as afore-mentioned are all one thing and then all bodies that receive motion from other bodies must needs increase in their substance and quantity and those bodies which impart or transferr motion must decrease as much as they increase Truly Madam that neither Motion nor Figure should subsist by themselves and yet be transferrable into other bodies is very strange and as much as to prove them to be nothing and yet to say they are something The like may be said of all others which they call accidents as skill learning knowledge c. saying they are no bodies because they have no extension but inherent in bodies or substances as in their subjects for although the body may subsist without them yet they being always with the body body and they are all one thing And so is power and body for body cannot quit power nor power the body being all one thing But to return to Motion my opinion is That all matter is partly animate and partly inanimate and all matter is moving and moved and that there is no part of Nature that hath not life and knowledg for there is no Part that has not a comixture of animate and inanimate matter and though the inanimate matter has no motion nor life and knowledg of it self as the animate has nevertheless being both so closely joyned and commixed as in one body the inanimate moves as well as the animate although not in the same manner for the animate moves of it self and the inanimate moves by the help of the animate and thus the animate is moving and the inanimate moved not that the animate matter transfers infuses or communicates its own motion to the inanimate for this is impossible by reason it cannot part with its own nature nor alter the nature of inanimate matter but each retains its own nature for the inanimate matter remains inanimate that is without self-motion and the animate loses nothing of its self-motion which otherwise it would if it should impart or transferr its motion into the inanimate matter but onely as I said heretofore the inanimate works or moves with the animate because of their close union and commixture for the animate forces or causes the inanimate matter to work with her and thus one is moving the other moved and consequently there is life and knowledg in all parts of nature by reason in all parts of nature there is a commixture of animate and inanimate matter and this Life and Knowledg is sense and reason or sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are all one thing with animate matter without any distinction or abstraction and can no more quit matter then matter can quit motion Wherefore every creature being composed of this commixture of animate and inanimate matter has also selfe-motion that is life and knowledg sense and reason so that no part hath need to give or receive motion to or from another part although it may be an occasion of such a manner of motion to another part and cause it to move thus or thus as for example A Watch-maker doth not give the watch its motion but he is onely the occasion that the watch moves after that manner for the motion of the watch is the watches own motion inherent in those parts ever since that matter was and if the watch ceases to move after such a manner or way that manner or way of motion is never the less in those parts of matter the watch is made of and if several other figures should be made of that matter the power of moving in the said manner or mode would yet still remain in all those parts of matter as long as they are body and have motion in them Wherefore one body may occasion another body to move so or so but not give it any motion but everybody though occasioned by another to move in such a way moves by its own natural motion for self-motion is the very nature of animate matter and is as much in hard as in fluid bodies although your Author denies it saying The nature of fluid bodies consists in the motion of those little insensible parts into which they are divided and the nature of bard bodies when those little particles joyned closely together do rest for there is no rest in nature wherefore if there were a World of Gold and a World of Air I do verily believe that the World of Gold would be as much interiously active as the World of Air exteriously for Natures motions are not all external or perceptible by our senses neither are they all circular or onely of one sort but there is an infinite change and variety of motions for though I say in my Philosophical opinions As there is but one onely Matter so there is but one onely Motion yet I do not mean there is but one particular sort of motions as either circular or straight or the like but that the nature of motion is one and the same simple and intire in it self that is it is meer motion or nothing else but corporeal motion and that as there are infinite divisions or parts of matter so there are infinite changes and varieties of motions which is the reason that I call motion as well infinite as matter first that matter and motion are but one thing and if matter be infinite motion must be so too and secondly that motion is infinite in its changes and variations as matter is in its parts And thus much of motion for this time I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM I Observe your Author in his discourse of Place makes a difference betwixt an Interior and Exterior place and that according to this distinction one body may be said to change and not to change its place at the same time and that one body may succeed into anothers place But I am not of this opinion for I believe not that there is any more place then body as for example Water being mix'd with Earth the water doth not take the Earths place but as their parts intermix so do their places and as their parts change so do their places so that there is no more place then there is water and earth the same may be said of Air and Water or Air and Earth or did they all mix together for as their bodies join so do their places and as they are separated from each other so are their places Say a man travels a hundred miles and so a hundred thousand paces but yet this man has not been in a hundred thousand places for he never had any other place but his own he hath joined and separated himselfe from a hundred thousand nay millions of parts but he has left no places behind him You will say if he travel the same way back again then he is said to travel thorow the same places I answer It may be the vulgar way of expression or the common phrase but to speak properly
after a Philosophical way and according to the truth in nature he cannot be said to go back again thorow the same places he went because he left none behind him or els all his way would be nothing but place after place all the hundred miles along besides if place should be taken so as to express the joyning to the neerest bodies which compass him about certainly he would never find his places again for the air being fluid changes or moves continually and perchance the same parts of the air which compassed him once will never come near him again But you may say If a man be hurt or hath some mischance in his body so as to have a piece of flesh cut out and new flesh growing there then we say because the adjoyning parts do not change that a new piece of flesh is grown in the same place where the former flesh was and that the place of the former flesh cut or fallen out is the same of this new grown flesh I answer In my opinion it is not for the parts being not the same the places are not but every one hath its own place But if the wound be not filled or closed up with other new flesh you will say that according to my opinion there is no place then at all I say Yes for the air or any thing else may be there as new parts joyning to the other parts nevertheless the air or that same body which is there hath not taken the fleshes place which was there before but hath its own but by reason the adjoyning parts remain man thinks the place remains there also which is no consequence 'T is true a man may return to the same adjoining bodies where he was before but then he brings his place with him again and as his body so his place returnes also and if a mans arm be cut off you may say there was an arm heretofore but you cannot say properly this is the place where the arm was But to return to my first example of the mixture of Water and Earth or Air Suppose water is not porous but onely dividable and hath no other place but what is its own bodies ' and that other parts of water intermix with it by dividing and composing I say there is no more place required then what belongs to their own parts for if some contract others dilate some divide others joyn the places are the same according to the magnitude of each part or body The same may be said of all kinds or sorts of mixtures for one body hath but one place and so if many parts of the same nature joyn into one body and increase the bulk of the body the place of that same body is accordingly and if they be bodies of different natures which intermix and joyne each several keeps its place And so each body and each particular part of a body hath its place for you cannot name body or part of a body but you must also understand place to be with them and if a point should dilate to a world or a world contract to a point the place would always be the same with the body And thus I have declared my opinion of this subject which I submit to the correction of your better judgment and rest MADAM Your Ladiships faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXII MADAM IN my last I hope I have sufficiently declared my opinion That to one body belongs but one place and that no body can leave a place behind it but wheresoever is body there is place also Now give me leave to examine this question when a bodies figure is printed on snow or any other fluid or soft matter as air water and the like whether it be the body that prints its own figure upon the snow or whether it be the snow that patterns the figure of the body My answer is That it is not the body which prints its figure upon the snow but the snow that patterns out the figure of the body for if a seal be printed upon wax 't is true it is the figure of the seal which is printed on the wax but yet the seal doth not give the wax the print of its own figure but it is the wax that takes the print or pattern from the seal and patterns or copies it out in its own substance just as the sensitive motions in the eye do pattern out the figure of an object as I have declared heretofore But you will say perhaps A body being printed upon snow as it leaves its print so it leaves also its place with the print in the snow I answer That doth not follow For the place remains still the bodies place and when the body removes out of the snow it takes its place along with it Just like a man whose picture is drawn by a Painter when he goes away he leaves not his place with his picture but his place goes with his body and as the place of the picture is the place of the colour or paint and the place of the copie of an exterior object patterned out by the sensitive corporeal motions is the place of the sensitive organ so the place of the print in snow is the snows place or else if the print were the bodies place that is printed and not the snow's it might as well be said that the motion and shape of a watch were not the motion and shape of the watch but of the hand of him that made it And as it is with snow so it is with air for a mans figure is patterned out by the parts and motions of the air wheresoever he moveth the difference is onely that air being a fluid body doth not retain the print so long as snow or a harder body doth but when the body removes the print is presently dissolved But I wonder much your Author denies that there can be two bodies in one place and yet makes two places for one body when all is but the motions of one body Wherefore a man sailing in a Ship cannot be said to keep place and to change his place for it is not place he changes but onely the adjoyning parts as leaving some and joyning to others and it is very improper to attribute that to place which belongs to parts and to make a change of place out of change of parts I conclude repeating once again that figure and place are still remaining the same with body For example let a stone be beat to dust and this dust be severally dispersed nay changed into numerous figures I say as long as the substance of the stone remains in the power of those dispersed and changed parts and their corporeal motions the place of it continues also and as the corporeal motions change and vary so doth place magnitude and figure together with their parts or bodies for they are but one thing And so I conclude and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIII MADAM I Am absolutely of your
appoint or assign any natural causes of Earthquakes I have only taken occasion hence to enquire whether it may not be probably affirmed that there is air in the bowels of the Earth And to my reason it seems very probable I mean not this Exterior air flowing about the circumference of the Earth we inhabite but such an airy matter as is pure refined and subtil there being great difference in the Elements as well as in all other sorts of Creatures for what difference is there not between the natural heat of an animal and the natural heat of the Sun and what difference is there not between the natural moisture of an Animal and the natural moisture of Water And so for the Purity of Air Dryness of Earth and the like Nay there is great difference also in the production of those Effects As for example the heat of the Earth is not produced from the Sun nor the natural heat in Animals nor the natural heat in Vegetables for if it were so then all Creatures in one Region or place of the Earth would be of one temper As for example Poppy Night-shade Lettuce Thyme Sage Parsly c. would be all of one temper and degree growing all in one Garden and upon one patch of Ground whereon the Sun equally casts his beams when as yet they are all different in their natural tempers and degrees And so certainly there is Air Fire and Water in the bowels of the Earth which were never made by the Sun the Sea and this Exterior elemental Air. Wherefore those in my opinion are in gross Errors who imagine that these Interior Effects in the Earth are produced from the mentioned Exterior Elements or from some other forreign and external Causes for an external cause can onely produce an external effect or be an occasion to the production of such or such an effect but not be the immediate efficient or essential cause of an interior natural effect in another Creature unless the Interior natures of different Creatures have such an active power and influence upon each other as to work interiously at a distance such effects as are proper and essential to their Natures which is improbable for though their natures and dispositions may mutually agree and sympathize yet their powers cannot work upon their Interior Natures so as to produce internal natural effects and proprieties in them The truth is it cannot be for as the Cause is so is the Effect and if the Cause be an exterior Cause the Effect must prove so too As for example the heat of the Sun and the heat of the Earth although they may both agree yet one is not the cause of the other for the Suns heat cannot pierce into the bowels of the Earth neither can the heat of the Earth ascend so far as to the Center of the Sun As for the heat of the Earth it is certain enough and needs no proof but as for the heat of the Sun our senses will sufficiently inform us that although his beams are shot forth in direct lines upon the face of the Earth yet they have not so much force as to pierce into a low Celler or Vault Wherefore it is not probable that the Earth hath its natural heat from the Sun and so neither its dryness from the Air nor its moisture from the Sea but these interior effects in the Earth proceed from some other interior causes And thus there may be great difference between the heat cold moisture and drought which is in the Elements and between those which are in Vegetables Minerals and Animals not onely in their General kinds but also in their Particulars And not onely a difference in the aforesaid qualities of heat cold moisture and drought but also in all other motions as Dilations Contractions Rarefactions Densations c. nay in their Mixtures and Temperaments As for example the temper of a Mineral is not the temper of an Animal or of a Vegetable neither is the temper of these the temper of the exterior Elements no more then the temper of the Elements is the temper of them for every Creature has a temper natural and peculiar to it self nay every particular Creature has not onely different tempers compositions or mixtures but also different productions or else if there were no difference in their productions every Creature would be alike when as yet there are seldom two that do exactly resemble each other But I desire you to understand me well Madam when I speak of Particular heats colds droughts and moistures for I do not believe that all Creatures are made out of the four Elements no more then that the Elements are produced from other Creatures for the Matter of all Creatures is but one and the same but although the Matter is the same nevertheless the Tempers Compositions Productions Motions c. of particular Creatures may be different which is the cause of their different exterior figures or shapes as also of their different Interiour Natures Qualities Properties and the like And so to conclude there is no impossibility or absurdity in affirming that there may be Air Fire and Water in the bowels of the Earth proper for those Creatures which are in her although not such an Elemental Air Fire and Water as is subject here to our senses but another kind of Air Fire and Water different from those But this being a subject for Learned and Ingenious men to work and contemplate upon better perhaps then I can do I will leave it to them and so remain MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant X. MADAM YOur Author mentioning in his Works several Seeds of several Creatures makes me express my opinion thus in short concerning this Subject Several Seeds seem to me no otherwise then several Humours or several Elements or several other Creatures made of one and the same Matter that produce one thing out of another and the barrenness of seeds proceeds either from the irregularity of their natural motions or from their unaptness or unactivity of producing But it is to be observed Madam that not every thing doth produce always its like but one and the same thing or one and the same Creature hath many various and different productions for sometimes Vegetables do produce Animals Animals produce Minerals Minerals produce Elements and Elements again Minerals and so forth for proof I will bring but a mean and common example Do not Animals produce Stones some in one and some in another part of their bodies as some in the Heart some in the Stomack some in the Head some in the Gall some in the Kidnies and some in the Bladder I do not say that this Generation of Stone is made the same way as the natural generation of Animals as for example Man is born of his Parents but I speak of the generation or production of Creatures in general for otherwise all Creatures would be alike if all generations were after one and the same manner and way
ordered otherwise they will do more hurt then good for Diseases are like Enemies which sometimes take away our Armes for their own uses But your Author says again That the Matter of a Fever floats not in the veins nor sits nigh the heart I answer There are several sorts of Fevers for all Fevers are not produced after one and the same manner or from one and the same cause as is very well known to wise and experienced Physicians but although some Fevers are not in the blood yet that doth not prove that the blood is never in a Fever for sometimes the blood is in a Fever and not the solid parts and sometimes the fluid and moveable humors and not the blood or solid parts and sometimes the solid parts and not the blood nor the liquid and moveable humors and sometimes they are all in a Fever and sometimes onely the radical parts and neither the blood humors nor solid parts and this last kind of Fever which is a hectick Fever in my opinion is incureable but the others may be cureable if there be not too many varieties of distempers or irregular motions And as for a Fever in the solid parts Letting of blood and taking away the humor may cure it for the veins being empty suck the heat out of the solid parts which solid parts cannot draw out a distempered heat in the veins and the opening of the veins gives vent to some of the interior heat to issue forth Wherefore it is very requisite that in all sorts of Fevers except Hectick-Fevers blood-letting should be used not onely once but often for 't is better to live with a little blood and a little strength which will soon be recovered then to die with too much or too hot and distempered blood Also Purging but especially Vomiting is very good for if the humors be in a Feaver they may infect the vital parts as also the blood but if they be not in a Fever yet the solid parts or blood may do the same and so make the contagion greater for the humors are as the moveables in a house which ought to be cast out if either they or the house should be on fire and if a disorder proceeds from the error of a particular part then care must be taken to rectifie that part for the health of the whole Wherefore Physicians use in some cases Blood-letting in some Purging in some Vomiting in some Bathing in some Sweating in some Cordials especially after much evacuation in some they prescribe a good diet and in some they mix and prescribe partly one and partly the other and in some cases they are forced to use all these remedies for though great evacuations may cause weakness yet they often save the life and there is no Patient but had rather lose some strength then life for life can gather strength again but all strong men are not always long lived nor all long-lived men very strong for many that are but weak will live to a very old age Lastly concerning what your Author says that there is but one Choler and Phlegme in Nature I answer That is more then he knows for all that is in Nature is not nor cannot be known by any Particular Creature and he might say as well the same of particular Metals as that there is but one sort of Gold or Silver when as there is great difference in the weight purity colour and gloss of several parts of Gold and Silver Neither is all Gold found in one place but some is found in Rocks some in Sand some in Mines some in Stones and so Silver some is found in the bowels of the Earth some in the veins of Stones and some in other Metals as Lead and Iron and some in Coals And the like may be said of Choler and Phlegme for they may be several in several places or parts of the body and be of different colours tastes odours and degrees of heat or cold thinness or thickness or the like for though there is but one Matter in Nature yet this onely Matter by its several actions or motions changes into several figures and so makes several sorts of Creatures and different particulars in every sort And thus Madam I have delivered unto you my opinion concerning the cure of Fevers by Blood-letting Which I submit to the correction of your better judgment and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXIV MADAM YOur Author is not onely against Phlebotomy or Blood-letting but against all Purging Medicines which he condemns to carry a hidden poyson in them and to be a cruel and stupid invention But certainly he shall not have my assent for if they be Poyson they are a very beneficial Poyson and Physical Purgations in my opinion are very necessary and profitable for the prolonging of life and taking away of diseases provided they be proper for those diseases in which they are used and so is Phlebotomy Vomits and the like but Medicines are often wrong applyed and many times the disease is so various that it is as hard for a Physician to hit right with several Medicines as for a Gunner or Shooter to kill with Powder and small Shot a Bird flying in the Air not that it is not possible to be done but it is not ordinary or frequent neither doth the fault onely lie in the Gun Powder or Shot but in the swiftness of the flight of the Bird or in the various motion of the air or in a sudden wind or mist or the like for the same Gunner may perhaps easily kill a Bird sitting in a bush or hopping upon the ground The like may be said of Diseases Physicians and Medicines for some diseases have such sudden alterations by the sudden changes of motions that a wise Physician will not nor cannot venture to apply so many several medicines so suddenly as the alteration requires and shall therefore Physicians be condemned and not onely condemned for what cannot be helped by reason of the variety of irregular motions but what cannot be helped in Nature For some diseases are so deadly as no art can cure them when as otherwise Physicians with good and proper medicines have and do as yet rescue more people from death then the Laws do from ruine Nay I have known many that have been great enemies to Physick die in the flower of their age when as others which used themselves to Physick have lived a very long time But you may say Country-people and Labourers take little or no Physick and yet grow most commonly old whereas on the contrary Great and rich Persons take much Physick and do not live so long as the common sort of men doth I answer It is to be observed first that there are more Commons then Nobles or Great and rich persons and there is not so much notice taken of the death of a mean as of a noble great or rich person so that for want of information or knowledg one may easily be
that there is one maximum or biggest which is the world and what is beyond that is Infinite Truly Madam I must ingeniously confess I am not so high learned as to penetrate into the true sense of these words for he says they are both divisible and indivisible and yet no atomes which surpasses my Understanding for there is no such thing as biggest and smallest in Nature or in the Infinite matter for who can know how far this World goes or what is beyond it There may be Infinite Worlds as I said before for ought we know for God and Nature cannot be comprehended ' nor their works measured if we cannot find out the nature of particular things which are subject to our exterior senses how shall we be able to judg of things not subject to our senses But your Author doth speak so presumptuously of Gods Actions Designs Decrees Laws Attributes Power and secret Counsels and describes the manner how God created all things and the mixture of the Elements to an hair as if he had been Gods Counsellor and Assistant in the work of Creation which whether it be not more impiety then to say Matter is Infinite I 'le let others judg Neither do I think this expression to be against the holy Scripture for though I speak as a natural Philosopher and am unwilling to cite the Scripture which onely treats of things belonging to Faith and and not to Reason yet I think there is not any passage which plainly denies Matter to be Infinite and Eternal unless it be drawn by force to that sense Solomon says That there is not any thing new and in another place it is said That God is all fulfilling that is The Will of God is the fulfilling of the actions of Nature also the Scripture says That Gods ways are unsearchable and past finding out Wherefore it is easier to treat of Nature then the God of Nature neither should God be treated of by vain Philosophers but by holy Divines which are to deliver and interpret the Word of God without sophistry and to inform us as much of Gods Works as he hath been pleased to declare and make known And this is the safest way in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM YOur new Author endeavours to prove that Water in its own proper nature is thicker then Earth which to my sense and reason seems not probable for although water is less porous then earth in its exterior figure yet 't is not so thick as earth in its interior nature Neither can I conceive it to be true that water in its own nature and as long as it remains water should be as hard as Crystal or stone as his opinion is for though Elements are so pliant being not composed of many different parts and figures as they can change and rechange their exterior figures yet they do not alter their interior nature without a total dissolution but your Author may as well say that the interior nature of man is dust and ashes as that water in its interior nature is as thick as earth and as hard as Christal or stone whereas yet a man when he becomes dust and ashes is not a man and therefore when water is become so thick as earth or so hard as stone it is not water I mean when it is so in its interior nature not in its exterior figure for the exterior figure may be contracted when yet the interior nature is dilative and so the exterior may be thick or hard when the interior is soft and rare But you may say that water is a close and heavy as also a smooth and glossy body I answer That doth not prove its interior nature to be hard dense thick or contracted for the interior nature and parts of a body may be different from the exterior figure or parts neither doth the close joyning of parts hinder dilatation for if so a line or circle could not dilate or extend But this close uniting of the parts of water is caused through its wet and glutinous quality which wet and sticking quality is caused by a watery dilatation for though water hath not interiously so rare a dilatation as Air Fire and Light yet it hath not so close a contraction as Earth Stone or Metal neither are all bodies that are smooth and shining more solid and dense then those that are rough and dark for light is more smooth glossy and shining then Water Metal Earth or Transparent-stones and yet is of a dilative nature But because some bodies and figures which are transparent and smooth are dense hard and thick we cannot in reason or sense say that all bodies and figures are so As for Transparency it is caused through a purity of substance and an evenness of parts the like is glossiness onely glossiness requires not so much regularity as transparency But to return to Water its exterior Circle-figure may easily dilate beyond the degree of the propriety or nature of water or contract beneath the propriety or nature of water Your Author may say Water is a globous body and all globous bodies tend to a Center I answer That my sense and reason cannot perceive but that Circles and Globes do as easily dilate as contract for if all Globes and Circles should endeavour to draw or fall from the circumference to the Center the Center of the whole World or at least of some parts of the World would be as a Chaos besides it is against sense and reason that all Matter should strive to a Center for humane sense and reason may observe that all Creatures and so Matter desire liberty and a Center is but a Prison in comparison to the Circumference wherefore if Matter crowds it is rather by force then a voluntary action You will say All Creatures desire rest and in a Center there 's rest I answer Humane sense and reason cannot perccive any rest in Nature for all things as I have proved heretofore are in a perpetual motion But concerning Water you may ask me Madam Whether congeal'd Water as Ice if it never thaw remains Water To which I answer That the interior nature of Water remains as long as the Ice remains although the outward form is changed but if Ice be contracted into the firmness and density of Crystal or Diamond or the like so as to be beyond the nature of Water and not capable to be that Water again then it is transformed into another Creature or thing which is neither Water nor Ice but a Stone for the Icy contraction doth no more alter the interior nature of Water which is dilating then the binding of a man with Chains alters his nature from being a man and it might be said as well that the nature of Air is not dilating when inclosed in a bladder as that Water doth not remain Water in its interior nature when it is contracted into Ice But you may ask Whether one extreme can change into another I
Power as in the Purity And the disparity between the Natural and Divine Infinite is such as they cannot joyn mix and work together unless you do believe that Divine Actions can have allay But you may say Purity belongs onely to natural things and none but natural bodies can be said purified but God exceeds all Purity 'T is true But if there were infinite degrees of Purity in Matter Matter might at last become Immaterial and so from an Infinite Material turn to an Infinite Immaterial and from Natrue to be God A great but an impossible Change For I do verily believe that there can be but one Omnipotent God and he cannot admit of addition or diminution and that which is Material cannot be Immaterial and what is Immaterial cannot become Material I mean so as to change their natures for Nature is what God was pleased she should be and will be what she was until God be pleased to make her otherwise Wherefore there can be no new Creation of matter motion or figure nor any annihilation of any matter motion or figure in Nature unless God do create a new Nature For the changing of Matter into several particular Figures doth not prove an annihilation of particular Figures nor the cessation of particular Motions an annihilation of them Neither doth the variation of the Onely Matter produce an annihilation of any part of Matter nor the variation of figures and motions of Matter cause an alteration in the nature of Onely Matter Wherefore there cannot be new Lives Souls or Bodies in Nature for could there be any thing new in Nature or any thing annihilated there would not be any stability in Nature as a continuance of every kind and sort of Creatures but there would be a confusion between the new and old matter motions and figures as between old and new Nature In truth it would be like new Wine in old Vessels by which all would break into disorder Neither can supernatural and natural effects be mixt together no more then material and immaterial things or beings Therefore it is probable God has ordained Nature to work in herself by his Leave Will and Free Gift But there have been and are still strange and erroneous Opinions and great differences amongst Natural Philosophers concerning the Principles of Natural things some will have them Atoms others will have the first Principles to be Salt Sulphur and Mercury some will have them to be the four Elements as Fire Air Water and Earth and others will have but one of these Elements also some will have Gas and Blas Ferments Idea's and the like but what they believe to be Principles and Causes of natural things are onely Effects for in all Probability it appears to humane sense and reason that the cause of every particular material Creature is the onely and Infinite Matter which has Motions and Figures inseparably united for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing individable in its Nature And as for Immaterial Spirits there is surely no such thing in Infinite Nature to wit so as to be Parts of Nature for Nature is altogether Material but this opinion proceeds from the separation or abstraction of Motion form Matter viz. that man thinks matter and motion to be dividable from each other and believes motion to be a thing by its self naming it an Imaterial thing which has a being but not a bodily substance But various and different effects do not prove a different Matter or Cause neither do they prove an unsetled Cause onely the variety of Effects hath obscured the Cause from the several parts which makes Particular Creatures partly Ignorant and partly knowing But in my opinion Nature is material and not any thing in Nature what belongs to her is immaterial but whatsoever is Immaterial is Supernatural Therefore Motions Forms Thoughts Ideas Conceptions Sympathies Antipathies Accidents Qualities as also Natural Life and Soul are all Material And as for Colours Sents Light Sound Heat Cold and the like those that believe them not to be substances or material things surely their brain or heart take what place you will for the forming of Conceptions moves very Irregularly and they might as well say Our sensitive Organs are not material for what Objects soever that are subject to our senses cannot in sense be denied to be Corporeal when as those things that are not subject to our senses can be conceived in reason to be Immaterial But some Philosophers striving to express their wit obstruct reason and drawing Divinity to prove Sense and Reason weaken Faith so as their mixed Divine Philosophy becomes meer Poetical Fictions and Romancical expressions making material Bodies immaterial Spirits and immaterial Spirits material Bodies and some have conceived some things neither to be Material nor Immaterial but between both Truly Madam I wish their Wits had been less and their Judgments more as not to jumble Natural and Supernatural things together but to distinguish either clearly for such Mixtures are neither Natural nor Divine But as I said the Confufion comes from their too nice abstractions and from the separation of Figure and Motion from Matter as not conceiving them individable but if God and his servant Nature were as Intricate and Confuse in their Works as Men in their Understandings and Words the Universe and Production of all Creatures would soon be without Order and Government so as there would be a horrid and Eternal War both in Heaven and in the World and so pittying their troubled Brains and wishing them the Light of Reason that they may clearly perceive the Truth I rest MADAM Your real Friend and faithful Servant III. MADAM IT seems you are offended at my Opinion that Nature is Eternal without beginning which you say is to make her God or at least coeqnal with God But if you apprehend my meaning rightly you will say I do not For first God is an Immaterial and Spiritual Infinite Being which Propriety God cannot give away to any Creature nor make another God in Essence like to him for Gods Attributes are not communicable to any Creature Yet this doth not hinder that God should not make Infinite and Eternal Matter for that is as easie to him as to make a Finite Creature Infinite Matter being quite of another Nature then God is to wit Corporeal when God is Incorporeal the difference whereof I have declared in my former Letter But as for Nature that it cannot be Eternal without beginning because God is the Creator and Cause of it and that the Creator must be before the Creature as the Cause before the Effect so that it is impossible for Nature to be without a beginning if you will speak naturally as human reason guides you and bring an Argument concluding from the Priority of the Cause before the Effect give me leave to tell you that God is not tied to Natural Rules but that he can do beyond our Understanding and therefore he is neither bound up to time
as to be before for if we will do this we must not allow that the Eternal Son of God is Coeternal with the Father because nature requires a Father to exist before the Son but in God is no time but all Eternity and if you allow that God hath made some Creatures as Supernatural Spirits to live Eternally why should he not as well have made a Creature from all Eternity for Gods making is not our making he needs no Priority of Time But you may say the Comparison of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God is Mystical and Divine and not to be applied to natural things I answer The action by which God created the World or made Nature was it natural of supernatural surely you will say it was a Supernatural and God-like action why then will you apply Natural Rules to a God-like and Supernatural Action for what Man knows how and when God created Nature You will say the Scripture doth teach us that for it is not Six thousand years when God created this World I answer the holy Scripture informs us onely of the Creation of this Visible World but not of Nature and natural Matter for I firmly believe according to the Word of God that this World has been Created as is described by Moses but what is that to natural Matter There may have been worlds before as many are of the opinion that there have been men before Adam and many amongst Divines do believe that after the destruction of this World God will Create a new World again as a new Heaven and a new Earth and if this be probable or at least may be believed without any prejudice to the holy Scripture why may it not be probably believed that there have been other worlds before this visible World for nothing is impossible with God and all this doth derogate nothing from the Honour and Glory of God but rather increases his Divine Power But as for the Creation of this present World it is related that there was first a rude and indigested Heap or Chaos without form void and dark and God said Let it be light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together and let the dry Land appear Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after its own kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament the one to rule the Day and the other the Night and let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth living Creatures after its kinde and at last God said Let us make Man and all what was made God saw it was good Thus all was made by Gods Command and who executed his Command but the Material servant of God Nature which ordered her self-moving matter into such several Figures as God commanded and God approved of them And thus Madam I verily believe the Creation of the World and that God is the Sole and omnipotent Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures therein nay although I believe Nature to have been from Eternity yet I believe also that God is the God and Author of Nature and has made Nature and natural Matter in a way and manner proper to his Omnipotency and Incomprehensible by us I will pass by natural Arguments and Proofs as not belonging to such an Omnipotent Action as for example how the nature of relative terms requires that they must both exist at one point of Time viz. a Master and his Servant and a King and his Subjects for one bearing relation to the other can in no ways be considered as different from one another in formiliness or laterness of Time but as I said these being meerly natural things I will nor cannot apply them to Supernatural and Divine Actions But if you ask me how it is possible that Nature the Effect and Creature of God can be Eternal without beginning I will desire you to answer me first how a Creature can be Eternal without end as for example Supernatural Spirits are and then I will answer you how a Creature can be Eternal without beginning For Eternity consists herein that it has neither beginning nor end and if it be easie for God to make a Being without end it is not difficult for Him to make a Being without beginning One thing more I will add which is That if Nature has not been made by God from all Eternity then the Title of God as being a Creator which is a Title and action upon which our Faith is grounded for it is the first Article in our Creed has been accessory to God as I said not full Six thousand years ago but there is not anything accessory to God he being the Perfection himself But Madam all what I speak is under the liberty of Natural Philosophy and by the Light of Reason onely not of Revelation and my Reason being not infallible I will not declare my Opinions for an infallible Truth Neither do I think that they are offensive either to Church or State for I submit to the Laws of One and believe the Doctrine of the Other so much that if it were for the advantage of either I should be willing to sacrifice my Life especially for the Church yea had I millions of Lives and every Life was either to suffer torment or to live in ease I would prefer torment for the benefit of the Church and therefore if I knew that my Opinions should give any offence to the Church I should be ready every minute to alter them And as much as I am bound in all duty to the obedience of the Church as much am I particularly bound to your Ladiship for your entire love and sincere affection towards me for which I shall live and die MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant IV. MADAM I Have chosen in the first place the Work of that famous Philosopher Hobbs called Leviathan wherein I find he sayes That the cause of sense or sensitive perception is the external body or Object which presses the Organ proper to each Sense To which I answer according to the ground of my own Philosophical Opinions That all things and therefore outward objects as well as sensitive organs have both Sense and Reason yet neither the objects nor the organs are the cause of them for Perception is but the effect of the Sensitive and rational Motions and not the Motions of the Perception neither doth the pressure of parts upon parts make Perception for although Matter by the power of self-motion is as much composeable as divideable and parts do joyn to parts yet that doth not make perception nay the several parts betwixt which the Perception is made may be at such a distance as not capable to press As for example Two men may see or hear each other at a distance and yet there may be other bodies between them
Animals do often see in the dark and in sleep I will not say but that the animate matter which by self-motion doth make the Perception of light with other perceptive Figures and so animal perceptive light may be the presenter or ground perceptive figure of sight yet the sensitive corporeal motions can make other figures without the help of light and such as light did never present But when the eye patterns out an exterior object presented by light it patterns also out the object of light for the sensitive motions can make many figures by one act not onely in several organs but in one organ as for example there is presented to sight a piece of Imbroydery wherein is silk silver and gold upon Sattin in several forms or figures as several flowers the sensitive motions streight by one and the same act pattern out all those several figures of flowers as also the figures of Silk Silver Gold and Sattin without any pressure of these objects or motions in the medium for if they all should press the eye would no more see the exterior objects then the nose being stopt could smell a presented perfume Thirdly They may ask me if sight be made in the eye and proceeds not from the outward object what is the reason that we do not see inwardly but outwardly as from us I answer when we see objects outwardly as from us then the sensitive motions work on the outside of the organ which organ being outwardly convex causes us to see outwardly as from us but in dreams we see inwardly also the sensitive motions do pattern out the distance together with the object But you will say the body of the distance as the air cannot be perceived and yet we can perceive the distance I answer you could not perceive the distance but by such or such an object as is subject to your sight for you do not see the distance more then the air or the like rare body that is between grosser objects for if there were no stars nor planets nor clouds nor earth nor water but onely air you would not see any space or distance but light being a more visible body then air you might figure the body of air by light but so as in an extensive or dilating way for when the mind or the rational matter conceives any thing that hath not such an exact figure or is not so perceptible by our senses then the mind uses art and makes such figures which stand like to that as for example to express infinite to it self it dilates it parts without alteration and without limitation or circumference Likewise when it will conceive a constant succession of Time it draws out its parts into the figure of a line and if eternity it figures a line without beginning and end But as for Immaterial no mind can conceive that for it cannot put it self into nothing although it can dilate and rarifie it self to an higher degree but must stay within the circle of natural bodies as I within the circle of your Commands to express my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and obedient Servant XXI MADAM HEat and Cold according to your Authors opinion are made by Dilation and Contraction for says he When the Motion of the ambient aethereal substance makes the spirits and fluid parts of our bodies tend outwards we acknowledg heat but by the indeavour inwards of the same spirits and humors we feel cold so that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body endeavour inwards by a motion contrary to that of calefaction by which the internal parts are called outwards He therefore that would know the cause of Cold must find by what motion the exterior parts of any body endeavour to retire inwards But I desire you to consider Madam that there be moist Colds and dry Heats as well as dry Colds and moist Heats wherefore all sorts of Cold are not made by the retyring of parts inwards which is contraction or attraction neither are all sorts of Heat made by parts tending outwards which is dilation or rarefaction for a moist cold is made by dilation and a dry heat by contraction as well as a moist heat is made by dilation and a dry cold by contraction But your Author makes not this difference but onely a difference between a dilated heat and a contracted cold but because a cold wind is made by breath blown thorow pinched or contracted lips and an hot wind by breath through opened and extended lips should we judg that all heat and cold must be made after one manner or way The contracted mouth makes Wind as well as the dilated but yet Wind is not made that way as heat and cold for it may be that onely the air pressed together makes wind or it may be that the corporeal motions in the air may change air into wind as they change water into vapour and vapour into air or it may be something else that is invisible and rare as air and there may be several sorts of wind air heat cold as of all other Creatures more then man is capable to know As for your Authors opinion concerning the congealing of Water and how Ice is made I will not contradict it onely I think nature hath an easier way to effect it then he describes Wherefore my opinion is that it is done by altering motions as for example the corporeal motions making the figure of water by dilation in a Circle figure onely alter from such a dilating circular figure into a contracted square which is Ice or into such a contracted triangle as is snow And thus water and vapour may be changed with ease without any forcing pressing raking or the like The same may be said of hard and bent bodies and of restitution as also of air thunder and lightning which are all done by an easie change of motion and changing into such or such a figure is not the motion of Generation which is to build a new house with old materials but onely a Transformation I say a new house with old materials not that I mean there is any new Creation in nature of any thing that was not before in nature for nature is not God to make new beings out of nothing but any thing may be called new when it is altered from one figure into another I add no more at this time but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THe Generation of sound according to your worthy Authors opinion is as follows As Vision says he so hearing is Generated by the medium but but not in the same manner for sight is from pressure that is from an endeavour in which there is no perceptible progression of any of the parts of the medium but one part urging or thrusting on another propagateth that action successively to any distance whatsoever where as the motion of the medium by which sound is made is a stroke for when we hear the drum of the
Authors opinion when he sayes That all bodies of this Universe are of one and the same matter really divided into many parts and that these parts are diversly moved But that these motions should be circular more then of any other sort I cannot believe although he thinks that this is the most probable way to find out the causes of natural effects for nature is not bound to one sort of motions more then to another and it is but in vain to indeavour to know how and by what motions God did make the World since Creation is an action of God and Gods actions are incomprehensible Wherefore his aethereal Whirlpooles and little particles of matter which he reduceth to three sorts and calls them the three elements of the Universe their circular motions several figures shavings and many the like which you may better read then I rehearse to you are to my thinking rather Fancies then rational or probable conceptions for how can we imagine that the Universe was set a moving as a Top by a Whip or a Wheele by the hand of a Spinster and that the vacuities were fill'd up with shavings for these violent motions would rather have disturbed and disordered Nature and though Nature uses variety in her motions or actions yet these are not extravagant nor by force or violence but orderly temperate free and easie which causes me to believe the Earth turns about rather then the Sun and though corporeal motions for variety make Whirl-winds yet Whirl-winds are not constant Neither can I believe that the swiftness of motion could make the matter more subtil and pure then it was by nature for it is the purity and subtilty of the matter that causes motion and makes it swifter or slower and not motion the subtilty and purity of matter motion being onely the action of matter and the self-moving part of matter is the working part of nature which is wise and knows how to move and form every creature without instruction and this self-motion is as much her own as the other parts of her body matter and figure and is one and the same with her self as a corporeal living knowing and inseparable being and a part of her self As for the several parts of matter I do believe that they are not all of one and the same bigness nor of one and the same figure neither do I hold their figures to be unalterable for if all parts in nature be corporeal they are dividable composable and intermixable and then they cannot be always of one and the same sort of figure besides nature would not have so much work if there were no change of figures and since her onely action is change of motion change of motion must needs make change of figures and thus natural parts of matter may change from lines to points and from points to lines from squares to circles and so forth infinite ways according to the change of motions but though they change their figures yet they cannot change their matter for matter as it has been so it remaines constantly in each degree as the Rational Sensitive and Inanimate none becomes purer none grosser then ever it was notwithstanding the infinite changes of motions which their figures undergo for Motion changes onely the figure not the matter it self which continues still the same in its nature and cannot be altered without a confusion or destruction of Nature And this is the constant opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIV MADAM THat Rarefaction is onely a change of figure according to your Authors opinion is in my reason very probable but when he sayes that in rarified bodies are little intervals or pores filled up with some other subtil matter if he means that all rarified bodies are porous I dissent from him for it is not necessary that all rarified bodies should be porous and all hard bodies without pores but if there were a probability of pores I am of opinion it would be more in dense and hard than in rare and soft bodies as for example rarifying and dilating motions are plaining smoothing spreading and making all parts even which could not well be if there were holes or pores Earth is dense and hard and yet is porous and flame is rare and dilating and yet is not porous and certainly Water is not so porous as Earth Wherefore pores in my opinion are according to the nature or form of the figure and not according to the rarity or thinness and density or thickness of the substance As for his thin and subtil matter filling up the pores of porous bodies I assent to your Author so farr that I meane thin and thick or rare and dense substances are joyned and mixed together As for plaining smoothing and spreading I do not mean so much artificial plaining and spreading as for example when a piece of gold is beaten into a thin plate and a board is made plain and smooth by a Joyners tool or a napkin folded up is spread plain and even although when you observe these arts you may judge somewhat of the nature of natural dilations for a folded cloth is fuller of creases then when plain and the beating of a thin plate is like to the motion of dilation which is to spread out and the forme of rarifying is thinning and extending I add onely this that I am not of your Authors opinion that Rest is the Cause or Glue which keeps the parts of dense or hard bodies together but it is retentive motions And so I conclude resting MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXV MADAM THat the Mind according to your Authors opinion is a substance really distinct from the body and may be actually separated from it and subsist without it If he mean the natural mind and soul of Man not the supernatural or divine I am far from his opinion for though the mind moveth onely in its own parts and not upon or with the parts of inanimate matter yet it cannot be separated from these parts of matter and subsist by its self as being a part of one and the same matter the inanimate is of for there is but one onely matter and one kind of matter although of several degrees onely it is the self-moving part but yet this cannot impower it to quit the same natural body whose part it is Neither can I apprehend that the Mind 's or Soul's seat should be in the Glandula or kernel of the Brain and there sit like a Spider in a Cobweb to whom the least motion of the Cobweb gives intelligence of a Flye which he is ready to assault and that the Brain should get intelligence by the animal spirits as his servants which run to and fro like Ants to inform it or that the Mind should according to others opinions be a light and imbroidered all with Ideas like a Heraulds Coat and that the sensitive organs should have no knowledg in themselves but serve onely like peepingholes for
or self-moving matter do bear up and cause the inanimate parts to move and work with them and thus there is an activity in all parts of matter moving and working as one body without any fixation or rest for all is moveable moving and moved All which Madam if it were well observed there would not be so many strange opinions concerning nature and her actions making the purest and subtillest part of matter immaterial or incorporeal which is as much as to extend her beyond nature and to rack her quite to nothing But I fear the opinion of Immaterial substances in Nature will at last bring in again the Heathen Religion and make us believe a god Pan Bacchus Ceres Venus and the like so as we may become worshippers of Groves and shadows Beans and Onions as our Forefathers I say not this as if I would ascribe any worship to Nature or make her a Deity for she is onely a servant to God and so are all her parts or creatures which parts or creatures although they are transformed yet cannot be annihilated except Nature her self be annihilated which may be whensoever the Great God pleases for her existence and resolution or total destruction depends upon Gods Will and Decree whom she fears adores admires praises and prayes unto as being her God and Master and as she adores God so do all her parts and creatures and amongst the rest Man so that there is no Atheist in Infinite Nature at least not in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant V. MADAM I Cannot well conceive what your Author means by the Common Laws of Nature But if you desire my opinion how many Laws Nature hath and what they are I say Nature hath but One Law which is a wise Law viz. to keep Infinite matter in order and to keep so much Peace as not to disturb the Foundation of her Government for though Natures actions are various and so many times opposite which would seem to make wars between several Parts yet those active Parts being united into one Infinite body cannot break Natures general Peace for that which Man names War Sickness Sleep Death and the like are but various particular actions of the onely matter not as your Author imagines in a confusion like Bullets or such like things juggled together in a mans Hat but very orderly and methodical And the Playing motions of nature are the actions of Art but her serious actions are the actions of Production Generation and Transformation in several kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures as also the action of ruling and governing these her several active Parts Concerning the Preeminence and Prerogative of Man whom your Author calls The flower and chief of all the products of nature upon this Globe of the earth I answer That Man cannot well be judged of himself because he is a Party and so may be Partial But if we observe well we shall find that the Elemental Creatures are as excellent as Man and as able to be a friend or foe to Man as Man to them and so the rest of all Creatures so that I cannot perceive more abilities in Man then in the rest of natural Creatures for though he can build a stately House yet he cannot make a Honey-comb and though he can plant a Slip yet he cannot make a Tree though he can make a Sword or Knife yet he cannot make the Mettal And as Man makes use of other Creatures so other Creatures make use of Man as far as he is good for any thing But Man is not so useful to his neighbour or fellow-creatures as his neighbour or fellow-creatures to him being not so profitable for use as apt to make spoil And so leaving him I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM YOur Author demands Whether there was ever any man that was not mortal and whether there be any mortal that had not a beginning Truly if nature be eternal all the material figures which ever were are and can be must be also eternal in nature for the figures cannot be annihilated unless nature be destroyed and although a Creature is dissolved and transformed into numerous different figures yet all these several figures remain still in those parts of matter whereof that creature was made for matter never changes but is always one and the same and figure is nothing else but matter transposed or transformed by motion several modes or ways But if you conceive Matter to be one thing Figure another and Motion a third several distinct and dividable from each other it will produce gross errors for matter motion and figure are but one thing And as for that common question whether the Egg was before the Chick or the Chick before the Egg it is but a thred-bare argument which proves nothing for there is no such thing as First in Eternity neither doth Time make productions or generations but Matter and whatsoever matter can produce or generate was in matter before it was produced wherefore the question is whether Matter which is Nature had a beginning or not I say not for put the case the figures of Earth Air Water and Fire Light and Colours Heat and Cold Animals Vegetables and Minerals c. were not produced from all Eternity yet those figures have nevertheless been in Matter which is Nature from all eternity for these mentioned Creatures are onely made by the corporeal motions of Matter transforming Matter into such several figures Neither can there be any perishing or dying in Nature for that which Man calls so is onely an alteration of Figure And as all other productions are but a change of Matters sensitive motions so all irregular and extravagant opinions are nothing but a change of Matters rational motions onely productions by rational motions are interior and those by sensitive motions exterior For the Natural Mind is not less material then the body onely the Matter of the Mind is much purer and subtiller then the Matter of the Body And thus there is nothing in Nature but what is material but he that thinks it absurd to say the World is composed of meer self-moving Matter may consider that it is more absurd to believe Immaterial substances or spirits in Nature as also a spirit of Nature which is the Vicarious power of God upon Matter For why should it not be as probable that God did give Matter a self-moving power to her self as to have made another Creature to govern her For Nature is not a Babe or Child to need such a Spiritual Nurse to teach her to go or to move neither is she so young a Lady as to have need of a Governess for surely she can govern her self she needs not a Guardian for fear she should run away with a younger Brother or one that cannot make her a Jointure But leaving those strange opinions to the fancies of their Authors He add no more but that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend
and Servant VII MADAM YOur Author being very earnest in arguing against those that maintain the opinion of Matter being self-moving amongst the rest of his arguments brings in this Suppose says he Matter could move it self would meer Matter with self-motion amount to that admirable wise contrivance of things which we see in the World All the evasion I can imagine our adversaries may use here will be this That Matter is capable of sense and the finest and most subtil of the most refined sense and consequently of Imagination too yea happily of Reason and Understanding I answer it is very probable that not onely all the Matter in the World or Universe hath Sense but also Reason and that the sensitive part of matter is the builder and the rational the designer whereof I have spoken of before and you may find more of it in my Book of Philosophy But says your Author Let us see if all their heads laid together can contrive the anatomical Fabrick of any Creature that liveth I answer all parts of Nature are not bound to have heads or tayls but if they have surely they are wiser then many a man's I demand says he Has every one of these Particles that must have a hand in the framing of the body of an animal the whole design of the work by the Impress of some Phantasme upon it or as they have several offices so have they several parts of the design I answer All the actions of self-moving Matter are not Impresses nor is every part a hand-labourer but every part unites by degrees into such or such a Figure Again says he How is it conceiveable that any one Particle of Matter or many together there not existing yet in Nature an animal can have the Idea Impressed of that Creature they are to frame I answer all figures whatsoever have been are or can be in Nature are existent in nature How says he can they in framing several parts confer notes by what language or speech can they communicate their Counsels one to another I answer Knowledg doth not always require speech for speech is an effect and not a cause but knowledg is a cause and not an effect and nature hath infinite more ways to express knowledg then man can imagine Wherefore he concludes that they should mutually serve one another in such a design is more impossible then that so many men blind and dumb from their nativity should joyn their forces and wits together to build a Castle or carve a statue of such a Creature as none of them knew any more in several then some one of the smallest parts thereof but not the relation it bore to the whole I answer Nature is neither blind nor dumb nor any ways defective but infinitely wife and knowing for blindness and dumbness are but effects of some of her particular actions but there is no defect in self-moving matter nor in her actions in general and it is absurd to conceive the Generality of wisdom according to an Irregular effect or defect of a particular Creature for the General actions of Nature are both life and knowledg which are the architects of all Creatures and know better how to frame all kinds and sorts of Creatures then man can conceive and the several parts of Matter have a more easie way of communication then Mans head hath with his hand or his hand with pen ink and paper when he is going to write which later example will make you understand my opinion the better if you do but compare the rational part of Matter to the head the sensitive to the hand the inanimate to pen ink and paper their action to writing and their framed figures to those figures or letters which are written in all which is a mutual agreement without noise or trouble But give me leave Madam to tell you That self-moving Matter may sometimes erre and move irregularly and in some parts not move so strong curious or subtil at sometimes as in other parts for Nature delights in variety Nevertheless she is more wise then any Particular Creature or part can conceive which is the cause that Man thinks Nature's wise subtil and lively actions are as his own gross actions conceiving them to be constrained and turbulent not free and easie as well as wise and knowing Whereas Nature's Creating Generating and Producing actions are by an easie connexion of parts to parts without Counterbuffs Joggs and Jolts producing a particular figure by degrees and in order and method as humane sense and reason may well perceive And why may not the sensitive and rational part of Matter know better how to make a Bee then a Bee doth how to make Honey and Wax or have a better communication betwixt them then Bees that fly several ways meeting and joyning to make their Combes in their Hives But pardon Madam for I think it a Crime to compare the Creating Generating and producing Coporeal Life and Wisdom of Nature unto any particular Creature although every particular Creature hath their share being a part of Nature Wherefore those in my opinion do grosly err that bind up the sensitive matter onely to taste touch hearing seeing and smelling as if the sensitive parts of Nature had not more variety of actions then to make five senses for we may well observe in every Creature there is difference of sense and reason according to the several modes of self-motion For the Sun Stars Earth Air Fire Water Plants Animals Minerals although they have all sense and knowledg yet they have not all sense and knowledg alike because sense and knowledg moves not alike in every kind or sort of Creatures nay many times very different in one and the same Creature but yet this doth not cause a general Ignorance as to be altogether Insensible or Irrational neither do the erroneous and irregular actions of sense and reason prove an annihilation of sense and reason as for example a man may become Mad or a Fool through the irregular motions of sense and reason and yet have still the Perception of sense and reason onely the alteration is caused through the alteration of the sensitive and rational corporeal motions or actions from regular to irregular nevertheless he has Perceptions Thoughts Ideas Passions and whatsoever is made by sensitive and rational Matter neither can Perception be divided from Motion nor Motion from Matter for all sensation is Corporeal and so is Perception I can add no more but take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to say that Matter is a Principle purely passive and no otherwise moved or modified then as some other thing moves and modifies it but cannot move it self at all which is most demonstrable to them that contend for sense and perception in it For if it had any such perception it would by vertue of its self-motion withdraw its self from under the knocks of hammers or fury of the
wherein I desire to submit to the Judgment of the Church which is much wiser then I or any single Person can be However for all what your Author says I do nevertheless verily believe there is a war between Natural motions For example between the Regular motions of Health and the Irregular motions of Sickness and that things applied do oftentimes give assistance to one side or other but many times in the conflict the applied remedies are destroyed and sometimes they are forced to be Neutrals Wherefore though the nature of Infinite Matter is simple and knows of no discord yet her actions may be cross and opposite the truth is Nature could never make such variety did her actions never oppose each other but live in a constant Peace and Unity And thus leaving them to agree I am confident your Ladiship and I shall never disagree for as long as my life doth last I shall always prove MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VI. MADAM YOur Author condemns the Schools for saying That Air is moist or that it may be converted into Water by pressing it together bringing an example of an Iron Pipe wherein Air has been pressed together which afterwards in its driving out has like a Hand-gun discharged with Gun-powder sent a bullet thorow a board or plank Truly Madam concerning the moisture of Air I am against it but the transchanging of Air into Water I do verily believe viz. that some sorts of Air may be contracted or condensed into Water and that Water again may be dilated into Air but not readily commonly and easily by Art but onely by Nature Wherefore your Authors Experiment can serve for no proof for an artificial trial cannot be an infallible natural demonstration the actions of Art and the actions of Nature being for the most part very different especially in productions and transmutations of natural things Neither can an alteration of parts cause an utter destruction of the whole because when some parts change from their figures other parts of matter change again into the like figures by which successive change the continuation of the whole is kept up Next your Author reproves the Schools for maintaining the opinion that Air is hot for says he Water Air and Earth are cold by Creation because without Light Heat and the partaking of Life He might in my opinion conclude as well that Man is cold by Creation because a Chameleon or a Fish is cold being all of animal kind But why may not some sorts of Air Water and Earth be hot and some be cold as well as some sorts of Light are hot and some cold and so several other Creatures His Reasons prove nothing for Light doth not make Heat nor is it the principle of Heat and it is no consequence to say all that is without Light is without Heat there being many things without Light which nevertheless are Hot But to say Water Air and Earth are cold because they are without heat is no proof but a meer begging of the principle for it is but the same thing as if I should say this is no Stone because it is no Glass And that Water Air and Earth do not partake of Life must be proved first for that is not granted as yet there being according to my opinion not one Creature that wants Life in all Nature Again your Author is of opinion That Water is the first and chief Principle of all Natural things But this I can no more believe then that Water should never change or degenerate from its essence nay if your Author means there shall always be Water in Nature it is another thing but if he thinks that not any part of water doth or can change or degenerate in its nature and is the principle and chief producer of all other Creatures then he makes Water rather a Creator then a Creature and it seems that those Gentiles which did worship Water were of the same opinion whereas yet he condemns all Pagan opinions and all those that follow them Moreover I cannot subscribe to his opinion That Gas and Blas from the Stars do make heat For heat is made several ways according to its several sorts sor there is a dry heat and a moist heat a burning melting and evaporating heat and many more But as for Meteors that they are made by Gas and Blas I can say nothing by reason I am not skilled in Astrology and the science of the Heavens Stars and Planets wherefore if I did offer to meddle with them I should rather express my Ignorance then give your Ladiship any solid reasons and so I am willing to leave this speculation to others resting content with that knowledg Nature hath given me without the help of Learning Which I wholly dedicate and offer to your Ladiship as becomes MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made mention in my last of your Authors opinion That Air is in its nature Cold I thought it fit to take a stricter view of the temper of Air and to send you withal my own opinion thereof First of all I would fain know what sort of Air your Author means for if he thinks there is but one sort of Air he might as well say that there is but one sort of Animals or Vegetables whereas yet there are not onely different sorts of animal and vegetable kind but also different particulars in one and the same sort As for example what difference is not amongst Horses as between a Barb a Turk a Ginnet a Courser of Naples a Flanders-horse a Galloway an English-horse and so forth not onely in their shapes but also in their natures tempers and dispositions The like for Cows Oxen Sheep Goats Dogs as also for Fowl and Fish nay for Men. And as for Vegetables What difference is there not between Barly and Wheat and between French-barly Pine-barly and ordinary Barly as also our English-wheat Spanish-wheat Turkish-wheat Indian-wheat and the like What difference is there not amongst Grapes as the Malago Muscadel and other Grapes and so of all the rest of Vegetables The same may be said of the Elements for there is as much difference amongst the Elements as amongst other Creatures And so of Air for Air in some places as in the Indies especially about Brasilia is very much different from our air or from the air that is in other places Indeed in every different Climate you shall find a difference of air wherefore 't is impossible to assign a certain temper of heat or cold to air in general But although my sense and reason inform me that air in its own nature or essence is neither hot nor cold yet it may become hot or cold by hot or cold motions for the sensitive perceptive motions of Air may pattern out heat or cold and hence it is that in Summer when as heat predominates the air is hot and in Winter when as cold predominates the air is cold But perhaps you
in it self for Nature and her creatures know of no rest but are in a perpetual motion though not always exterior and local yet they have their proper and certain motions which are not so easily perceived by our grosser senses nevertheless the motion of the bowl would not move by such an exterior local motion did not the motion of the hand or any other exterior moving body give it occasion to move that way Wherefore the motion of the hand may very well be said to be the cause of that exterior local motion of the bowl but not to be the same motion by which the bowl moves Neither is it requisite that the hand should quit its own motion because it uses it in stirring up or putting on the motion of the bowl for it is one thing to use and another to quit as for example it is one thing to offer his life for his friends service another to imploy it and another to quit or lose it But Madam there may be infinite questions or exceptions and infinite answers made upon one truth but the wisest and most probable way is to rely upon sense and reason and not to trouble the mind thoughts and actions of life with improbabilities or rather impossibilities which sense and reason knows not of nor cannot conceive You may say A Man hath sometimes improbable or impossible Fancies Imaginations or Chymaera's in his mind which are No-things I answer That those Fancies and Imaginations are not No-things but as perfectly imbodied as any other Creatures but by reason they are not so grosly imbodied as those creatures that are composed of more sensitive and inanimate matter man thinks or believes them to be no bodies but were they substanceless figures he could not have them in his mind or thoughts The truth is the purity of reason is not so perspicuous and plain to sense as sense is to reason the sensitive matter being a grosser substance then the rational And thus Madam I have answered your proposed question according to the ability of my Reason which I leave to your better examination and rest in the mean while MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made some mention in my former Letter of the Receiving of Food and discharging of Excrements as also of Respiration which consists in the sucking in of air and sending out of breath in an animal body you desire to know Whether Respiration be common to all animal Creatures Truly I have not the experience as to tell you really whether all animals respire or not for my life being for the most part solitary and contemplative but not active I please my self more with the motions of my thoughts then of my senses and therefore I shall give you an answer according to the conceivement of my reason onely which is That I believe all animals require Respiration not onely those which live in the air but those also which live in waters and within the earth but they do not respire all after one and the same manner for the matter which they imbreath is not every where the same nor have they all the same organs or parts nor the same motions As for example Some Creatures require a more thin and rarer substance for their imbreathing or inspiring then others and some a more thick and grosser substance then others according to their several Natures for as there are several kinds of Creatures according to their several habitations or places they live in so they have each a distinct and several sort of matter or substance for their inspiraration As for example Some live in the Air some upon the face of the Earth some in the bowels of the Earth and some in Waters There is some report of a Salamander who lives in the Fire but it being not certainly known deserves not our speculation And as in my opinion all animal Creatures require Respiration so I do verily believe that also all other kinds of Creatures besides animals have some certain manmer of imbreathing and transpiring viz. Vegetables Minerals and Elements although not after the same way as Animals yet in a way peculiar and proper to the nature of their own kind For example Take away the earth from Vegetables and they will die as being in my opinion stifled or smothered in the same manner as when the Air is taken away from some Animals Also take Minerals out of the bowels of the Earth and though we cannot say they die or are dead because we have not as yet found out the alterative motions of Minerals as well as of Vegetables or Animals yet we know that they are dead from production and increase for not any Metal increases being out of the Earth And as for Elements it is manifest that Fire will die for want of vent but the rest of the Elements if we could come to know the matter manner and ways of their Vital Breathing we might kill or revive them as we do Fire And therefore all Creatures to my Reason require a certain matter and manner of inspiration and expiration which is nothing else but an adjoyning and disjoyning of parts to and from parts for not any natural part or creature can subsist single and by it self but requires assistance from others as this and the rest of my opinions in Natural Philosophy desire the assistance of your favour or else they will die to the grief of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM TH other day I met with the Work of that Learned Author Dr. Ch. which treats of Natural Philosophy and amongst the rest in the Chapter of Place I found that he blames Aristotle for saying there are none but corporeal dimensions Length Breadth and Depth in Nature making besides these corporeal other incorporeal dimensions which he attributes to Vacuum Truly Madam an incorporeal dimension or extension seems in my opinion a meer contradiction for I cannot conceive how nothing can have a dimension or extension having nothing to be extended or measured His words are these Imagine we therefore that God should please to annihilate the whole stock or mass of Elements and all concretions resulting therefrom that is all corporeal substances now contained within the ambit or concave of the lowest Heaven or Lunar sphear and having thus imagined can we conceive that all the vast space or region circumscribed by the concave superfice of the Lunar sphere would not remain the same in all its dimensions after as before the reduction of all bodies included therein to nothing To which I answer That in my opinion he makes Nature Supernatural for although God's Power may make Vacuum yet Nature cannot for God's and Nature's Power are not to be compared neither is God's invisible Power perceptible by Natures parts but according to Natural Perception it is impossible to conceive a Vacuum for we cannot immagine a Vacuum but we must think of a body as your Author of the Circle of the Moon neither could he think of