Salts And the least grain of it gives a little crack in the fire by it self And therefore when they are so warmed by degrees the crack cannot chuse but be very great A. But before it be Aurum Fulminans they use to wash away the Salt which they call dulcifying it and then they dry it gently by degrees B. That is they exhale the pure Water that is left in the Powder and leave the Salt behind to Harden with drying Other Powder made of Salts without any Gold in them will give a crack as great as Aurum Fulminans A very great Chymist of our times hath written that Salt of Tarter Salt-peter and a little Brimstone ground together into a Powder and dryed a few grains of that Powder will be made by the fire to give as great a Clap as a Musquet A. Me thinks it were worth your tryal to see what effect a Quart or a Pint of Aurum Fulminans would produce being put into a great Gun made strong enough on purpose and the Breech of the Gun set in hot Cinders so as to heat by degrees till the Powder fly B. I pray you try it your self I cannot spare so much Money A. What is it that breaketh the Clouds when they are frozen B. In very hot weather the Sun raiseth from the Sea and all moist places abundance of Water and to a great height And whilst this Water hangs over us in Clouds or is again descending it raiseth other Clouds and it hapens very often that they press the Air between them and squeeze it through the Clouds themselves very violently which as it passes shaves and hardens them in the manner declared A. That has already been granted my question is what breaks them B. I must here take in one supposition more A. Then your Basen it seems holds not all you have need of B. It may for all this for the supposition I add is no more but this that what internal motion I ascribe to the Earth and other the Concrete parts of the World is to be supposed also in every of their parts how small soever for what reason is there to think in case the whole Earth have in truth the motion I have ascribed to it that one part of it taken away the remaining part should love that motion If you break a Load-stone both parts will retain their vertue though weakened according to the diminution of their quantity I suppose therefore in every small part of the Earth the same kind of motion which I have supposed in the whole and so I recede not yet from my Basen A. Let it be supposed and withall that abundance of Earth which I see you aim at be drawn up together with the Water What then B. Then if many pregnant Clouds some ascending and some descending meet together and make concavities between and by the pressing out of the Air as I have said before become Ice those Atomes as I may call them of Earth will be by the straining of the Air through the water of the Clouds be left behind and remain in the Cavities of the Clouds and be more in number then for the proportion of the Air therein Therefore for want of liberty they must needs justle one another and become as they are more and more streightened of room more and more swift and consequently at last break the Ice suddenly and violently now in one place and by and by in another and make thereby so many claps of Thunder and so many Flashes of Lightning For the Air Recoiling upon our Eyes is that which maketh those Flashes to our Fancy A. But I have seen Lightning in a very clear Evening when there has been neither Thunder nor Clouds B. Yes in a clear evening because the Clouds and the Rain were below the Horison perhaps 40 or 50 Miles off so that you could not see the Clouds nor hear the Thunder A. If the Clouds be indeed Frozen into Ice I shall not wonder if they be sometimes also so scituated as like Looking-Glasses to make us see sometimes three or more Suns by Refraction and Reflection CHAP. VII Problems of Motion Perpendicular Oblique of Pression and Percussion Reflection and Refraction Attraction and Repulsion IF a Bullet from a certain point given be shot against a wall Perpendicularly and again from the same Point Oblique What will be the proportion of the Forces wherewith they urge the wall
of the Jus Divinum of Bishops a thing which before the Reformation here was never allowed them by the Pope Two Jus Divinums cannot stand together in one Kingdom In the last place he mislikes that the Church should Excommunicate by Authority of the King that is to say by Authority of the Head of the Church But he tells not why He might as well mislike that the Magistrates of the Realm should execute their Offices by the Authority of the Head of the Realm His Lordship was in a great error if he thought such incroachments would add any thing to the Wealth Dignity Reverence or Continuance of his Order They are Pastors of Pastors but yet they are the Sheep of him that is on earth their soveraign Pastor and he again a Sheep of that supream Pastor which is in Heaven And if they did their pastoral Office both by Life and Doctrine as they ought to do there could never arise any dangerous Rebellion in the Land But if the people see once any ambition in their Teachers they will sooner learn that than any other Doctrine and from Ambition proceeds Rebellion J. D. It may be some of T. H. his Disciples desire to know what hopes of Heavenly joyes they have upon their Masters Principles They may hear them without any great contentment There is no mention in Scripture nor ground in reason of the Coelum Empyraeum that is the Heaven of the Blessed where the Saints shall live eternally with God And again I have not found any Text that can probably be drawn to prove any Ascention of the Saints into Heaven that is to say into any Coelum Empyraeum But he concludeth positively that Salvation shall be upon earth when God shall Raign at the coming of Christ in Jerusalem And again In short the Kingdom of God is a civil Kingdom c. called also the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Glory All the Hobbians can hope for is to be restored to the same condition which Adam was in before his fall So saith T.H. himself From whence may be inferred that the Elect after the Resurrection shall be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned As for the beatifical vision he defineth it to be a word unintelligible T. H. This Coelum Empyraeum for which he pretendeth so much zeal where is it in the Scripture where in the Book of Common Prayer where in the Canons where in the Homilies of the Church of England or in any part of our Religion What has a Christian to do with such Language Nor do I remember it in Aristotle Perhaps it may be in some Schoolman or Commentator on Aristotle and his Lordship makes it in English the Heaven of the Blessed as if Empyraeum signified That which belongs to the Blessed St. Austin says better that after the day of Judgment all that is not Heaven shall be Hell Then for Beatifical vision how can any man understand it that knows from the Scripture that no man ever saw or can see God Perhaps his Lordship thinks that the happiness of the Life to come is not real but a Vision As for that which I say Lev. pag. 345. I have answered to it already J. D. But considering his other Principles I do not marvel much at his extravagance in this point To what purpose should a Coelum Empyraeum or Heaven of the Blessed serve in his judgment who maketh the blessed Angels that are the Inhabitants of that happy Mansion to be either Idols of the brain that is in plain English nothing or thin subtil fluid bodies destroying the Angelical nature The universe being the aggregate of all bodies there is no real part thereof that is not also body And elsewhere Every part of the Vniverse is Body and that which is not Body is no part of the Vniverse And because the Vniverse is all that which is no part of it is nothing and consequently no where How By this Doctrine he maketh not only the Angels but God himself to be nothing Neither doth he salve it at all by supposing erroneously Angels to be corporeal Spirits and by attributing the name of incorporeal Spirit to God as being a name of more honour in whom we consider not what Attribute best expresseth his nature which is incomprehensible but what best expresseth our desire to honour him Though we be not able to comprehend perfectly what God is yet we are able perfectly to comprehend what God is not that is he is not imperfect and therefore he is not finite and consequently he is not corporeal This were a trim way to honour God indeed to honour him with a lye If this that he say here be true That every part of the Vniverse is a Body and whatsoever is not a Body is nothing Then by this Doctrine if God be not a Body God is nothing not an incorporeal Spirit but one of the Idols of the Brain a meer nothing though they think they dance under a Net and have the blind of Gods incomprehensibility between them and discovery T. H. This of Incorporeal substance he urged before and there I answered it I wonder he so often rolls the same stone He is like Sysiphus in the Poets Hell that there rolls a heavy stone up a hill which no sooner he brings to day-light then it slips down again to the bottom and serves him so perpetually For so his Lordship rolls this and other questions with much adoe till they come to the light of Scripture and then they vanish and he vexing sweating and railing goes to 't again to as little purpose as before From that I say of the Universe he infers that I make God to be nothing But infers it absurdly He might indeed have inferr'd that I make him a Corporeal but yet a pure Spirit I mean by the Universe the Aggregate of all things that have being in themselves and so do all men else And because God has a being it follows that he is either the whole Universe or part of it Nor does his Lordship go about to disprove it but only seems to wonder at it J. D. To what purpose should a Coelum Empyraeum serve in his Judgment who denyeth the immortality of the Soul The Doctrine is now and hath been a long time far otherwise namely that every man hath eternity of life by nature in as much as his Soul is immortal Who supposeth that when a man dyeth there remaineth nothing of him but his Carkase who maketh the word Soul in holy Scripture to signifie always either the Life or the Living Creature And expoundeth the casting of Body and Soul into Hell-fire to be the casting of Body and Life into Hell-fire Who maketh this Orthodox truth that the Souls of men are Substances distinct from their Bodies to be an error contracted by the contagion of the Demonology of the Greeks and a window that gives entrance to the dark Doctrine of eternal torments Who expoundeth these words
that should drive them back B. For my part I believe the cause of their descending is not in any natural appetite of the bodies that descend but rather that the Globe of the Earth hath some special motion by the which it more easily casteth off the Air than it doth other bodies And then this descent of those we call heavy bodies must of necessity follow unless there be some empty spaces in the world to receive them For when the Air is thrown off from the Earth somewhat must come into the place of it in case the world be full and it must be those things which are hardliest cast off that is those things which we say are heavy A. But suppose there be no place empty for I will defer the Question till anon how can the Earth cast off either the Air or any thing else B. I shall shew you how and that by a familiar Example If you lay both your hands upon a Basen with water in it how little soever and move it circularly and continue that motion for a while and you shall see the water rise upon the sides and fly over by which you may be assured that there is a kind of circulating motion which would cast off such bodies as are contiguous to the body so moved A. I know very well there is and it is the same motion which Country people use to purge their Corn For the Chaff and Straws by casting the Grain to the side of the Seive will come towards the middle But I would see the Figure B. Here it is There is a Circle pricked out whose Center is A and three less Circles whose Centers are B C D let every one of them represent the Earth as it goeth from B to C and from C to D always touching the uttermost Circle and throwing off the Air as is marked at E and F. And if the world were not full there would follow by this scattering of the Air a great deal of space left empty But supposing the world full there must be a perpetual shifting of the Air one part into the place of another A. But what makes a stone come down suppose from G B. If the Air be thrown up beyond G it will follow that at the last if the motion be continued all the Air will be above G that is above the stone which cannot be till the stone be at the Earth A. But why comes it down still with encreasing swiftness B. Because as it descends and is already in motion it receiveth a new impression from the same cause which is the Air whereof as part mounteth part also must descend supposing as we have done the plenitude of the world For as you may observe by the Figure the motion of the Earth according to the Diameter of the uttermost Circle is progressive and so the whole motion is compounded of two motions one circular and the other progressive and consequently the Air ascends and circulates at once And because the stone descending receiveth a new pressure in every point of its way the motion thereof must needs be accelerated A. 'T is true For it will be accelerated equally in equal times and the way it makes will encrease in a double proportion to the times as hath heretofore been demonstrated by Galileo I see the solution now of an Experiment which before did not a little puzzle me You know that if two plummets hang by two strings of equal length and you remove them from the perpendicular equally I mean in equal angles and then let them go they will make their turns and returns together and in equal times And though the arches they describe grow continually less and less yet the times they spend in the greater arches will still be equal to the time they spend in the lesser B. 'T is true Do you find any Experiment to the contrary A. Yes For if you remove one of the plummets from the perpendicular so as for example to make an angle with the perpendicular of 80 degrees and the other so as to make an angle of 60 degrees they will not make their turns and returns in equal times B. And what say you is the cause of this A. Because the arches are the spaces which these two motions describe they must be in double proportion to their own times which cannot be unless they be let go from equal altitudes that is from equal angles B. 'T is right and the Experiment does not cross but confirm the equality of the times in all the arches they describe even from 90 degrees to the least part of one degree A. But is it not too bold if not extravagant an assertion to say the Earth is moved as a man shakes a Basen or a Seive Does not the Earth move from West to East every day once upon his own Center and in the Ecliptick Circle once a year And now you give it another odd motion How can all these consist in one and the same body B. Well enough If you be a Shipboard under sail do not you go with the Ship Cannot you also walk upon the Deck Cannot every drop of bloud move at the same time in your veins How many motions now do you assign to one and the same drop of bloud Nor is it so extravagant a thing to attribute to the Earth this kind of motion but that I believe if we certainly knew what motion it is that causeth the descent of bodies we should find it either the same or more extravagant But seeing it can be nothing above that worketh this effect it must be the Earth it self that does it and if the Earth then you can imagine no other motion to do it withal but this And you will wonder more when by the same motion I shall give you a probable account of the causes of very many other works of Nature A. But what part of the Heaven do you suppose the Poles of your pricked Circle point to B. I suppose them to be the same with the Poles of the Ecliptick For seeing the Axis of the Earth in this Nation and in the annual motion keeps parallel to it self the Axis must in both motions be parallel as to sense For the Circle which the Earth describes is not of visible magnitude at the distance it is from the Sun A. Though I understand well enough how the Earth may make a stone descend very swiftly under the Ecliptick or not far from it where it throws off the Air perpendicularly yet about the Poles of the Circle methinks it should cast off the Air very weakly I hope you will not say that bodies descend faster in places remote from the Poles than nearer to them B. No but I ascribe it to the like motion in the Sun and Moon For such motions meeting must needs cast the stream of the Air towards the Poles And then there will be the same necessity for the descent there that there is in other places though perhaps
a year to the Aequinoctial B. From the Autumnal Aequinox the Sun goeth on toward the Southern Tropique And therefore cannot dissolve the Snow on that side of the Hills that look towards Egypt A. But then there ought to be such another Innundation Southward B. No doubt but there is a greater descent of water there in their Summer then at other times as there must be wheresoever there is much Snow melted But what should that innundate unless it should overflow the Sea that comes close to the foot of those Mountains And for the cause why it seldom Rains in Egypt it may be this That there are no very high Hills near it to collect the Clouds The Mountains whence Nile riseth being near 2000 Miles off The nearest on one side are the Mountains of Nubia and on the other side Sina and the Mountains of Arrabia A. Whence think you proceed the Winds B. From the Motion I think especially of the Clouds partly also from whatsoever is moved in the Air. A. It is manifest that the Clouds are moved by the Winds so that there were Winds before any clouds could be moved Therefore I think you make the Effect before the Cause B. If nothing could move a Cloud but Wind your objection were good But you allow a Cloud to descend by it's own weight But when it so descends it must needs move the Air before it even to the Earth and the Earth again repel it and so make lateral Winds every way Which will carry forwards other Clouds if there be any in their way but not the Cloud that made them The Vapour of the water rising into Clouds must needs also as they rise raise a Wind A. I grant it But how can the slow motion of a Cloud make so swift a Wind as it does B. It is not one or two little Clouds but many and great ones that do it Besides when the Air is driven into places already covered it cannot but be much the swifter for the narrowness of the passage A. Why does the South Wind more often then any other bring Rain with it B. Where the Sun hath most power and where the Seas are greatest that is in the South there is most water in the Air which a South wind can only bring to us But I have seen great showers of Rain sometimes also when the wind hath been North but it was in Summer and came first I think from the South or West and was but brought back from the North. A. I have seen at Sea very great Waves when there was no Wind at all What was it then that troubled the Water B. But had you not Wind enough presently after A. We had a Storm within a little more then a quarter of an hour after B. That Storm was then coming and had moved the Water before it But the Wind you could not perceive for it came downwards with the descending of the Clouds and pressing the Water bounded above your Sail till it came very near And that was it that made you think there was no Wind at all A. How comes it to pass that a Ship should go against the Wind which moves it even almost point blank as if it were not driven but drawn B. You are to know first that what Body soever is carryed against another Body whether perpendicularly or obliquely it drives it in a perpendicular to the superficies it lighteth on As for Example a Bullet shot against a flat wall maketh the Stone or other matter it hits to retire in a perpendicular to that flat or if the Wall be round towards the center that is to say perpendicularly For if the way of the motion be oblique to the Wall the motion is compounded of two motions one parrallel to the Wall and the other perpendicular By the former whereof the Bullet is carried along the Wall side by the other it approacheth to it Now the former of these motions can have no effect upon it all the battery is from the motion perpendicular in which it approacheth And therefore the part it hits must also retire perpendicularly If it were not so a Bullet with the same swiftness would execute as much obliquely shot as perpendicularly which you know it does not A. How do you apply this to a Ship B. Let A. B. be the Ship the head of it A. If the Wind blow just from A. towards B. 't is true the Ship cannot go forward howsoever the sail be set Let C. D. be perpendicular to the Ship and let the Sail E. C. be never so little oblique to it and F. C. perpendicular to E. C. and then you see the Ship will gain the space D. F. to the headward A. It will so but when it is very near to the Wind it will go forward very slowly and make more way with her side to the Leeward A. It will indeed go slower in the proportion of the Line A E. to the Line C. E. But the Ship will not go so fast as you think sideward One is the force of that Wind which lights on the side of the Ship it self the other is the bellying of the Sail for the former it is not much because the Ship does not easily put from her the Water with her side and bellying of the Sail gives some little hold for the Wind to drive the Ship a stern A. For the motion sideward I agree with you but I had thought the bellying of the Sail had made the Ship go faster B. But it does not only in a fore-wind it hinders least A. By this reason a broad thin Board should make the best Sail. B. You may easily foresee the great incommodities of such a Sail. But I have seen tryed in little what such a Wind can do in such a case For I have seen a Board set upon four truckles with a staff set up in the midst of it for a Mast and another very thin and broad Board fastned to that staff in the stead of a Sail and so set as to receive the Wind very obliquely I mean so as to be within a point of the Compass directly opposite to it and so placed upon a reasonable smooth pavement where the Wind blew somewhat strongly The event was first that it stood doubting whether it should stir at all or no but that was not long and then it ran a head extream swiftly till it was overthrown by a Rub. A. Before you leave the Ship tell me how it comes about that so small a thing as a Rudder can so easily turn the greatest Ship B. 'T is not the Rudder only there must also be a stream to do it you shall never turn a Ship with a Rudder in a standing pooll nor in a natural current You must make a stream from head to stern either with Oares or with Sails when you have made such a stream the turning of the Rudder obliquely holds the Water from passing freely and the Ship or Boat cannot go on