how to try the force of fire by Scales Why fire doth not alwaies feel hot in the Ayr. 6. Plato and Scaliger their Opinion touching heat 7. The Parepatetick Description of Heat rejected How fire separateth Silver from Gold and Lead from Silver 8. What the second respective quality of Earth is What Cold is The manner of operation of Cold upon our Tact. 9. The second respective quality of Water That water cooles differently from Earth 10. Aristotle and Zabarel their wavering Opinions touching Cold. That Earth is the primum frigidum 1. THe Respective Qualities of the Elements are such as do consecute the congress of the same Elements They are called Qualities per accidens in respect they are supposed to befall them after their production in their absolute Form They are withal termed Second Qualities because they are produced by the First Qualities of the Elements in their congress II. The Second Accidental Quality emanating from fire in its concurse to mixture is Heat The manner of production of heat is accidental and violent That it is accidental is evident because fire in its own Region as the Parepateticks themselves allow is seated beyond all degrees of heat or at least doth not burn It doth not burn because it flames not for nothing doth burn unless it is exalted to a flame or contains a flame within it self A red hot Iron burneth no longer then the flame of the fire lodgeth within its pores nay it doth not so much as effect warmth unless the fire that is contained within its pores flames a little but this flame is so litâ—le that it fleeth the eye-sight If a red hot Iron burneth strongly because it containes a great flame and the same Iron burneth less and less as the fire flaming diminisheth it is a certain sign that where its flame is extinguisht its heat is vanished with it Again none ever doubted but that in a flaming Torch there is an actual burning fire Now tell me when the flame is ready to go out whither that fire goeth Your Answer must be that it is dispersed through the Ayr but then the fire being dispersed through the ayr is no more hot no not warm because it doth not flame wherefore fire naturally and per se is not hot I ask you again whether there is not fire contained in Aqua fortis You will answer me affirmatively But then doth this fire burn No it doth not so much as warm your hand through a Glass If you make the fire in the Aqua fortis flame you will find that it shall not only warm but also burn your hand Powre Aqua fortis upon any Mettal as upon the Filings of Brass contained in a precipitating Glass you will soon see it change into a flame smoak and burning heat through the Glass That it flames the light which appeares within the Glass testifieth Possibly you may object that Aqua fortis if powred upon cloath or your hand will burn and yet not flame To this I answer That Cloath through the subtility of its haires doth open the body of Aqua fortis which being opened the fire cometh forth and it withheld by a thickned ayr adhering to the Cloath which causeth a subtil flame yet seldom visible although sometimes there appeares a Glance The like is effected by powring it upon your hand and then we say it doth enflame the hand because there appeares a subtil flame Wherefore Physitians say well such a part is enflamed when it burnes because there is no burning heat without a flame Nevertheless the fire contained within a mixt body may burn and yet its heat may not be sensible but then its flame is withal imperceptible The reason is because the thickness and density of the circumjacent Elements do hinder the penetration of heat out of that body as also of its light III. It is violent by reason its production is depending upon an extrinsick and violent detention The manner of it is thus Fire being violently concentrated in a mixture striveth to pass the Pores of the earth which it doth with little difficulty but being arrived to a thick ayr the fire is there detained by it notwithstanding do the other parts yet remaining within the Pores of the earth continually and successively follow one another and being all united and condensed which is violent to the fire they make a greater force for strength united is made stronger whereby they dilate and expand the incrassated Ayr this Dilatation and expansion of the Ayr by fire condensed within its belly or bladder is that which we call a Flame Now how fire begetteth heat and becometh burning I shall instantly explain First let me tell you what heat is You know that we name all things according to their natures which they manifest to us in affecting our senses So we call that a Sound which affecteth our Eares and according as it doth divide our auditory spirits and nerves we nominate it harsh or shrill c. Even so we name a thing hot when it doth in a certain manner divide our tangent spirits and Membrane or shorter we say a thing is hot when it feeles hot When our spirits are a little shaked or moved by small and loose Particles of flames then it seemes to be warm but when our tangent parts are divided by dense and forcible Particles of fire then we say it burns so that it is only a division of our tangent parts by the dividing and penetrating parts of fire which we call burning This division is different from a cut or incision which is made by a dense acute body and therefore it separates the whole part but through the acuteness of fire its ayry and waterish parts only are divided contiguously because the fire is contiguous Now the more the parts of fire are condensed the stronger it penetrates divides and consumes The reason why burning fire doth consume or dissolve a body into ashes is because it breakes through the ayry and waterish parts by its great force of contiguous lightness which parts being discontinued and expelled the earth is left alone because the ayry and waterish parts were the glâ—w of that body Fire doth only break through the ayry and waterish parts because they only do resist as it were the fire as for the earthy minims they do not so much resist the fire because being contiguous they give way to its passing IV. Secondly That heat is nothing else but a multiplication condensation detention of igneous parts I prove also hence Hold your hand at a certain distance to a fire at the first application of your hand you will feel no heat or warmth but having held it there a little while you shall begin to feel warmth and continuing your hand somewhat longer at the same distance you will feel heat the reason is because at your first application the fire not yet being sufficiently detained or condensed by your hand you felt no warmth but after a certain condensation
such a Rarefaction or greater Condensation because it consisteth as I have proved out of indivisible minima's If then we should grant a rarefaction or greater condensation we must allow the minima's of earth to be divisible for how could they either be retcht or give way into themselves else and so it would be divisible and indivisible at once which is absurd The same Argument serves against the condensation and rarefaction of fire But more of this in our Discourse de vacuo IV. Condensation Rarefaction Attenuation and Incrassation although impossible in this sense yet in another are usually received and may be allowed Condensation in a tolerable acception is when a rare body is united to a dense body and because it is then as it were made one body with the dense substance it is said to be condensed Thus when fire is united to earth it is said to be condensed but through this condensation there is nothing detracted from or added to the natural rarity of the fire 2. Condensation is also taken for the frequent and constant following of one particle of fire upon the other Now you must not conceive that the fire hereby is condensed or impacted in its rarity no but that one part pusheth the other forward and being so pusht forward one before the other they are said to be condensed that is following one another so close as that they just come to touch one another Thus we say that condensed fire warmeth or heateth the hand because many parts follow one another and so push one another forward into the substance of the hand so that condensation of fire in this sense is nothing else but an approximation of the parts of fire that were dispersed before 2. Fire burneth the hand when its parts being condensed according to both these two acceptions are received and collected following close upon one another and so do burn the hand The reason is because as the force of earth and water is intended by violent detention so is fire which being violently detained by earth and water doth move with greater force Besides through the latter of these condensations the parts of fire are more collected and united The fire is violently detained when it is detained from moving from the Center to the Circumference Besides according to these two latter acceptions you are to understand condensation above whereas I have attributed it to fire A body is said to be rarefied when it is affixed to a rare element thus they conceive earth to be rarefied when its minima's are diffused by a portion of fire A body is attenuated when it is united to a thin Element so water is attenuated when its parts are diducted through the renuity of Ayr. A body is said to be incrassated when it is adjoyned to a thick Element Thus Ayr is understood to be incrassated when it is cloathed about with water Remember that I have made use of these words in my foregoing Discourses according to the said Interpretations V. The Third Relative Qualities are such as do immediately emanate from the Second The third respective Quality of fire is Dryness A Dryness is an expulsion of Moysture which fire doth by forcing it to the Circumference and dividing ad extra its continuity Dryness in the earth is an effect of coldness through which it divides ad intra the continuity of moysture inwards and forceth it to the Center Moysture is an effect of water through which it overlaies a body with its own thick substance expanded in ayr it is a quality whereby it overlayes a body with its thin substance Aristotle in stead of describing these qualities he sets down one of their Attributes Moysture is that which is difficultly contained within its own bounds and easily within others This is openly false for the ayr is difficultly contained within the bounds of others insomuch that it striveth to break through with violence and therefore is more easily contained within its own bounds So water is easier contained within its own bounds for when it is poured upon the earth it vanisheth presently which is not a containing of it Besides granting this Attribute to them both it is only a mark of Moysture and not the Description of its formality No doubt but water is moyster then ayr because it is more apt to cleave through its thickness and adhere to a body then ayr which by reason of its tenuity is not so tenacious Wherefore it is Idleness in thâ—se who say that the ayr is moyster then water although water moistneth more because of its thickness And as concerning the primum siccum it belongeth to the earth because that obtaineth greater force in detracting waterish moysture which is the moystest That it doth so appeares hence because the waterish moysture through its weight is more obedient to the impulse of earth then of fire But if you agree to term nothing moyst but what hath a palpable Dampness and that drying which removeth the said dampness then water alone is moystning and ayr drying because ayr through its tenuity divides the crassitude of the water and so disperseth it CHAP. XVII Of Mixtion 1. What Mixtion is Three Conditions required in a Mixtion 2. Whether Mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ really 3. Aristotles Definition of Mixtion examined Whether the Elements remain entire in mixt Bodies 4. That there is no such Intension or Remission of Qualities as the Peripateticks do apprehend The Authors sense of Remission and Intention 5. That a Mixtion is erroneously divided into a perfect and imperfect Mixtion HItherto we have sufficiently declared the absolute and respective Qualities of the Elements That which I must next apply my self unto is to enarrate the qualities befalling them joyntly in their union one with the other I. Their union is called Mixtion which is an union of the Elements in Minima's or Points Observe that mixtion sometimes is taken for the union of parts not in points but particles and is termed Union by Apposition as when you mixe Barly and Oates together into one heap Anaxagoras and many of the ancient Philosophers did opiniate that Mixtion consisted only in the apposition of little parts to one body but Aristotle hath justly reprehended them for this Assertion and confuted their Opinion Lib. 2. de Gen. Corrup Cap. 10. Properly Mixtion is effected through an exact confusion of parts and their union in Minima's or the least particles the exactness consisteth in this that there must be an equal measure sive ad pondus sive ad justitiam of parts Parts are either little or great The great are constituted out of little and the little out of the least In mixture to wit an equal one are generally three condititions required 1. A mutual contact without which there must be a vacuum in misto a mixt body 2. This mutual contact must be in points whereby every point of an Element toucheth the minimum of another hence they say well mixtio fit
dense body wherefore it is ridiculous to opinionate that lumen of the Stars otherwise termed their Influences should be the causes of so great effects upon great bodies as are adscribed to them VI. Colours are generally divided by the Peripateticks into two sorts viz. into true and apparent True Colours are such as do really inhere in their subjects in the same manner as they are represented to the eye Apparent ones are those which are not really inherent in their subjects in the same manner as they seem to be to our sight such are the colours of a Rainbow or of a Peacocks feathers or of the Sea-water because these according to the several distances and position of the eye seem divers The cause they impute to the light Lumen which according to its various aspects renders the said colours various the errour of this Doctrine will appear from these Conclusions 1. All Apparent colours are real and true colours as for their being real colours but few do doubt of it because they do really move the sight That they are true colours I prove hence That which is a real colour must be a true colour because a being and true are convertible ens vernm convertuntur wherefore if it be a colour it must be a true colour or else none for it doth as really and truly move the sight as that which is strictly called a true colour or how should we see it else To this you reply that you do not deny it to be true a colour in one sense namely metaphysically but in another and in respect to a true colour strictly so called it is not true I answer That all the difference I find between them is that the one is more durable or less changeable than the other which doth not make the one more or less true than the other for did an apparent colour move the sight otherwaies than it doth it would be no true colour but it moves the senses as it is and to most mens sight it is the same continuing its duration For when we see a Rainbow its colours do appear the same to all standing in the same place but were they not true they would appear in one shape to one and in another to another As for their different appearances and shapes at several distances and positions is as well incident to those which they call true colours as to apparent ones For a Picture where the colours are all real and true will vary at several distances and positions You will say That a Picture will not vary in colour if you look upon it from the right opposite place where the light is cast in a due proportion I answer Neither will that which you call the apparent colour of a Picture vary keeping the same place and distance And what difference can you then make between them The only difference between them is their more or less durability and changeableness which proceeds from its greater or less compactness of mixture The colour of a Rainbow is as true a colour at that position and distance as of any other object it differing alone in durability for suppose a colour to be altered by a reduplication or over-casting of another colour in substance but the same in appearance as for instance a painted face having its natural colour hid under a painted colour certainly you will say that the latter is only an apparent colour if so wherein is the latter different from the former being a true colour as you call it but in durability To wit the paint wears off and the other abides The same is observable in the clouds whose lasting colour is blewish their fading or painted colours are the rayes of the Sun incorporated with their bodies really and truly altering their lasting colours nevertheless this latter is as true a colour as the paint was upon a painted visage VII The differences and number of colours are various and many for every temperament hath a several colour attending it But as it was not every insensible alteration of temperament that constituted a new temperature saving that alone which is sensible so neither doth every insensible alteration of colour constitute a new colour but only such a one as is sensible Colours are either durable and less mixt mixti è paucioribus non vero minus mixti or changeable and more mixt that is with extrinsick heterogeneous bodies So that a durable colour arises from a compact temperament of the Elements included by extrinsick bodies the other depends upon a less compact union of the Elements Changeable colours are various also according to the lights reflection or refraction and its various incidencies upon objects which causeth them to appear either whiter or blacker or otherwise lighter or darker A changeable colour is sometimes accidental to a persistent colour as appears by the fore-mentioned instance of a painted face Colours are extreme or intermediate Extreme ones are such as cannot be intended or heightned in their action as black I mean that which is blackest cannot be heightned that is it cannot be supposed to pinch and drown the light more than it doth These extreme colours depend upon the extreme or greatest proportion of the superating Element in reference to the whole So that in case fire is the greatest predominant its body is white if the earth its subject is black According to this supposition there are four extreme colours because there are four extreme proportions of the Elements Which are these White Black Crystalline and Pellucid This is made known to us 1. In that Sea-coal consisting of most earth is black 2. A Flame consisting of most fire is white to wit the Sun 3. The Ayr consisting most of ayry parts is Pellucid 4. Ice consisting most of waterish parts is crystalline I will further prove this by reason If blackness be proper to earth and earthy bodies whiteness must be proper to fire and fiery bodies they being opposite correspondents to one another in all qualities The colour which is in water and waterish bodies is neither white or black ergo it must be an extreme colour of it self for since that each Element obtains distinct extreme qualities the same must also be in colours Who would say that water is white or black or partakes of any white or black from fire or earth wherefore Theophrastus was to be blamed for adscribing yellow to fire and white to the three others That which moved him to appropriate yellow to focal fire was because for the most part in flaming or burning it seems yellow and reddish To this I answer That the colour of focal fire is not an extreme colour because fire is not inherent in focal fire in its greatest proportion and predominance it having much earth to obscure its extream whiteness and so it is turned to a yellow or red but where fire is in his greatest predominance and least counterpoised by earth there it seems alwaies white as appears in the colour
from the Chaos How it was freed from the oppression of the weighty Elements I formerly declared The remainder is to treate briefly of its commerce with the neighbouring Elements viz. with Earth Water and Fire Daily observations make appear to us that a cavity is no sooner ready to open within the Earth or Water but the Air is as ready to strive to enter not only for to fill up that vacuity but out of an eagerness strife and necessity for to gain a Center for its whole body For how can any body enjoy rest without being sustained by a foundation That which is alone apt for such a work is the Center which is a Basis upon which all its parts do rest I prove it The parts of a body being met about the Center cannot use any force or violence against one another because they are of one nature and therefore agree in the same effect Which is of resting about a Center Hence it is That the air besides its own interest being streightned atop through the fires inclination also for to recover its Center doth so much infest pierce attenuate and divide all bodies that lye in the way to its Center and that so vast a proportion of air is entered into the body of water as from a solidity to reduce it to a perfect fluor And although the body of air as I have stated before is of that softness yet through succession of its parts and want of vacuities whereinto to convey it self it cannot yield to any compression into it self but being successively backt by its own parts and those of fire is capable of working the same effects which the hardest body can But now supposing the air to have accomplisht its aime let us inquire what motion it would then exercise Certainly of it self no other but it s continuous lightness whereby it would maintain its parts diffused from its own center into the greatest tenuity imaginable Likewise the other Elements would exercise no other action but the maintenance of their bodies in the greatest density crassitude or rarity and that through the use of their formal contiguous weight continuous weight contiguous levity and as the earth through her concentration would not leave the Circumference although tending hence thither so neither would the light Elements desert their Center although moving thence hither Wherefore let me advertize you in time not to mistake my former definitions of Levity or Gravity implying the former to move from its Center to the Circumference that to move here from the Center is not to leave it but to move thence as from a Basis But now the air being dispossest of its genuine Center is forced to make use of a violent Center situated about the extream parts of the earth and water and thence its parts do take their original to the circumference not leaving their force in the mean while of pressing violently downwards Here may be inquired why the air seeming so far powerful above the earth and water both in extent of compass and energy or activity of parts that its extream subtility should seem more than potent enough to pervade dispossess that small clot of water and earth doth not become victorious I resolve you The energy of the air is much refracted through having its Center upon which all its strength doth consist divided into that dimension which the Circumference of earth and water do make or otherwise it would soon toss that small footbal out of its place and make no more of it than the Heavens may seem to do of the Moon So fire although a great part is flaming and burning hath not the power of invading the earth as many do imagine it would do were the Heavens all a burning fire because it is much more refracted in its Center through the Surface of the air Do we not see that a Durgain is able to wrastle with a great Giant because his low stature doth put him in a capacity of taking the other about the middle where he easily lifts him from his Basis or Center But possibly it may seem strange to you that the air should exercise two contrary motions one upwards and another downwards 2. You may likewise demand how fire can apply any force to earth or water since it is extended into its greatest rarity and possesses a place full large enough to contain its body and consequently is not violently detained To the first I answer That naturally a thing cannot obtain two contrary motions but violently it may As to the second This violence is caused here below 1. Through the incrassation of the air that is water ascending and mingling with the body of air doth force so much of it to strive for another place as it hath taken up of the air which since it cannot procure upwards is forced to effect downwards upon the earth and water and make a violent irruption upon them 2. The air being essentially thin in the second Region as well as it is above must of necessity press down upon the incrassated air because all its parts being to take their suffulsion and Basis from somewhere which it doth from the hither extremity of the air and not proving strong enough to sustain such a force must necessarily depress into the water and earth where neither of these finding themselves strong enough about their surface do necessarily yield and give way to the air pressing downwards for a Basis. The same contrary motion is apparent in a man who is to lift some weight from the ground upwards First he must move all his strength towards his feet which is the Center whereupon this weight must be sustained and lifted up from then doth he reflect all his strength upon that Basis upwards where we observe his center to make a hole into the earth because it is not firm enough to sustain his pressure even so it is with the twofold motion of air which you may easily apply to this in every particular II. The airs innixe being shoved off or refracted through the repercussion of the weighty Elements chooses to turn round that is to bear to the sides rather than to retort into it self And that which irritates this with no obtuse spur is the fire forcing circularly upon the air 2. The universal waters flowing from East to West is no small cause of directing of the airs motion towards the same aime because the air reflecting against the waters flowing from underneath must needs be shoved off thither whither the water flowes I prove it cast a ball from the shore upon a piece of Timber driving down a rapid River its refracted motion will tend towards the drift of the said River 3. The fire moving from East to West and forcing upon the air must beyond all scruple prescribe the air a road in its motion In the next place I prove that the air is agitated in a circular motion 1. If waters that are thick are impelled to a circular
of the first knock or division of the Chaos By what means the Earth got the Center and how the waters Ayr and Fire got above it Why a Squib turnes into so many whirles in the Ayr. ib. 6. The qualifications of the first Light of the Creation A plain demonstration proving the circular motion of the Heavens or of the Element of fire to be natural and of an Eval Duration ib. 59 CHAP. XI Of the second Division of the Chaos 1. An Enarration of Effects befalling the Elements through the second knock The proportion of each of the Elements in their purity to the Peregrine Elements p. 60. 2. The ground of the forementioned proportion of the Elements 61 62. 3. That fire and ayr constitute the Firmament p. 63. 4. A grand Objection answered ib. 64. CHAP. XII Of the Third Division of the Chaos 1. The effects of the third knock Why earth is heavier than water Why water is more weighty near the top than towards the bottom Why a man when he is drowned doth not go down to the bottom of the Ocean Why a potch'd Egge doth commonly rest it self about the middle of the water in a Skillet Why the middle parts of Salt-water are more saltish than the upper parts p. 66 67. 2. Whence the earth hapned to be thrust out into great protuberancies How the earth arrived to be disposed to germination of Plants A vast Grove pressed into the earth p. 68. 3. The cause of the waters continual circular motion ib. 69. 4. The cause of the rise of such a variety of Plants p. 71. CHAP. XIII Of the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Division of the Chaos 1. An Enarration of the Effects of the fourth Division That Nature created the first bodies of every Species the greatest is instanced in Bees Fishes and Fowl That all Species are derived from one individuum That Adam was the greatest man that ever was since the Creation What those Glants were which the Poets faigned p. 72 73 74. 2. How the Sun and Moon were created That a Lioness is not more vigorous than a Lion p. 75. 3. How the Stars of the Firmament were created p. 76. 4. How the durable Clouds of the Ayr were created ib. 5. The Effects of the fifth Division ib. 6. The Effects of the sixth Division ib. 7. The Effects of the last Division ib. CHAP. XIV Of the Second and Third Absolute Qualities of the Elements 1. What is understood by Second Qualities p 78. 2. What the Second Quality of Earth is p. 79. 3. Aristotle's Definition of Density rejected ib. 4. The Opinions of Philosophers touching the Nature of Density p. 80. 5. The forementioned Opinions confuted p. 81. 6. The Description of Indivisibles according to Democritus disproved That all Figures are divisible excepting a Circular Minimum That Strength united proveth strongest in around Figure and why ib. 82 83. 7. What the Second Quality of Fire is Cardan Averrhoes Zimara Aristotle Tolet and Zabarel their Opinions touching the Nature of Rarity confuted p. 84 85 86 87. 8. The Second Quality of Water Aristotle Joh. Grammat Tolet Zabarel and Barthol their sence of Thickness and Thinness disproved p. 88. 9. What the Second Quality of Ayr is p. 89. 10. What is intended by third fourth or fifth Qualities An Enumeration of the said Qualities What Obtuseness Acuteness Asperity Levor Hardness Rigidity Softness Solidity Liquidity and Lentor are and their kinds ib. 90 91 92. CHAP. XV. Of the Respective Qualities of the Eements particularly of Fire Earth and Water 1. What is meant by the Respective Qualities of the Elements Why they are termed Second Qualities p. 93. 2. That heat is the second respective or accidental quality of fire That fire is not burning hot within its own Region That fire doth not burn unless it flames is proved by an Experiment through Aq. fort ib. 3. That heat in fire is violently produced The manner of the production of a Flame What it is which we call hot warm or burning How fire dissolves and consumes a body into ashes p. 94. 4. That Heat is nothing else but a Multiplication Condensation and Retention of the parts of fire The degrees of Heat in fire and how it cometh to be warm hot scorching hot blistering hot burning hot and consuming hot p. 95. 5. A way how to try the force of fire by Scales Why fire doth not alwayes feel hot in the Ayr. ib. 96. 6. Plato and Scaliger their Opinion touching heat p. 97. 7. The Parepatetick Description of Heat rejected How fire separateth Silver from Gold and Lead from Silver p. 98. 8. What the second respective quality of Earth is What Cold is The manner of operation of Cold upon our Tâ—â—ct p. 100. 9. The second respective quality of Water That Water cooles differently from Earth ib. 10. Aristotle and Zabarel their wavering Opinions touching Cold. That Earth is the primum frigidum ib. 101. CHAP. XVI Of the remaining Respective Qualilities of the Elements 1. The second Respective Quality of the Ayr. That water cannot be really and essentially attenuated The state of the Controversie 102 103. 2. That Ayr cannot be really and essentially incrassated Why a man whilest he is alive sinkes down into the water and is drowned and afterwards is cast up again That a woman is longer in sinking or drowning than a man The great errour committed in trying of witches by casting them into the water p. 104 105 106. 3. That a greater Condensation or Rarefaction is impossible in the Earth p. 107. 4. In what sense the Author understands and intends Rarefaction and Condensation throughout his Philosophy p. 108. 5. The third Respective Quality of Fire What Driness is The definition of Moysture The third Respective Qualities of water and Ayr. Aristotles description of Moysture That Water is the primum humidum In what sense Ayr is termed dry in what moyst p. 109. CHAP. XVII Of Mixtion 1. What Mixtion is Three conditions required in a Mixtion p 110. 2. Whether Mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ really p. 111. 3. Aristotles definition of Mixtion examined Whether the Elements remain entire in mixt bodies 112. 4. That there is no such Intension or Remission of Qualities as the Peripateticks do apprehend The Authors sense of Remission and Intention p. 113. 5. That a Mixtion is erroneously divided into a perfect and imperfect Mixtion p. 114. CHAP. XVIII Of Temperament 1. That Temperament is the form of Mixtion That Temperament is a real and positive quality p. 115. 2. The definition of a Temperament Whether a Temperament is a single or manifold quality Whether a complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality p. 116. 3. VVhether a Temperament be a fift quality A Contradiction among Physitians touching Temperament Whether the congress of the four qualities effects be one Temperament or more ib. 117. 4. That there is no such thing as a Distemper What a substantial Change is p. 118. 5.
if he hath set down any of the Elements as of Fire Ayr Water or Earth plainer then Aristotle hath explained them His Demonstrations are altogether remote from sense Besides the confusedness of his method In fine I cannot imagine what practick use may be made of them As for these Particulars which I have here cited against him I shal prove their falsities in the progress of my following Discourse CHAP. VI. Of the Material Principle of Natural Beings 1. The Causes of the Elements 2. That the Elements are really compounded natural beings 3. That Matter and Quantity are really identificated 4. What Quantity is What its Ratio formalis is 5. That in rebus quantis there is a maximum and a minimum Definitum 6. Experimental Instances proving that there are actual Minima's and that all natural beings do consist out of them 7. The pursuit of the preceding Instances inferring a Continuum to be constituted out of actual Indivisibles Some Geometrical Objections Answered SOmewhat hath been heretofore stated touching the matter and form of Natural bodies which being remote we must descend lower and adde a few notes respecting the matter and form of the Elements Wherefore remember I. That the elements are natural beings and therefore consist of natural matter and form and are constituted from an Efficient II. The Elements arising from the conjunction of matter and form are not to be counted single bodies in that respect nor in any other but as much compounded as any other body derived from them that is in this Phrase Elementa sunt majora composita ac caetera ab ipsis orta entia quanquam haec illis censenda sunt magis composita So that it was an errour in Aristotle to define an element by a single body or being They could not be thought to be single in any other respect but in their real separate existences but such they never had any their relative form contradicting it III. It is a property in matter to be an internal cause which through its quantity is capable of receiving a form So the elements were affected with a quantity through which they received their forms I do here strive as much as may be to reserve that old custom of termes and phrases in Physicks which Aristotle hath assigned to us but again reflecting upon the abuse and improperness of them I am compelled to call to mind a Rule of my Metaphysicks to wit that the essence of all things are but modes united and for that reason counting quantity a mode I cannot make any thing else of matter but a mode I mean matter in a concrete sense for what is matter really but quantity it self they differing only ratione and how that Thus Quantity is only notional or a term assinged by the understanding to a res quanta for to explain that a thing is made out of it and yet that whereout the thing is made is quantity still So form is nothing else but a notion whereby we express the activity and quality of a thing and beyond that activity and quality it is nothing Wherefore observe Quantity and Quality being the two essential principal and eminent modes of a natural being and fit terms and notions they are usually treated of distinctly in this part of Philos. under the name of matter and form Now do not take either of them separately for a Substance unless they be both joyned together You may also remember that Quantity is the only Accident allowed to matter by the Peripateticks but this quantity not being possible to exist through it self others did confer a forma quantitativa upon matter for a forma they imagined it needed because through it quantity was distinguisht from nothing now that which makes a distinction is the form only Besides what is quantity without form Even nothing because without a form it is not that which it is as further appears by the definition of a form Since then we have proved that matter is primarily nothing else but quantity we shall easily make it appear that it cannot exist without the other modes as place duration c. IV. Quantity is a mode of a being through which it is extended that is through which it hath one part existing beyond the other or thus Quantity is the Mole Magnitude or Dimension of a being That which doth immediately follow this magnitude is the extension of parts and that which doth follow this extension is internal and external place and habit c. I say these affections follow one another not really for they are existent all at once but intentionally only because the one doth represent it self to the understanding before the other Now when the dispute is about the Ratio formalis of quantity whether it be divisibility mensurability mole magnitude extension of parts c. it is to be understood which of them doth primarily represent it self to the mind not which of them is re prius for they are really co-existent and identificated In Answer to the Question thus stated I hold that the extension of one part beyond the other or its repletion and possession of place is the potissima ratio quantitatis That which we do first conceive through the perception of a res quanta is its repletion of place or extension of one part beyond the other for at the first sight of a body we judge it to be a body because it appeares to us to have one part extended beyond the other or to possess a place this is presently after confirmed to us because it seems to be a bulk mole magnitude or to be divisible and by that we conclude it is no Spirit or nothing and as I said before because it doth replenish that place and is commensurated by it As for extension of parts one beyond the other it is the same with the repletion of an internal place which that it hath we come to know through its repletion of an external place Take quantity concretâ— for a res quanta or res extensa sive locata mensurata divisibilis it matters not which as long as we agree inre although differing in nomine V. In Quantity or rather rebus quantis or in materialibus there is a minimum definitum and a maximum definitum Wherefore all beings must be one of those or interjacent between them for that which is less then minimum is nothing that which is more then maximum is infinitum neither of which is natural Fire we see if it be less then it can abide in its least quantity it goeth out and becomes nothing So whatever is less then a Sand of earth or the least drop of water is nothing of the said Species That which is actu greater then the world is infinite neither is there any thing bigger quantitate materials then it ergo there is a maximum Further were there not a minimum or a maximum there must be an infinitum actuale granted which the finiteness of all things
necessarily be so for water strictly so named had it been heaved up it would have been against its first nature and been moved violently which is improbable since that nullum violentum est perpetuum no violent motion is lasting The nature of air certifieth us that it must be it which moved above the waters under it Lastly The waters above the waters strictly so termed are called the Firmament from its firmness because they are as a deep frame or a strong wall about the waters underneath for to keep them together in a counterpoise from falling to an insinitum but it is ai◠that is above the waters and is a Firmament to them ergo the ayr must be comprehended under the Notion of waters Or thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew is by the Rabbi's and Hebrews expounded an Expansion or thing expanded for its Root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to attenuate if so then by the waters above must be implied ayr whose nature it is to be expanded as I shewed before So whether you take the word according to the interpretation of the Septuagints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Firmament or of the Rabbi's Expansion there can be nothing else intended by it but ayr I say then as by waters a duplicity of Elements is implied so by the Heavens ayr and fire are implied I prove it Light is fire flaming but the light was drawn from the Chaos if from the Chaos ergo not from the earth for by earth there is only meant earth single but from the Heaven which imports a conjunction of Elements viz. of Ayr and Fire Secondly Is light being a flaming fire drawn from the Heaven ergo there was fire latent in it So let this serve to answer Van Helmont his Objection who denieth fire to be an Element because its name is not set down in the first Chap. of Gen. neither is ayr mentioned among the Elements in so many Letters yet it is comprehended among them 'T is true Fowl are called Fowl of the ayr but what of that this doth not infer that ayr is an Element because Fowl are named Fowl of the Ayr. Secondly Earth and Water are there expressed in so many letters ergo the Chaos was made up of all the four Elements III. The Elements in the Chaos underwent an exact mixture because each being a stem and perfection to the other they required it for had they been unequally mixt then that part which had not been sufficiently counterpoysed by its opposite Element would have fallen from the whole Hence it followeth that they must have been of an equal extent and degree in their first vertue or quality and not only so but also in their quantity that is they consisted all of an equal number of minima's that so each minimum of every Element might be fitted sustained and perfectionated by three single minimum's of each of the other Elements Now was there but one minimum of any of the Elements in excess above the other it would overbalance the whole Chaos and so make a discord which is not to be conceived But here may be objected That the earth in comparison with the heavens beares little more proportion to their circumference then a point I confess that the air and fire exceed the earth and water in many degrees but again as will be apparent below there is never a Star which you see yea and many more then you see but containes a great proportion of earth and water in its body the immense to our thinking Region of the air and fire are furnished with no small proportion of water and earth so that numeratis numerandis the earth and water are not wanting of a minimum less then are contained either in the fire or ayr IV. The efficient of this greatest and universal body is the greatest and universal cause the Almighty God I prove it The action through which this vast mole was produced is infinite for that action which takes its procession ab infinito ad terminum finitum sive a non ente ad ens from an infinite to a finite term or from nothing to somthing is to be counted infinite but an infinite action requireth an infinite agent therefore none but God who is in all respects infinite is to be acknowledged the sole cause and agent of this great and miracuious effect It was a Golden saying upon this matter of Chrysippus the Stoick If there is any thing that doth effect that which man although he is indued with a reason cannot that certainly is greater mightier and wiser then man but he cannot make the Heavens Wherefore that which doth make them excels man in Art Counsel and Prudence And what saith Hermes in his Pimand The Maker made the universal world through his Word and not with his Hands Anaxagoras concluded the divine mind to be the distinguisher of the universe It was the Saying of Orpheus That there was but one born through himself and that all other things were created by him And Sophocles There is but one true God who made Heaven and the large earth Aristotle Lib. 2. De Gen. Cor. c. 10. f. 59. asserts God to be the Creator of this Universe And Lib. 12. Metaph. c. 8. He attests God to be the First Cause of all other Causes This action is in the holy texts called Creation Gen. 1. 1. Mark 10. 6. Psal. 89. 12. Mal. 2. 10. Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not alwaies intended for one and the same signification sometimes it implying the Creation of the world as in the Scriptures next forementioned other whiles it is restricted to Mankind Mark 16. 15. Mat. 28. 19. Luke 24. 47. In other places it is applied to all created beings Mark 13. 19. Gen. 14. 22. Job 38. 8. Prov. 20. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To create is imported by divers other Expressions 1. By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Form Gen. 2. 7. Esay 43. 7. 2. By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To make Gen. 1. 31. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath establisht Psal. 89. 12. Psal. 104. 5. Mat. 13. 35. Heb. 6. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 20. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To stretch or expand Psal. 10. 2. Es. 42. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To prepare or dispose Prov. 8. 27. Psal. 74. 16. V. Creation is a production of a being out of and from nothing Tho. gives us this Definition in Sent. 2. Dist. 1. Quest. 1. Art 2. Creation is an emanation of an universal Being out of nothing By an universal being he intends a being as it comprehends all material and immaterial beings So that this is rather a definition of the creation of the material and immaterial world then a definition of the Formality of Creation 2. His Definition is defective and erroneous for he adds only out of nothing This is not enough it being possible for a thing to emanate out of nothing and yet not be created the immaterial operations of Angels and
it is but one 2. Were there more then one all the others would be created in vain because the Chaos being the greatest is sufficient to produce a thousand worlds for otherwise it could not be said to be the greatest 3. Or thus in other terms The Chaos is an universal quantity but were there more then one it could not be universal 4. Unity is the beginning and root of all plurality but the Chaos is the beginning and root of all plurality of bodies ergo it is but one 5. The Scripture mentions but of one Chaos Gen. 1. 1 2. 6. The Chaos is eval naturally like as the soul of man is eval and also immortal Eval that is of sempiternal duration yet counting from a beginning I prove it Eccles. 12. Let the dust return to its earth and the spirit return to God who gave it Here the body first returns to dust thence to earth but not to an annihilation for then the Scripture would have mentioned it Eccles. 1. 4. 2. The Chaos is to remain were it but to retribute the matter of humane bodies in order to their Resurrection 3. Annihilation is the greatest defect or imperfection for it supposeth an imperfect Matter and Form which cannot be imagined to be immediately created by God 4. Goodness lasteth for ever but the Chaos was good Gen. 1. 31. 1 Tim. 4. 4. Ergo. 5. Should the Chaos be annihilated then God would have created it in vain But that is impossible Ergo. CHAP. X. Of the first Division of the Chaos 1. Why the Chaos was broken 2. That the Chaos could never have wrought its own change through it self The Efficient of its mutation 3. The several Changes which the Chaos underwent through its disruption The manner of the said Disruption 4. How Light was first produced out of the Chaos What a Flame is 5. A perfect Description of the first knock or division of the Chaos By what means the Earth got to the Center and how the Waters Ayr and Fire got above it Why a Squib turnes into so many whirles in the Ayr. 6. The Qualifications of the first Light of the Creation A plain demonstration proving the circular motion of the Heavens or of the Element of Fire to be natural and of an Eval Duration I. IT was an Elegant Expression of Clem. Alex. Lib. 3. De Recogn Like the shell of an Egge although it seemeth to be beautifully made and diligently formed nevertheless it is necessary that it should be broken and opened that the Chicken may thence come forth and that that may appear for which the shape of the whole Egge seems to be formed Wherefore it is also necessary that the state of this world do pass that so the more sublime state of the Heavenly Kingdom may appear in its brightness The same I may aptly apply to the Chaos that it is to be broken and opened that so a more glorious substance may thence appear and come forth II. One Substance can have but one first power or vertue of acting and therefore the Chaos having no more could not act any effect but which it did act and so had no principle of changing it self from that which it was and consequently would have remained in that shape for ever For this reason we must grant that the Creative power and universal efficient wrought a mutation upon it This mutation was gradual a perfecto ad perfectius It was not by way of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or creation of the first manner but of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Moses sets down through that he said fiat let there be and this was the Note of the mediate Creation The manner as we may best conceive to our selves was by expansion division or opening of the Chaos III. Through the first diduction and opening the Fire and Ayr being light Elements and so entirely knitted into one must necessarily have diffused themselves above the superficial weighty Elements these falling nearer to the Center The fire having hereby acquired a greater liberty and more force by being less oppressed by the water its contiguous parts were notwithstanding united and suppressed through the continuity of the ayr and conveyed a great part of earth and water with them the ayr also could not be detracted from the universal mixture without the adherence of some water and earth wherefore that appeared also very thick IV. The fire being the lightest and of most activity towards the Circumference must have been vented in the greatest quantity yet not as I said without incraffated ayr which united to the vibrating parts of the fire were both changed into a flame A Flame is a splendent heat Flamma est calidum splendens wherefore by this two new qualities were produced to wit heat and splendor By Calidum heat understand a red hot fire Ignis candens Fire is named candent quod candorem efficiat because it begetteth a candour that is the brightest light But how fire became at once through this division burning and candent I shall distinctly evidence hereafter The Representation of the Chaos after its first Division V. Through this concussion the waters being also somewhat freed from the minima's of the earth tending to the Center were continuated a top of the earth like unto a fleece or skin for the points of the earth which did before discontinue the water being through their more potent gravity descended the water getting a top must needs have acquired its continuity which as you have read â—â—fore is the first quality of water The water therefore got above the earth not because it is less weighty per se but per accidens through its continuation The flame of the first division was yet thick and reddy not exalted to that brightness which afterwards it was The heat of this division was hot in the first degree because there was not yet so much fire drawn out as to make a greater heat This flame I may compare to the flame of a torch or candle which is either but newly lighted or near upon going out the heats which these flames then cast forth are in reference to their highest state as it were but in the first degree Their light is a dusky red The first motion of this fire being to diffuse it self to the circumference of the ambient ayr is there arriving beaten back and reflected through the external surface or coat of the ayr not through the thickness of it for no doubt that was rather thinner there then below but through its own natural motion whereby it moves to its preservation for a same cannot subsist but by the help and sustenance of the ayr It so whither can it move not directly back again retorting into it self that being its extream contrary motion but rather to the sides moving circularly about the surface of the ayr in the same manner as fire in a rooft Furnace where we see it first diffuseth its self directly towards the Circumference of
the Furnace and beating against the Roof of it doth not reverberate into it self but reflects to the sides and so moves along circularly about the sides of the wall which doth more evidently appear in a globous Furnace Fornax reverberatoria The same is also manifested by the fire of kindled Gunpowder in a Squib which thickneth the ayr by impelling the Vapours and Exhalations therein contained one upon the other and augmenting them by its own fumes is almost every way resisted and beaten back whence therefore we observe it betakes it self to a circular motion The reason is because through a circular motion it is less resisted for one part of it preceding the other doth not stop the following parts but rather one part draweth another after it or bears another before it and moving alwaies round it never meets with any other resistance for the one part is gone before the other can overtake it or what should resist it It is just like un to two horses going both one pace round in a Mill the one can never be a stop to the other but rather the one draweth the other after him because they move both one way Was this motion any other but circular it would meet with resistance This motion is as it were natural to the fire and therefore is also of an eval duration for its nature is ever to move from the Center which it doth in moving circularly not primarily but secondarily it moving first directly to the Circumference and thence reflecting to the sides it creeps as it were all about the surface of the ayr one part drawing the other after it or pushing and thrusting it before it or both waies Did not the fire continue in motion it would soon lose its flame for the flame is continued by being united that which unites it is besides its own motion the crassitude of the ayr which the fire impelling one part upon the other renders thicker and so unites it self the more So that in all Particulars this motion is natural to the fire necessarily of an eval duration because the said motion preserves it in its being and is its proper nature Now were this motion the effect of heat it must be violent and consequently of no long duration for what is violent destroyes the essence of a being It would he violent because heat is produced by a violent cause from without namely the opposition of the ayr 2. We read of no burning heat in the Mosaick Philosophy but only of a moving spirit which is that I call fire or at least an effect impressed upon part of the Chaos by which it moved to the surface for you read that this moving vertue was upon the face of the waters before there was light that is it was drawn out from the Chaos before it could raise a flame to give light What can be more plain Lastly it was necessary that the Elements should be of an eval duration for they were created to exist the same duration which Adam had he abided in his primitive state of Innocency would have existed By all which it appeares that there is no other Principle whence its eval duration is deducible but from hence CHAP. XI Of the second Division of the Chaos 1. An Enarration of Effects befalling the Elements through the second Knock. The proportion of each of the Elements in their purity to the Peregrine Elements 2. The ground of the forementioned proportion of the Elements 3. That fire and ayr constitute the Firmament 4. A grand Objection answered I. LEt us pass to the second Division and speculate the effects of that Through this vibration did the earth yet more concentrate and the waters gulped also upwards equally from all parts for as I said the Chaos was equally mixt otherwise how could the waters equally cover the earth as they did the waters being got atop the ayr got loose in a far greater measure then it did before which being expanded constituted this great tract of the air which now we breath into This breach although in a manner agreeable to the absolute propension of fire and ayr could not since they were soexactly mixed with the weighty elements but give occasion of conveighing a greater proportion of both with them Neither was that little remaining bowl of the great mole whereon we now tread destitute of all her former adherents there still being immerst in her the same proportion of the light Elements to the weighty as there is a proportion of weighty elements attending the separated light ones Consider now the proportion of each to it self 1. Although the earth doth harbour some of the other Elements in her yet she is triumphant over them in the fourth degree that is there are three parts pure earth to one part of the others and amongst these others that constitute a fourth part in her own bowels it is to be conceived that water doth transcend the ayre and so the ayre the fire Supposing then the earth to-consist of 64 parts 48 thereof are pure earth 6 1 â— pure water 5 1 â— pure ayr and 4 1 â— fire Hence from its predominance it is called earth and so the like of water ayr and fire to wit water reserves 48 parts of pure water 5 1 â— of ayr 5 1 â— of earth 5 of fire Ayr is called ayr also from its greater predominance over the other elements not from its purity as if it should be all pure ayr that is impossible It s purity appropriates 48. water and fire each 5 â— â— earth 5. Fire is pure in 48. ayr in 6 1 â— water in 5 1 â— earth in 4 1 â— The proportion of these forementioned elements take thus 64 parts is the whole three fourths of it which are 48 denote the proportion of each element in its purity Then there remains 16 which is the last fourth signifying the proportion of the admisted elements to the principal element as it is considered to be in its purity Again there is another proportion observable among the perigrine elements as they are sharers of the last fourth which is 16. Wherefore in earth 6 parts and a third is taken up by water one less to wit 5 1 â— by ayr and also one less namely 4 1 â— by the fire In water five and a half is equally attributed to earth and air one less that is the overplus fraction of each compleat number of earth and air makes socially one more to fire The last fourth or 16 of the air is supplied in five and a half by each of the ingress of fire and water In five by fire Fire is tied to 6 1 â— of ayr 5 1 â— of water to 4 1 â— of earth II. The ground and reason of this proportion is 1. That the least predominance whereby an element may acquire its name must be triple that is thrice as many times more in quantity then the elements affixed to it for did an element in its purity
overbalance the others but in two parts then it could hardly retain a form whereby its nature might be sufficiently distinguisht from the others if in more then in three parts it would be apparently discernable that that element was mixed if so then it must also be denominated by a mixed name for the cause why men generally impose a single name upon some beings that are mixt and compounded is because there is so little of the extrinsick body discernable that it doth not deserve to be named but if discernable then a compounded word is applied for instance there is none would say that water whereinto only a few drops of wine were instilled was wine and water or Oinolympha but they would nominate it water alone because there is so little wine in it that it is not gustable but supposing there were so much wine mingled with water as to make it perceptible either by tast or smell then no doubt they would say it was wine and water Even so it is here was there more then a fourth part of extrinsick Elements admitted to a single pure element it would be perceptible if so then we should not nominate the elements by a single name but by a compound one Now that it is not perceptible is evident for who can perceive water ayr or fire in the earth or who can distinguish water earth or air in fire c. Was there less then a fourth part it would disaptate the principal element from being an ingredient in a mixture The reason is because there must be some parts adhering to such an element whereby it may be received by the other for example had fire no ayr affixed to it as I have formerly noted it could not be received by water but would be immediately expelled Neither could the earth be disposed to receive fire and ayr but by the admisture of some parts of water some of ayr and others of fire but less then a fourth of these adherents would be insufficient That this is really in effect thus the separation of the elements is a testimony Distil sea-Sea-water and rectifie it often but weigh it before distillation the residence or fixed Salt wherein fire ayr and earth are contained will in little less then a 6th or 8th considering that the water which is separated is not so pure yet but that it retaines some part of the perigrine elements and that another part is dispersed through the ambient ayr respond to the whole body of water Or thus Weigh Sea-water with distilled water and the one shall be a sixth part heavier then the other then imagine that the leasts which are evaporated of the peregrine elements are the remaining parts Lastly the elements being four in company it is very consentaneous to their number that each should be separated by the others in a fourth The reason why water constituting part of the fourth part of earth doth superate the ayr in one degree is because water is more agreeing and that immediately with earth then ayr because of its weight 2. Because it is nearer to the earth then the tract of ayr Fire is least in proportion because it is the remorest In the supplying the fourth of water earth and ayr are in an equal proportion because they are equally consentaneous to water for earth is agreeable to it through its weight and ayr through its continuity and because they are also of the same propinquity to water Fire is less in quantity then these through its remoteness it is more then it is in earth because it is nearer to it Ayr containes an equal part of fire and water by reason they are of an equal approximation of an equal concord with ayr the fire agreeing to it in levity water in continuity Earth is in ayr in the same proportion that fire is in water because they are equidistant to each of their allied elements and retain the same degree of Concord Fire hath the same proportion of earth which earth in its proper Region hath of fire It is sociated to more air in one degree then water to more water in the same degree then ayr to more water then earth in one degree also because their several situation is nearer to fire in one degree III. Summarily through this Division the Firmament was establisht The Firmament was the circumvallation of ayr and fire about the waters which made the earth and water firm in their present situation that is bound them up together and hindred them equally from all parts from falling from the universal Center for the ayr and fire being both light elements do as well diffuse themselves from their own center towards the universal Center as above it towards the imaginary vacuum and so by this means come to sustain the mass of the weighty elements IV. Here a grand Objection and no less Mystery offers it self viz. that it is improbable that the points of earth should be of an equal number and efficacy with the other elements which by this section are so much expanded that their magnitude is divisible into infinite points as it were in comparison to the points of earth and which in respect to the minima's of ayr and fire are but as one point to a million or more To the answering of this call to mind that the absolute form of earth is concentration through dense weight and the form of ayr and fire diffusion from the Center all these absolute forms are met and balanced thence seem to be checkt and obtused by their reciprocal relative forms Now the more these relative forms are degraded from their related form the more they acquire of their absolute forms and consequently greater and stronger motions Well then observe this great Mystery and the hitherto yet unknown Labyrinth of the greatest Philosophers The earth being degraded from her respective form through that the fire and the other elements are abstracted from her hath acquired the more of her absolute form which is to fall to her Center this then being her form no wonder if she doth come to so small a quantity The same apprehend also of water So on the other side fire and ayr being also as much advanced from their relative to their absolute forms do as much diffuse from the center as the earth and water fall to their center so that did not fire and ayr in diffusing from their center possess as great a place as earth and water in moving to the center possess a little place or the earth and water possess as little a place as the fire and ayr a great place it would be dissonant to their natures Besides the little place taken up by the earth and water is as much to them as the great place taken up by the fire and ayr their activity to the center is as much as the activity of the others to the circumference Were the earth imagined to be pure without the admixture of any of the other elements its supposed place would
yet be one fourth less and likewise fire and ayr would in their supposed purity possess a place yet one fourth larger the reason is because the fourth part of the admisted Elements to each pure Element doth so much the more augment or diminish its quantity which being prescinded must necessarily either enlarge or lessen their places Wherefore you see that it doth not hinder but that the minima's of the earth and water may be equal in number activity to the minima's of the others Neither doth it hinder but that the earth and water being expanded by the support of the light elements as appears in the Chaos might have constituted so great a mole as the Chaos was notwithstanding it appeares so small now for every natural point of water was almost half as much diducted violently as it were by the thin levity of the ayr as such a proportion of ayr is now naturally through its absolute form expanded So likewise was the air then half as much cohibited and incrassated through its relative form by the water as the water is now incrassated The like conceive of fire and earth Through these abstractions did all the temperate qualities of the Chaos cease each element did arrive almost to its absolute nature The greatest commerce which they then exercised was with each their nearest adjacent as the fire with ayr ayr with water and fire water with earth and ayr earth with water and fire with ayr In this Scheme you may see the apparition of the second Division which was the third act of Creation The fire moves circulatly by reason of the ayr the ayr is cast equally over the water the water over the earth both pursuing a circular course The Representation of the Chaos after its second Division CHAP. XII Of the Third Division of the Chaos 1. The effects of the Third Knock. Why earth is heavier then water Why water is more weighty near the top then towards the bottom Why a man when he is drowned doth not go down to the bottom of the Ocean Why a potch'd Egge doth commonly rest it self about the middle of the water in a Skillet Why the middle parts of Salt-water are more saltish then the upper parts 2. Whence the earth hapned to be thrust out into great protuberancies How the earth arrived to be disposed to germination of Plants A vast Grove pressed into the earth 3. The cause of the waters continual circular motion 4. The cause of the rise of such a variety of Plants 1. THe third Division or the fourth act of Creation was whereby the most universal Nature naturans did yet more purifie and as it were clarifie the Elements in abstracting each element from its nearer and congregating it to a proper place of its own These several acts of purification and exaltation are not unlike to the operations of an Alchymist in purifying a Mineral 1. He reduceth it to a powder and mixeth it exactly and so it was with the Chaos 2. Then it is either put into a Retort Alembick or a Sublimatory whereby the light parts are separated and abstracted from the heavy ones this hapned also in the first Division 3. He rectifieth the light parts in repeating the former operation and exalts it to a more sublime and pure nature and so separates the lightest parts from the light ones even so it was here God did yet more separate the fire from the ayr Touching the caput mortuum as the earthy parts that he dissolves in water and afterwards to purifie it he coagulates the earth and so separates it from the water in the same manner did God here coagulate the earth and parted it from the waters Further how this is effected I shall in brief explain to you The water through her gravity with crassitude doth obtain a vertue in her of squeezing which is performed by a body that is weighty and continuous for by its weight it presseth downwards to the center and through its continuity it impedes the body which it presseth from entring into its own substance and so forceth it to give way which is the manner of squeezing Now was this body weighty and contiguous only then it would be uncapable of squeezing but would rather press another substance into its own Pores Through this squeezing vertue is water rendred capable of collecting her own parts by making Groves into the earth especially being thereunto impelled by the divine Architect But possibly you may object that water cannot squeeze or press the earth because the earth is weightier then it I answer that earth is weightier then water caeter is paribus supposing that neither is obstructed or violently as it were detained for instance imagining that the mass of earth and of water were each of them placed in Scales no doubt but earth would be heavier and its parts make a greater impulse to the Center because they are single in every minimum and not continuated one to the other and therefore one part doth not hinder the force of the other but rather helpeth it As for water her impulse is lesser because her parts are continuated one to the other and so are a mutual hinderance to one another This I prove take an hour-glass and fill it with water never a drop shall pass through the center-hole the reason is evident because although its parts are weighty yet their continuity hinders them from stilling through and so one part naturally cleaving to the other doth preclude the way but sand you see easily passeth because it being weighty and contiguous only the one part giveth way to the other and impels the same through Wherefore I conclude that all conditions being equal earth is heavier then water But the one being violently detained may prove weightier then the other and so water is detained by earth for water is impeded from concentrating through the protuberance of the mass of earth which therefore causeth a more forcible innixe in water upon the superficial parts of the earth I prove it water weigheth heavier upon the top of high mountains then in the lowermost Region of the Ayr because there it is remoter from its center 2. Water presseth more atop then underneath because it is more remote from the center this is apparent by mens experience in the water for if they suffer themselves to sink down they feel the greatest force to press them from the supream parts of the water but the lower they descend to the bottom the less force they perceive Also there are many things as an Egge dropt out of the shell into the water in a Skillet and others go no deeper then half way to the bottom the reason is because the superficial parts being most remote from the center press more forcible then the parts under them Men when they are drowned in the Sea do not descend so low as to reach the ground but so far only as the superficial parts of the Sea thrusteth them besides there is reason
for this a mans body although alive must needs be less weighty then the thick water at the bottom of the Sea I do not speak of the Seas depth near shoars but where it is of an ordinary profundity as in the Ocean Dissolve Salt into water the middle parts shall be more saltish then the superficial parts for the same reason Besides these experiments the understanding affords also an argument to demonstrate the same If the natural propension of water be concentration then the further it is remote from its center the more it must incline to it But the natural propension of water is concentration ergo II. Since then it is yielded that water is violently detained and remote from its center no wonder if it doth squeeze the extime parts of the earth whereby the earth giveth way in rotundity and is protruded either into longitude or latitude Water having formed but a small dent into the earth a greater quantity of water must needs depress thither and so through a continuated force bores a greater cavern into the earth until at last it hath perduced into her a vast grove whereinto the body of water did retire and so constituted the Ocean The earth being thus impacted by the waters must of a necessity be protruded above some part of the waters and hereby was the earth disposed to germination of plants she being now exposed to the celestial Influences and moderately irrigated and foecundated by the remaines of the water The Representation of the Chaos after its third Division IV. Through this division was the earth in part detected whereby as I said before it was rendred capable of germination or protruding plants God did also congregate the earth and separated her body from heterogeneous Elements yet not so but that there remained still some small part of them These heterogeneous Elements as I may call them for doctrines sake were coagulated into small bodies of divers figures These bodies were of a different size and proportion according to Gods intent and purpose for to effect various and divers kinds of mixt bodies The different proportion was that in some there was a greater quantity of fire in others of ayr c. The coagulation of these small bodies was a close and near compaction of the elements within one small compass Through this compaction each element was pinched in as it were which caused the same violent detention of each as you have read to be in water necessarily augmenting the force and activity of each element in fire it effected a heat which is nothing else but a greater and condensed motion of the fire look below in the Chapt. of 2d Qualit in ayr it agitated a thin swelling or bubling which proceeds from a coarctation of the ayr whereby it is constipated in its motion towards the circumference by water moving to the center Water again is incitated to a stronger motion through the detention of ayr swelling up against its compression The earth is no less compelled to require her natural place the Center then she is opposed by the fire Were all these violent motions as it were equal in their elements being formed also in one figure they might continue so for ever like as if they were all surprized by a Catoche but being coagulated in an unequal proportion and unlike figure they break through one another in some progress of time and being confused in various figures they effect also protrusions of no less variety in figures Observe that in these commistions the elements are confused in a contrary manner then they are placed without in their entire bodies For here the fire against its nature as it were is constituted in the center next the ayr then earth and water is outermost There the earth is the center next to it is water c. Herein appeares the wisdom and providence of Nature which although casting the Elements into a fight yet directs terminates them into a most perfect friendship These coagulated bodies are called seeds which are multiplied according to the number of the kinds thence budding Seeds understand in a large sense as they denominate the Rudiments and first beginnings of all mixt bodies Otherwise Seeds are strictly attributed to living Creatures alone as to Plants and Animals Although Hearbs and Plants are alone nominated by Moses to be produced through this Division yet the seeds of Minerals and of their recrements as they erroneously term them and of Stones were also implied since their Creation is no where else mentioned CHAP. XIII Of the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Division of the Chaos 1. An Enarration of the Effects of the fourth Division That Nature created the first bodies of every Species the greatest is instanced in Bees Fishes and Fowl That all Species are derived from one individuum That Adam was the greatest man that ever was since the Creation What those Giants were which the Poets faigned 2. How the Sun and Moon were created That a Lioness is not more vigorous then a Lion 3. How the Stars of the Firmament were created 4. How the durable Clouds of the Ayr were created 5. The Effects of the fifth Division 6. The Effects of the sixth Division 7. The Effects of the last Division AS there was a coagulation of the waters and earth so God did in the same manner through the fourth Division coagulate and further purifie the Elements of fire and ayr This coagulation was of the heterogeneous Elements namely of part of the adjoyned 16 parts of the peregrine Elements These being congregated did condense and unite a great portion of fire which condensation through a mixture of ayr water and earth constituted it into a flame Earth giveth a body to fire and staies its light parts ayr and water keep in the flame Look below where I have particularly illustrated the generation of a flame 1. These coagulations consisted of parts differing variously in quantity some greater others less Nature did also observe a most exact order among them to wit she first coagulated one greatest body afterwards some greater bodies lastly many little ones I prove this In all kinds there is one greatest because there is the least for where there is a least there must necessarily be a greatest Among Bees there is one which is the greatest and therefore he is the Leader and King of all the rest Among Fowl we see the same namely that there is one greatest in each kind of them which all the rest follow and fly about In a multitude of Fishes they all swim after and about one which is the greatest among them c 2. The greatest of all kinds were created at the beginning of the world because that being the Superlative degree and therefore excelling the others must have been created immediately by God he creating immediately nothing but what is the most excellent Since that all beings have their rise and origine from one it is necessary that this one should be the greatest That all
beings derive their rise and original from one is evident in that all beings arised from the Chaos 2. In their several kinds as in man all men took their Original from one first man Adam God proposes among the perfectest living creatures a pattern of all the rest which is man Now he being multiplied through one although not from one man it is not improbable that all other Species of living creatures multiplied through one 3. We read in the first Chap. That God did first create the moving Creatures that is one of every kind for otherwise Moses would have written that God immediately and primarily had created two of every kind In v. 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures and fowles In v. 21. He plainly expresseth that God created every living creature that moveth that is one of every kind as I said before And in the 24th Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind not living creatures after their kind And in the 29 v. Every Herb bearing Seed not Herbs So that this is not to be doubted of You may object that in the 24th v. It is said that God created great Whales ergo more then one I deny the Consequence for Whales here denotes the plurality of Species of great Fishes to wit Porposes Dolphins Whales strictly so named c. not the plurality of Individua in every kind 4. Nature is uniform and not various in acting ergo since she created the first man single and out of him a woman it is apparent that she observed the same order and manner of creating every other perfect moving creature You may object that according to the Antecedence which I offer as a Maxime man should be created in the same manner as Beasts I Answer If you consider him only as a moving Creature having a sensitive soul he was but if as he is man that is Mens sivo Substantia spiritualis rationalis in corpus hominis vivens sensitivum a Natura infusa a Mind or a spiritual rational substance infused by God into a living and moving body then no doubt but the action is various since it is in diversa actionis specie 5. God acteth by the fewest Meanes but one is fewer or less then more ergo If then all beings are multiplied through one then this one must necessarily be the greatest I prove the Consequence You are to apprehend that man as he is an Animal is propagated in the same manner as other Animals Being then propagated through one that one must have been indued with the greatest and strongest vertue of propagation because that wasting and weakning in progress of time could not be sufficient to last out a whole race this greatest vertue must be assixed to a proportionate subject or body which must then be the greatest body for the greatest vertue cannot be contained in a less subject then the greatest body this is evident in a great flame which must be maintained in a great place 2. We may remember out of History that the nearer men lived to the first man the greater and stronger bodies they had the longer they lived the more numerous issue they had and the more generous and the less exercised in wickedness all which proceeded from a stronger vertue and a greater body If so then it is not improbale that the first man and all the first of other kinds of Animals were the greatest for the same reason Besides we read in Joshua 14. 15. That Arba in some Bibles written Adam was the greatest among the Anakims Which most Interpreters judge to be spoken of the first man Adam But possibly you may reply that if Adam was the greatest man he must have been thought to be a Giant but a Giant is monstrous wherefore Adam was not the greatest man I deny the Minor for monstrous is that which doth degenerate from the Species so that it makes a difference between that which is adjudged to be a Monster and the Species as the abundance or defect of parts or a deformation in some or all parts through which its Subject is rendered different from the Species to which it was intended but a great greater or greatest man is no more a Monster then a little less or least man because there is no difference between either in number form or figure of parts 'T is true Giants have been generally received for Monsters but then they were differing from other men in number and figure of parts as the Cyclopes a great sort of people faigned by the Poets to have had but one eye in the midst of their Forehead and to be Vulcans Journeymen employed in making weapons for Jupiter Grandeur of body if actuated by sufficiency of vigorous spirits is a perfection denoting strength of all the animal and vegetative faculties fitted for long life and propagation which therefore must not be detracted from the first of all kinds II. Hence I may then safely infer that in the Firmament the greatest part of the heterogeneous elements and a great proportion of fire were coagulated into the greatest flame which was the Sun Out of the courser part of the Sun God created another great body next to the greatest the greatest which was the Moon For as Earth Waters and Animals were defaecated by having other bodies formed out of their courser matter so it was also in the Element of fire This is most obvious in Animals whose Female was formed out of the courser part of the Male whereby it becometh more excellent and vigorous in all its actions This may be contradicted in that a Lioness is taken to be more vigorous and fierce then a Lion I Answer that this kind of sierceness and apparent vigour is in all Females but it is not lasting more a spurt and shew of vigour and fierceness then real and durable III. These two great flames did by their hourly motion produce other great ones which again propagated as it were lesser and thence little ones which were those by us now called Stars But of these more particularly hereafter IV. In the Ayr the like coagulation formed the thin Clouds consisting of a great part of Ayr incrassated through a smaller quantity of water and punctually divided by the same proportion of fire balanced and incorporated with the least measure of earth These Cloudes have their continual abode in the ayr seldom vanishing Their Colour is blewish arising from its incrassation through water and incorporation with earth for the ayr of it self is so thin that it is insufficient to unite a light or cause reflection but being reduced to a thicker consistence by the co-expansion of water with it it becomes capable of uniting reflecting and propagating a light now were there no Particle of earth affixt to this mixture the colour would be transparent lucid or Chrystalline But being somewhat obtenebrated through the density of earth is changed into a light blew or light Sky-colour V. Thus did the great
as it were modi consistentiae Heat is not the cause of tenuity in ayr because heat is accidental to Ayr and tenuity is essential or at least co-essential but that which is accidental and extrinsick cannot be the cause of that which is essential and intrinsick The next effect we can imagine to emanate from lightness with continuity or the greatest diduction and yet remaining continuated must needs be Tenuity Besides these there are some more qualities restant as Obtuseness and Acuteness Asperity and Levor Solidity and Liquidity Softness and Hardness Lentor and Friability It is a mistake in Authors to derive the Original of these Qualities from the Elements as they constitute a mixt body and thence to term them Qualities of a mixt body To the contrary they do emanate from the Elements as they are conceived in their absolute form as hath been proved These Qualities you may nominate third fourth and fifth according as the understanding doth apprehend the one to be before the other in Nature although not in Time The third qualities of the Elements are Obtuseness Acuteness c. I prove it because we apprehend them next to the second qualities for the understanding in discerning these sensible qualities is lead by the Senses as its Pilots now our tact or feeling being the first in esse operari is also imployed in distinguishing those first second and third Qualities and for that reason they are all called tactible or tangible qualities The first action made by any of the Elements upon the tact is local motion as Gravity and Levity for feeling any Element its weight or lightness would be the First thing we should perceive the next would be its rarity or density The third acuteness or hebetude the fourth asperity or levor the fifth hardness or softness the sixth solidity or liquidity the seventh lentor or friability There is a twofold Acuteness formally differing from one another 1. An Acuteness deriving from Density 2. An Acuteness emanating from Rarity Acuteness is a quality whereby our tact is most divided Obtuseness is a quality whereby our tact is least divided Acuteness is in Fire and Earth but in a different manner Acuteness in fire is a rare acuteness whereby it most divideth our tact through its parts being contiguously diducted or spread from the Center The acuteness inherent in earth is a dense acuteness whereby it divides our tact through a dense acuteness or minima's moving through their pressing weight to the Center Obtuseness is a quality following crassitude and tenuity whereby its subject compresseth our tact or divideth it less or least and in longer time Obtuseness in ayr is a quality immediately produced by its tenuity and continuous Expansion for were it contiguous it would be acute but being continuous one part hindreth the other from penetrating or dividing any objected body And so its parts acting together and equally they effect a compression This compression or obtuseness in the ayr is thin and subtil and more potent then that in water because it resisteth less and therefore is also less opposed and through its subtility is capable of making stronger opposition Obtuseness in water issueth out of a thick quality or from its continuous depressing vertue This Obtuseness and that in ayr as also acuteness in fire and earth are altogether different as I said before but through the narrowness of the Language I am compelled to attribute each to two several beings adding some notes of Distinction The same understand of all the other derived Qualities Asperity is a quality immediately consecuting Acuteness and Levor is a quality emanating from Hebetude or Obtuseness Asperity more plainly is an inequality or roughness in the surface of a body this experience tels us proceedeth from a sharpness or Acuteness Levor is an equality of the Surface descending from Hebetude or a continuous pressure or diduction Asperity in fire is a rare diffusing and vibrating asperity that in earth is a dense heavy contracting asperity I prove it our feeling certifieth us that fire is a rare diffusing and vibrating roughness and so feeling earth we feel a dense heavy and contracting roughness From a contiguous and dense Asperity spreades hardness which is a quality where by its subject is difficulty pressed down into it self So thin Levor begetteth softness which is a quality whereby its subject easily giveth way into it self to pressure Hardness in earth may properly be termed Rigidity or a rugged hardness because the earth doth only of all the Elements possess its center and therefore cannot introcede into it self That Rigidity is caused by Asperity its ordinary Definition among Physitians doth testifie Rigidity say they is a hardness with Asperity or a roughness that is from asperity From a continuous and thick Obtuseness derives a smooth hardness such as is conceived in Chrystal or Ice and is alone proper to water Softness in fire being unequal or rough is whereby it giveth way towards its Circumference if pressed from without Softness in ayr being equal and smooth is whereby it giveth way towards its Circumference if pressed from without Solidity is an effect of hardness through which a body is consistent that is uncapable of flowing So water is a smooth solid body because of its peculiar hardness and earth is a rugged solid body likewise because of its proper hardness Liquidity is an effect of Softness whereby a body is apt to flow or to be diducted In Fire it is rare and acute in Ayr thin and obtuse Solidity produceth Friability which is a quality whereby its parts are separable From one another in minute particles wherefore since Solidity cannot give way by flowing it giveth way through Friability Lentor is a quality produced by Liquidity and is whereby a body is rendered deductible by reason of its continuity of Parts We may otherwise apprehend these qualities to differ from one another secundum magis minus thus Asperity is a greater Acuteness of parts Hardness is a greater Asperity or thick Levor Solidity is a greater Hardness Levor is a greater Obtuseness Softness is a greater thin Levor Liquidity is a greater Softness CHAP. XV. Of the Respective Qualities of the Elements particularly of Fire Earth and Water 1. What is meant by the Respective Qualities of the Elements Why they are termed Second Qualities 2. That heat is the second respective or accidental quality of fire That fire is not burning hot within its own Region That fire doth not burn unless it flames is proved by an Experiment through Aq. fort 3. That heat in fire is violently produced The manner of the production of a Flame What it is which we call hot warm or burning How fire dissolves and consumes a body into Ashes 4. That Heat is nothing else but a Multiplication Condensation and Retention of the parts of fire The degrees of Heat in fire and how it cometh to be warm hot scorching hot blistering hot burning hot and consuming hot 5. A way
and gathering of the hot parts of the fire it begins to move and stir the ayry parts contained within the pores of your hand and after a further condensation it makes force and penetrates through the ayry parts of the hand Hence when you feel a pricking pain then you cry it burnes this pricking is nothing else but the passing of the fire through the ayry parts and dividing it in Points and Pricks The reason why it doth force so through your hand is because the ayry parts of it doth condense the parts of the fire So that according to the multiplication condensation and detention of the fire warmth becometh hot hot scorching hot scorching hot blistering hot blistering hot burning and burning hot becometh lastly to be consuming hot and these are all the degrees of condensation of fire V. I shall not think my labour lost if I propose a way whereby to balance and know the force of fire and to distinguish exactly what fire giveth the greatest heat In my Road let me tell you that balancing is a way whereby to know and compute the force of a thing The balancing of weighty bodies as of earth earthy and waterish bodies they call weighing because it is the trying of the force of weight that is how much stronger one thing moveth to the Center then another Upon the same ground one may as justly term the balancing of light bodies as of fire and ayr lighting which is the measuring of the force of bodies from the Center * The Scales hung perpendicular over the Fire A. B The Scales inverted D Flatness upon the gibbous side of the Scale for to place the weights upon From what hath been discoursed upon a reason may be drawn why fire that is inherent in the ayr is not sensibly warm namely because it is not enough condensed through the ambient Ayr. VI. Now that you shall not conceit that what hath been proposed is altogether my own Notion I will adduce the judgment of Plato upon this Particular who although hitting right upon many things yet they were soon dasht out by the Arrogance of the Peripateticks In the first place saith he in Timaeo let us consider for what reason fire is said to be hot which we shall soon come to know if we do but observe the Division and separation made by it That it is a certain sharpness and passion is manifest almost to all we must consider the subtility of its Angles the thinness of its sides the smalness of its Particles the swiftness of its motion through all which it is forcible and penetrating and that which it doth swiftly meet it alwaies divides and dissipates considering also the generation of its figure that dividing our bodies through no other nature and dividing it in smal parts doth induce that passion which is justly called Heat Here you see Plato hath hinted right at many things appertaining to the Notion of Heat He saith heat is a passion that is as I said before that we call heat a certain sensation induced by the division of fiery minims 2. You may observe that his opinion asserts heat to be a quality migrating out of fire into the body which it heateth but that it heateth by dividing and penetrating through the diffusion of its small parts Scaliger Exerc. 12. d. 3. maintains the heat which is in red hot Copper not to be a quality raised in it by the fire but to be fire in substance contained and condensed between its Pores Arist. Lib. 2. de gener Cap. 2. describes heat to be that which congregates such bodies as are of one Genus For saith he to segregate which is that which they say fire doth is to congregate congenited bodies and such as are of the same Genus for it is accidental that it removes strange bodies His Followers propose the same in other words viz. Heat is a quality through which homgeneous bodies are congregated and heterogeneous disgregated I object against this that fire is hot but fire doth through liquation mix Brass and Silver together Grease and Oyl Wine and Water c. But these are not bodies of one nature Wherefore fire doth not alwaies disgregate heterogeneous bodies 2. The heat of a Potters Oven congregateth Ayr Water and Earth together but Ayr Water and Earth are heterogeneous Bodies Ergo. 3. If heat congregates homogeneous Bodies then the hotter a thing is the more it must congregate homogeneous Bodies but the Consequence is false and therefore the Antecedence is false also The falsity of the Consequence appeares hence that if the body of man be hotter then its temperamentum ad justitiam requires then it gathers and breeds heterogeneous humors in the Bloud as Choler and adust Melancholy 4. The heat of the Sun raises mud and other heterogeneous bodies in the bottom of waters and causeth them to congregate and unite with the body of the same waters 5. Some of his Sectators demonstrate the reality of this effect of fire in that it congregates Gold through liquation and so separates Silver and other Metals from it To this I answer that the same heat having exactly mixed them before can as well if intended re-unite them again as it hath separated them Neither is this separation any other but per accidens although the union is per se. I prove it It is true at the first melting there is a kind of Separation of Silver from Gold and of Lead from Silver but this befalleth accidentally only for the Silver is separated from Gold and Silver from Lead because Silver being melted before Gold and Lead before Silver and the Gold remaining as yet unmelted and silver also after the Liquation of Lead they must of necessity sink down through the first melted parts of Silver and Lead as being yet unmelted for Silver which is contained within the body of Gold will be melted and attenuated within its body before the Gold it self is scarce mollified whose parts being now mollified through their dense weight squeeze the Silver out of their Pores Wherefore this separation is effected by the fire per accidens but augment your heat to such a degree as to melt your Gold then cast some more Silver to it and see whether they will not mix I believe you will find it so Lastly This is not a Description of heat but the mentioning of one of its Effects for heat formally is another thing VII The Second quality per Accidens of earth is a punctual violent compression to the Center As the earth doth meet the fire in its first quality so it doth also in its second Earth when it is violently detained from its Center it doth punctually compress that body which doth detain it towards its Center If you take up a handful of Sand from the ground doth it not compress your hand downwards Likewise the pressing downwards in all bodies proceeds from the detention of earth in their bodies Observe cast earth upon earth and it will hardly
spirits How the Air happens to burst through a sudden great light That a sudden great Light may blind kill or cast a man into an Apoplexy 8. How Light renders all Objects visible Why a piece of Money cast into a Basin filled with water appears bigger than it is The causes of apparent Colours Why a great Object appears but small to one afar off The difference between lux and lumen What a Beam is What a Splendour is That the Lights begot by the Stars and other flames are not distinguished specie How the Coelum Empyreum is said to be Lucid. I. VVE are now to ennumerate and unfold the remaining qualities risen from the mixture of the Elements such are Light Colours Sounds Odors and Sapors We will first begin with Light as being the excellentest among them Light is a quality emanating from flaming fire A flame is nothing else but incrassated Air expanded and deducted in rotundity by condensed fire which is detained and imprisoned within the foresaid qualified Air. The difficulties requiring illustration are 1. How the fire comes to be condensed 2. How imprisoned 3. Why the Air doth immediately surround it 4. How light is propagated and the manner of its action As to the first Fire I have told you will not burn unless it be condensed for being naturally rare it penetrates through the incrassated Air with ease but being condensed it doth not because it is adjoyned to a heavy gross body namely the minima's of the Earth and Water which doth put a stop to its pass but nevertheless the force of fire is stronger by reason of those adjoyned heavy minima's For fire being violently detained by them is grown stronger 2. Fire being to divide another thick body makes use of the compressing accuteness of Earth to divide it which it effects by protruding those dense parts before it for through its single rarity it could not 2. Fire flying out and being expulsed out of a mixt body if it doth not meet with incrassated Air to retain it will pass and vanish but hitting against incrassated Air it strives to pass the Air again being continuous doth maintain her continuity with all her force and thirdly the fire moving circularly makes a circular dent into the mass of the said thickned Ayr which it beats against the advenient Ayr also striving from all parts to recover its situation and therefore necessarily surrounding the fire The Ayr again is also become stronger because of its violent detention notwithstanding the fire being the more potent doth diduct it into an oval or round Figure in the same manner as Wind striving to pass the water doth blow it up into a bubble Fire being thus condensed imprisoned and surrounded with thick ayr and diducting the same ayr into an oval or round Figure is called a flame II. The properties of a flame are 1. to be burning hot 2. to be an lux illuminans illuminating light The burning proceeds from the particles of condensed fire violently striking through the moisture of a mixt body whereby it divides it into ashes or a black crust tending to ashes Before I shew the manner of emanation of Light let us first examine what it is we call Light Light is that which is visible and renders all things about it visible Wherefore you do mark that Light is nothing but that which affects and moves the eye-sight If then I make it appear to you whereby it is that fire doth affect the Eye-sight therein I shew you the manner of emanation or operation of Light You must apprehend the optick spirits to be a thin continuous body equally interwoven through all its parts with a proportion of thin yet a little condensed fire for were it not a little dense it could not heat so that it is very like to the ambient ayr in substance and its other qualities 2. Supposing it to be an ayr we must conceive it to be continuous with the ambient ayr when the eyes are open This premitted I infer light to be nothing else but a continuous obduction of the Ayr caused by a flaming fire But let me here intreat your serious intention upon what I shall discover concerning the nature of Light it being one of the difficultest mysteries of all Philosophy and although its effects are luminous to the Eye yet its nature is obscure to the Understanding The search of this moved Plato to leave Athens and set saile for Sicily to speculate those flames of the mount AEtna Empedocles the Philosopher hazarded himself so far for to make a discovery of the nature of a flame and its light that he left his body in the Mongibell fire for an experiment although much beyond his purpose It is almost known to all how that the Learned Pliny took shipping from the promontory Misenas to be traversed to the Mount Pomponianus whither curiosity had driven him to fathom the depths of the Vesuvian flames but before he could feel the heat the smoak smothered him III. First then I prove that Light is an effect of a flame There is no flame but it causeth light and by the light we know it is a flame Ergo Light is an inseparable accident and a propriety quartimodi of a flame the Antecedence is undoubted Doth not a Candle a Torch a focall flame cause lights Or did you ever see light and doubted of the flame of it What is the reason when we hit our fore-heads against any hard thing we say there strikes a light out of our eyes It is because the violence of the stroke did discontinuate the optick ayr through which the condensed fire did unite and diduct the intrinsick ayr which was incrassated through the same stroke and so made a flame or rather a flash which is a sudden flame that is quickly lighted and quickly laid Secondly Light is not a single quality inhering in fire alone for were it so then where ever fire is there should be light but to the contrary we find that there is fire inherent in the ayr and many other bodies yet the ayr remains dark after the descent of the Planets 2. Were fire naturally light we could never be in darkness because the vast Region of fire is so large that it could not but illuminate thrice the extent of the ayr Thirdly Light is not fire rarefied and exporrected throughout all the dimensions of the ayr for who could ever imagine that a Candle being so small a flame should serve to be drawn out through the ayr and fill it with light to the extent of six or eight Leagues for a Candle may be seen at Sea in a clear dark night six or eight Leagues off or further so that it is absurd to imagine this and unworthy of a Philosophers maintaining it 2. It is impossible that fire could be so exactly mixt with ayr in an instant for so large an extent 3. There is never a particle of illuminated ayr but it is light to the full extent
of the illumination if so then there must be a penetration of bodies Fourthly Light is not fire rarefied for were it so then that fire which is most rarefied should be lightest but the consequence is false Ergo the Antecedence also I prove the falsity of the consequence Fire in Brimstone or flaming Brandy is more rare than the fire of a Candle and yet it doth nothing near enlighten so much as the flame of a Candle Fire most rarefied as it is naturally is not at all light Lamps have burned in Tombs for many years together and have enlightned the same for as many years but it is absurd to conceive that fire could have lasted or been sufficient to be rarefied through the ayr for so many years some simply deny the possibility of it although the same may be brought to pass at this present time 4. Where light is there is not alwaies heat near to it for if the contrary were true then an equal light must have an equal heat but this is averred to be false in Greenland where in their day-season it is as light as it is in the East-Indies and lighter thâ—n it is in the Indies in the Winter and yet the heat in the Indies is infinitely more intense than it is in Greenland for here it is never hot although less cold at some times above others Some Author makes use of a musical Instrument of Cornel. Drebbel to prove against all sense and reason that where ever Light is there is also heat These kind of Instruments are common enough now adaies they were Organs and Virginals that played by themselves All which saith the Author depended upon the rarefaction and condensation of some subtil body conserved in a Cavity within the bulck of the whole Instrument for as soon as the Sun shined they would have motion and play their parts And there is no doubt but that grew out of the rarefaction of the subtil Liquor he made use of which was dilated as soon as the ayr was warmed by the Sun beams Was ever a wise man so much wronged as to be made to believe that a little subtil Liquor could blow the bellows of Organs and that the beams of the Sun should penetrate through Boards and Iron and rarefie the Liquor contained therein and that the interposition of a cloud should lessen the sound of the Instrument if so why should not the interposition of a board rather lessen the sound for a boord shall keep away more heat from a thing than the interposition of a thin cloud The business is this there was no heat required to the motion of the said Instrument for had there been so a fire made in the Room could have supplied the action of the Sun after its descension The Instruments were made to move by a piece of Clock-work which was placed near to the keyes the work it self was moved by weights hung to it or otherwise by a thing made within it like to the spring of a Watch now when the wheels are almost run about then the keyes strike feebler and so the sound is diminished this he calls the interposition of a cloud neither is there any such rarefaction as he imagines to himself and therefore is infinitely mistaken throughout his Book in the nature of rarefaction and condensation Wherefore this is no proof that the Suns light is alwaies hot 2. The same Philosopher argues That the reason why we do not feel the warmth of Light is because it is not hot enough to move our tact for that which moves our tact by hear must be of the same warmth or hotter This is another supposed subtility of his That which is not warm cannot be said to be hot because heat is a degree above warmth now in case there is so little warmth in a mixt body that the cold of earth or water doth overcome it that body is not to be called hot or warm but cold even so it is here in case that Light hath not so much heat as to warm but rather cools as we feel it enough in the Winter it is not to be said to be hot but cold VVho could imagine that a Candle should heat the Ayr twenty or thirty Leagues about its light extending about in circumference to little less IV. Light is a continuous obduction or thrusting up or puffing up of the ayr which puffing up is as it were an opening to the whole body of the ayr in the same manner almost as wind being puffed under water raises and puffs up the whole body of it to a large extent by which the water seems to be opened throughout all its body I say it is continuous for were it a disruption of the ayr and not continuous it would cause a sound A continuous obduction is an equal drawing up or support of the ayr to the Circumference That which doth originally cause this obduction is the fire condensed which bears the ayr up equally and circularly like as when you blow sudds up into bubbles which likewise seems to create a light The ayr being obducted originally about the light its whole body is also obducted to a far extent at the very same moment For supposing that the ayr is continuous and that there is no such condensation as the Vulgar imagines as is effected by penetration of parts or diminution of quantity the ayr being trust up at one place must also be trust up all about to a certain extent The same is manifest in water by puffing a thick wind through a Reed underneath it which little wind although unproportionate to the heavy body of water which it raises puffs up all the parts of water at once that is in a moment the reason is because the water being continuous and nothing between it throughout all its dimensions but what is continuous lyeth as continuately close which is the nearest closeness as can be conceived wherefore puffing one part up you must necessarily at the same instant puff up all the other parts about it because they cannot introcede into one another Or otherwise the reason why so improportionate a body should suffice to bear up so heavy a body as the water for a puff of wind if it be blown deep under the water will raise fifty pounds of water more or less according to its force is because the wind having moved the neerest parts of water they bear one another up continuately unto the very Surface So it is with the ayr being puffed up by the fire which at the same instant doth puff up all its parts about Here you may object If the ayr be obducted in that manner by the flame of the fire and that it giveth way continuately throughout its whole body without an intrinsick incrassation then the least fire must stir the whole tract of Air about it I answer That the Air is partially incrassated and not thorowly throughout all its dimensions wherefore when it is so puffed up it is
of the Sun and in oyl or fat cast into focal fire burning white Here may be objected That Snow is white Ergo it should consist most of fire which it doth not I repeat my distinction of durable and changeable colours and affirm that whiteness depending upon fire is deprehended only in durable and compact permixt bodies the other inherent in changeable subjects and thin open bodies derives more from the ingredient light entring their pores where being a little pinched and collected appears white so that this may be thought to be as much the colour of the condensed light as of the body which lasteth no longer than it is condensed by condensed water and that being melted the colour vanisheth withall possibly you will turn your objection to a bone which being white doth not contain fire predominating in it I answer That a bone consists of much fire and ayr as appears in its flammability and therefore is white Lastly you may object That a Marble stone or Alabaster is white but neither are fiery I answer That both do consist of a condensed and attenuated water and not without a little rarefaction caused by the fire Suppose that Marble were only a natural water which as I have demonstrated is naturally thick and consistent like unto Ice and condensed with a little earth certainly it would be of a transparent and crystalline colour this Ice being yet more condensed by earth pinches and collects the light a little and so appears white Wherefore observe that this white is primarily an extrinsick colour depending on the incidence of light and not fundamental alone wrought by the internal temperature of the mixt body So that this objection doth conclude nothing against our Assertion mentioning intrinsick colours acting from a compact mixt body The reason why Marble and Alabaster are shining is because their body is consistent of a continuated substance to wit thick water Intermediate colours are such as arise out of the descent of the Elements from their extreams To wit thus The less there is of fire the less it is intrinsecally and fundamentally white the less there is of earth the more an object diminisheth in blackness Which degradations constitute the intermediate colours Intermediate colours are almost infinite but enumerating them according to the above-stated condition of Latitude of Colours they are vulgarly counted ten in number 1. Yellowish Subflavus 2. Yellow 3. Reddish Subruber 4. Red. 5. Greenish 6. Green 7. Blewish 8. Blew 9. Brownish 10. Brown Red is an equal mixture of Black and White and is the Center and middle of all colours being equally interjacent between the two extreams so that all colours are between Red and White and between Red and Black as appears in the subnext scheme of colours Before I proceed I will commend to you a very necessary distinction of intermediate colours which are either fundamental or extrinsick The fundamental intermediate colours are those that are constituted by the internally proportionated Elements in temperament and are compactly permisted The extrinsick colours are such as are as much imputable to the external incidence and ingredience of Light This premitted I say that a fundamental Red doth only consecute a body mixed and temperated ad pondus which was alone in the Chaos the noblest of colours befitting so noble a body Of those red colours which we now have a sanguine cometh nearest to it because it proceeds from the exactest temperature ad justitiam which is nearest to that ad pondus The change from this towards the extreams as before constitutes a different colour if to water its change is into a green as you may observe in the bloud of hydropick bodies appearing greenish if to air blewish as you see it doth in the clouds which is changed out of a Red Cloud being dispersed into a greater measure of air if to Harth Brown if to Fire Yellow which is manifest in Bloud turning to a Yellow if predominated by fire or Choller to Brown if predominated by Melancholy or Earth to Blew if attenuated or incorporated with predominant air Besides these there are many others which because approaching to some one of the forementioned I shall not think material to relate but refer you to Scaligers CCCXXVth Exerc. where you have the names of most colours set down What Splendor and the cause of it is you know already its opposite is a deadishness which as splendor is effected upon a smooth and continuated body so is this effected upon a ruggid and contiguous body Luminous and Opake are also Opposites The latter is distinguisht from black in that this is taken for a fundamental colour the other for an extrinsick privation of light VIII Reflection of light is the beating back or reaction of a splendid or thick body upon the obtended air which Reflection obtending and stretching the air yet more then it was before makes it apdear much lighter That it is made lighter is discerned by the eye which is more forcibly obtended by the reflected light which if it be much causes a dazling in the eyes and is nothing else but an over-retching of the optick air and Membranes and sometimes is so great that it presses water out of the eyes Reflection is only upon continuous bodies as Gold Silver Brass Steel Precious Stones Glass and Water c. IX Refraction of colours is a reflection seeming to be broke as when you put a Stick into the water the colour of it seems to be broke By an internal reflection its colour seems to be more augmented in quantity and extent of parts then really it is The manner of it is thus Mark that a superficial reflection doth not augment the extent of a colour which reflects the light for Gold or Crystal is not augmented in extent of colour that is seems not bigger then really it is by reflecting light superficially neither do they render a colour in the air bigger then it is 2. A double reflection is the continuation of a reflection for there is also a reflection of light within the very body of an object as you may see by a piece of Money cast into the water or big Sands lodged sometime within the center of a Diamond or Crystal causing a reflection although remote from the Surface wherefore a Colour is not well described by Arist. Lib. de Sens. Sensil to be the extremity of a terminated perspicuous body for I have told you where and how it may be visible in the intrinsick body of an Object Notwithstanding this Scaligers Objection in Exerc. 325. d. 4. against colour stated to be the extremity of an Object is invalid His Objection is because a Chesnut is coloured in the middle as well as in its extremity ergo saith he Colour is not the extremity But how did he know a Chesnut to be coloured in the middle Questionless by seeing it cut through if so then that middle cut through is now come to be the extremity so there
it is possible to change a courser metal so that it shall be like to Gold both in weight and superficial colour but then this colour will not be equable throughout all its parts neither are the parts so digested concocted and closely united as they should be In fine this artificial Gold is no more real Gold than an artificial Pearl is like to a true Oriental one or a glass Diamond to a true one At the best it is but counterfeit Gold which immediately shall be dissolved by Aq. Fort. whereas the other will not suffer it self to be toucht by it unless it be fortified by a rectification upon salt Armoniack Chymical furnace hunters do strangely boast of their secrets of preparing aurum Potabile or tincture of Gold Others do through ignorance of the art and want of skill assert the said preparation to be impossible Questionless were the thing of a harder nature these laborious Vulcans would work it out nevertheless their arrogance and immodesty in proclaiming of the transcendent and admirable effects of it doth forfeit their modesty and wrong that noble Art Aurum potabile say they is an universal medicine curing all diseases restoring youth and retarding old age prolonging life to an eval duration in fine Aurum potabile is good for all things or rather Aurum portabile is Here you have a great many rash and vain words the contrary whereof I have so oft seen come to pass I have known it to cause a dysentery through its corrosive spirits which it retains either from its last menstrunm or from its first Dissolvent viz. Aqua Regia It provokes Sweat and Urin but withall is very offensive to the Liver and heart because of the said adventitious spirits That which they call the tincture or quinta essentia of Gold is nothing but the outward rust of Gold which the aquaregia begot upon it through its corruptive quality In summa the natural fixt spirits of Gold are inseparable or at least those that are separable are corrupted by the poysonous spirits of the dissolvent Suppose they were separable from its body without being stained the most we can conceive of them is that they are a subtil diaphoretick and then hardly comparable to others whose nature is more consentaneous to ours as spir C. C. tinct Croci Lilium Antim Paracelsi c. Besides these forementioned hard bodies the earth doth also ingender others less hard and some soft ones consisting of a more ayry and fiery nature These are in like manner conceived in Matrices or wombs differing from the others in length exility and shape Of these there is a double sort observable the one being more fiery and waterish the other more ayry and fiery The first is saline the other unctious Stones and Metals being more earthy and consentaneous to the nature of earth are retained and cherished within the earth but the others being much distant from its nature are expelled nearer to its Surface I shall first begin with the salin bodies VI. There is a certain fermentation within the earth which is nothing else but the contraction of the earth by the compression of its parts upon one another whereby the extraneous Elements are expelled but since these cannot be abstracted from the body of the earth without the firm and close adherence of some earthy minima's they do draw them along the proportion of which earthy minima's and their degree of closeness of union do constitute the differences of all earthy mixed bodies The Salin juyces are attenuated waterish bodies permixt with condensed fire and a small proportion of earthy minima's which do concrease by the evaporation of the greater part of air leaving behind it water thickned naturally through its absence Fire is closer united to these salin juyces than it is to the unctious ones to which air is more close united than to these Many of these salin juyces are transparent through the predominance of water others are of other colours according to the proportion of earth We see that among these many concrease in an angular form as appears in Allume Vitriol c. which happens through the degrees of the airs evaporation for the air evaporating unequally causes such an angular induration The air doth evaporate unequally in that it doth sooner desert the extream parts as being less thick and dense more remote from the centrical ones which do retain the air the longest The first evaporation leaves an acuteness for an angle the second subtilities is being more slow evaporate by degrees so causing a greater obtusion from the foresaid acuteness The evaporation it self is caused by the weighty Elements expelling the light parts through their weight The earthy salin juyces are principally these Common salt Salt gemmae Saltpeter Allume Salt armoniack and Vitriol Common salt is nothing but the relict or residence of sea water or of saltish fountain water being evaporated This kind of salt contains more loose air but less fire than others Salt gemmae is a fossil salt digged out of the earth and is somewhat more fiery and consistent of closer ayr than the former Saltpeter is threefold 1. Is drawn by coction from nitrous earth 2. Sweats through stone walls and concreaseth upon their Surface like unto a white frost or mould 3. Is gathered from the rocks This salt consisteth of more dense parts of fire pent in by close air which again is enclosed by subtil minima's of earth Allume comprehends five sorts 1. Roch allom which is drawn from Rocky stones 2. Which is digged out of Mines 3. Which remains after the evaporation of mineral waters This salt is of a courser nature consisting of more water and earth than the others Salt armoniack is a salin juyce sweating out a certain earth of Libya and concreased under the sands That which we use instead of it is an artificial salt by far of a lesser efficacy made out of five parts of mans urine one part of common salt and half a part of wood soot being boyled together and evaporated to a consistence This sort of salt is stronger than any of the others consisting of a dense fire closely knit with air and incorporated with a watered earth Vitriol is known in several sorts 1. There is Hungary or Cyprian Vitriol of a sky colour like unto a Saphir compact like Ice and dry 2. Is of a greenish colour concreased in grains or crums like unto common salt but withal or somewhat unctious 3. White Vitriol like unto loaf-sugar Vitriol may justly be censured half a metal it consisting of the same course parts of which Iron and Copper do consist of It contains much earth mixt with a dense fire VII The unctious and bituminous bodies generated and cast forth by the earth are Sulphur Arsenick Amber Naptha Peteroil Asphaltos Oyl of earth Sea-coal and Gagates or Jeat stone Sulphur is an unctious juyce of the earth concreased within a particular matrix and consisting of dense fire inhering in a loose
incrassated air Arsenick comprehends three sorts 1. Is yellow and is otherwise named Auripigmentum 2. Being red is called Sandaracha 3. Is singularly named Arsenick or crystalline Arsenick being of a whitish colour Their body is constituted out of a most dense fire united to a thick air from this extreme density of fire it happens to be of that corrosive and venomous nature that it proves an immediate poyson to man because through its intense dense heat it extracts expels and suffocates his natural heat in which respect it is but little less corruptive and hot than focal fire Of these three sorts Arsenick is counted the least caustick and malignant the next Auripigmentum Amber is known by three sorts 1. There is that which is particularly called Amber 2. Is called Succinum 3. Is whitish Amber otherwise called Sperma Ceti Whether there is any black Amber is doubted Some do affirm it as having seen it A mistake certainly either they took Jeat or some other substance made out of Musk Lign Aloes Styrax and Ladanum for it Grayish Amber otherwise called Ambergreece is thought to be the purest smoothest and of the best Sent. Succinum is of two sorts viz. white and yellow Spermaceti is by many deemed to be found supernatant atop the Sea who assert it to be rather the Seed of a Whale if so then it must have been generated in their Stomacks or Throats some having found some quantity sticking in their Throats but this doth more probably argue that it was supernatant atop the Sea and devoured by the Whale But for what I know this may be a Story nevertheless it is certain it hath been gathered in the Indian and AEthiopian Seas near to the Shore where Whales have scarcely ever appeared Neither can I imagine this to be that which ancient Physitians called the Flower of Salt there being too great a difference between their Descriptions Flower of Salt is described to be reddish and liquid and to be of a detergent Nature and saltish tast whereas the other is a white furfuraceous famess being of an emollient Nature and of a fat tast and in all particulars directly contrary Ambergreece happens to be supernatant upon the Sea and some Fountaines too from being communicated by the earth in bituminous and lixivious exbalations and exalted and purified by the motion and subliming faculty of the Sea coagulated atop through the exhaling of the hotter spirits and concreased by the ambient coldness The Succinum or common Amber wanting that exaltation and sublimation is found in Germany and Italy in Mines to be of an inferiour nature It is also gathered from the Sea The Spirits of Amber are rare and subtil consisting of a thick ayry body Naphtha and Peteroyl differ from Amber in consistency and greater quantity of fire and air these being liquid and more inflammable but in all other particulars agreeing Peteroyl and Naptha having oft been found to lodge in liquid substances within the body of common Amber Naptha is gathered in great quantity about Babylon the earth there being so tempered with the peregrine Elements that it protrudes abundance of this kind of Bitumon Peteroyl is most frequently collected flowing out of Rocks Asphaltus is a hard black and splendent Bitumen like unto shining Pitch heavy and of a strong Sent. It is gathered swimming atop of Lakes in other places it is taken out of the Earth near to its Surface The Mare mortuum in Judaea affords the best and greatest quantity This is different from the others through its containing a greater proportion of Earth and greater density of Fire As Peteroyl flowes out of the Rocks so doth Oyl of Earth out of the Earth and Hils in some parts of East-India It is of a transparent Red and a strong Sent like unto Peteroyl but more pleasing The vertues of all these Bitumens excepting Arsenick are praysed for their emollient discutient comforting the Brain the Nerves and Membranes thence healing wounds by comforting the calidum innatum of the said parts when wounded and for their anodine nature thence giving ease to the Joynts in Arthritical pains all which they perform through a Subtil and Balsamick Spirit Sea-coal is called by the Latinists Carbo Petrae and Terra Ampelitis notwithstanding the latter name denotes a thing somewhat distinct from the former in that it is more bituminous and less hard The other is nothing but Earth and Sulphur concocted and conglutinated into a stonish substance and is no where ingendred but where the Earth is hollow and foecundated with store of a sulphureous Bitumen Gagates or Jeat is a Bitumen of a more concocted body and more sulphureous The Proverb speaks it to be very black It is kindled and burnes assoon as Brimstone if toucht by fire and gives a Bituminous Scent It s vertue is the same with other Bitumens VIII Besides these there are some other mean bodies generated within the Earth which are neither Metals or Saline or unctious Juyces they are not so hard nor so much concocted as Metals neither are they so loose and rare as Saline and Unctious Bodies They are particularly these Mercury Antimony Marcasita Cobaltum Chalcitis Misy and Sory The first we have treated of above The next is Marcasita otherwise Bismuthum which is a heavy hard brittle whitish body shining within with little points of Gold and Silver It s Matter is too course to generate Gold or Silver but is as it were the Dross of them both and is separated from them as a Natural Excrement which is concocted into a Body of a courser Substance Its Spirits are more dense and Earth is more in proportion Water less This hath endued the Nature of Venom because of its dense heat You are not to conceive that this is only an Excrement of Gold and Silver but that it is also a perfect body primarily generated out of the same proportion of the Elements within a proper Matrix and therefore is to be found in Mines where there is no sign of Gold or Silver It is repercutient from its earth dissolving and detergent from its dense fire if applied externally It s water is a very potent dissolvent of Gold and Silver Cobaltum otherwise called Natural Cadmia is the courser Body or Excrement of Copper It is weighty and of a black colour It s fire is extreamly dense in such a manner that it is thence rendered to be the strongest Poyson It s caustick and corroding quality penetrates so violently through the Gloves and Shoes of the Diggers that it ulcerates their hands and feet Chalcitis Misy and Sory differ from one another in courseness of Substance and are oft found to grow one atop the other Chalcitis is like Copper and brittle in consistency of courseness it is between Sory which is thinner and Misy which is somewhat thicker then it Misy is of a Brass colour glistering through its body with Sparks like Gold growing about Chalcitis like an outermost Crust or like Rust about
Iron Sory is a Mineral hard and thick like to a Stone glistering with yellowish Sparks These three are of a causting quality thereby burning Scars and Crusts into the Flesh besides they are somewhat adstringent Misy is the strongest and Sory is the next to it in strength Antimony is a Mineral of a blewish colour shining throughout its Body like Streeks of Silver its mixture is out of course earth and dense fire yet less dense then any of the foregoing It s vertue is internally vomitive and purgative externally it is discutient detergent and adstringent All these are natural recrements of Metals yet not recrements alone as I said before Bombast and his Sectators analyze all Metals and Minerals into Sal Sulphur and Mercury as if they were all generated out of these as their first Principles for say they our Art instructs us to reduce every Metal or Mineral into each of those foresaid Principles Either this is to be understood that it is possible to reduce all Minerals really into Sal Sulphur Mercury or into some certain more concected beings analogal to them Generally they seem to pretend to educe real Mercury out of all Minerals but as for the others they are only analogal Why should they more expect to extract real Mercury then real Salt or Sulphur Wherefore it will be more consisting with Reason to conclude them all equally analogal that is like in consistency to ordinary Mercury Sal and Sulphur but not in effects It is a Madness for any one to imagine that Gold is constituted by the same Mercury but more concocted that is usually digged out of Mines and that Mercury is convertible into Gold if thereunto intended by a strong concocting preparation They might as well say that Gut-Excrements were convertible into Flesh and that flesh consisted out of the said real Excrements The Case is thus Mercury is by them accounted to be an Excrement of Metals wherefore as an Excrement is a Body really different from those bodies from which it is rejected and in no wise convertible unless it be some of the purest parts of it that have escaped natures Diligence so neither is Mercury any part of Metals nor convertible into them unless it be the smallest purest parts which had fled the earths Metalliferous quality Possibly you will Object that Gold feeds upon Mercury and Mercury upon it wherefore they are convertible into one anothers Nature I deny the Antecedence for Gold is dissolved and destroyed by it as appears in Amalgamation or dissolving Gold by the fume of Mercury ergo it is not fed by it Mercury effects no less in the Body of man for it dissolves his humid parts yea his solid parts too as Mercurial Salivations testifie All which is a sufficient Argument to induce us to forbear from explaining the Causes of Natural Beings by Sal Sulphur Mercury Probably you reply That this is not the meaning of Bombast who intended these Names only to be analogal to those things vulgarly so called Wherefore by Mercury is understood a thin pure liquor by Sulphur a subtil Spirit by Salt the gross substance of a Body I Answer Either you must take these for first Principles or for mixt bodies they cannot be the first because his Mercury is constituted out of water reduced from its greatest hardness into a subtil fluor through admixture of Air and Fire His Sulphur consists of fire condensed by Earth and of Air ergo they must be mixt Bodies if so they are no first Principles of Metals because even these are reducible into more simple bodies viz. his Mercury into thick water a thin air and a rare fire Sulphur into air fire c. This I will grant them that all Metals are dissolveable into such kinds of analogal Substances which are not bodies less mixt but only changed into bodies of several consistencies viz. thick and thin course and fine CHAP. II. Of Stones and Earths 1. A Description of the most Precious Stones 2. A Description of the less Precious Stones that are engendred within Living Creatures 3. A Description of the less Precious Stones that are engendred without the Bodies of Living Creatures 4. An Enumeration of common stones 5. A Disquisition upon the vertues of the forementioned stones An Observation on the Effects of Powders composed out of Precious stones Whether the Tincture of an Emerald is so admirable in a bloudy Flux 6. A particular Examination of the vertues of a Bezoar stone Piedra de Puerco Pearles c. 7. The Kinds of Earth and their Vertues I. OUr Method hath led us to propose the Demonstration of universal Natures before that of particulars and that of Metals before the other of imperfect Minerals and Stones as being more excellent through their perfection of mixture wherefore we have next allotted this Chapter for the treatise of the particular natures of Stones Stones are either known under the name of most Precious less Precious or Common The most Precious Stones are ordinarily called Jewels being 18 in number 1. An Agathe 2. An Amethist 3. An Asterites 4. A Beril 5. A Carbuncle 6. A Chalcedonie 7. A Chrysolite 8. A Diamond 9. An Emerald 10. A Jaspis 11. An Jacinth 12. An Onyx 13. A Ruby 14. A Sarda 15. A Saphir 16 A Sardonix 17. A Topaze 18. A Turcois An Agathe is a stone of divers mixt colours and in no wise transparent An Asterites is a stone somewhat resembling Crystal and within the Moon when she is at full An Amethist is a stone of a Violet colour A Beril is of a Sea-green colour and sometimes is found to have other colours mixt with it A Prase is not unlike to it only that it is not of so deep a green neither so hard for it wears away by much usage A Carbuncle is esteemed for the most precious of all Stones and is of a Gold or Flaming colour It is said that there is a kind of a Carbuncle called a Pyrope to be found in the East-Indies which shines as bright in the Night as the Sun doth in the Day A Chalcedonie is a stone of a Purple colour A Chrysolite is of a Golden colour hard and transparent A Chrysoprase is hard and of a greenish colour A Diamond is thought to be the hardest of all Stones An Emerald is hard and of a perfect green colour A Jaspis is of a greenish colour sported here and there with bloudy Spots An Jacinth is of a Gold or flaming colour Some of them decline from a Yellow to a deep Saffron red or sometimes to a blewish colour They are neither perspicuous or opake but between both An Onyx is of a brownish white but of a dull transparency An Opale stone is by Pliny Lib. 37. c. 6 accounted for the best and rarest of Stones as participating of the rarest Colours of the rarest Stones its fire is more subtil then of a Carbuncle shining with a Purple of an Amethist greenish like to the Sea-green of an
we are to apply it as it relates to the other Elements and is the proper cause of her Commerce with them Water although appearing fluid yet naturally that is absolutely conceived by it self is void of all fluor but partakes of the greatest weight hardness crassitude smoothness and consistency that is imaginable I prove it Water the more it is remote from the intense heat of the Sun the more heavy thick hard smooth and consistent it is Have you not Mountains of Ice of great weight thickness c. in Greenland in the Summer much more in the Winter yet more directly under the Poles and most of all if apprehended absolute by it self and deprived from extrinsick air and fire when we cannot but judge it to be of the greatest weight thickness and consistency that is apprehensible The Scripture seems to attest the same Job 38. And the waters are hid as with a stone and the face of the deep is frozen By the deep here is meant the Chaos ergo the waters were naturally at their first creation thick and hard Lastly As there are two fluid Elements viz. fire and air So it is also necessary that they should be balanced and met with two opposite consistent ones namely Earth and Water The first being contiguous and hard responds to fire the other being continuous and hard responds to air being continuous and soft Whence we may safely conclude that it is the advent of the fire together with the air that renders the water thus thin and fluid as we see it is II. How Water first gained such a body together as the Sea is our exposition of the worlds creation will advise you The Sea is the greatest collection of water by the Latinists it is called Mare from Meare to go or to flow and not from amarum or the word Marath among the Caldeans signifying bitter as some have thought so it is likewise called Oceanus the Ocean from Ocior amnis a swift current It procures various distinctions from its beating against several shores from those of the East and West India it is surnamed the East and West Indian Ocean of the Mount Atlas the Atlantick Ocean from those of Sarmatia the Sarmatick Ocean near Madagascar the rough Sea from the quicksands that are frequently thereabout of Spain and Brittain the Spanish and Brittish Ocean c. And from the Plage whence it doth flow it is called the East West South or North Ocean The same spreads it self into many particular Seas or great Bayes whereof these are the more principal 1. The Mediterranean Sea so named because it flows through the middle of two great parts of the Earth viz. between a great part of Europe Africa and Asia Or more particularly between Spain France Italy Dalmatia Greece and Natolia of the one side and AEgypt and Barbary of the other Where it toucheth the Spanish coast it is called the Iberick sea and more forward the French Balearick Ligustick near Genoa Tyrrhenian or Tuscan about Sicily Sardinian Sicilian Adriatick Cretick Libyan Phoenicean Cyprian Syriack sea c. its mouth is called the Straits 2. Pontus Euxinus the Euxian sea otherwise named the black sea or Mare Majus whose mouth is called the Hellespont from its narrowness its throat Propontis and the Thracian Bosphor so called from bos an Oxe as if an Oxe were too big to pass through that narrowness 3. The Arabian and Persian sea 4. The Gangetican sea so named from the river Ganges which is disburdened into it 5. The Red sea deriving that name not from the colour of the Sea but of the red sand over which it floweth The Baltick Sea alias the Sinus Coddanus or Suevick Sea from the Suevi a Nation that formerly inhabited those coasts at the mouth it is called the Sound flowing 150 leagues far between Denmark Finland Sueden Prussia Liefland Pomerania and Saxony The pacifick sea is so called from the gentleness of the waves or the South sea because it lyeth to the Southward of the Line limited by the coasts of Asia America and terra Australis or the Country of Megallan III. A Lake is a great and perennal collection of water cirrounded by the Earth whereby it is cut off from the Sea It is distinguisht from a Pool in that the one is perennal the other is apt to be dryed up sometime by the heat of the Sun and driness of the earth and to be filled up again with rain Some of these being famous for their extent others for their admirable qualities I shall willingly insert 1. The greatest Lake in the Universe is the Caspian sea in Asia otherwise called the great sea the Albanian Hircanian Pontick Tartarian Sea the Sea of Sala Bachu Abachu Terbestan or Giorgian It diffuseth it self into three Bayes or Gulph viz. near the Mouth into the Hircanian on the right side into the Caspian and on the left side into the Scytick Gulph It bears the name of a Sea very improperly since it is incompassed by the Earth Nevertheless it is saltish and full of fish 2. The Lake Asphaltites in Judaea otherwise called the dead Sea from its immobility because as Corn. Tacit. relates that scarce any wind be it never so violent is strong enough to lift it up into Waves is noted for sustaining weighty bodies especially if anointed with Alume water that are cast into it in a manner that a man his hands and legs being tyed and cast into it shall swim it breeds no fish nor any other living creatures The Lake of the lesser Armenia and the Lake Aposcidamus in Africa and of Sicily are almost of the same strength On the contrary the Lake Avernum in Campania and that of AEthiopia are unable to sustain the weight of a leaf fallen into them from a tree and according to Pliny there is no fowl that flies over them but falleth dead into them There is a Lake near Lerna and another in Portugal which are so attractive and depressing that they do immediately draw and press down to the bottom whatever is cast into them in such a manner that a man having thrust his hand into either must use force to draw it out again Pomponius Mela and Solinus make mention of a Lake in AEthiopia which to the eye appearing crystalline and sweet to the pallat doth so besmear those that bath in it as if they had been duckt into a bath of oyl In the west of the Isle of Iseland travellers have discovered a great Lake fumous very cold in a short space changing whatever is cast into it into a stonish or rockish body a stick being thrust right up into the bottom that part which is under water is in two daies changed into an Iron substance the other above remaining what it was Hect. Boeth writes of another in Ireland which after some months renders that part of a stick that is thrust into the ground Iron the other part that is under water fliuty the upper part
moulded and compressed up into all those great mountains which we see every where about the Sea-shores and into all those great Banks and Rocks which Sea-men do meet withall every where yea some being stuffed up a great way from the shore as witness many Ships that have run aground in the Atlantick Ocean above 60 80 or 100 Leagues from the shore likewise a great banke lying off the Cape of St. Austin and extended near 70 Leagues long Lastly A great part of the receding earth was cast up into great and small Islands especially those numerous ones in the East and West Indies Let us then suppose those said small Isles together with the great ones of the East Indies to be accompanied with great and large banks or shelves whereof some are visible others not This supposition must needs force another from us viz. That the waters passing from West by the North to the East are retarded and partly stopt by the said Isles shelves or banks In the mean time during this retardation and partial stoppage the waters flowing from East by the South to West do decurre decrease and evacuate themselves unto the west grove untill such a degree that they are run off as low as possible at which time the other is at its highest and then they overflow the borders of the Eastern shelves and free themselves from the retention of the Isles by which means the Eastern grove begins to fill and encrease whose swift decurrence of waters being stopt and retarded by the Western borders and banks fils up until high water This discourse may seem strange to you since the waters are never visibly stopt by any shelves or banks these alwaies lying covered but were it so that they proved a stoppage it must be imagined they should lye dry Hereunto I answer That supposing the waters to move from underneath they arriving at a deep grove must needs be retarded through its shelving sides as being against their natural inclination to move upwards This retardation of the water on the bottom of the grove must necessarily cause the waters atop to swell and become turgid or tumide ever framing a round figure atop which is a certain sign denoting the grove to be of a parabolical figure This tumefaction the Ancients did abusively term an exestuation as if proceeding from a fermentation within the water The water underneath being depressed on the bottom of the grove according to its greatest capacity and having withall elevated the waters atop to their greatest height doth now begin to strive to clime up the shelves of the grove being thereunto moved through its own force continuated against the Earth but reflected by the same upwards and propelled by the succeding parts of the water as also compressed and squeezed by the greatest weight of the waters atop lying upon them which compressing is much augmented by the great force of the air and fire bearing against the water and earth for to gain the Center Whence the waters do now begin to flow over the banks of the said shelves making a tumefaction and gradually a high water wherever it comes and so evacuating it self out of one great grove into another happens to cause a low and high water in the Ocean Hence now you may easily collect the reasons and causes of these several properties befalling the Ocean in its diurnal course 1. Every twelve hours there appears a rising of water in either of the universal groves viz. South and North grove continuating the space of 6 hours because the bottom of either grove is 6 hours in filling out of the one into the other Likewise every 12 hours the Ocean falls for 6 hours because its water beneath is so long in evacuating it self 2. The beginning of the swelling of the Ocean is ever slow for two hours much quicker the next two for one hour before the last is quickest of all and the last moves in an equal velocity with the latter of the two first it is at its slowest a little before the pinch of high water at dead low water The beginning is slow because that part which causeth the beginning of the tumefaction of the water is weakest as being most remote from the central parts and employing its greatest force in making way and mounting over the shelves loseth its strength which it recovers when it is backt by the body or central parts of the water following it and so promoting its course with a greater swiftness And being with its whole body arrived to the bottom of the grove it doth as it were rest there for to recover its strength which doth occasion its greatest slowness the same consequently causing the greatest diminution of motion at low water in the other grove 3. High and low water of the Ocean is retarded every natural day near three quarters of an hour that is 34 â—4 2â— minutes of an hour in every single period or 12 hours because it accomplisheth but 348 degrees of the terrestrial AEquator in every 12 hours which doth want 12 degrees of its compleat circuit and before it can absolve those 12 degrees through the beginning of a new period there passeth 24 24 29 minutes of an hour which gives us the true reason of the Oceans retardation every day near three quarters of an hour This course lingring every natural day so many minutes doth in 30 periods or 15 daies stay back full 360 degrees being the total circumference of its circuit and so as it were absolves a compounded period through its retardation in 15 daies which space agreeing with the time of the Moons middle motion between her conjunction and opposition no wonder if the Ocean also agrees to be at its height at a prefixt and constant time alwaies being one and the same when the Moon her aspect is New or Full. 4. The Ocean happens to be augmented or elevated higher than ordinary every Full or New Moon because every thirtieth or middle period which ever falls accidentally but not as if only depending upon the Moon as upon her New or Full Aspect it hath acquired its greatest force of flowing whereby it drives before it and carrieth along with it a greater confluence of water than at any other season This intension of course it procures gradually more and more every period untill at last it comes to its highest after which in like manner it decreases again untill it is descended to its least remission which is upon every thirtieth circuit coincident for the most part with the Moons quarters that is the Ocean at its high water is in comparison to the high waters of the other precedent or following courses at the lowest when the Moon appears in her quarters because the force of the Oceans course is then most remitted Here we may observe the beginning of this intending or periodical compounded course to be when the Ocean moves with the least force causing the lowest high water and the highest low water which
the greatest prevailing and increase of waters would have sufficed Wherefore the words of ver 19. viz. And all the Hills that were under the whole heaven were covered are to be understood only of all the hills that were covered by the whole heaven described by their Horizon And still in the popular speech when we say the whole heaven we mean no more than the Horizon that is as far as we can see round about us II. Next let us consider the manner of this great Deluge 1. It was not caused through the irruption of the Ocean into the earth because then the said Deluge would have been extreamly sudden viz. in six hours time the floud must have brought in the waters and it must have left a large Gulph where it brake in Neither was the Sea high enough to have made such an assault 2. The beginning of it was taken as the Text holds forth v. 11 12. From the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep and the opening of the windows of heaven and the violent rain These sudden impetuous tempests must needs have caused a great astonishment and anguish upon those who had so justly deserved The breaking up of the Fountains were the bursting of the peregrin Elements contained within the bowels of the earth especially of water air and fire out of the great deep that is the vast Mediterranean Sea by men of that Age called and accounted the great deep The great occasion of this bursting out of the waters were 1. The heavy innixe of earth in the shallows of the Mediterranean pressing the waters underneath from its Center 2. The air and fire forced through the earth of the said shallows to pass to their own Element 3. The tearing winds sent down through the opening of the windows of heaven which piercing the pores of the earth contributed not a little to the stirring up of the air and fire contained within the earth and to the vibration of the terrestrial Mass. 4. The impetuous showers of rain breaking down and dividing the earth Through this tempest the waters of the Mediterranean got above the earth and a great proportion of the tract of air brake into the earth having so fair an opportunity as at the nick of bursting to get nearer to the Center But being inclosed by water separated from its Element was by the potent compression of the said water forced to return whereby the waters must necessarily be much tumefied listed up and cast out of their mole whence they were constrained to float over the earth but the air being most returned the rain restrained and the winds directed to pass over the earth the waters setled and retired into their Cavern leaving the earth very much disposed to germination of plants and so the stopping up of the Fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven was accomplished III. Not many years after there hapned another deluge somewhat less than the former caused through the bursting up of those waters that now constitute the Mare majus or Euxiun Sea and the Lake Maeotis Some hundred years after another deluge came upon Persia and Tartary by the bursting up of the Hircanian or Caspian Sea The West-Indians have successively retained in their memory a great Inundation which they imagine was universal came upon them through the bursting up of the Lake Haneygaban or Perime in Guiana Through these before-mentioned deluges a great part of the Island Cea half of the Town Tyndarida in Sicily Acarnania being drowned in the Gulph of Ambracia and Achaia in the Gulph of Corinsh and other great Countries must have been swallowed up and laid even with the bottom of the said waters as likewise hapned to Pyrrha Antissa Elice Bura and many other places others must have appeared through the thrusting up of that Land in whose stead the waters succeeded This occasioned the new appearances of Delos and Rhodus of Nea situated between Lemnus and the Hollespont of Abone Thera Therasia Hiera and Anaphe IV. Through the said discontinued and unequal bursting up of the waters and breaking of the land Sicily was separated from Italy Cyprus from Syria Besby from Bithynia Atlas and Macria from Euboea Euboea from Boeotia Leucosta from the Sirenian Promontory and many other Islands comprehended within the Mediterranean from the Continent Likewise have many Sea port Towns in Europe been separated from the Continent as witness many Ships that have run a ground upon their steeples and houses Thus in the year 1421 many Towns and Villages of Holland and Freezland were swallovved up by the Sea and the Sea-men to this day are forced to take notice vvhere such and such of their Tovvns vvere drovvned for fear of inhabiting them again The vvaters through their pressing vveight do sometimes decline from one place vvhich they then leave dry to another vvhere they have moulded a deeper Cavern by such an occasion vvere the Islands of Antissa left dry and so united to the Continent of Lesbos Zephyrius to Halicarnassus Ethuso to Mindus Dromiscon and Peres to Miletus Narthecusa to the Parthenian Promontory Hybanda Epidaurus Magnesia and Oricon to the Continent The same hath arrived to many other places namely that some part of a shore hath been deserted through the Seas declination as hapned to the Country about Ambracia Ephesus the Plain of Arabia and above Memphis as far as the AEthiopian Mountains having been all over covered by the Sea in such a manner that Ships vvhich had been cast avvay upon the sands near to that shore vvere after some hundreds of years found some miles off from the Sea deeply covered vvith earth by length of time cast upon them partly from the adjacent hills by the vvind and partly by the heaving up of the sand through the seas diurnal Tides Hence vve may easily knovv vvhence that Mast came that vvas found vvith a Pulley to it sticking out of the top of one of the steep hills of Spitsberg in Greenland near vvhere they usually fish for Whales Before I go further I must convince those of their mistake that state Earthquakes the occasion of the disappearance of some Islands and appearance of others formed through the violent and unequal bursting up of earth 1. Let them take notice that Earthquakes are fresh enough in mens memories in the West-Indies and those great ones too yet they never or very seldom have protruded any Islands there neither is their eruption large enough for to compass such an effect 2. Earthquakes happen most through the Earths belching up of wind that hapned to be inclosed vvithin her belly but it is impossible that a wind should drown a Country or raise an Island Possibly you may reply That together with a wind there oft bursteth out a floud of water I grant it and what is this else but a Deluge Thus many Towns and Villages in Holland and Friesland have been formerly swallowed up by such deluges as their great Lakes are still testimonies of and
salin ones IV. Sents are materiated out of the subtiller parts of the matter effecting tastes wherefore all waters that are discernable by tastes emit their subtiller parts for sents but of this abundantly before whither I must direct my Reader V. Ice is water congealed or incrassated indurated or rather reduced to its natural state That which congeales the water or reduces it to its natural state is the absence or expulsion of those Elements that render it fluid viz. fire and air These are expelled by frosty minima's falling down from the Poles and compressing or squeezing them both out of the body of water whence it is also that all waters swell through the frost viz. through their repletion with the said minima's These are nothing but Unites or points of earth adunited to so many unites of water freed within their body from all air and fire and detruded from the Polars towards the earth whither they are vigorously forced down in a very close order into the Surface of the waters where arriving they press out the air and fire which being expelled the superficial parts of the water cleave naturally to one another about those frosty minima's The first beginning of a frost is taken from the first decidence of frosty minima's which in their passing cause a vehement compression and lighting upon our tact make us give them the name of cold because they compress our external parts with a smart continuous compression thence falling upon the water if in a smal quantity only do thicken it a little if in a greater do forcibly expel the air and fire which being expelled a concretion of the water near its Surface must naturally follow If now it grows no colder and that these minima's fall in no greater quantity the Ice continues at a stand but if otherwise then it proceeds to a greater induration and a larger concretion And the deeper the waters do thicken the more acute the cold must be or the greater quantity of acute and dense minima's must follow for to further and continuate the said concretion because unless they are acuter than the former they will not be minute enough to pass the small porosities remaining in the Surface of the Ice Ice swimmeth atop the water as long as it freezeth not because it is less weighty for it is heavier but because its continuity and concretion together with the support of the air tending from the ground of the waters towards its own Element do detain it When it thawes the Ice sinks down because it is somewhat discontinued and melted and by reason of the same proportion of air descending and bearing down upon it that was ascended before Notwithstanding the thaw people do oft complain of a great cold two or three daies after and especially in their feet which is nothing else but the same frosty minima's repassing out of the earth and water towards the Element of air for to give way to the melting entring air and fire The frosty minima's that begin to fall with a red Evening sky denoting the clearness of the air and passage do oft bring a furious cold with them because finding no obstruction they fall very densely and acutely upon us but those that fall through a cloudy air seldom cause violent colds because they are partly detained by the same clouds Hence it is that most Countries that are beset with water as Islands peninsuls c. and thence attain to a nebulous air are warmer than other Countries although the former be remoter from the Ecliptick than these because their clouds obstruct and detain a part of the frosty minima's and break the rest in their motion downwards Whence it is also that England is less cold in the Winter than most parts of France or Germany although both are of a less Northern declination than it The same clouds do likewise in the Summer break the violence of the fiery minima's descending whence it is also less hot here than in the forementioned places no wonder then if Geographers do so much extoll this Island for the temperature of its Climate VI. This language is supplied with a very apt distinction of frosts viz. a black frost a gray and a white frost The first of these is felt to be of the greatest fury insomuch that if it proveth for any time lasting it deads the roots of young plants and old trees kills all Vermine and penetrates through the very periostium of Animals and depth of Rivers It derives its violence from the extream number of the descending frosty minima's whose density makes the Skies even look black again A gray frost is between a black and white one consisting likewise of a dense proportion of descending minima's A white frost is the incrassation of vapours in the lowermost region of the air Among these a black frost is of the least continuance because the frosty minima's tumbling down in such vast quantities are soon purged out of the air Here may be inquired why a frost usually begins and ends with the change of the Moon For solving of this you must observe that the causes of the decidence are 1. Their great number 2. Their congregating or congress Touching the first unless their number is proportionable to bore and press through the clouds and resistance of the air they are uncapable of descension for to cause a congelation and although their number be great and dispersed they are nevertheless retained through the over-powering of the clouds Wherefore it is necessary a great quantity should be united into heaps and so make their way through To these principal causes add this adjuvant one viz. The compression of the Moon she at her changes driving the frosty minima's more forcibly towards the Poles through which impulsion they are withal thrusted one upon the other and united into a body whence it is that they at those times do oft take their beginning of decidence Again the Moon near the same terms impelling the clouds and thick air thither doth prove as frequent an occasion of dispersing those frosty minima's especially if much diminished of their body through preceding decidencies Moreover these frosty minima's although they are sometimes broken dispersed in their decidence through the said impulses yet sometimes they do recover a body and make a new irruption downwards And thence it is that oft times a frost holds for a day or two then thaws for as long and afterwards returns to freezing again VII In the next place I am to set down the original and rice of these frosty minima's You may easily apprehend that the Sun in the Torrid Zone and somewhat in the temperate one doth dayly raise a vast number and quantity of vapours consisting of most water then air next fire and earth which through the diurnal motion of the air are carried along from East to West And through daily successions of new vapours they are compelled to detrude their preceding ones towards the Poles whither they seem
motion much more air whose fluidity and coherence is much more disposed to a circular motion 2. Fire is a contiguous body but that moves circularly ergo air much more because it is continuous 3. The uppermost clouds are alwaies observed to move circularly ergo the air that doth contain them 4. Comets whereof some are seated near to the extremity of the supream Region of the air do move circularly ergo the air must also move circularly III. Against the airs circular motion may be objected that the clouds swimming in the air like a ship in the water are carried about with the air but the said clouds do move variously sometimes Eastward Southward or Northward c. Ergo the air is also various in its motions I answer 1. That the clouds only near the Polars are various in their motion which variety is only befalling the inferiour clouds Herein it bears a resemblance to the motion of water near the Polars varying although but accidentally from the course of the Ocean Besides that there is a difference in motion between the superiour middle and inferiour clouds is manifest by the Moons light about her quarters disclosing the inferiour clouds to move one way and those above another way 2. The clouds do oft stream against the tide of the air as you shall read by and by 3. The clouds in the torrid Zone namely the superiour ones are very uniform in their motion constantly floating from East to West IV. The air taking its beginning of circular motion underneath about the Center the Globe constituted by the weighty Elements must needs be thought to be its Axletree whereupon it moves Its Poles must be corresponding to the North and South extremities of the said Globe which together with the Axis are doubtless immoveable and consequently must only be apprehended in the earth because that alone is immoveable Here observe that the air in the torrid Zone moves swiftest because it is equidistant from its Poles and hath the most space to accomplish Where it is near the Poles its motion is of the least vigour and nearest seems to be immoveable V. The proportion of the Element of air to the Element of fire is the same as water is to earth Because air is the same in its respective nature comparatively to fire that water is to earth for as water is a continuous heavy body immediately superadded to earth being of a contiguous weight so is air a continuous light substance annext to fire being of a contiguous levity wherefore then the same reason infers air to have the same proportion to fire that water hath to earth Hence we must conclude that the profundity of the tract of air is much larger than it is stated by vulgar Astronomists and the profundity of fire much less than it is computed by the same phantasticks Otherwise it would seem an improportion and disorder in the Elements not to be supposed The profundity of the air we may aptly distinguish into three equal Sections or Regions 1. The first or supream is constituted by air most infested by fire 2. The middle Region is where the air is lightest and thinnest and enjoys its greater purity 3. The third Region comprehends those thick visible clouds I will begin with the description of the first Region As far as the uppermost Region of water is attenuated by the air so far considering the diversity of proportion is the air also rarefied by fire and as the air doth press down to the bottom of the waters even so doth the fire in it strive for the Center to the extream depth of air but is much more in proportion in the supream Region The middle Region is purest in her own parts because of the equidistance from her neighbouring Elements but is nevertheless somewhat nubilous The lower Region is as much incrassated with clouds or vapours concreased and reduced from its extream tenuity as the waters are attenuated and reduced from their extream crassitude to that degree of Attenuation through air Because those parts of water whose places are replenisht with others of air must recede into the air for to place themselves somewhere Against this discourse Nonius lib. de crep Alhazen lib. 3. perspect Vitell. li. 10. Pr. 60. and others may seem to set themselves as appears by their demonstrations although obscure enough inferring the tract of air not to exceed 25 Leagues in profundity because Comets being generated in the air and keeping their station there do seldom or never clime up higher But on the contrary will they assert the Maculae or spots of the Moon which doubtless are aerial and near to the supream region of the air and other clouds that seem not to be far distant from the Moon to be no higher than 25 Leagues An absurdity Neither are Comets so near some appearing but little lower than the Moon some higher others in the same degree of Altitude so that Comets if any while durable are not seated in the air but in the Region of fire because they move from East to West with the same swiftness that other lucid bodies do that are contained in the fiery Region CHAP. XV. Of the production of Clouds 1. What a cloud is how generated its difference How a Rainbow is produced Whether there appeared any Rainbows before the Floud 2. The generation of Rain 3. How Snow and Hail are engendred 4. The manner of generation of Winds 5. The difference of winds Of Monzones Provincial winds general winds c. Of the kinds of storms and their causes What a mist and a dew are I. Nubes a cloud is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to swim because a cloud seems to swim in the air A Cloud is an aerial body engendred out of air incrassated by water and somewhat condensed by earth Its kinds are very various differing in mixture magnitude equality colour situation and motion Some appear disrupted discontinuated others intire uniform Some are great others small some even flat hollow unequal others are black red blew brown luminous dark others of various colours reflecting Rainbows Some are situated in the North South c. Others move uniformly difformly swift slow Eastward Westward c. Their generation is thus the air and fire irrupting incessantly into the earth and water are after their arrival thither shut in and cut off from their bodies and being violently compressed from all sides are forced by the over-powring of the weighty Elements to return to their former region whereunto they after some contention do yield yet not without carrying away a measure of water and earth closely adhering to them These retroceding particles as they come out give entrance to other air attempting an irruption with its body whereby they are elevated continually untill they are arrived to that part of the Region of the air where it is least infested with the fiery Element Here the air finding it self strongest and least oppressed
Suns continual torrid beams and the multitude of waters underneath It is reported that in the Northern Countries winds are sometimes so furious that they cast horse and man down to the ground and in Tartary the winds blow so violently though in the Summer that there is no travelling at such times Likewise about China and Japan tempests are out ragious beyond belief Tercera one of the Azores or Flemish Islands suffers such violences from winds that the bars of Iron that are fastned to the houses although of the thickness of an arm or two are grinded away to the smalness of wier and holes are eaten into the Rocks about the said Island of the bigness of a horse through such tempestuous winds 5. Statarian winds rage commonly every Fryday in the Indies insomuch that Ships are provided with an Anchor more on that day on the Sunday it groweth calm again It will not be amiss to add the cause of the variation of winds perceived by Ships that are in sight of one another and why the wind at Sea differs oft a point or two from the wind at Land viz. Because the wind bursting out low doth reflect against the tumour of the Sea interjected between the two ships or against the Promontories and Hills of the Lands reflecting the wind some larger others narrower The Seas grow oft very turbulent and incensed 1. Through the eruption of winds descending from above and piercing through their body which they raise into high waves by their swelling and strife of passing 2. The said winds do raise other winds and flatuosities within the body of waters partly out of their own substance and partly out of their mud The Sea is much more disposed to disturbations in some places than others As off the Cape of Good Hope likewise between China and Japan where Sea-men oft are forced to pawn their ships and lives to the Ocean CHAP. XVI Of Earthquakes together with their Effects and some strange instances of them 1. What an Earthquake is The manner of its generation The Coucomitants thereof 2. The kinds and differences of Earthquakes 3. The proof of the generation of Earthquakes 4. Their Effects upon the air I. SInce we have lately discoursed upon eruptions of incrassated air out of the clouds we shall next insert a few words touching the eruption of incrassated air out of the Earth whose egress causeth that which we call an Earthquake and is nothing else but the trembling of the earth ordinarily following or preceding the bursting thereof through subterraneous winds vio ently breaking forth The manner of its production is thus A proportion of air and water being lodged in a Cavern underground is further attenuated into subterraneous clouds thence into vapours and thence into incrassated air through fiery minims entring and penetrating through the pores of the Earth whereupon the earth pressing strongly suffers a diruption in the same manner as we see a bottle filled with water being close stopt and exposed to the fire is broke through the force of incrassated air or attenuated and rarefied water within Whence we observe these concomitants to be necessary in an Earthquake 1. A strange great noise 2. A trembling of the Earth 3. A great blast 4. A spouting out of water 5. Sometimes an unequal discontinuation and excavation of the Earth 6. Sometimes a flame II. The kinds of Earthquakes are taken 1. from their effects and manner of motion some causing a shaking or quaking of the earth named by some an Inclination by Aristotle a Tremor through which houses walls or other buildings are weakened in their foundation and thence are occasioned to fall down thus many Cities of Asia in the fifth year of Tiberius of Bithynia near the extream passion of our Saviour the City Nyssena Bâle and particularly Ferrarae a City in Italy were demolished this last was surprized on Martins day in the year 1570 beginning about ten a clock at night with most terrible sounds as if the City had been battered with great pieces of Ordnance next a very horrible shaking or trembling followed raising all the Citizens out of their beds putting them to their beads pouring out their prayers thrice louder than ordinary and forcing them to quit the City and to behold the ruine of their houses in the fields The Palace of the Duke and other great buildings yielded to this violence many were frighted out of their lives others killed through these prodigious accidents not ceasing before the next day at night No less were the Citizens of Constantinople amazed by those most raging Earthquakes in nothing less terrible than the former described by Agath lib. 5. de la guerre Gothique The strange kinds of noises sounds thunder whistling howling cracking that were then perceived are incredible Campania in the time of the Consulship of L. Cornelius and Q. Minutius was infested with a trembling for many daies together Many do write of such Earthquakes as these that lasted a month a year some two years but by fits I suppose In Parthia above two thousand Villages have been demolished by Earthquakes besides many others in Sicily in the 16th year of Charles the fifth in the month of April In October of the 18th year of his Reign another hapned near Puteoli in Campania Others have been observed only to cause a single elevation or puffing up of the Earth afterwards sinking down again without the appearance of any other violence and are by Aristotle named Pulses By these the earth and houses upon it have been lifted up to a great height and sunke down again without the displacing of one single stone Thus the houses of a Town in Switzerland called Friburg were twice at several times lifted up in the year 1509 once in the night the other time in the day By the same accident some houses about Burdeaux in the year 1545 in the month of August were lifted up and sunke down again into their former places Others cause a bursting and excavation of the earth swallowing up its whole Surface where it bursted with the Houses Men and Cattle upon it as when a part of the Island Lango or Coos famous for being the Country of Hippocrates was swallowed up at which time the Inhabitants were not a little amazed by an incredible thunder and fury of its commotion Camden gives a relation of a very stupendious Earthquake that befel the east part of Herefordshire in the year 1575 in March where the earth and a rocky hill called Marcley hill was removed to a far distance thence with the Trees and all the Sheep that were upon it Some other Trees were cast out of the ground whereof many fell flat upon the ground others hapned to fall into the seams of the Hill and closed as fast as if they had taken their first root there The hole which this eruption made was at least 40 foot wide and 80 yards long lasting from Saturday in the Evening untill Munday at noon Likewise a whole Town was
swallowed up in the Island AEnaria another in Thrace one in Phaeuicia beyond Sidon and another in Eubaea Others protrude a great piece of earth and cast it up into a kind of mountain but a very uneven one as for instance the mount Modernus near the Lake Avernus This sort is called Egestion Some cast forth a flame withall as hapned in the Mount Vesevus alias the Mount of Somma in Campania and the Mongibell in Sicily Earthquakes have sometimes removed two opposite fields and placed them in one anothers room as those two fields in Italy where the Marrucini were seated in the Reign of Nero. For Rivers to burst out as the River Ladon in Arcadia did and others to be stopt up by earth cast into them by such accidents is very possible Oft times Earthquakes make way for Deluges which may be also incident upon the earth at the bottom of the Sea or near to the shore or may happen to the same places without a deluge whereby the waters have been swallowed up and Ships left dry upon the shore as that which hapned in the time of Theodosius or that vvhen M. Antonius and P. Dolabella vvere Consuls leaving great heaps of fish dry upon the sands In the Reign of Emanuel there vvas a very great Earthquake perceived about Lisbon Scalabis and other Tovvns of Portugal vvhereby the vvaters of the River Tajo vvere so much diffused that the bottom appeared dry There is another kind of Earthquake called Arietation vvhen tvvo subterraneous vvinds vibrate against one another Sometimes this hapned vvithout any dammage there being some earth betvveen to hinder their conflict other times meeting in cavernous places have subverted mountains and all that vvas upon them as those mountains near Modena vvhich Pliny lib. 2. Cap. 83. relates to have been bursted against one another vvith a very hideous noise subverting many Villages and swallowing up a number of Cattel yea whole Countries and Armies have been devoured by these kinds of accidents 2. From their duration some lasting a day a week a month c. 3. From their violence some inferring little or no dammage others being contented with nothing less than ruine 4. From the sounds that accompany them being various as I have related before 5. From their places Some more frequently infesting Islands others the Continent Thus Sicily AEnaria Lucara the Moluccas Islands Tyrus Eubaea Phrygia Caria Lydia Italy and many Countries in the West-Indies have very oft been molested by Earthquakes Cold Countries as the Septentrional ones or others that are very hot as AEgypt are very seldom invaded by them 6. From their efficient some being extraordinarily raised by the Almighty out of his wrath for to punish the sons of men for their sins an instance of this we have in 2 Kings 22. Likewise that which hapned about the time of the Passion of Christ supposed by many as Didymus and others to have been universall and to have shaken the whole Earth but since Ecclesiastick Historians make no mention of it none is bound to give credit to the foresaid Supposition However beyond all dispute it was a very great one if not the greatest that ever the earth underwent Neither is Paulus Oros to be thought more authentick relating lib. 7. hist. Cap. 32. an universal Earthquake in the time of Valentinianus since the holy Scripture and Reason do tell us that the Earth is altogether immoveable 7. From the consequents viz. Some after the earths eruptions are followed by vehement winds emptying out of her others by hot boyling waters others again by damps and stinking sents also by vomiting up of stones clots of earth and other strange bodies 8. From their extent some reaching farther others nearer Thus there hapned an Earthquake in the year 1577 on the 18th day of September that began from Colmar in Switzerland and reached as far as Bern being near upon 60 miles distant c. III. Now it is requisite I should proffer proof for the forementioned causes of Earthquakes 1. I prove that they are caused by winds because they alone are of a capable force to burst out suddenly through the earth 2. Because winds bursting out of the earth do alwaies precede and consecute Earthquakes whence we may certainly collect when waters in Pits and Rivers begin to be turgid and continually raised into a great number of bubbles that an Earthquake is near at hand as appeared by the swelling and bubling of the River Po a little before the before alledged harthquake of Ferrara 2. That these winds are principally raised out of peregrin water collected within a Cavern of the earth is evident by the great spouting out of water that doth follow the eruption 3. It is further made evident in a bottle half filled with water and exposed to the fire which doth also make good to us that the Sun through its fiery minims doth press in a great proportion of air into those subterraneous waters whereby they are attenuated whence those waters that are cast forth presently after the diruption are also rendred boyling hot so that Countries remote from the energy of the Sun are seated beyond danger of having winds generated within their bowels however subterraneous fires may supply the office of the Suns beams in attenuating the waters into winds by impelling air into them whence it is that near the mount Hecla in Iseland concussions and arietations happen frequently Earthquakes are disposed to eruption in the night season as much as in the day because as the erupting force of the internal winds is intended by the Suns rarefaction so is the compressing vertue of the Earth intensed by the more potent sinking down of the air in the night being freed from the discontinuating fiery minims and by the decidence of the weighty minims inherent in the Air. The Spring and Autumn are Seasons of the year qualified for the attenuating and rarefying of the peregrin waters whence also they prove most frequent near those times Why Hills and hilly Countries are subject to tremors and concussions and other moist ones as Holland and Zealand less may easily be understood from our discourse upon the generation of Hills IV. That Earthquakes portend Famine Pestilential Feavers and other contagious diseases is believed by most Grave Authors but whence such a putrefaction causing the said distempers should arrive to the air cannot vvell be deduced from their assigning exhalations to be the causes of Earthquakes since they hold them to be hot and dry being qualities according to the Peripateticks resisting and expelling putrefaction beyond any wherefore it will be most agreeable to hold with us that it is derived from those moist damps and vapours that are the material causes of the disrupting winds CHAP. XVII Of fiery Meteors in the Air. 1. Of the generation of a Fools fire a Licking fire Helens fire Pollux and Castor a Flying Drake a burning Candle a perpendicular fire a skipping Goat flying sparks and a burning flame 2. Of the generation
of Thunder Fulguration and Fulmination and of their effects Of a thunder stone 3. Of Comets Of their production I. THose vapours that are elevated into the air oft contain no small proportion of sulphureous particles within them which if concreasing through their own positive coldness and privative coldness of the night into a low cloud Nebula in the lowermost parts of the lower Region do compress those sulphureous particles otherwise termed exhalations and distinguisht from vapours because in these water and air are predominant in the others condensed fire and incrassated air towards the Center where uniting are converted into a flame by extending the incrassated air through their condensed fire This flame possibly appears like unto a Candle playing and moving to and fro the air and thence is also called a fools fire or Ignis Fatuus seu erraticus because it proves sometimes an occasion of leading Travellers that are belated out of their Road for by their coming near to it the air is propelled which again protrudes the flame forwards and so by continuing to follow it imagining the same to be some Candle in a Town or Village are oft misled into a ditch or hole Or if they go from it when they are once come near the light will follow them because in receding they make a cavity which the next succeeding air accurs to fill up The generation of these lights is more frequent near muddy Pools Church-yards and other putrid places that abound with such sulphureous bodies The said sulphureous parts if being of a less density condensed and united by the dense wool of a mans cloathes or hair or the hairs of a Horse or Oxe and the foresaid coldnesses it takes fire at the forementioned places but flames so subtilly that it is uncapable of burning This sort of Meteor is called an Ignis lambens a licking fire because it slakes then here then there like to spirits of Wine flaming Helens fire sidus Helenae so called because as Helen occasioned the ruine of Greece and Asia so this kind of flaming fire adhering to the shrowds or Yards of a Ship is usually a messenger of the Ships perishing If this flame appears double it is distinguisht by a double name of Castor and Pollux which are generally construed to bring good tidings of fair weather But these kinds of prognostications are very uncertain They may precede storms and may appear without the consequence of tempests For there is no necessity for either This generation depends upon exhalations condensed and united between the Ropes and the Masts or the Yards A flying Drake Draco volans is a flame appearing by night in the lowest Region of the air with a broad belly a small head and tail like unto a Drake Its matter is the same with the former differing in quantity alone and figure so framed through the figure of its containing cloud In the upper part of the lower Region of the air are produced 1. A falling Star representing a Star falling down from the Heavens 2. A burning Lance expressing the Image of a flaming Lance. 3. A burning Candle fax 4. A Perpendicular fire or fiery pillar trabs seu ignis perpendicularis seu pyramis representing a flaming beam or pillar 5. A flaming Arrow bolis 6. A skipping Goat Caprasaltans is a flame more long than broad glistering and flaking about its sides and variously agitated in the air like the skipping of a Goat 7. Flying sparks moving through the air like the sparks of a Furnace 8. Flamma ardens seu stipulae ardentes or a great burning fire suddenly flaming in the air like those fires that are kindled out of a great heap of straw All these depend upon a grosser material cause being somewhat more condensed and united than the former through a greater privative coldness and therefore they are also more durable A falling Star obtains its production near the permanent clouds and being somewhat weighty through earthy minims and rarefying the air through its heat breaks through and falls down lower untill it is arrived to a thicker cloud where nevertheless it doth not abide long in its flame The others procure their figure from their proportion of mixture and shape of the ambient cloud II. Thunder is a great rebounding noise in the air caused through the violent bursting out of incrassated air and condensed fire being suddenly kindled into a flame the manner cause of this eruption you may easily collect from the manner of the eruption of winds How a sound is produced I have set down before The differences of Thunders are various Some are only murmuring without a multiplication of sounds caused through a less proportion of fire and air bursting through a less dense and thick cloud Others raise a great cracking noise hapning through the acuteness of the sound smartly dividing the air and clouds wherever it reaches Lastly some are great hollow sounds variously multiplied hapning through the reflection and refraction of other dense and thick clouds driving in the way Besides these there might be accounted many more differences of Thunders raised through the proportion of air and fire that burst out and the various mixtures of clouds Fulguration or a flashing is fire condensed raised into a flame through incrassated air within a cloud and breaking out from it This scarce effects any great noise because of its subtility although in some it doth Fulmination or Lightning differs from the former only in intention in that it is much more forcible reaching to the ground and piercing into it and other terrestrial thick dense bodies and is more augmented in matter It is ordinarily a concomitant of Thunder both being produced at once although not perceived by us together we seeing the Lightning before we hear the Thunder because a visible object is much swifter communicated to the eye than a sound to the ear as appears in spying a man a far off chopping of wood we seeing His Axe go down before we hear the noise the reason of this I have inserted above A Lightning is either vibrating and is next to Fulguration in intention passing more subtilly Or discutient consisting somewhat of a denser fire and causing a greater Thunder 3. Or burning consisting of the densest fire causing the greatest Thunder and oft melting a Sword in the Scabberd or Moneys in a Bag and the Scabberd and Bag remaining undamaged The reason is because the rarity of these gave a free passage to the Lightning whereas the crassitude and density of the others did stay and unite the passing aduting flame Strong men and beasts are oft killed through an aduring Lightning whereas women and children do escape because the bodies of these latter being laxe and porous suffer the said flame to pass without any great resistance whereas the crassitude of the other bodies do unite and collect it through which their vital heat is quite dispersed having no other apparent sign either within or without their bodies of so
a bason filled with ashes will scarce contain four fifths of the water that it will do when it is empty As for the water that is imbibed by the ashes it possesses the spaces left by the air contained before between the particles of the said ashes and now thence expelled 2. Warm water stopt close in a bottle doth possess more room than when being set in a cold place it is concreased into an Ice Ergo there must be some void space left within the bottle I answer That the supposed vacuity is filled up with frosty minims whose presence expelling the air and fire from between the Pores of the water doth withall reduce it to a smaller body as being before insufflated with air and fire But when the same frosty minims do return then the air and fire do fill up their vacuities again by insufflating the body of water through their succession 3. An AEolipile being filled up with water and air doth notwithstanding slow as much fire as will cause its wind to blaze a whole hour or longer according to the bigness of it Ergo there must have been a Vacuum contained within the wind bale or else we must admit a penetration of bodies by condensation I answer That neither is necessary for the advenient fire expels so much of the contained air as its presence doth take up diducts the body of the AEolipile somwhat into a larger continent wherein a greater part of fire may be contained than there is air expelled Pecquet in his Exper. Nov. Anat. hath endeavoured to borrow all experiments possible for to divide the Universe with a Vacuum and so to abolish the Natures of the Elements I shall only propose the first which he hath from Monsieur Roberval Professor of the Mathematicks at Paris and is alone performed by a glass blown in the form of a bolts head open below and atop at its capacity where it contains an empty bladder that is usually taken out of a Carpes belly being tied close with a thread as likewise the top of the capacity with a Sows bladder This done it is filled up to the brim of the orifice of the neck with Mercury which being close stopped with ones finger is immitted into a vessel half filled with Mercury and thrust deep into it where the finger is to be withdrawn Hereupon follows the descent of the Mercury as low as half way the Pipe and the bladder is puft up Hence he deduces a Vacuum between the rarefied parts of the air blowing up the bladder contained within the empty capacity What a gross mistake is this First He must know as I shall prove by and by that it is the air that presseth the Mercury down for whatever is moved Locally is moved by an extrinsick agent Secondly He doth against reason and experience state the rarefaction of some air But whence came that air There was none whilst it was filled up with the Mercury ergo it must have pierced through the pores of the Glass If so what needs he admit only a smal quantity which he supposeth to be rarefied after its ingress by an elaterick vertue since a greater may as easily pass and why then a Vacuum Wherefore I say he must necessarily grant some air to pass the pores for to blow up the bladder besides I prove that it is easie for the air to pass through the pores of Glass because we see light doth easily pass the thickest Glass but light is the air illuminated or obtended as I have proved before ergo That Glass is pierced through with subtil pores is evident a little before it beginneth to concrease or indurate after its melting Moreover we see that the liquor it self of Aquà Fort. being poured upon the filing of Brass penetrates through the pores of a thick precipitating Glass The same is observed about the Glass at the â—ffusion of oyl of Vitriol to oyl of Tartar but air is much more subtil than these Liquors Do we not observe the air to press by the spurring of fire through glasses of the greatest thickness For expose a thick glass of water to the fire and you may observe it to be raised into millions of bubbles when it begins to siethe which is nothing else but the air forced through the pores of the Glass by the fire In fine there is nothing that is imperforated by pores except water and air in their absolute state I omit the rest of his borrowed experiments and shall only insert two words touching the conclusion inferred from the pomping of the air out of a large round Glass Receiver in that manner as you have it proposed by Casper Scott which they conclude must afterwards remain void on the contrary it is rather more filled by air attracted from without and impacted so closs that the pores of the glass seem to be filled and insufflated with it as appears by the venting of the Receiver so pomped into a vessel of cold water where it causeth a very great commotion and siething by the air bursting out certainly this is different from pomping the Receiver empty or thus they may pretend a Vacuum because there is more air attracted into the Receiver than it contained before ergo there must either a penetration of bodies be allowed or a Vacuum To this I need propose no other answer for solution than what I gave for the solution of the eruption of air out of an AEolipile How or in what manner air is attracted into the said Receiver by this Magdenburg experiment you shall read in the next Chapter As for other Arguments they being as vacuous as Vacuum it self I shall neglect the mentioning of them IV. But the Jesuitical Philosophers do further propose to themselves whether a Vacuum could not be effected by an Angelical power or if not by Angels whether by the Divine Power This is as like them as if it were spit out of their mouths Those vile Impostors and the devils Saints will name God Almighty and notwithstanding to his face doubt of his power in so mean a thing as a Vacuum is what if God can destroy the Elements intirely cannot he displace them partially Angels I confess cannot effect it naturally and ordinarily although extraordinarily being virtuated with an extraordinary power from God they may V. Next they rommage whether Local Motion be possible in a Vacuum and if it be whether it must not happen in an instant I shall not weary my self to produce their opinions but only appose what reason doth direct me But let us first state the question right The Problem may be understood in a threefold sense 1. Whether a Local Motion be possible in a Vacuum as through a Medium through which a body being locally moved passeth taking its beginning of progress from without the said Vacuum 2. Whether a body can take its beginning of motion outwards from a Vacuum 3. Whether a spiritual substance obtains the power of moving it self locally in a Vacuum
Union might be more properly termed a Principle than Privation p. 8. 2. The Principles of a Material Being stated by Pythagoras rejected p. 9. 3. That to treat of Matter and Form is more proper to Metaphysicks 10. 4. That the Materia Prima of Aristotle is a Non Ens. ib. 5. That the Chaos had a Form p. 11. 6. The Authors Materia Prima p. 12. 7. That it doth not appertain to Physicks to explain the nature of the first Matter ib. 8. What the first Form of all natural Beings is ib. 13. CHAP. IV. Of the Nature and Essence of the Elements 1. The nearest Definition of a Natural Being p. 15. 2. The Definition of an Element That all Physical Definitions ought to be sensible The proof of the Existence of the Elements and of their Number p. 16. 3. An Exposition of the Definition of an Element It s Etymology and Honomony p. 17. 4. What Distinction the Author makes between Principle Cause and Element p 18. 5. What a Natural Cause is That the Elements are no single real Beings That they are treated of separately and singly Ratione only ib. 6. That there are but three Natural Causes Their Necessity proved in particular ib. CHAP. V. Of New Philosophy and the Authors of it 1. Helmontius his arrogance and vainglory How and wherein he rejected the Peripatetick Philosophy His own Principles p. 19 20. 2. The Life and Death of the said Helmontius p. 21. 3. A Confutation of all his Physical Principles in particular p. 22. 4. Some few Arguments against Renè des Cartes his Principles in general p. 23 24 25. CHAP. VI. Of the Material Principle of Natural Beings 1. The Causes of the Elements p. 26. 2. That the Elements are really compounded natural beings ib. 3. That Matter and Quantity are really identificated ib. 4. What Quantity is What its Ratio formalis is p. 27. 5. That in rebus quantis there is a maximum and a minimum Definitum p. 28. 6. Experimental Instances proving that there are actual Minima's and that all natural beings do consist out of them p. 29. 7. The pursuit of the preceding Instances inferring a Continuum to be constituted out of actual Indivisibles Some Geometrical Objections answered p. 30. CHAP. VII Of the Natural Matter and Form of the Elements 1. That the Elements are constituted out of minima's That they were at first created a maximum divisible into minima's p. 31. 2. That supposing there were a materia prima Aristotelica yet it is absurd to essert her to have a Potentia Essentialis or Appetitus Formae p. 32. 3. That the Natural Form is not educed è Potentia Materiae ib. 4. That the Actus of Local Motion is the Form of the Elements ib. 5. The manner of knowing the first constitution of the Elements That there was a Chaos p. 33. 6. That there was conferred a distinct form upon every Element Whether a Form is a Substance 'T is proved that it is not ib. 34. CHAP. VIII Of the absolute and Respective Form of Earth Water Ayr and Fire 1. What Form it is the Author allots to Earth That driness is not the first quality of Earth p. 35. 2. The respective form of Earth 36. 3. That Coldness is not the first quality of Water That water is not moyst naturally neither doth it moysten What it is to moysten Why water acuated with spirits of Vitriol Sulphur or of Salt-peter doth moysten and abate thirst more than when it is single ib. 4. The form of Water What Gravity is and what Levity What Density is The form of water proved Why water disperseth it self into drops Why Sea-men cannot make Land upon the Cap-head when they may upon the Top-Mast-head Why the Stars do appear sooner to those in the East-Seas than to others in the west p. 37. 5. That water is thick but not dense Whence it is that water is smooth Why Ayr makes a bubble upon the water when it breaks forth That the least Atome of Ayr cannot break through the water without raising a bubble Why the same doth not happen to Earth p. 38. 6. That Moysture is not the first quality of Ayr neither doth the Ayr naturally moysten any body but to the contrary dryeth it p. 39. 7. The form of Ayr. What Tenuity is Why Feathers Cobwebs and other light Bodies do expand themselves when thrown through the Ayr. Why Grease Oyl Wax c. do make Splatches when poured upon the ground Why Gunpowder Smoak Breathes of living Creatures Vapours Exhalations Dust c. do diffuse themselves in that manner Whence it is that the least breath moves and shakes the Ayr. The relative form of ayr Why spirits of wine mix easier and sooner with water than one water with another p. 40 41. 8. The first quality of Fire What Rarity is Whence it is that a Torch or Candle spreads its Beams circularly as appears at a distance That Fire is rough the cause of it Fire's Relative nature A comparing of all the first qualities of the Elements one to the other p. 42 43. CHAP. IX Of the beginning of the World 1. Whence the world had its beginning What the Chaos is That the Chaos had a form A Scripture Objection answered That the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters did informate the Chaos p. 44. 2. That the Chaos consisted of the four Elements is proved by Scripture The Etymology of Heaven What Moses meant by Waters above the Waters The Derivation of the Firmament That the Ayr is comprehended under the Notion of waters in Gen. p. 45. 3. That the Elements were exactly mixt in the Chaos That all the Elements consist of an equal number of Minima's p 46. 4. That none but God alone can be rationally thought to be the Efficient of the Chaos How this Action is expressed in Scripture p 47. 5. What Creation is Thom. Aq. his Definition of Creation disproved Austins Observations of the Creation p. 48. 6. That God is the Authour of the Creation proved by the Testimonies of Scripture of Holy men and of Philosophers p. 49. 7. An Explanation of the Definition of Creation Whether Creation is an emanent or transient Action Creation is either mediate or immediate Scotus his Errour upon this point The difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein mediate Creation differs from Generation p. 50 51. 8. Of the place magnitude tangible qualities colour temperament time figure extent in figure duration quantity and number of the Chaos p. 52 53 54. CHAP. X. Of the first Division of the Chaos 1. Why the Chaos was broken p. 55. 2. That the Chaos could never have wrought its own change through it self The Efficient of its mutation p. 56. 3. The several Changes which the Chaos underwent through its Disruption The manner of the said Disruption ib. 4. How Light was first produced out of the Chaos What a Flame is p. 58. 5. A perfect description
VVhat an alteration or accidental change is That the differences of Temperament are as many as there are Minima's of the Elements excepting four p. 119. CHAP. XIX Of the Division of Temperaments 1. VVhat an equal and unequal Temperament is That there never was but one temperament ad pondus That Adams Body was not tempered ad pondus That neither Gold nor any Celestial bodies are tempered ad pondus p. 120. 2. That all temperaments ad Justiriam are constantly in changing That there are no two bodies in the world exactly agreeing to one another in temperature p. 121. 3. The Latitude of temperaments How the corruption of one body ever proves the generation of another p. 122. 4. That there is no such unequal temperament as is vulgarly imagined That there is an equal temperament is proved against the vulgar opinion That where Forms are equal their matters must also be equal p. 123 124. 5. VVhat a Distemper is That Galen intended by an unequal temperature p. 125. 6. VVhen a man may be termed temperate That bodies are said to be intemperate ib. 126 127. 7. The combination of the second Qualities of the Elements in a temperature Their Effects p. 128. CHAP. XX. Of Alteration Coction Decoction Generation Putrefaction and Corruption 1. VVhat Coction and Putrefaction is The Difference between Putrefaction and Corruption p. 130. 2. The Authors Definition of Alteration The effects of Alteration ib. 3. The Division of Alteration p. 131. 4. That the first Qualities of the Peripateticks are not intended by the acquisition of new Qualities without Matter Wherein Alteration differs from Mixtion or Temperament ib. 5. The Definition of Coction Why a man was changed much more in his youth than when come to maturity p. 132 133. 6. The Constitution of women Which are the best and worst Constitutions in men That heat is not the sole cause of Coction p. 134 135. 7. The kinds of Coction What Maturation Elixation and Assation are p. 136. 8. VVhat Decoction is and the manner of it p. 137. 9. The definition of Putrefaction 139 10. VVhat Generation imports in a large and strict acception Whether the Seed of a Plant or Animal is essentially distinguisht from a young Plant or new born Animal That heat is not the sole efficient in Generation p. 139. 11. VVhether the innate heat is not indued with a power of converting adventitious heat into its own nature Whether the innate heat be Celestial or Elementary p. 140 141 142. 12. The Definition of Corruption Why the innate heat becomes oft more vigorous after violent Feavers Whether Life may be prolonged to an eval duration What the Catochization of a Flame is By what means many pretend to prolong life That the production of life to an eval duration is impossible Whether our Dayes be determined The ambiguity of Corruption Whether Corruption be possible in the Elements p. 143 to 149. CHAP. XXI Of Light 1. VVhat Light is The manner of the production of a Flame p. 150. 2. The properties and effects of Light p. 151. 3. That Light is an effect or consequent of a Flame Whence it happens that our Eyes strike fire when we hit our Foreheads against any hard Body That Light is not a quality of fire alone That Light is not fire rarefied That where there is Light there is not alwayes heat near to it How Virginals and Organs are made to play by themselves p. 152 153. 4. That Light is a continuous obduction of the Ayr. That Light is diffused to a far extent in an instant and how Why the whole tract of Air is not enlightned at once p. 154 155. 5. The manner of the Lights working upon the Eye-sight That sight is actuated by reception and not by emission p. 156. 6. The reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction That Light cannot be precipitated ib. 7. That Light is not the mediate cause of all the Effects produced by the Stars That Light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick spirits How the Air happens to burst through a sudden great light That a sudden great Light may blind kill or cast a man into an Apoplexy p. 157. 8. How Light renders all Objects visible Why a peice of Money cast into a Basin filled with water appears bigger than it is The causes of apparent Colours Why a great Object appears but small to one afar off The difference between lux and lumen What a Beam is What a Splendour is That the Lights begot by the Stars and other flames are not distinguished specie How the Coelum Empyreum is said to be Lucid p. 158 159. CHAP. XXII Of Colours 1. The Authors Definition of a Colour That Light is a Colour Aristotles Definition of colour examined p. 160 161 162. 2. Scaligers Absurdities touching Colours and Light p. 163. 3. What colour Light is of and why termed a single Colour That Light doth not efficienter render an Object visible How a mixt Colour worketh upon the sight and how it is conveyed to it ib. 164. 4. The Causes of the variations of Mercury in its colour through each several preparation p. 165. 5. That Colours are formally relations only to our sight That a mixt colour is not an intentional quality That besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original Subjects How the same fundamental colours act p. 166. 6. That there are no apparent colours but all are true p. 167. 7. The Differences of colours What colour focal fire is of The fundamental colours of mixt bodies p. 168 169 170 171. 8. What reflection of light is What refraction of colours is Aristotles Definition of colour rejected The Effects of a double reflection The Reasons of the variations of Colour in Apples held over the water and Looking-glasses The variation of Illumination by various Glasses p. 172. 9. The Division of Glasses The cause of the variation of colour in a Prism ib. 173 174. 10. The Nature of Refraction Why colours are not refracted in the Eye p. 175 176. CHAP. XXIII Of Sounds 1. The Definition of a Sound That the Collision of two solid Bodies is not alwayes necessary for to raise a Sound p. 177. 2. Whether a Sound be inherent in the Air or in the body sounding The manner of Production of a Sound p. 178. 3. Whether a Sound is propagated through the water intentionally only That a Sound may be made and heard under water p. 179. 4. That a Sound is a real pluffing up of the Air. How a Sound is propagated through the Air and how far Why a small Sound raised at one end of a Mast or Beam may be easily heard at the other end Why the Noise of the treading of a Troop of Horse may be heard at a far distance p. 180 181 182. 5. The difference between a Sound and a Light or Colour That it is possible for a man to hear with his eyes
and Castor a Flying Drake a burning Candle a perpendicular fire a skipping Goat flying sparks and a burning flame p. 375 376. 2. Of the generation of Thunder Fulguration and Fulmination and of their effects Of a thunder stone p. 377 378. 3. Of Comets Of their production p. 379 380 381. CHAP. XVIII Of the term Antiperistasis and a Vacuum 1. Whether there be such a thing as an Antiperistasis p. 382. 2. Whether a Vacuum be impossible and why p. 383. 3. Experiments inferring a Vacuum answered p. 384 385. 4. Whether a Vacuum can be effected by an Angelical or by the Divine Power p. 386. 5 Whether Local Motion be possible in a Vacuum A threefold sense of the doubt proposed In what sense Local Motion is possible in a Vacuum in what not ib. 387. CHAP. XIX Of Physical Motion 1. What a Physical Motion is The kinds of it The definition of Alteration Local Motion and quantitative motions The subdivision of Local Motion p. 388 389. 2. That all alterative and quantitative motions are direct p. 390. 3. That all externall motions are violent ib. 4. That all weighty mixt bodies being removed from their Element are disposed to be detruded downwards from without but do not move from any internal inclination or appetite they have to their universal Center p. 391 392. 5. The causes of swiftness and slowness of external Local Motion 393 6. That light bodies are disposed to be moved upwards ib. 7. That airy bodies being seated in the fiery Region are disposed to be moved downwards p. 394. CHAP. XX. Of Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent Motion 1. How Air is attracted by a water-spout or Siphon p. 395. 2. The manner of another kind of Attraction by a sucking Leather 396. 3. How two slat Marble stones clapt close together draw one another up ib. 4. How a Wine-Coopers Pipe attracts Wine out of a Cask ib. 5. How sucking with ones mouth attracts water p. 397. 6. How a Sucker attracts the water ib. 7. The manner of Attraction by Filtration p. 398. 8. The manner of Electrical Attraction ib. 9. How fire and fiery bodies are said to attract p. 399. 400. 10. What Projection is and the manner of it p. 401. 11. What Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion are ib 402. CHAP. XXI Of Fire being an Introduction to a New Astronomy 1. The Fires division into three Regions p. 402. 2. The qualification of the inferiour Region What the Sun is What his torrid Rayes are and how generated ib. 3. How the other Planets are generated ib. 4. How the fixed Stars were generated p. 404. 5. A further explanation of the Stars their Ventilation That there are many Stars within the Planetary Region that are invisible Of the appearance of new Stars or Comets Of the Galaxia or Milk-way p. 405. 6. That the fiery Regions are much attenuated p. 406. CHAP. XXII Of the Motion of the Element of Fire 1. VVhere the Poles of the Heavens are p. 408. 2. The Opinions of Ptolomy and Tycho rejected p. 409. 3. That the Planets move freely and loosely and why the fixed Stars are moved so uniformly ib. 4. The Suns retrograde motion unfolded and the cause of it ib. 5. How the Ecliptick AEquator and the Zodiack were first found out p. 410 6. The manner of the fiery Heavens their ventilation p. 411. 7. Whence it is that the Sun moves swifter through the Austrinal Medeity and slower through the Boreal How the Sun happens to measure a larger fiery Tract at some seasons in the same time than at others p. 412. 8. VVhence the difference of the Suns greatest declination in the time of Hipparchus Ptolomy and of this our age happens p. 414. 9. An undoubted and exact way of Calculating the natural end of the World The manner of the Worlds dissolution The same proved also by the holy Scriptures The prevention of a Calumny ib. 415 416. CHAP. XXIII Of the Magnitude and distance of the Sun and Moon and the motion of the other Planets 1. That the Magnitude of the Sun hath not been probably much less certainly stated by any The Arguments vulgarly proffered for the proof of the Suns Magnitude rejected p. 417 418. 2. That the Sun might be capable enough of illuminating the World were he much lesser than the terraqueous Globe than I suppose him to be p 419. 3. That the shadow of the Earth is to some extent Cylindrical ib. 4. That the Sun existing in the AEquator doth at once illuminate the whole Hemisphere of the Earth ib. 5. Concerning the diminution or increase of the shadow of the Earth within the Polars together with the cause of the Prolongation and Abbreviation of the dayes That the Sun is much bigger than he appears to be p 420. 6. What the spots of the Sun and Moon are and their causes ib. 7. That the Arguments proposed by Astronomers for rendring the Moon lesser than the Earth and proving the distance of the Sun are invalid p. 421. 8. That the Moon is by far lesser than the Earth ib. 9. Several Phaenomena's of the Moon demonstrated p. 422. 10. Concerning the motion of Venus and Mercury p 423. 11. Of the motion of the fixed Stars and their Scintillation p. 424. CHAP. I. Problems relating to the Earth 1. Why two weighty bodies are not moved downwards in parallel Lines p. 426. 2. Why a great Stone is more difficultly moved on the top of a high hill than below p. 427. 3. Why a pair of Scales is easier moved empty than ballanced ib. 4. Whence it is that a man may carry a greater weight upon a Wheelbarrow than upon his back ib. 5. Why a weighty body is easier thrust forward with a Pole than immediately by ones arms besides 5. other Probl. more p. 428 429 430 6. Why a stick thrust into a hole if bended is apt to be broke near the hole What the cause of the relaxation of a bowed stick is p. 431. 7. Whether Gold doth attract Mercury ib. 8. Why the herb of the Sun vulgarly called Chrysanthemum Peruvianum obverteth its leaves and flowers to the Sun wheresoever he be p. 432. Why the Laurel is seldom or never struoken by Lightning b. CHAP. II. Containing Problems relating to Water 1. Why is red hot Iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water p. 432. 2. Whence is it there fals a kind of small Rain every day at noon under the AEquinoctial Region p. 433. 3. How Glass is made ib 4. Whence it is that so great a Mole as a Ship yeelds to be turned by so small a thing as her Rudder p. 434. 5. What the cause of a Ships swimming upon the water is p 335. 6. Whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire ib. CHAP. III. Comprizing Problems touching the Air. 1. Whether Air â—e weighty p 436. 2. Whether a Bladder blown up with wind â—e heavier than when empty ib. 3. Why water contained in a beer glass being
turned-round with ones hand doth turn contrary against the motion of the Glass p. 437. 4. Why a breath being blown with a close mouth doth feel cool and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm ib. 5. Why an armed point of an Arrow groweth hot in being shot through the air ib. 6. Why Beer or Wine will not run out of the Cask without opening a hole atop ib 7. What difference there is between an Oâ—iâ—â—e and a Travada ib. 8. Whether it be true that Winds may be hâ—red from Witches or Wizards in Iseland p 438. 9. Why is it quieter in the night than in the day ib. CHAP. IV. Containing Problems touching the fire 1. Why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling p. 439. 2. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire ib. 3. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder ib. 4. What are the Ingredients of Gunpowder 440. 5. Whence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpower ib. 6. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence ib. ERRATA PAg. 3. l. 16. r. did produce p 4. l. 12. p 9. l. 1. r. Properties p. 4. l 38. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 10. l. 7. r. taught l. 36. r. others p. 11. l. 16. r. Invectives p. 12. l 14. r. Quadripartition p. 13 l 37. r. into p. 16. l 25. r. upon our senses p. 22. l. 3 r. those beings l 39. r. Hircocervus p. 34. l 27 r. those species p. 38. l. 37. r. those two p. 41. l. 2. r. those yearly l. 26. dele ad p. 42 l. 2 10 r. into p. 43. l. 29. r. those men p. 52. l. 18. r. into l. 24. r. needs p. 58. l. 37. r. into unity p. 64. l. 20. r. transcendence Philosophy in general The FIRST PART The first Book CHAP. I. Of matters preceding and following the nature of Philosophy 1. The derivation of Philosophy 2. What is was first called and why its name was changed 3. The original of Philosophy The first Inventers of it 4. What dispositions are required in a Philosopher The difficulty in attaining to Philosophy The pleasure arising from the possession of it 5. The esteem and worth of Philosophy and Philosophers 6. The use and fruits reaped from Philosophy and redounding in General to every one in Particular to a Divine Civilian and Physitian I. PHILOSOPHY is a word of a mixt signification and thereby soundeth Love to Wisdom both which being implied in its composition out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom II. This name was politickly framed by Pythagoras to cover the genuine and first denomination of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to hide its secrecy and excellence the fame of which did attract so numerous a body of Contenders who being ambitious to be renowned by the possession of it before they had scarce made their first attempt abusively stiled themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wise-men that through their multitude they overclouded a few others who might justly have challenged their title from it Since then this new imposed word implied but little Fame or Worth the greater part soon deserted it whose eager pursuit being more after the shadow than the thing it self they freely resigned both to the real deservers thereof III. Knowing nothing more certain than that all which we do enjoy redounds to us by inheritance we cannot doubt but that Philosophy was also a Relict of the Forefathers successively conveyed to us who did attribute the original acquisition of it to the first man Adam for he in his primitive and incorrupt state being adorned with a full and perfect Knowledge of all Beings it is probable that after his Fall he retained a measure of the same Knowledge which although being different from the former in perfection yet by his industry had much promoted it and so having committed it to the further accomplishment of his antediluvian Successors to wit Seth Enos Cainan Malaleel Jared Enoch Methusalem and Noe it did attract such increase and degree of perfection from their experience that we have no great cause to admire whence the profound Learning of the postdiluvian Fathers did arive to them who were either sacred as Abraham Moses Solomon c. or prophane as the Magicians among the Persians the Chaldeans of Babylon Brachmans in India the Priests of Egypt the Talmudists and Cabbalists among the Jews the Druids among the ancient Britains and Gauls with whom many of the famous Poets Homer Hesiod as also the seaven wise men of Greece were coetaneous after which Pythagoras flourished who lived much about the time of Nebuchadnezzar and spread his Doctrine throughout Italy whence it was soon propagated through most parts of the world and yet is over all the East-Indies IV. As there was an apt capacity required in these lovers of wisdom to receive the Discipline of their Masters so there was also necessary in them an indefatigable study to add to the Inventions of their Predecessors which to cherish and excite they proposed the greatest pleasure and contentment of mind thence undoubtedly resulting to themselves according to that trite Saying Arduum quod pulchrum That which is lovely is hard to be attained unto which did abundantly satisfie their labours This is verified by the Relation which the Mathematicians give of Archimedes who was so much enamour'd with his Speculations that at those times which most did dedicate to the rest of their minds and intermission from their Studies he was most busied in his thoughts insomuch that when for his healths sake anoynting his body with Oyl which was an ordinary Preservative in those dayes he used to make Geometrical Figures with it upon his Breast and other parts of his body that so he might avoid the depriving of his Soul from one moments happiness when he was inevitably forced to consult the safety of his Body At another time sitting in a Bath he observed the water to be much swelled through his immersion in it collected thence a way whereby to find a proportion of Silver to Gold when both united in one Mass. This Contemplation did profuse such a joy in him that he brake out into these words Inveni Inveni I have found I have found No less effect will it produce in us when finding that in our nebulous state of Ignorance which we lost in our perfect state of Knowledge by falling from our Integrity This seemeth incredible unless attempted by the serious and diligent application of our minds to it V. The Scales whereby to weigh the worth of a thing are frequently judged to be the Subject wherein it is inherent or the possessors of it whose worth found is the production of the worth of the thing proposed The assent of this doth infer Philosophy to be the worthiest and most transcendent of all For Kings and Princes whose worth is not to be
necessarily and by Instinct of Nature This Conclusion may seem to contradict what is set down in the precedent Paragraph containing that to act necessarily is to act alwaies in the same manner whereas Beasts act in sundry manners and produce various Effects as sometimes they feed other times they run or lie down which are all various acts and performed in various manners These Acts are called spontaneous which generally are received as differing from Natural and Voluntary and constituting a Mean between Necessary and Contingent although improperly for there is no Mean between Necessary and Contingent because whatever is Necessary cannot be Contingent and whatever is Contingent cannot be Necessary These Acts must be either the one or the other They are not contingent for then a Beast as a Beast could not act necessarily Since then it is more evident that they act necessarily at most times it is an invincible Argument that they do not act contingently This by the way I return to the forementioned Objection and to reconciliate them seeming Contradictions I say that 1. Nature doth act alwaies in the same manner through the same Principles and upon the same Object 2. Nature doth not act alwaies in the same manner through different Principles and upon different Objects For example Opium raises fury in a Turk and layeth it in an European These are different Effects because the Objects are different Coral is heavy and weighty from its Earth and thence proveth obstructive in the body of man Coral is also informated by a sublime spirit through which it is aperitive and cordial The difference of these effects proceeds from the difference of Principles I apply this to the Acts of a Beast which are different because they proceed from different Principles Nevertheless them Acts are alwaies the same as far as they proceed from the same Principles although different from one another But as for a voluntary Principle that acteth effects different from it self as it is one and the same Principle The Proprieties of voluntary are 1. To act different Effects through one and the same Principle 2. To have a power of suspending an Action 3. To act with Election The Proprieties of Naturals are 1. To act the same Acts through the same Principle 2. To act alwaies and withal necessarily without having a power of suspending its Action 3. To act through an Impulse of Nature A Brute doth feed from an Instinct of Nature and therefore cannot but obey it at the same Instant of that Instinct provided there be food for it to feed upon Neither can it suspend that Action for a moment but as soon as it is impelled it moveth towards its food This is evident in a Dog if he be very hungry and have a bone in his sight he will move towards that bone although you beat him never so much A Brute moveth locally either to avoid pain or to search for food If a Beast move after it is filled it moveth to avoid pain and in that it answereth to the Impression of Nature whereby all natural beings move to avoid that which is inconvenient to them or disagreeing with them which it feels in lying long through the weight of his bones one pressing the other and therefore moves to else himself either by standing going or running He goeth or runneth so long until he is pained by it and then to ease himself and to avoid that pain he lieth down again VIII All Matter hath a Form because it would be nothing if it had no Form For from thence it is thought to receive unity now without unity a being is no being All Matter hath but one essential Form for had it two essential Forms it would be two Beings and consequently no Being because whatever is not one or is more then one is no Being The Form giveth Unity and Distinction to the Matter Matter is capable of many Forms successively that is one after another as for example The Matter which is in an Herb is capable of receiving the form of Chyle of Bloud and of Flesh Or if burnt of Ashes if then melted of Glass In like manner man receiveth first the form of a Plant afterwards of an Animal or sensible Living Creature lastly of a Man A Form doth act without intermission For should its Action cease at any time at the same moment would the Form cease also with it THE DOCTRINE AND CONTROVERSIES Of POVVER The FIRST PART The third Book The Doctrine and Controversies of Power The Third Book CHAP. I. Of Powers according to the Peripateticks 1. The Opinion of the Peripateticks touching the Soules Action That according to the same Opinion a Substance is said not to act immediately through it self but through superadded Powers 2. That a Substance acteth through as many different Powers as it produceth different Acts. 3. That the said Powers are really and formally distinct from the essence of the Soul 4. That Powers are concreated with the Soul and do immediately emanate from her Essence 5. That immaterial Powers are inherent in the Soul as in their Agent Material ones in the Matter as in their Subject 6. That Powers are distinguisht by their Acts and Objects The Authours Intent in treating of the Faculties of the Soul IT is an universal Truth That all Essences which have a Being have it for an Operation Wherefore there is nothing idle within the Creation but all its parts from the Center of the Earth to the Circumference of the Heavens are found to perform some Action or other without Intermission which ceasing the essence from whence it issued forth ceaseth with it When fire and Water cease from diffusion and concentration then their being ceaseth withal Hence it is evident that the Soul of man since it hath a being performeth an operation or Action the which according to the sense of the Peripatetick School is impossible to be effected through the substance of the Soul their Reason being grounded upon that Dictate of their great Master viz. No substance acteth immediately through it self but by a superadded power This they do illustrate by this Instance The Elements do not act through their Substance or Form but through their heat coldness c. which are qualities distinct from their Form and Substance Hence doth Aristotle conclude 1. That nothing is contrary to a Substance but to its power and qualities because a substance cannot act through it self 2. That no Substance can be affirmed to be more or less a substance then another that is no substance can be either remitted or intended for example one fire cannot be said to be more a fire then another because it doth cast a greater heat which proceedeth from its stronger power and heating quality and not from its being more a fire then another fire is but one fire may be said to be hotter and greater then another which happeneth as I hinted before through the intention of its quality and access of quantity II. A Substance being
sense are the Forms of the Elements said to be Powers which without doubt are actual Nutritive and vital Powers are actual Vertues of nourishing and cherishing life Obediential powers are actual dispositions whereby beings are capable of receiving new forms from God at ove or beyond their natural forms That all Natural Powers are and must be actual this ordinary Saying doth plainly infer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things that are made by Nature or Art must be made from that which is Actual that is in Actu Against this may be Objected That the power of seeing remaineth in a man who is asleep although he doth not actually see I Answer That that power is as much actual from within as it was before but its Acts depending upon Objective Motions from without are secluded by the intervent of the Eye-lids or retraction and incrassation of the Optick Ayr In the same manner a Candle actually burning in a dark Lanthorn is not abolisht in its enlightning power by the being shut in upon which a darkness ensueth for the Candle burneth actually still The Stomach is not deprived of its actual concocting power in not seeming to concoct in the defect of Victuals for the same Principle is stirring still in the Stomach although there is no external Object to work upon Wherefore Scaliger Exerc. 325. d. 4. saith well Non enim tollitur potentia per Objecti ablationem quia fluit ab internis Principiis essentialibus For a Power is not removed by the removing of the Object because it flowes from internal essential Principles To assert that a Power although Actual is the Cause of an Act and not the Essence wherein this Power is inherent may justly be disgusted by any Natural Philosopher who collects his Knowledge of mixt bodies by means of his Senses and apprehends its Affections and Properties together with the body it self and not as if they were really distinct from it Although in Metaphysicks a distinctio Rationis or a distinction of the mind is allowable by which the Notions of Partial beings are totally abstracted from one another and from their Essence but in Physicks it is so absurd and perillous that the assent thereunto hath missed many Physitians into a Labyrinth of Errors which have proved very fatal and ominous to their unhappy Patients In an ardent Feaver where a great Heat and Inflamation broiles the tormented body of the Decumbent a Peripatetick AEsculapius argues thus with himself this is not the fire kindled within the Nutritive or Vital Vessels but its power quality and heat inherent in that fire whence he is perswaded to prescribe a whole Kinderken of Ptysan and Juleps to subdue this heat imagining all this while that the heat and fire are two really distinct things omitting in the mean time such helps which might remove the burning or flaming Essence by substracting the entire body of fire which done the heat is also removed with it which may be performed by Evacuations as Phlebotomy and Purges From this same Tenent spreads another no less erroneous concerning Humours Humores peccant vel Substantia Quantitate vel Qualitate Humors say they become vitious either in their Substance Quantity or Quality Humors become vitious in their Substance when they variate tota substantia in or through their whole substance from themselves as in the Plague where the blood is changed throughout its whole substance and become venomous which is when it doth in a small quantity and short time extinguish our vital Flame Now whether to extinguish our natural heat doth not proceed from a power inherent in that venomous Bloud let them confess How then according to their own Maximes can Bloud be vicious in its substance no substance acting immediately through it self for bloud sanguis dicitur vitiosus quia labem partibus inurit is said to be vitious when it acts by injuring the parts It remains then that humors according to their own Principles cannot be vicious in their substances but powers or qualities 2. Humors are pronounced to be peccant when they do through their abundance wrong the Parts in their Functions This is contradictory to their own received Doctrine For whereas Quantity being an Affection and Passion of Matter can be in no wise active because nothing as they say is contrary to it How then can it act since all Action is affirmed to tend to its contrary according to this Maxim Nihil agit in Simile Nothing can act upon its Like 3. It remaines that Humors must only be peccant in their quality Not so neither for then we should only have need of alterative Medicines and Evacuations would seem to be in vain What numerous Absurdities do scatter from this Spring of Falshood A part of Democritus and Ana of Heraclitus his Philosophy and of Socrates his Dictates ad pondus omnium would make a better Misce for a Recipe to introduce us unto a sound Doctrine of Physick From all which I Argue That Powers are neither really or formally distinct from their Subject and to avoid these forementioned Absurdities I state that 1. All Substances act through themselves so far as they have a power of Acting 2. All Powers are really Identificated with their Subject 3. Powers may be distinguisht from their Subject modally and through operation of the mind 4. Powers are intended and remitted through the access and detraction of Degrees of the same kind and are facilated or retarded through Habits or the defect of them The first Proposal containes three Assertions 1. That all substantial Essences do as they term them act which is evidenced through this Axiom All which is is for to operate 2. That all Substances or according to my Metaph. Essences act immediately through themselves 3. That Substances act through themselves so far as they have a power of acting IV. That all Substances act immediately through themselves popular Speeches do testifie as Fire burnes a Horse runs c. Certainly these Actions are predicated of the Substance or Essence of Fire or of a Horse not of their powers as if they were really distinct from them for then they should say the fires power burnes a horses faculty runs These Predications would be absurd How can a Power according to the vulgar Peripatetick Acception be a power and yet be said to act it would be a Contradiction since that a Power whilst it doth act is no more a Power but is changed into an Act hence they say that a Power and an Act are privative Opposites so that the one cannot be Categorically predicated of the other Here may be replied that a Substance acts through its power wherefore it is not the power that acts but the Substance To this I Answer that it may be granted that a Substance acts through its power but then it is not to be understood so as if the Substance acted through another thing or being which is superadded to its Essence as they do vulgarly conceive but that a Substance
perfect being where was then the materia prima of Aristotle which is said to be without any Form and nothing but a pura potentia You cannot reply that the Chaos was produced out of a Materia prima for if I grant that then materia prima is a non ens nothing because the Text mentions that God created Heaven and Earth out of nothing The Objection which may be offered against us from Gen. 2. And the Earth was without form is not matterial for by form here is meant an ulterior forma and not a Prima Forma IX The Fâ—â—m which did informate the Chaos was that whereby it was that which it was namely a Confusion of the Elements This confused form or forma confusionis being expelled there immediately succeeded a less confused or more distinct form arising from a partial solution and separation of the Elements I term it distinct because it was distinct from that first confusion and a more distinct form because the Elements were yet more separated untied loosened and distinct But as for a most distinct form whereby every Element should exist separately one from the other and every Element have a form of it self whereby it is that which now it is namely Earth a weighty dense and massie substance Fire a penetrable rare and diffusive essence c. Before I sound into the depth of this Mystery give me leave to expose to your view the admirable manner of this divine Artifice First God created a Chaos or a confused mixture of the Elements in like manner to a Potter who having several sorts of Earth mixes them all together into one exact mixture afterwards he again diducts or draweth its parts from one another and each part again after that he draweth more and more from one another until at last it acquires that form which he doth ultimately intend in it So that the more he draweth it asunder the more compleat form it receives through each several and further Diduction So God draweth the Chaos more and more asunder and every drawing diduction expansion or opening giveth it another and a perfecter form After the same manner is the production of the Foetus in the Mothers Womb perfected where there is first a Chaos or exact Confusion of Genitures then again its parts are more and more diducted which finisheth it with a perfect Form I shall therefore delineate each part of the Creation accomplisht by Gods several and distinct as to us diduction which was performed by Gods Command upon an obediential Subject of Let there be The effect resulting through vertue of this Command was immediately answered by And it was so The Perfection and excellency of it by And God saw that it was good There are two forms observable in the Elements one absolute which is whence the particular force power and vertue of each Element derives This is essential to every Element There is also a respective form which doth naturally derive from the first and is whereby every Element doth essentially encline to the other for its Existence and Conservation for without each other their absolute form could not subsist which flowes from their truth and goodness Neither did they ever exist singly but were at the same time created together These two forms are really and essentially one but modally distinct from each other What Finiteness Unity Durability or Place are the Elements capable of single The earth through its Gravity would be incited to an infinite motion so would also fire and consequently neither could possess any place or be of any duration but the Earth and Water being occurred by Fire and Ayr their Gravities are ballanced by the Lightness of these latter and so become withal to be terminated and to be placed but of this elsewhere CHAP. IV. Of the Nature and Essence of the Elements 1. The nearest Definition of a Natural being 2. The Definition of an Element That all Physical Definitions ought to be sensible The proof of the Existence of the Elements and of their Number 3. An Exposition of the Definition of an Element It s Etymology and Homonymy 4. What Distinction the Author makes between Principle Cause and Element 5. What a Natural Cause is That the Elements are no single real beings That they are treated of separately and singly Ratione only 6. That there are but three Natural Causes Their Necessity proved in Particular 1. I Have hitherto given you the remote Definition of a natural being and now I state one somwhat nearer to our Senses and such as is through it self perceptible by sense A Natural being is an Essence constituted out and through the Elements or thus A natural being is that which is constituted out and by natural Causes but none are natural causes but Elements only wherefore the former Definition being the nearer and proved by the latter somwhat more remote We shall rather commend it as being perceptible by sense for none can deny but that the Elements are the sole natural causes Shew me by any of your senses what natural being there existeth in the world but what is Elementary Possibly this Definition may disrelish you as being different from Aristotle's Let me tell you that most part of the Perepatetick Definitions in Physicks are too remote from our senses which causeth a difficulty of apprehending them and proves a doubtful way for to lead us into Errour II. An Element is an internal natural Cause out and through which a natural being is essentially constituted In Metaph. we have defined a natural being to be internally consistent of Matter and Form which are also called Natural Causes in general but remotely because we cannot apprehend Matter and Form unless by a nearer thing representing both to our senses as through the Elements we know what Matter and Form is were it not that our sight perswaded us that a being was produced out of the Elements we should be ignorant what Matter were and so the like of the Form Here you may take notice of the difference between a Metaphysical Definition and a Physical one the latter being immediately perceptible through our Senses and abstracted from sensibles the former being proper to reason and the mind which doth mediately abstract its notions from these according to that Trite Saying Nihilest in intellectu quin prius fuerit in sensibus the understanding knoweth nothing but what it hath first perceived by the senses Now I will make clear to you that all natural beings do proxime immediately owe their essence to the four Elements Herbs spring forth out or from the Earth but not where there is no Water for there it proves sandy or barren unfit to protrude any vegetable 2. Although earth is sufficiently moistened by attenuated water yet unless the Sun can or doth through its Beams cast a fire to it or by the same fire raise and excite that fire which is latent in the earth it remaineth nevertheless barren Lastly Ayr is comprehended by water attenuated that
is Water and Ayr mixt together in such a proportion that the tenuity of the air may render the water attenuated and fluid that so it may be apt to penetrate through the depth of the Mixture for otherwise water of it self is of that thickness that it exceeds Ice or Chrystal Now this Ayr incrassated or Water attenuated doth open and expand the density of the earth makes way for the fire to enter and at last retaines the whole mixture in a coherence and compactness Of this more hereafter Again A body consists of the same Principles or Elements into which it is dissolveable but all natural bodies are dissolveable into the first Elements therefore all bodies consist of the said first Elements I shall only instance in some few examples for proof of the Minor Milk in its dissolution is changed into Curds which through their weight go down to the bottom are analogal to earth 2. Into Butter which containeth in it incrassated ayir and fire for it is also inflammable a sign of fire Lastly Into Whey which is responding to attenuated water The like is observable in Blood dividing it self into Melancholy expressing earth in its weight colour and Substance for drying it it becomes perfect Sand into Choler agreeing with fire in its motive and alterative qualities into pure blood through its gluing quality or lentor not unlike to incrassated ayr Lastly into Flegm or Phlegme resembling water Doth not the ordinary division of mans body in spirits impetum facientes humors and solid parts demonstrate its composition or constitution out of the Elements For the Spirits are nothing else but fire and ayr Humors contain most water and the solid parts most earth The Spagyrick Art proves the same by distillation through which water Spirits and Oyl the two latter being made up most of Fire and Ayr are separated from the Caput mortuum Sal fixum or earth and Subsidencies 'T is true Sal Sulphur and Mercurius are different Names but re ipsa are the Elements What is Sal but Earth Sulphur but fire and ayr Mercurius but water Hereby I have not only proved the existence of elements but also their Number nominatim atque in specie III. Give me leave to expound the Definition in the first place quantum ad nomen In the word Element is considerable its Etymology from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio quod element a in sese omnia capiunt mixta It s name is likewise homonymous in a large sense promiscuously convertibiliter denoting a Principle or Cause In a strict sense it is differing from both Eudemus Alexander and Thomas Aq. opiniate that through Principle Principium is only meant an agent cause through Cause a formal and final Cause through elements Matter Averrhoes and Albert. by Principles intend an efficient cause through Causes final Causes by elements Matter and Form Generally Principles are understood to be of a larger extent then Causes and Causes then elements So that Aristotle B. 5. of Metaph. Ch. 1. describes a Principle to be that from whence a thing is is made or is known by this you see that a principle is of a more large signification then either of the others but a cause is which contributeth to the being of a thing either by substituting it self for a Subject as the Matter or through actuating and giving it an essence and its consequence as the Form or by determining it to an end as the final cause IV. The distinction which I have made between them is that cause is of a larger extent then Principles are taken in Physicks but in Theology a Principle is larger then it these denoting the internal causes of a natural being as matter and form but remotely as I have already hinted Elements point out to sensible and immediate internal causes of a natural being V. A natural cause is which hath a vertue of acting naturally or which acteth according to that power which God hath conferred upon it at its first Creation So that Van Helmont saith well in his Physic. Arist. Dist. 3. Ego vero credo naturam jussum Dei quo res est id quod est agit quod agere jussa est But I believe that Nature is Gods Command through which a thing is that which it is and acteth that which it is commanded to act They are Causes to wit internal causes or principles of a being because they contribute themselves to the constitution of that being I said out of which because they are the matter of all natural beings and through which because they are also the Form of all the said beings How they are or become so you may expect to read below The elements are described and taken singly or separately ratione only or ex supposito and not realiter for they never did exist singly neither could they exist so supposing they were created in that nature in which they were because of their relative forms but confusedly in the Chaos Aristotle nameth the bodies constituted by those mixt bodies as if they were different from naturals but that was only to make good the first part of his Metaphysical Physicks and thereby to distinguish them from the others namely his proper and elementary Physicks VI. Three causes do concur to the production of a natural being whereof two are internal to wit natural matter and form the other is external namely the Efficient I prove the necessity of these three first there must be a Subject or Matter out of which a being is produced for ex nihilo nihil fit out of nothing nothing can be produced But I instance in some particulars the good wives know that for to make a Pudding they need Matter namely Flower Eggs c. to make it out of or to build a House a Mason will require Stones for his Matter c. Now when they have these materials they endeavour to make somthing of them that is to introduce a new thing shape or face into it or educe a new thing out of it which locution is more proper then the former it being the efficient doth ex intrinseco quasi formam educere and what is that but the Form And lastly Experience tels us that quod nihil fit a seipso nothing is produced from it self but from another which is the Efficient as in the building of a house you may have stones and Morter for your matter yet unless a Mason who is the Efficient place them together and introduce or rather educe the form of a House the matter will abide matter CHAP. V. Of New Philosophy and the Authours of it 1. Helmontius his Arrogance and Vainglory How and wherein he rejects the Peripatetick Philosophy His own Principles 2. The Life and Death of the said Helmontius 3. A Confutation of all his Physical Principles in particular 4. Some few Arguments against Rerè des Cartes his Principles in general I. I Thought fit to make a stop in my Discourse and before I proceed
of the Elements That there was a Chaos 6. That there was conferred a distinct form upon every Element Whether a Form is a Substance 'T is proved that it is not I. ANd now give me leave to apply what hath been stated in the preceding Chapter to the Elements which as they are constituted out of Indivisibles Points or minima's so they are dissolveable into the said Indivisibles At their first Creation they were each created a Maximum Their matter is nothing else but their concrete quantity mole or magnitude Neither are we to imagine that God did create all the minima's of the world before he united them to one Mass but created the whole Mass at once divisible into indivisibilities that so they being divided into indivisibilities might become a fit matter for mixture and therein he imposed an order and law upon the Elements of generation and dissolution and without this Law what Order is there imaginable II. Supposing these points coagmented into one Mass were created before the advent of a form which is impossible secundum quid and being without any determination figure motion or any thing that descends from a form it would be nothing differing from Aristotles materia prima Now then I demand what Potentia essemialis or Appetitus formae could there be rationally conceived to inhere in her Certainly no essential one but obediential neither an Appetite to a form for she being blind how could she perceive a form to covet it or being destitute of motion how could she have an appetite since Appetite is nothing else but a natural motion or inclination III. Matter having brought quantity place habit and duration along with her let us further enquire what company the form hath attending it A form as we said before is little else but a Mode of activity and quality For quantity without her is nothing of her self it is the same that doth constitute her and addes distinction and action to her That which giveth activity and quality to Matter and Quantity is an actus of Local Motion This actus of motion is not raised out of quantity or matter for then it would remain quantity neither is it educed out of the disposition of matter for even so it could be nothing yet but matter disposed Wherefore it is a strange saying to assert that the form is educed out of the power of matter Either this may be taken properly and then it is equipollent as if you said the form is educed out of the matter as she is potent that is as having a disposition or propension unto and this is impossible or improperly when the power of matter is taken for a being which as yet is not but may be neither can the form in this sense be educed for she then would be educed e nihilo or e privatione IV. That the actus continuus of local motion is the form of the Elements I prove it That which is the first cause of all the effects acted by the Elements must needs be their form but such is the act of local motion Wherefore c. I shall omit the proving of the Minor here in general since I have proved it below in particular V. The particular production of each part of the world holds forth the manner of the production of the whole since they are all derived from one universal efficient Nature Naturating We observe then daily as for instance in the production of Man Beasts Fowls Minerals that these draw their first Original from a confusion of Principles of Elements which is an assured note or mark that the Elements of the universe were first cast into a confusion quia pars totius naturam aemulatur 2. It is no less undoubtable that as the activity and qualities of these fore-instanced formations were latent and contained in their confused Elements and gradually extracted inacted and exalted to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfection through the vertue of an efficient in like manner were the activity and qualities or forms of the elements latent in their Chaos and afterwards gradually extracted expanded divided and exalted into their fulness by the same Nature 3. It is hence apparent that the Elements underwent several changes but total not partial ones and therefore require a particular disquisition upon each VI. Let us imagine many millions upon millions of minima's of quantity or matter divided into four equal parts whereof each is set apart to be the matter and subject of every one of the four Elements Each of these 't is necessary should be vivified and actuated by a distinct form for otherwise they could not in their dissolution from the Chaos prove apt substances for the constitution of distinct bodies Or simply a form is needful or how or by what power could they act But the question will be whether this form is not an incompleat Substance as the Philosopher states The question me thinks is rather whether it is not a Bull to name a substance incompleat For a substance is a substance because it is compleat and its completion or perfection gives it a subsistence so that were a form a substance it might subsist per se Besides would it not according to Aristotle make an unum per Accidens or could it be directly referred to a Predicament were it united to another real substance Neither is it sufficient to distinguish it from an Accident because it doth constitute part of the compositum for so doth every other accident or mode as appears in Metaphysicks Doth it not inhere in Subjecto per modum accidentis or can it exist out of it And wherein is it then different from an Accident 2. It is frustraneous for the form to be a substance since that a being through its quantity only is capable of receiving quality and activity or vertue of acting A form then is a power of acting in a substance but not a substance it is essential to a being but modally only distinguisht from it not really for an activity in a substance is nothing else but an active substance The concomitants of this activity or form are many as alterative qualities colour figure and all determination and distinction In a word it renders its subject hoc aliquid Although the form is not educed e potentia materiae it hinders not from being educed e potestate actuali Agentis vel efficientis as Scaliger delivers CHAP. VIII Of the Absolute and Respective Form of Earth Water Ayr and Fire 1. What Form it is the Author allots to Earth That driness is not the first quality of earth 2. The respective form of Earth 3. That Coldness is not the first quality of Water That water is not moyst naturally neither doth it moysten What it is to moysten Why water acuated with Spirits of Vitriol Sulphur or of Salt-Peter doth moysten and abate thirst more then when it is single 4. The form of water What Gravity is and what Levity What Density is The form
of water proved Why water disperseth it self into Drops Why Sea-men cannot make Land upon the Cap-head when they may upon the Top Mast-head Why the Stars do appear sooner to those in the East-Seas then to others in the West 5. That water is thick but not dense Whence it is that water is smooth Why Ayr makes a Bubble upon the water when it breaks forth That the least Atoms of Ayr cannot break through the water without raising a Bubble Why the same doth not happen to Earth 6. That Moysture is not the first quality of Ayr neither doth the Ayr naturally moysten any body but to the contrary dryeth it 7. The form of Ayr. What Tenuity is Why Feathers Cobwebs and other light Bodies do expand themselves when thrown through the Ayr. Why Grease Oyl Wax c. do make Splatches when poured upon the ground Why Gunpowder Smoak Breathes of living creatures Vapours Exhalations Dust c. do diffuse themselves in that manner Whence it is that the least breath moves and shakes the Ayr. The relative form of Ayr. Why Spirits of Wine mix easier and sooner with water then one water with another 8. The first quality of fire What Rarity is Whence it is that a Torch or Candle spreads its Beames circularly as appears at a distance That Fire is roof the cause of it Fire's Relative nature A comparing of all the first qualities of the Elements one to the other 1. THe Form lately mentioned may justly be surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfection because it confers a Perfection upon matter But to return where I left After sufficient evidence that each of the Elements are actuated by a distinct form I begin first with the Earth whose form and first quality is weight pondus with density 1. Because through it it performeth all its Operations and Effects 2. The form or first quality of a body is unremoveable but dense weight is unremoveable from earth ergo it is its form and first quality whereas dryness which is brought in competition with it by all Peripateticks is removeable for earth may be moystened with water This is an Herculean Argument if well weighed 3. A Privation cannot be the first quality of earth because it is accidental to it but dryness is only a privation of moysture and consequently accidental I confirm the Minor had there never been any moysture who could ever have thought of dryness Again in the ordinary Ideom of speech we say such a thing is dry because we feel no dampness in it for first we feel and gather it together to try whether we can feel any moysture but perceiving no moysture or dampness we say it is dry Ergo because of the privation of moysture Further moysture and dryness are privative opposites because the one being removed the other also vanishes For take away sight and you take away blindness it being improper to say a thing is blind unless in opposition to sight The same is appliable to dryness and moysture take away moysture and then it will be improper to say dryness Lastly the Peripatetick description of dryness proves no less Dryness is whose subject is easily contained within its own bounds but difficultly within anothers Now unless there were water within whose bounds it could not be contained there could be no dryness since that dryness is whose subject cannot be contained unless difficultly within the bounds of water or Ayr either II. All elements and each of them are actuated by a respective or relative form that is their being and conservation consisteth in a relation of a dependence from each other for instance the earth is inconsistent of it self for through its incomprehensible gravity it would move to an infinitum which is repugnant to its truth so that through its pondus it inclineth to the fire which again through its lightness bendeth to it and so meeting one another they embrace and constitute each other in their being Well may Authors term their close and entire union a discors amicitia or amica discordia since their motion to each other is so fierce and eager that it doth as it were appear a fighting or discord but it tending to so mutual a good and benefit proves the greatest friendship But should coldness and heat be stated to be the form or first qualities of the Elements they could not subsist one moment because they are the greatest contraries and therefore would not cease from their most incenst hostility before each were expelled from their common subject as we see plainly in water and fire III. This makes way to free water from coldness to which it is neither but a privation of heat For suppose there were a dish of water placed without the sphear of the elements it would be improper to say it were either hot or cold Neither is Moysture the first quality of water for water of it self per se doth not moysten any thing absolutely that is freed from all mixture I prove it To moysten is nothing else but to be thinly covered or dasht over with water or its vapours but water when it is in its absolute state is of so thick parts that it is unapt to adhere to any thing We observe that Quick-silver or rather quick Lead for so it is in effect and melted Lead although liquid yet they do not moysten because their parts are thick By thickness I do not intend a depth of quantity or of matter only but such a depth of quantity that is not porous or a crassitude whose parts are diducted and drawn out into a continuity and that throughout all its dimensions and therefore through defect of tenuity doth not adhere to whatever is immerst in it even so it is with water which supposed in its absolute or separated state doth by far exceed quick-Lead in thickness and consequently is unapt for humectation but in the state wherein it now is which is mixed and attenuated with much fire and ayr it doth easily adhere to whatever body that is dipt in it This is the reason why water in hot Countries doth sooner quench thirst then in cold or wine sooner then water because the watery parts are more subtilized by the indivisibilities of fire that are dispersed through them Now water abates drought but little because of its crassitude Experience tels us that one little measure of water acuated with Spirits of Vitriol of Sulphur or of Salt-Peter doth moysten the body and abate thirst in a Feaver more then a Pint of water single because the water is subtilized by the forementioned Ingredients But Physitians vulgarly adscribe this effect to the penetrability of the admixtures A blind reason because water doth penetrate to the internals therefore it moystens the more this is not all for suppose that water did penetrate yet it would not moysten because it doth not adhere to the parts which it doth touch wherefore it is only to be imputed to its subtilization All which demonstrates that water in its
purity that is in its absolute state doth moysten less then Quicksilver which is not at all IV. The Form or first quality of water is gravity with crassitude There is no single word I can think upon in any Language that I know full enough to express what I do here intend and therefore am compelled to substitute these I explain them thus You must apprehend that gravity is a motion from the Circumference to the Center Levity is a diffusion or motion from the Center to the Circumference Now there is a gravity with density that is which hath density accompanying it Density is a closeness of minima's not diducted into a continuity but potentialiter that is Logicè porous and such is proper to earth There is also a gravity with crassitude which is a weight whose parts are diducted into a continuity or I might rather express my self whose parts do concentrate or move from the Circumference to the Center with a continuity that is without any potential pores dividing its matter as in Quicksilver diduct its body to the Circumference as much as you can yet its part will concentrate with a continuity but if you diduct earth you will perceive its porosity so that its body is altogether discontinuated Water is then weighty with a crassitude I prove it First that it is weighty or that its parts move from the Circumference to the Center Water when divided through force doth unite it self in globosity as appears in drops where all its parts falling from the circumference close to their center form a globosity 2. Water doth not only in its divided parts concentrate but also in its whole quantity This is evident to them that are at sea and approaching to the Land they first make it from the top-mast-head whereas standing at the foot of it upon the Deck they cannot The reason is because the water being swelled up in a round figure the top is interposed between the sight of those that stand upon the Deck and the Land-marks as hils or steeples but they that are aloft viz. upon the Yard arm or top-mast may easily discover them because they stand higher then the top of the swelling of the water The same is also remarkeable in a Bowl filled up with water to the Brim where you may discern the water to be elevated in the middle and proportionably descending to the Brim to constitute a round Figure Archimedes doth most excellently infer the same by demonstration but since the alleadging of it would protract time and try your patience I do omit it Lastly The Stars rising and going down do plainly demonstrate the roundness of the water for to those that sayl in the Eastern Seas the Stars do appear sooner then to others in the Western Ocean because the swelling of the water hindreth the light of the Stars rising in the East from illuminating those in the West The same Argument doth withal perswade us that the earth is round and consequently that its parts do all fall from the Outside to the Center V. Secondly That water hath a crassitude joyning to its gravity sight doth declare to us for it is impossible to discern any porosity in water although dropped in a magnifying Glass which in Sand is not It s levor or most exact smoothness expressing its continuity accompanying its weight is an undoubted mark of its crassitude whereas roughness is alwaies a consequent of contiguity and porosity There is not the least or subtilest spark of fire or ayr can pass the substance of water unless it first break the water and so make its way to get through this is the reason why the least portion of ayr when inclosed within the Intrailes of water cannot get out unless it first raises a bubble upon the water which being broke it procures its vent Nor the least Atome of fire cannot transpire through water unless it disrupts the water by a bubble as we see happens when water seeths or disperse the water into vapours and carry vapours and all with it But ayr and fire do easily go through earth because its parts being only contiguous and porous have no obstacle to obstruct them for sand we see in furnaces will suffer the greatest heat or fire to pass through without any disturbance of its parts Lastly Its respectiveness or relation doth require this form both for its own conservation and for others For the earths relative form being to meet and take hold through its weight and porosity this porosity is necessary for admitting the fire within its bowels for were it continuous as water is it would expel fire and dead it of the fire and by ballancing its lightness to preserve their beings mutually it needs the assistance of water for to inclose the fire when it is received by the earth and through its continuity to keep it in otherwise it would soon break through its pores and desert it So that you see that water by doing the earth this courtesie preserveth her self for were she not stayed likewise in her motion through the fire and ayr she would move to an infinitum VI. Moisture is not the first quality or form of the ayr I prove it Moysture as I said before is nothing else but the adhesion of a moyst body to another which it doth affect or touch Now in this moyst body there must be a certain proportion or Ratio substantiae of quantity it must neither be too thick or too thin Water therefore in its purity is unapt to moysten because it is too thick so ayr in its absolute state is too thin to adhere to any body that it reaches unto If ayr in its mixt nature through which it is rendred of a far thicker consistence is nevertheless not yet thick enough to adhere to the sides of another substance much less in its purity Who ever hath really perceived the moysture of Ayr I daily hear people say hang such a thing up to dry in the ayr but yet I never heard any say hang it up in the ayr to moysten but wet it in the water This drying Faculty of the ayr Peripateticks assert to be accidental to it namely through the permixtion of exhalations with the ayr Alas this is like to one of their Evasions Do we not know that the ayr in its lowest region is rather accidentally moyst because of its imbibition of vapours copiously ascending with the fire or heat tending out of the water to its element Is not the heat more apt to conveigh vapours that do so narrowly enclose it then earth which of it self permits free egress to fire yea where an Ounce of Exhalations ascends there arises a Pint of Vapours Waving this I state the case concerning the second Region of the Ayr or of the top of Mountains where according to their own judgment neither Vapours or â—xhalations are so much dispersed as to be capable of drying or moystning any ex rinsick body even here do wet things dry quicker then
below because the ayr here is much freed from that irrigation of waterish moysture which the vapours contribute to the lowermost Region as impelling all extraneous vapours and exhalâ—tion to a body Moreover I will give you a reason for it To dry is to dissipate and disperse moysture or dampishness adhering to any substance but the ayr being a most subtil body doth through its subtility attenuate the water which attenuated fals off from that body whereunto it first hung and is then imbibed by the ayr which it doth afterwards detrude to its proper place Lightness with tenuity is the form and first quality of ayr What lightness is I have set down before Tenuity is a continuous exparsion and diffusion into all dimensions As water is weighty with crassitude so contrariwise as it were is air light with tenuity I prove that ayr is light because all aerial bodies as Cobwebs Feathers although they are complicated yet being cast forth into the ayr their parts are diffused from the Center to the Circumference Grease Tallow Oyl Wax c. these bodies because they do much participate of Ayr when melted and dropt upon the ground do spread themselves into broad splatches not contracting themselves like earth or water into close round bodies but rather contrariwise Gunpowder when kindled Smoak breathes of living Creatures Vapours Exhalations Dust c. are all diducted from their Center to the Circumference through the natural motion of the air inclosed within their bodies The Ayr if condensed as they say but improperly is in a counter-natural state for then it makes use of violence ergo its diffusion to the Circumference is natural to it That the air is tenuous or confisting of thin parts expanded in continuity into all dimensions its rupture doth signifie for were it contiguous every subtil exhalation or wind would not move it but might easily transpire through its porosity without concussing it but it being continuous is compelled to break which rupture causes both its commotion and sound Hence it is that the least breath moves the air and makes a sound in it The reason why the water is moved or at any time a sound is made in it is because it being continuous is subject to ruptures which disposeth it to both but neither happens to fire or earth because they are porous and only contiguous Lastly It s being and preservation is impossible without this relative form For through it the Ayr doth moderate balance and is subservient to it self and other Elements Water is weighty with crassitude and through its so being it compasses the earth so narrowly that the fire is unable of striking through its continuity for to meet the earth wherefore Ayr being light with tenuity doth diffuse and expand the body of water and so the fire is led to the earth by the conduct of the Ayr. Again water being of that weight would move to an infinitum and the lightness of fire is insufficient to stay it because water is heavy and thick and therefore contrary to fire which is light and rare and through that quality must necessarily expel the fire wherefore air is requisite for to balance its weight and having partly the same nature with water and partly different yet not contrary is alone capable of mixing with the water Ayr is partly of the same nature with water because they are both continuous and so do thereby immediately at their first conjunction pervade each other and come to an exact union This I will illustrate to you by an Example Affuse Spirits of Wine to Water you see they will mixe exactly in a moment for you may presently after tast them equally at the bottom of the Glass and at the top Now it is evident that Spirits of Wine are very ayry and fiery and therefore because continuous mingle instantly with the water But fire refuseth to mixe with it because it is contiguous and light and altogether contrary as it were It is different because it moves to the Circumference and water to the Center Pray observe the wisdom of Nature this is most necessity for although they are both continuous how could they mix unless the one did move to the Center and the other from it whereby they come to meet one another in an instant Did they move both to the Center they could not mix or meet together for being then supposed to be of an equal weight that which was undermost would remain undermost much in the manner of two Horses going both one pace one before the other about in a Mill who will hardly meet unless the one turnes its gate and go contrarily to the other and so they do immediately confront one another Hence it is that wine mixes quicker by far with water then one kind of water doth with another By this you may discern the absolute necessity of these motions in the Elements both for mixtion and their mutual conservation VIII The first quality of fire is Levity with Rarity Rarity is a subtility or minority of parts whereby its minima's are contiguous one to the other Who ever doubted of the lightness of fire Doth not fire diffuse its heat equally from its Center to the Circumference Doth not the fire in a Torch cast its light circularly from its Center That fire abhors a continuity we perceive by its burning for we see that the flames in Spirits of Wine do terminate into points which points make a roughness whereas were the fire continuous its terms would be smooth like unto those of Water and Ayr. Doth not the fire work through the smallest pores ergo through its contiguous points Hence it is that fire passes where ayr is shut out It s relative nature is constituted by its contiguity of parts for through it it is fitted for the embracing of earth were it continuous and light it would shun the earth or if admitted into the earth the earth would disrupt and expel it like as it disrupts and expels Ayr. Wherefore through its porosity and contiguity it enters the earth and the earth enters it each opening its pores at this friendly reception Nevertheless supposing that contiguity had no contrariety to continuity yet would the Ayr not be light enough to sustain the weight of the body of earth besides there must be two gravities conceived for one lightness and two or three continuities for one contiguity so that of absolute necessity a fourth Element must be added that might be answering to the earths gravity and density through its levity and rarity That which is light and rare is more vibrating and by far of greater activity and energy then that which is light and thin Summarily let us take a view of all their first qualities and compare them together Water and Ayr do communicate in a perfect friendship and so doth Earth and Fire water and earth ayr and water fire and ayr are all beholding to one another yet not in the same respect but divers Water and Fire
at an immediate contact are absolutely disagreeing but mediately accompanying other Elements prove good friends the same Law is between Earth and Ayr. Observe although I have explained their forms by more words then one yet apprehend that in their sense they move a single concept Levity with Rarity is really distinct from Levity with Tenuity their operations and manner of operating being also different for Levity with Rarity is more penetrating vibrating and of a stronger force and therefore Fire exceeds the Ayr in Levity The like is to be understood of the Earth and Water to wit that the former is more weighty then the latter These concur equally to the constitution of one another of the world and of its parts the one contributeth as much as the other and therefore they are of an equal dignity and time CHAP. IX Of the Beginning of the World 1. Whence the world had its beginning What the Chaos is That the Chaos had a Form A Scripture Objection Answered That the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters did informate the Chaos 2. That the Chaos consisted of the four Elements is proved by Scripture The Etymology of Heaven What Moses meant by Waters above the Waters The Derivation of the Firmament That the Ayr is comprehended under the Notion of waters in Gen. 3. That the Elements were exactly mixt in the Chaos That all the Elements consist of an equal number of Minima's 4. That none but God alone can be rationally thought to be the Efficient of the Chaos How this Action is expressed in Scripture 5. What Creation is Thom. Aq. his Definition of Creation disproved Austins Observations of the Creation 6. That God is the Authour of the Creation proved by the Testimonies of Scripture of Holy men and of Philosophers 7. An Explanation of the Definition of Creation Whether Creation is an emanant or transient Action Creation is either mediate or immediate Scotus his Errour upon this point The Difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein mediate Creation differs from Generation 8. Of the Place Magnitude tangible Qualities Colour Temperament Time Figure Extent in Figure Duration Quantity and Number of the Chaos THus much shall suffice concerning the Matter and Form of the Elements as they are considered supposedly separated from each other but notwithstanding are the Particulars last insisted upon really in them primatio per se. Now let us proceed Since these Elements are perfections and as it were forms to each other the one being constituted doth suppose them all to be constituted and but one of them being abolisht they are all abolisht Wherefore it is a simple question to demand which of the Elements we could best miss or which of them is most necessary for the preservation of life they being all of an equal necessity I. The first formation of the world took its Original from the creation of a Chaos which that it did hath been demonstrated in one of the precedent Chapters The Chaos is a great and vast natural body consisting of an exact mixture of all the four Elements It is generally explained to be a Confusion of all the Elements Hereby confusion is not meant an imperfect mixtion but it is called a confusion because it is an universal mixtion of all the Elements The Chaos was a natural body because it was constituted by the natural Matter and Form of all the Elements That it had matter is little doubted of by any all derived natural substances being thereout materiated But a form is not so universally allowed to it Moses telling us in the first Chapt. of Gen. That the Earth was without form For the reconciling of this you must know that a form is not alwaies taken in the same sense A Form is somtimes taken for the compleat and last perfection of a thing so we say that the confusion of genitures in matrico is rude and hath no form that is it hath not that compleat further and last perfection and shape which is intended in it 2ly Form is more commonly taken for that which giveth specification and distinction to Matter or that whereby a thing is that which it is so as in this acception the Chaos of the Microcosmus is termed not to be without a form neither is the Chaos of the Macrocosmus void of form although in the former sense it is I prove it The Chaos was either a thing or nothing It was not nothing for the Text mentions it consisted of Heaven and Earth Was it a thing ergo it must have had a form to be that thing which it was or to be distinguisht from nothing It was not only distinguisht from nothing but also from an infinitum and from a single essence it consisting of Heaven and Earth which constituted both a finitum and a compositum But all distinction derives from a form ergo it ha◠form Further the Scripture doth reveal to us that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and what was the Spirit of God here but the form of the Chaos Again the Spirit of God moving upon the waters doth evidently confirm my former Assertion namely that the form of the Elements is nothing else but a local moving vertue impressed by Nature that is God upon their Matter II. That the whole Clot of each Element contributed to the Matter and Form of this first created body the same Scripture makes clear to us in enumerating them distinctly viz. Chap. 1. 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth And the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters First you see here is Heaven comprehending fire and air for as I proved before ayr cannot exist without fire nor fire without air Secondly Both these being near companions and relations the Text comprehends them in one for if you observe the Scripture doth all along in this Chapter enumerate the Elements by paires as it were under one name because of their near affinity So by the deep is meant Earth and Water strictly or properly so called and by waters the two fluid Elements which are those that before are explained to be continuous Elements That this is the genuine Interpretation of the said divine Text the ensuing words do clearly make it out for in v. 6. God saith Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters Here the water and ayr being both alike in fluidity and confused together are both called water The ayr then being light and the water weighty God expanding them the ayr through its lightness heaved up from the water and thence constituted a part of Heaven as the Text hath it in v. 8. The water through its weight descended under the ayr and thence it is called in v. 9. the waters under the heaven This must
Arcess Nature make her process in the elaboration purification and exaltation of the Elements neither was she yet arrived to her ultimate intention or end but proceeded in her scope by a more arct and pure coagulation of parts in dividing the heterogeneous parts yet more from the body of water and so knitting them together again This was the fifth Division whereby God divided the purest and subtilest part of the Elements before divided and coagulated from the course and impure parts and promoted them to an arcter coagulation this was as it were a fourth rectification of the Elements In the water the coagulated bodies through the vivification of the Planetary influences became Fishes In the Ayr Fowl VI. The Sixth Division respected the Earth out of whose more purified and rectified parts protruded to her superficial Region Cattel and Beasts were animated by the same Influences Lastly By vertue of the Seventh Division Man was created and formed out of the most exalted Quintessence of the purest coagulalation of Earth animated through the Benigne vivifying Beams of the Sun after which a Mens sive Spiritus sive Lux Rationalis a Mind or a rational spirit or Light was inspired or infused from God into this most sublime Tabernacle The Representation of the Chaos after its latter Divisions How a Creature is vivified and animated I shall demonstrate in its proper place Man again was further purified and defaecated by having a woman created out of his grosser and less digested Parts CHAP. XIV Of the Second and Third Absolute Qualities of the Elements 1. What is understood by Second Qualities 2. What the Second quality of Earth is 3. Aristotle's Definition of Density rejected 4. The Opinions of Philosophers touching the Nature of Density 5. The forementioned Opinions confuted 6. The Description of Indivisibles according to Democritus disproved That all Figures are divisible excepting a Circular Minimum That Strength united proveth strongest in a round Figure and why 7. What the Second Quality of Fire is Cardan Averrhoes Zimara Aristotle Tolet and Zabarel their Opinions touching the Nature of Rarity confuted 8. The Second Quality of Water Aristotle Joh. Grammat Tolet Zabarel and Barthol their sence of Thickness and Thinness disproved 9. What the Second Quality of Ayr is 10. What is intended by third fourth or fifth Qualities An Enumeration of the said Qualities What Obtuseness Acuteness Asperity Levor Hardness Rigidity Softness Solidity Liquidity and Lentor are and their kinds 1. THe Second Qualities are those which do immediately descend or emanate from the first without any neerer interposing Their Number is adequated to the Number of the first qualities and therefore are only four because an immediate and univocal cause cannot produce more immediate and univocal Effects then one Second qualities proceed from the Elements either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Second qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or per se are such as emanate primarily from the absolute forms of the Elements Second qualities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or per accidens emanate primarily from the respective forms of the Elements In the Precedent Chapters hath been indistinctly treated of the first and second qualities united into one as really they are but they are tow and distinct from each other ratione because we conceive them distinctly and apprehend one to be the cause of the other The reason why I did then propose the first and second qualities as one form of the Elements is because there I handled them as they were really inherent in their Subjects Here my purpose is to describe them as they are successively apprehended by us one after the other II. The first quality power or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth is gravity with contiguity the second or next quality emanating nearest thence is density for conceiving a thing to be weighty and contiguous in its parts that which we apprehend next is density for if a thing is weighty or pressing to the Center and its parts contiguous it cannot but be pressed very close since its parts are contiguous whereby they give and make way to and for one another which closeness of parts emanating from a contiguous weight is called density III. Aristotle describes Density to be that whereby a substance containes much matter in small dimensions I cannot well guess what he cals much matter whether he means much matter only without the intention of its form or much matter with much of its form The first is not possible for whenever matter is augmented its form is alwaies intended with it and likewise the diminution of matter attendeth the remission of its form which is evident in fire cast more fewel to it and its first quality will also be intended If he implies the last where then consists the difference between Density and Rarity For dense bodies contain no more matter then rare ones for each their matter is adequately extended to the extension of their form Doth a Lump of earth contain more matter then a tract of ayr of the same proportion No certainly for there is as much matter in that proportion of ayr as there is in the same of earth Matter is that whereout a thing is made but there is as much of that whereout the ayr is made in the ayr in the same extent of place as there is in earth whereout that is made But answer me whereby will you know what hath much matter in a little place or dimension and what hath little matter in a great place You will say by its weight So that whatever is weighty that containes more matter then that which is light Why shall a body be said to have more matter from its gravity then another from its Levity Or why shall a light body have but little matter and a weighty one much If a weighty body hath more matter because it is weighty then it is more a body then a light body but that is absurd By more matter I mean magis materia But you answer your meaning to be major materia neither that for as I said before the least particle of ayr hath as much whereout it is made as the least particle of earth It is true it hath not so much weight for it hath none but weight is not the matter of a thing but its form how then can a weighty thing be said to have much matter because of its weight Wherefore let me tell you that density doth not derive from the matter of a thing but from its form and that it is not the Modus solius materiae but totius The same may be urged against the Paripatetick Definition of Rarity which is whereby a body containeth little matter under great dimensions The matter which is to be contained under great or little dimensions must be of that quantity as to fill its place which rare and dense bodies do equally under the same proportion But doubtless these Definitions cannot be defended unless they be
light and rare parts to it I wonder what accidental change it is he means it must be either to quantity and then it is the same with augmentation and diminution or to quality and then it is an alteration or a locomotive quality but he mentions none Supposing it to be a quality the question is whether this doth arise in that subject with the adherence to its primitive matter of the extrinsick Agent or whether it doth migrate out of its own subject into another It is not the latter for I have proved in my Dispute of Powers that an Accident doth not migrate out of one Subject into another If the first then it is by the entring of another body between the parts that are separated and what body is that but fire It is that which through its contiguous lightness doth render a dense body rare and so condensation is by expelling the light parts or admitting more parts of a dense body as of earth which doth condensate through its contiguous gravity Wherefore we are not forced to grant a vacuum in Rarefaction because a body is rarefied through the supplying of the supposed voyd spaces by the presence of fire Neither need we to assert a penetration of bodies in Condensation since that those parts which are supposed to be penetrated into the substance of others are expelled It is not then as Tolet writes that rarefaction is become great out of little without the apposition or detraction of a new Substance for were it so then of a necessity there must be allowed a penetration of bodies in condensation and a vacuum in Rarefaction wherefore Scaliger saith well in his 4th Exerc. That there can be no addensation or rarefaction although Rarity and Density are really in them in any single body Ergo dum inter unum minimum naturale ignis puri minima continua circumsita nullum medium corpus intercedat quonam igitur modo queunt esse propius ant longinquius sine intervallo mutuave cor porum penetratione Wherefore since between one natural minimum of pure fire the surrounding continuated minima's which are the minima's of the ayr there is no middle body interposed how then can they be nearer or further without an interval or mutual penetration of bodies The reason as I said before is because without the adjunction of another body to a single one there is no rarefaction or condensation Observe by the way that many of the Parepateticks make a two-fold rarity in bodies The one they confound with a thinness as you may read in Arist. Lab. 2. de part Anim. Cap. 1. And Grammat Lib. 2. de ortu inter Context 8. This they refer to the Category of Quality and doth consecute heat The other which is the more frequent and proper acception of Rarity as they say is which doth not consist in a Tenuity of a substance but in the distance of parts between one another and so they call a sponge rare because it hath parts distant from one another through an interposed space not really void which containes no body but is filled with another thin and insensible body as in a Sponge whose parts are called void wherein notwithstanding ayr is contained This kind of Rarity they refer to the Category of Situs I take them in this last Acception and demand whether it is not the ayr which causes that situation and distance of parts For the Sponge is condensed through expressing the ayr by compression of the Sponge If so then it is not a single quality educed out of the power of matter but the entring of the ayr into its pores which doth rarifie as they term it the Sponge Zabarel Lib. de Calore Coelest Cap. 3. attributes Rarity to the causality of heat and density to Coldness But before he had proposed an Objection which was that heat is produced by rarefaction and attrition To this he strives to answer below but finding he could not go through with it recants and states That in the Elements as they are simple their heat doth produce Rarity and so doth Rarity reciprocally produce heat An absurdity to affirm the effect to be the cause of its cause and the cause to be the effect of it self 2. Heat is not the cause of Rarity because fire is the rarest of all in its own Region and yet as they confess fire is not hot in its own Seat VIII The first quality of water is gravity with continuity the second emanating thence is Crassitude which is a thick consistence exporrected through all its dimensions You will grant me that Crassitude proceeds from an arct and near union of parts or from a close compression of the said parts This compression and union derives from gravity this gravity being continuous doth necessarily cause a crassitude for were it contiguous it would effect a density There is nothing unless it be water or waterish bodies that is thick as Oyles Gums Rozzens fat Tallow are all waterish so far at they are thick yet not without the admistion of most Ayr Ice Chrystal Diamonds and most Precious stones are waterish and therefore thick Choler Pepper the Stars c. are rare because they are fiery that is participate more of fire then of any other Element Flies Cobwebs Clouds c. are thin because they are ayery All earthy bodies are dense as Minerals Stones c. Now as it is necessary that all the Elements should meet in every body so it is necessary that there should concomitate Rarity Density Tenuity and Crassitude in each mixt body Wherefore do not think it strange that thinness and thickness should be in one body although they are counted contraries among Authors I cannot but admire that all Philosopers to this very day should have confounded the signification of these words thick dense thin rare naming thick bodies dense thin ones rare and so reciprocally as if they were one whereas there is a great distinction between them Aristotle Johan Grammat Tolet Zabarel and many others take thinness and rarity to be the same as also thickness and density whereas you may now evidently know that they are altogether distinct and wherein they are so It is erroneous to say that water is dense or fire thick ayr rare c. but water is alone thick ayr thin earth dense and fire rare Bartholin Lib. 1. Phys. Cap. 5. defines Thickness by an adulterine cause Thickness saith he is thought to derive from coldness and density And a little before he described Density to be derived from coldness and thickness Mark his thick dulness in asserting thickness to be the cause of density and density of thickness The cause must be prior causato natura saltem but here neither is prior He makes a difference in their names but in re he concludes them to be one IX The first quality of Ayr is Levity with Continuity its second is Tenuity which is a thin consistence of a substance wherefore Thinness and Thickness are
compress its parts any more then it was compressed before but a stone or other mixt heavy body lying upon the ground presseth a hole into the ground yet if as much more earth as there is contained in such a stone were cast upon the same place it would not make any sensible cavity or Impression the reason is because in a stone or mixt body the earth is violently detained and therefore useth the greater force or compression to the Center but earth being in its natural seat doth not This quality may be called coldness supposing it to be a passion wrought upon the tact by the earth punctually pressing to the Center In this sense coldness is an absolute quality in another it may be taken for a privation of heat because it seizeth upon the tact only in the absence of heat According to the former sense doth the Poet elegantly explain the nature of Cold. Nam penetrabile frigus adurit For the penetrating cold doth burn By penetrating its compression is intended That the cold is penetrating and pressing none that ever hath been in Greenland will deny wherefore in that it is an absolute quality In the latter sense it may be taken for a privation for it is the absence of heat which effecteth Coldness yet not per se but per accidens because as long as the heat is in a body it doth through its motion ad extra balance and temper the motion of cold ad iutra but the heat being departed then coldness doth through its compression punctually divide the continuous parts of the body as the ayry and waterish parts of it and so coldness is reduced to action through the defect of heat to balance it This we are sensible of in the Winter at which time there being a detraction of the ambient heat the earthy parts contained in the Ayr do then through their weight press down upon us and being arrived to our skin they repel the heat which being repelled they joyn with the earthy parts of our Body and so cause a greater punctual compression whence we soon feel a dense acuteness thence an asperity and thence a hardness or rigidity When again we approach the fire then its heat joynes with our internal heat and expelling the extrinsick cold parts it doth force the intrinsick ones back to the Circumference and so we grow hot again VIII There is also a Compression observeable in water but much different from that caused by earth water compressing the tact with a continuation and not punctually and therefore the compression made by water is equal thick and obtuse whence it is that when we have newly washt our hands with cold water we feel a thick levor upon them caused by the continuous pressure of the water The division which produceth this cold passion in our tact is not by separating or disjoyning its continuous parts but by squeezing the Ayr contained within its pores which being squeezed impelleth also the fiery spirits seated about these Pores from which impulsion we feel a punctual and acute division so that the passion raised by water doth per se only compress obtusely the continuous parts of our tact through a squeezing and per accidens it disuniteth them punctually by impelling the fiery spirits effentially inhering in the said tangent parts besides water containing some earthy points doth by reason of them excite withal a small acute compression Arist. Lib. 2. de ort anim Cap. 4. and in Lib. 1. de Meteor Cap. 4. seemes to assert that coldness is nothing else but a privation of heat For saith he the two Elements implying water and earth remain cold by reason of the defect of circular motion making heat Zabarel Lib. 2. de qual Elem. cap. 3. makes good my Opinion although by guess or at least we must say that coldness is really in it self a positive quality but wherein this positive quality consisteth he knoweth not but that it ariseth from a privation of heat and in respect of heat it may take place among privations This tends to the same purpose as I have stated before namely that coldness cannot act unless heat be absent in such a proportion as that it may have power over it The same is appliable to heat and the other qualities viz. that they are privations in regard they cannot act without the absence of their Opposites but that they are positive because they act sensibly in the absence of the said opposites But what shall I think of Aristotle who hath soon altered his opinion in Lib. 2. de Ort. Inter. Text. 9. Cold is that doth equally conjoyn and congregate bodies that are of the same Gender as well as those of a differing Gender A plain Contradiction for that which doth conjoyn and congregate bodies by condensation must be positive according to his own words yet nevertheless above he asserted it to be a Privation I wave this and proceed in making disquisition upon his Definition Broath as long as it remaines boyling hot the fat of it is contained within it being exactly mixed with the water but assoon as it cooles it is separated and cast forth to the top ergo cold doth segregate heterogenea from homogenea Earth separates her self from water and water segregates her parts from fire and ayr but water and earth are cold and yet do not congregate their own parts with others of another gender Ergo. 2. This is no more but the mentioning of one of its remote effects for they themselves grant that it produceth this effect through condensation ergo cold is not formally defined but described through one of its effects It now proves easie to us to decide that inveterated dispute concerning the primum frigidum That which doth most divide the tact by compression is the primum frigidum or the coldest but the earth doth most compress our tact or tangent parts for it doth compress the tact acutely and water obtusely only ergo it is the coldest 2. According to their own Tenents that which doth most condense is the coldest but earth condenses most for it condensates her own parts into Metals and Stones but water although it incrassates yet it cannot condense bodies into that consistence which earth doth ergo 3. That which is heaviest is the coldest for condensation is an effect of weight but earth is heaviest ergo Lastly If it be your pleasure to name Earth a frigidum in summo and Water a frigidum in remisso Fire a calidum in summo sive intenso and Ayr calidum in remisso you may without Offence CHAP. XVI Of the remaining Respective Qualities of the Elements 1. The Second Respective Quality of the Ayr. That water cannot be really and essentially attenuated The State of the Controversie 2. That Ayr cannot be really and essentially incrassated Why a man whilst he is alive sinkes down into the water and is drowned and afterwards is cast up again That a woman is longer in sinking or drowning then a
man The great errour committed in trying of Witches by casting them into the water 3. That a greater Condensation or Rarefaction is impossible in the Earth 4. In what sense the Author understands and intends Rarefaction and Condensation throughout his Philosophy 5. The third Respective quality of Fire What Driness is The Definition of Moysture The third respective qualities of Water and Ayr. Aristotles Description of Moysture rejected That water is the primum humidum In what sense Ayr is termed dry in what moyst 1. THe Second Respective quality of Ayr is a continuous expression towards the Circumference as we see in water viz. in bubbles within whose body ayr being contained doth express the water to the Circumference When water is thus expressed to the Circumference we say then it is water attenuated or rarefied and when ayr is contained within the body of water so as it is not strong enough to come forth we say it is ayr incrassated but these are no real transmutations For can any body imagine that ayr is really and essentially incrassated or condensed as they call it or that water is attenuated or essentially changed into a thin substance by ayr I prove that a real incrassation of the ayr is impossible Peripatecicks generally conceive the incrassation of the ayr to happen when that ayr having thinly or naturally filled up a cavity there is as much more impacted in that cavity upon the preceding ayr as the cavity contained before Through this impaction the former ayr must needs give way into it self for to admit that ayr which is last entred wherefore say they there must be a penetration of bodies whereby that former ayr doth introcede into it self The ayr then thus introceding into it self is called ayr incrassated Water is attenuated when a Pint of water is diducted to a Pint and a quarter or more without being insufflated by the ayr or any other admitted body So rarefaction of earth is when the earth possessing the space of a Pistol Bullet is diducted to the extent of space of a Musket Bullet without the admission of any other Element Fire is supposed to be condensed in the same manner as Ayr is incrassated This is the true and evident state of the Controversie touching Rarefaction and Condensation Attenuation Incrassation which never any among the Peripateticks did yet truly state They supposing and taking it for granted that such a Condensation Rarefaction Artenuation and Incrassation is possible and hapneth every moment do proceed in debating whether a penetration of bodies be not necessary in Rarefaction and Condensation As for insufflation that is not to be called in question because we stated Incrassation and Rarefaction to happen without the admittance of any other body Wherefore proving such an Incrassation and Attenuation to be impossible and absurd their further surmising of penetration will seem ridiculous Supposing that a Glass were filled with pure water all the Arts of the world could not distend it without the admission of another body through the force of which its parts might be divided and lifted up Since then that water is said to be attenuated because its parts are lifted up diducted through Ayr and Fire retained with their body this cannot be a natural and proper attenuation of the real parts of water but only a violent diduction of water through the ayr which is under it Here may be objected That water when it is thus lifted up and expanded is stretcht and through that stretching its parts are attenuated and its quantity is increased because after the retching it possesseth a larger place To this I Answer that the encrease of quantity about the Surface is not through a single extent of water without access of other parts of water to it but the encrease is from the access of those parts which did possess the Center and now are beaten away and impelled to the Surface where arriving they must be extended in greater quantity and possess a larger place So that what is encreased in the Surface is decreased from the Center and its adjacent parts A Chord of an Instrument is producted in length because it is diminished in thickness and not from a meer quality without the Access of other parts 2. Were the natural thickness of water transmutable into thinness then one extream contrary would be transmutable into the other for thinness and thickness are as much contrary as coldness and heat or dryness and moysture and who ever knew the same coldness changed into heat or the same heat into coldness That would be as if one said one and the same was both cold and hot at the same time I guess your Reply to wit that through Thinness is not meant an extream Thinness but a less Thickness only I answer That if a thick Element is transmutable into a less thick then certainly through the continuance and intention of the cause of that less thickning it might become least thick that is most thin wherefore your Reply is invalid 3. Were thickness transmutable into thinness then every rarefaction would be a creation secundi modi or a new generation because such a transmutation is a non esse vel a nihilo sui ad esse aliquid for thickness is a positive if I may be suffered to term it so privation and negation of thinness because when we affirm a thing to be thick it is the same as if we said it is not thin 4. Thickness is a property quarti modi of water but a proprium quarti modi is inseparable from its Subject and that to remain in being II. The same Arguments prove the impossibility of incrassating Ayr and such a supposition is so far absurd that it is impossible and contradictory to Nature that one Minimum more of Ayr should enter into a Cavity already filled up with it and the ayr would sooner break the world then admit incrassation although but in one Minimum If the nature of ayr is to be thin then in taking away tenuity you take away the nature of Ayr. And if ayr could be incrassated in one minimum it might be incrassated to the thickness of water Lastly was there any such incrassation there must of necessity a penetration of bodies be allowed but a penetration is impossible ergo Incrassation also I prove that a penetration is impossible Suppose a hundred minima's of ayr were through penetration incrassated to fifty and these fifty to possess but half the place which the hundred did fill up I conclude then that through continuance and intention of the same incrassating cause they could be reduced to one minimum and from one minimum to the essence of a spirit or to nothing for since they through penetration have lost the space of Ninety nine unities of points through the same reason they might the easier lose the last unity and so become spirits and thence nothing if there was a penetration of bodies then the less body into which the
greater quantity is penetrated must have the greater weight or as great as it was under the greater quantity or else part of its Matter and Form must be annihilated but bodies that are incrassated or condensed have by much a less weight then they had before because the light elements which did before distend their bodies and through that distention their force of weight was intended as I have shewed before are departed Besides Experience speakes the same especially in this Instance the true reason of which was never laid down by any a man yet living or any other creature when alive is much heavier then when he is dead and this appeares in a man who whilst he was alive sinks towards the bottom into the water and is drowned the reason is because through the great heat which was inherent in that man the heavy and terrestial parts were the more detained from the Center they again being thus detained moved stronger towards the center therfore make the body heavier during their violent detention through the great heat which was in the said man when alive so that through this great weight the alive body sinkes down to the bottom now when a man is suffocated and the heat squeezed out of him by the thick compressing parts of the water then he is rendered less heavy and immediately leaves the inferiour parts of water as being less weighty then the said profound parts Nevertheless although the vital flame was soon extinguisht yet there remain ayry and some fiery parts in man which detain the earthy and waterish parts of his body so that although the vital fire is expelled yet these ayry and restant fiery parts not being overcome before a certain term of dayes in some sooner or longer occasion that a man doth not grow lighter then the water before a prefixt time varying according to the proportion and texture of the light elements and then being grown lighter then the water he swimmeth atop Every day after a man is drowned as the heat and ayry parts are expelled he is more and more elevated from the ground until he cometh to the top A strong compact well set man is at least 8 or 9 daies in ascending because his heat was deeper and in greater quantity impacted into his body but therefore sinkes sooner to the bottom as I have heard Seamen relate how that some of their men falling overboard were gone under water in the twinckling of an eye but then they were big lusty strong men as they told me On the contrary we hear how that weak and tender women have fallen into the River and have swom upon the water until watermen have rowed to them and taken them up and many weakly women that were suspected to be Witches being cast into the water for a trial have been wickedly and wrongfully adjudged to be Witches because they were long in sinking and alas it is natural the reason was because they were comparatively light for their earthy parts were not so much detained consequently moved not so forcibly downwards no doubt but their Coats conduced also somewhat to it Whence I collect that an ordinary woman is almost one third longer descending to the bottom then an ordinary man because a man from being a third stronger because he is a third heavier through the force of the light Elements but I mean not through fat or corpulency then a woman is conjectured to have one third more heat then a woman In case a man or woman is drowned in the Sea where it is deep if he be suffocated and dead before he comes to the ground he will not reach the bottom But to make this more clear I will demonstrate it through another Principle viz. the lightness of fire and ayr which is whereby they spread themselves equally from the Center to the Circumference Now that great heat burning within the body of man doth potently press down all the heavy parts of the body towards the Circumference The ambient or external parts of man are the Circumference which being so vigorously pressed must needs be very much intended in their motion downwards hence it is that when a man is in sinking he feeles a pressing within his own body whereby he finds himself to be violently as it were precipitated to the bottom and add to this the violent detention of the weighty parts and the depression of the superficial parts of the water and judge whether all this is not enough to draw him down to the bottom Pray now judge a little at the simplicity of the reason which the Peripateticks give for this They say that there is a fight between mans heat and the water and therefore the water draweth him to her innermost part where she detaines him until his heat is overcome and then the water casteth him up again Others say that mans Lungs being filled with ayr underneath after he is drowned is lifted up by it What groapings and absurdities First They suppose that the water draweth and that the fight is between the heat of man and the moysture whereas the water doth not draw neither is the fight so much between the water and heat as it is between the heat and earthy parts of the body which with the natural declination of those terrestrial parts and the assistance of the water from without doth depress a man or other living creature downwards 2. Why a man is detained such a time and no longer or shorter before he is cast up again they cannot conceive 3. How man is cast up is unknown to them it is not because his Lungs are filled with Ayr for it is more probable they are stopt up with water The reason and manner of his being cast upwards is 1. His body is rendered less weighty by the expulsion of the heat 2. His body is retcht out and diducted through the coldness of earth and especially of the water and therefore is rendered lighter for as compression and condensation is a mark of weight so diduction and extension of lightness Wherefore every particle of water being thicker and heavier then the extended body doth depress underneath it towards its center and so much the more because the dead body doth as it were detain the parts of water about it from their center and so through this depression of the water under the Corps it is lifted up by little and little Besides it is somewhat puft up with winds and vapours underneath the water which thence do lift it up towards the Element of Ayr. The reason why a Dog Cat Hare Fox Horse and other living Creatures are longer in being drowned although they have more heat inherent in them and as much earth comparatively as a man is because their haires being light close and divided do sustain them for the water being continuous doth strive against its being divided by contiguous parts which being light strive also against their depression This by the way III. Neither is the earth subject to
per minima that mistion is caused through Minima's 3. A reaction of each of the elements whereby the light Elements receive the weighty ones and the continuous the contiguous ones These three conditions are implied in my Definition by union in minima's for union cannot happen without a mutual contact A mutual contact is attained unto through the first qualities of the Elements whereby they move one to the other and so there passeth a mutual embrace or reaction between them II. Here the Peripateticks setting aside the reality of the thing begin again to move a notional question whether mixtion and the generation of a mixt body differ from one another Doubtless there is no real difference between them for where the Elements are mixed there the generation of a mixt body is accomplishr and where there is a generation of a mixt body there is also a mistion of the Elements Wherefore it is a sound Definition that mistion is the generation of a mixt body out of the Elements Zabarel I remember makes an intentional difference between them in attributing mistion to the Elements alone because mistion hath a particular respect to the Elements as they are apprehended through this mixture to be the termini a quo but the generation of a mixt body hath more a respect to the terminus ad quem This is simple for since that mistion is by them counted a motion it must then equally have respect to the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem because there is no natural motion but it moves a quo and ad quem and besides do they not define Generation to be a mutation from non esse to esse Wherefore according to their own words generation doth equally regard the terminus a quo and ad quem ergo there is no distinctio rationis between them But they reply that mixtion is not the mixture of a mixt body but of the Elements and generation is not the generation of the Elements but of a mixt body How sinisterly This is not the question but the doubt is whether by mixture a mixt body is not as much implyed as the Elements Yes for a mixture is the union of the Elements By union understand a perduction of the Elements into an unity that is one body and is not this the terminus ad quem III. Aristotle defineth mistion to be an union of alterated miscibles to wit bodies Here the word alterated is cast as a Bone among his Disciples which each of them falleth a gnawing in interpreting it and a knorring at it in raising altercations and cavils about it Alteration say they is a mutual action and passion of the Elements through their contrary qualities through which they obtund hebetate refract immutate one another and what not And not understanding the nature of obtusion refraction or immutation but erroneously conceiving the forms of the Elements to be diminished by reason they think that the heat of the Elements is expelled refracted and diminished by cold and so of the other Elements they fall a quarrelling whether the forms of the Elements remain whole or entire in their mixtures If any body now should ask them what they mean by form they would reply that it was the first principle of motion in a body and if you ask them further what that principle of motion is they will tell you it is hidden If it is hidden I wonder how they come to know it ergo they tell you what a thing is which they do not know But to the question I affirm that the elements remain actually and entire in their substantial forms in mixt bodies I prove it the substantial form of a thing is inseparable from its matter supposing the thing to remain that which it was for if a property is inseparable much more is the form Besides the form giveth a thing to be that which it is But the elements remain elements in a mixt body because their qualities are sensible not in gradu remisso in a remiss degree but in an intense degree Who ever doubted but that earth in Gold or Lead is as weighty and more then it is in its own Region for being laid upon the earth it makes a Dent into it ergo it is heavier Questionless focal fire is hotter then fire in its own Region Oyl is moyster then ayr or water ergo according to their own Principles these qualities which they call first qualities and are forced to acknowledge to be forms are inherent in the forementioned bodies in an intense degree As for the Refraction Intention Remission or Immutation of the Elements which they take their refuge unto in declaring the reasons of Mixtion as to a Sanctuary are meer Notions there being in reality no such intension or remission of the Elements unless through access or recess of new parts IV. But let us make a deeper search into this Nicety so much disputed upon by all Ancient and Modern Philosophers and that which makes me the more willing to examine this scruple is because it hath hitherto been one of my main Principles That an Element being violently detained is intended and corroborated in its strength and power This is the deepest and furthest doubt that can be moved it being concerning the most remote power and first cause of action in the Elements I have already taken away the difficulty touching Incrassation and Attenuation and shewed that the Matter of a thick Element was not really attenuated in its own substance or increased in matter because it possessed a larger place although seemingly it was wherefore I did assume the use of those words but in an improper acception In that place the question was about the increase of matter now it is concerning the increase or intention and remission of Forms or Qualities strengths and vertues of the Elements The same I said in relation to Condensation and Incrassation I must apply to Intention and Remission that properly they are to be taken for a real increment or decrement of qualities in themselves without the detraction or addition of new parts containing the same vertue as if the same heat in the third degree should be supposed capable of being intended to the fourth degree without the additament of new heat This is impossible because of the same reasons which were given against the possibility of a proper and real Condensation and Incrassation 2. A quality may be said to be intended or remitted but improperly and per Accidens as when a force or quality is accidentally intended as by a more convenient position and yet the quality or force is neither more or less but the same it was As for example Take hold of a Hammer about the middle and strike with it with all your strength and take hold again of the same Hammer about the end and strike although but with the same force yet the last impulse shall be stronger then the first Here you see is an accidental intension of force hapened through
a more convenient position of your hands So water when it is violently detained is intended in its gravity because its expansion which is a more convenient position doth intend its motion and yet the same strength and force of gravity was latent in the water when it was in its natural position Water doth alwaies affect and covet a globous figure now through this globosity the water is rendered disadvantageous to exert its weight because all its parts cannot joyn together in opposing the body which it is to depress but being in a Globe the undermost parts of that Globe do partly sustain the force of the uppermost and centrical parts and the same undermost parts being interposed between the other body and the other parts cause that the others parts cannot come at the body That this is so the trial of this Experiment will soon certifie you weigh some long pieces of Iron or Wood in a payr of Scales and observe the weight of them then divide them into less pieces so as they may lie closer and weigh them again you will find that the last shall be much lighter then the first besides I have tried it many other waies This Reason will also serve to illustrate the manner of intention of weight in earth when it is violently detained Ayr moveth stronger upwards when its parts are more divided and expanded for then every particle of the ayr contributes its motion and so in fire Nevertheless the same force was actually in the ayr and fire below In this sense it is I have made use of Intention of Qualities above in the Precedent Chapter Wherefore it appeares hence that there is no such refraction or intention of qualities as the Peripateticks imagine to themselves V. A mixt body is usually divided into a body perfectly mixed and a body imperfectly mixed and as usually received among the Vulgar but whether this Division be lawful is doubted by few An imperfectly mixed body they describe to be a body whose mixture is constituted only by two or three elements a great errour there being no body in the world excepting the elements themselves but their mistion consisteth of four Ingredients This I have proved before Others think to mend the matter by saying that an imperfect mixed body consists of Ingredients but a little alterated and therefore its form is not different from the element which predominates in it To the contrary the Ingredients in imperfectly mixed bodies are as much alterated as there is vertue in them to alterate one another and who will not assert the form of a Comet to be different from the form of fire or Snow from the form of water c. There is no mixed body but it is perfectly mixed for if it be imperfectly mixed it will not constitute a mixt body 'T is true some mixt bodies contain a fuller proportion of Elements then others and therefore are more durable and may be of a more perfect proportion yet the mixture of a body which lasteth but a moment is as much a mistion as that which lasteth an age and consequently as perfect in reference to mixture CHAP. XVIII Of Temperament 1. That Temperament is the form of Mixtion That Temperament is a real and positive quality 2. The Definition of a Temperament Whether a Temperament is a single or manifold quality VVhether a complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality 3. VVhether a Temperament be a fifth quality A Contradiction among Physitians touching Temperament Whether the congress of the four qualities effects but one Temperament or more 4. That there is no such thing as a Distemper What a substantial Change is 5. What an Altsration or accidental change is That the Differences of Temperament are as many as there are Minima's of the Elements excepting four 1. THe Form of Mistion is Temperament I prove it That must be the Form of Mistion which doth immediately result out of or with the union of the elements but a temperament doth immediately result out of or with union of the Elements Ergo. 2. Since there is no deperdition or refraction of the absolute forms of the Elements that must needs be the form of Misture which the union of those absolute forms doth immediately constitute but that can be nothing else but a Temperament Ergo. 3. That is the form of Mistion which chiefly causeth all the operations and effects produced by a mixt body but the chief cause of all the operations and effects of a mixt body is the temperament ergo The Minor is asserted by all ingenious Physitians Hence we may safely infer that a temperament is not a relative only but a positive and real quality for were it only a relation its essence would wholly depend from the mind and be little different from an Ens Rationis II. A Temperament is the union of the forms of the Elements By union apprehend the forms of the Elements united into one quality The name of temperament soundeth a temperating or mixing yet not primarily of Matters but principally of Forms for none doubteth of its being a quality or formal power Kyper in his Medic. contract Lib. 1. Cap. 3. alledgeth this doubt whether a temperament be a simple or manifold quality but before I apply my self to the solution of it observe that simple may either have respect to the Matter materia ex qua out of which a temperament is constituted which are the four first qualities or forms of the Elements or to the form of a temperament which is one quality resulting out of the union of its materials Wherefore if simple be taken in the former respect doubtless a temperament is a manifold quality if in the latter it is simple I prove it simple in the latter respect is equipollent to unity but a temperament is but one quality and not manifold although out of many yet united into one ergo a temperament is a simple quality 2. Were a temperament formally a manifold quality its effects would be equivocal and manifold but to the contrary the effects per se of a temperament are univocal and simple the one not differing in specie from the other The said Kyper proposes the very words of my Solution for a doubt in the next Paragraph whether complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality which he determines very well In Metaphysicks saith he there is not only allowed of an unity of simplicity but also of an unity of composition wherefore it is not repugnant that there should be an unum compositum of qualities since there is an unum compositum of substances III. This puts me in remembrance of another controversie which I have formerly read in Mercat his works Lib. 1. Part 2. de Elem. Class 2. Quaest. 39. whether a temperament be a fifth quality or rather a Concord or Harmony of the four Elements Avicen defines it a fifth quality to which the said Author subscribes but Fr. Vallesius Lib. 1. Cap. 6. contra Med.
a man to be of a cholerick or Melancholy temperament because the heat or coldness which Choler and Melancholy do produce is unequally mixt with out temperatures and therefore do not constitute a temperament but an intemperies wherefore it is more proper to state a man to be of a hot cold moist and dry temperament or to deduct temperatures from the Elements and denominate them according to their exuperancies fiery waterish c. It is very proper to state the temperament of Ayr to be moist and hot or cold and moist c. because its various situation disposes it to mixtion with fire and water for a moist and hot temperament or cold and moist if with more water and earth then fire c. But Aristotle spoke very improperly when he said that the ayr was of a moist and hot temperature when he supposed the ayr to be simple and unmixt Now if it was unmixt how could it be said to be tempered for according to his own words temperamentum est plurium a temperament consists of more then one The Division of temperaments is manifold 1. There is a single temperament wherein one Element redounds above the others and thence according to its eminence is called fiery waterish ayry or earthy light with contiguity light with continuity heavy with contiguity or heavy with continuity rare dense thin or thick hard soft c. 2. A compounded temperament when two Elements are eminent above the others in a temperament as fiery and waterish fiery and ayry fiery and earthy earthy and waterish earthy and ayry ayry and waterish 3. When three exceed the restant one According to which a Subject is said to be waterish fiery and earthy earthy ayry and waterish fiery ayry and waterish fiery ayry and earthy In the same manner can a substance be named rare and dense rare and thin rare and thick thick and thin c. The number of Distempers are agreeable to the number of Temperatures which since they have been already enumerated I shall not trouble you with the rehearsal of them The Temperatures and Distemperaments of the parts of mans body are much different to what Authors have described them but their particular relation appertaining to another Treatise◠I do wittingly omit their Insertion in this place A Temperament is further divisible into an universal and particular temperament An universal temperament is effected by the conforming of all the parts of an heterogeneous body into one temperament A particular temperament is the temperament of every particular part in a heterogeneous body so a Bone is of a temperament differing from a Ligament a Ligament from a Membrane c. But a Bone and a Ligament agree also in an universal temperament viz. of the whole body A temperament is considered either absolutely in it self or comparatively with another as one Species with another according to which the Species of man is most exactly tempered as Galen hath it Lib. de opt corp constit above all other Species This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of man is the Rule whereby to measure the vertues of Medicaments which if they do neither cool or heat moisten or dry they are accounted to be temperate or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if they alter it either in heat coldness c. they are taken to be of a hot cold c. temperament or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. One Individual may be compared with another in temperature whereby one man is said to be more or less temperate hotter or colder then another 3. An individual is compared to it self and so a man is said to be more temperate in one age time of year Climate c. then in another 4. When one part is compared to another one is adjudged to be more temperate hotter moyster c. then another So Galen Lib. 1. de Temper towards the end states the skin of a mans hand to be of an exquisite middle temperament between all sensible bodies and the most temperate of all the parts of man Authors propose another Division of Temperament into actual and potential but since I have declared my Opinion in the Dispute of Powers I shall pass it by VI. It will not be useless to adumbrate the Combination of the Second Qualities one with the other and delineate their Effects Heat is either thin or dense A thin heat doth attenuate and mollifie for molliaction is an action proceeding from a subtil attenuating heat through which it attenuates the thick Moysture and elevates the body of earth and water whereby it is disposed to softness Hence it is that the inward Crums of hard stale Bread are softned by loosening its moysture and admitting the ayry fire A dense heat is drying and burning A thick heat is obtuse not penetrating but dampish like unto the heat of damp Hay Cold and thin is neither a powerful or piercing cold but gentle and meek like unto the cool quality of a Summers Brize Cold and dense is a piercing and potent cold striking through the central parts of a body A thick and dense cold is condensing congealing and coagulating A dense thin Moysture doth moysten very much because it penetrates through the pores of a body and lodgeth it self there whereas a single moysture is too thick to moysten or to penetrate A rare Moysture moystens less by far and is soon expelled A thin Moysture moystens somewhat more then a rare moysture But both do mollifie CHAP. XX. Of Alteration Coction Decoction Generation Putrefaction and Corruption 1. What Coction and Putrefaction is The Difference between Putrefaction and Corruption 2. The Authors Definition of Alteration The effects of Alteration 3. The Division of Alteration 4. That the first Qualities of the Peripateticks are not intended by the acquisition of new Qualities without Matter Wherein Alteration differs from Mixtion or Temperament 5. The Definition of Coction Why a man was changed much more in his Youth then when come to Maturity 6. The Constitution of women Which are the best and worst Constitutions in men That heat is not the sole cause of Coction 7. The kinds of Coction What Maturation Elixation and Assation are 8. What Decoction is and the manner of it 9. The Definition of Putrefaction 10. What Generation imports in a large and strict acception Whether the Seed of a Plant or Animal is essentially distinguisht from a young Plant or new born Animal That heat is not the sole Efficient in Generation 11. Whether the innate heat is not indued with a power of converting adventitious heat into its own Nature Whether the innate heat be Celestial or Elementary 12. The Definition of Corruption Why the innate heat becomes oft more vigorous after violent Feavers Whether Life may be prolonged to an eval duration What the Catochization of a Flame is By what means many pretend to prolong Life That the Production of Life to an eval Duration is impossible Whether our Dayes be determined The Ambiguity of Corruption Whether Corruption
be possible in the Elements I. IN the precedent Chapter I have spoke at large concerning Temperaments in general and their Divisions to which ought to be annext the distinctions of Intemperatures An Intemperature moves either to an equal temperament and generation of a mixt body or from a temperature to corruption and dissolution of a mixt body The former motion is called Coction the latter Putrefaction the end of the former is an equal and durable temperament and the generation of a mixt body the end or rather terminus ad quem of the latter is a most unequal temperature that is when a mixt body returnes to its first elements now when its several ingredients are dissolved into their several elements then they become most unequal because every element in its own region superates the peregrine elements in three fourths and yet there remains a temperature because a fourth part of the alien elements is united to each of them and corruption of a mixt body The difference then between Putrefaction and Corruption is that the one is a motion to dissolution and the other is an entire dissolution it self The same difference is observable between Coction and the generation of a mixt body Alteration is a Genus to them all for Coction and putrefaction are Alterations in a lower degree but Generation and Corruption are alterations in the highest degree II. Alteration is a motion of the Elements through which they move unto into through and from one another in a mixt body The motion unto one another I have formerly called their mutual embracement the manner of which you have read before They move from one another accidentally and secondarily after they have embraced one another so close that the contiguous Elements break through the continuous ones I say Alteration is a motion the same is attested by Galen in his 7 Tom. of his works fol. 14. 4. By motion understand a local motion for the Elements change their places in alteration and therefore a local motion So that Alteration is a Species of local motion Through this local motion the Elements do divide and penetrate one another which Division through local motion doth fully comprehend the nature of Alteration Abra de Raconis in Disput. de Corp. mixt sect secund asserts that Alteration doth not terminate into qualities of the first Spec. to wit Habit and Disposition because neither of them are acquired by motion 2. He states That Alteration doth not extend to natural faculties and powers because these are produced in an instant 3. There is no Alteration concurrent to the production of figure and form because these emanate from Matter To the contrary Alteration constitutes Habits and Dispositions Natural Faculties Form and Figure because all these are produced by the forms of the Elements acting through Alteration upon one another But to Answer to his Reason I deny the first for habits and dispositions are acquired through motion 2. I dislike his second Reason also for they are produced in many Instants 3. Figure and Form are in or out of Matter but not from Matter III. Alteration is either successive or instantaneous It is called successive because it is made up by many instantaneous alterations like as successive time is said to be successive because it is constituted out of many instantaneous times following one another and nevertheless an instant is no less properly time then successive time for time is nothing else but the measure of one motion by another Even so is an instantaneous alteration no less an alteration then a successive alteration because a successive alteration is made up by many instantaneous ones An Alteration is called instantaneous because it happens in the least time which is called an Instant Or an instantaneous alteration is the least alteration whereby one Element altereth that is divides the other in one minimum Now since the beginning of action is from a minim or the least substance the action it self must be also the least which among the Elements specifieth an instantaneous alteration Alteration is to be termed continuous when a continuous Element altereth a contiguous one and contiguous when a contiguous Element altereth a continuous one IV. Fr. Eustach in Tract de Elem. Quest. 11. makes a query how the Elementary contrary qualities are intended and remitted through a successive alteration 1. He states it for a truth that Heat Cold c. do acquire new qualities in their Subject 2. That these new Qualities are entitative perfections whereby heat moysture c. are intended 3. The doubt is now how this entitative perfection is possible to any of these forementioned qualities his Opinion is that it is through addition of new degrees of heat cold c. to the former degrees of the same quality which are procreated out of the same Subject 1. I deny that the forementioned qualities do acquire any other quality but what they are mixe water with wine and the mixture will have something of the qualities of water and something of the wine but no new quality that should be neither 2. I reject his second Position as false 3. It is erroneous that other degrees should be superadded out of the subject for if they are superadded they are superadded either from the foregoing quality or an extrinsick efficient they cannot be superadded through themselves for then a thing would be supposed to generate it self which is absurd because a seipso nihil fit nothing is made by it self They cannot be superadded by another unless it be by the same qualities by reason the cause must be of the same nature which the effect is of qualis causatalis effectus if by the same qualities then the same again would generate it self ergo they cannot be superadded or if superadded from without it is no new quality but agreeing with that which is intended Alteration is different from Mistion or a Temperament in general because it is an action which disposes and prepares the Elements their Forms for mistion and temperature The union of the Elements and Forms thus altered or disposed is a mistion and temperament Wherefore Aristotle defines the nature of Mistion very well Mistion is the union of Miscibles alterated Authors usually divide alteration in perfective and corruptive which are equivalent to Coction and Putrefaction V. Coction is an alteration tending to a temperament ad justitiam Suppose at the first confusion of the Elements in order to a mixtion and temperament the fire and ayr to be unequally mixt with the others about the remote parts but to be equally mixt with the central parts Now Coction is nothing else but the promotion of the light Elements which are yet latent about the Center to an equal mixture secundum partes sed non secundum totum with the heavy ones and although at present they are not so equally mixt yet through alteration that is by dividing or embracing one another the earth dividing the fire the water the ayr the
fire again moving to the earth and the ayr to the water at last they become altogether entirely altered embracing one another which constitutes a temperament ad justitiam They being all thus reduced to a temperament the alteration is much abated but still continues although in a very small and insensible manner which causes a stability for a while in the body so temperated the reason of that great abatement of alteration is because the Elements being now dispersed and divided into small parts retain a less force and exercise a less opposition one against another and therefore the temperament becomes stable Observe then that Coction is swift because of the greatness of alteration 2. The temperament ad justitiam is stable and ad tempus quasi consistens 3. Putrefaction is the swiftest because its alteration is the swiftest as you shall read by and by Hence you may easily collect the reason why a man in his youth alters or changes so much and at his adult years is seated in a consistent temperament and changes not for a long while whereas a youth we see changes every day or at least it is observable every Moneth for stay away from a known youth but a Moneth and when you see him again you will mark that he is altered This every Mother can spy out after she hath been gone forth from her Child but an hour or two and at her return cry out Oh how is my Child altered The reason is because the calidum innatum is copiously shut up within the central particles of each part and therefore moves strongly by Alteration Hence Authors conclude Infants to be perfused with a more copious calidum innatum then when they come to be grown up in years The force of this â—â—Nrâ—â— promogenious heat is such that it altereth Children almost every moment Hence we may know why every external alteration of Diet Weather or Climate doth so easily injure them because besides that they are much altered internally wherefore the least alteration from without if durable soon disperseth and inflames their heat and proves a frequent cause of so numerous deaths of Children whereas men and women their heat being now consistent and making but small force their flesh closer c. are not so much subjected to Diseases and such sudden deaths VI. Women die faster that is thicker then men and are more disposed to sickness then they because their innate heat and ayr do effect greater alterations upon their bodies as having but little earth or compressing density in comparison to men to resist the light Elements and moderate their irruptions and therefore women seldom reach to any equal or consistent temperature but are alwaies in changing which in them after 18 20 or 24 years expiration is particularly called breaking because then they alter so fast that they swiftly put a period to their dayes and that because their bodies being lax and porous their innate heat shoots through in particles and now in minima's without which there can be no durable temperature Were their bodies heavier and denser the minima's of earth would divide their heat into minima's and reduce it to a temperature If then their innate heat doth constantly cohere in particles and is never dirempted into minima's it retaining in that case stronger force then otherwise it could do in minima's it alterates their bodies continually and so they never attain to any consistency of age Many sexagenarian Widowers or men of threescore years of age do alter less and flower then most women do from their five and thirtieth year wherefore they do rather cover a wife of twenty because she will just last as long in her Prime or will be as fast in breaking altering and changing her temperament form and shape in one year as the old man shall alter or change in three or four years and so they grow deformed in an equal time Wherefore a mans consistent age may last out the beauties of two or three women one after the other and because of this some in their mirth have proclaimed a woman after her 35th year to be fitter for an Hospital then to continue a Wife No wonder if a Woman be more fierce furious and of a more rash swift Judgment then a man for their spirits and heat moving in great troops and confluences of Particles must needs move swift which swiftness of motion is the cause of their sudden rages nimble tongues and rash wits To the contrary a mans heat being tempered to minima's moves more flow therefore is less passionate and of a surer Judgment A Cholerick man with a soft and glabrous skin is likest to a woman in temperament and is undoubtedly tied to all manner of Passion as Fear Love Anger to Rashness of Opinion forgetfulness hazarding and foolish venturing and at other times because of his Fear is as obstinate and refractory in hazarding He is perfectly unfortunate of a short life and disposed to continual alterations fitter for nothing then to fill up a Church yard in a short space of time A man of a cholerick and melancholy temperature with a soft skin and somewhat rough is likewise of a short life but somewhat longer in his course then the former His Fancy is contrived for plotting of base and inhumane designes his Opinion is atheistical his heart full of cheating and murderous thoughts he is merciless and cruel to all his nearest relations are as great a prey to him as strangers Among men of this Temperature is a twofold difference the one is more cholerick then melancholy the other more melancholy then cholerick The colour of the first is yellowish of the last swarty The former exceeds the latter by far in conditions and is correctible but with great pains and notwithstanding is of a detestable nature but as for the latter his pravity is abominable only fit to make a Hangman or else is most likely to come to the Gallowes himself The best temperature of all is a sanguine tempered with melancholy this portends all honesty modesty faithfulness pleasingness of humour long life great fortunes pregnancy of wit ingenuity a rare fancy for new Inventions tenacity of Memory a sifting Judgment profoundness of Meditations couragious and generous in fine fit for all things Wherefore it was a true Saying of Arist. that none could be wise unless he was somewhat melancholy A pure sanguine temperature is of all humours the most pleasing lovely perfectly innocent of a long life and very fortunate I could set down here demonstrable and certain Rules whereby to know infallibly the particular Inclinations Passions and Faculties of every person but apprehending that the Art might be abused by the Vulgar and that the knowledge of it might prove as prejudicial to some as profitable to others I judge it more convenient to preserve its rarity and admirableness by secrecy Authors do successively attribute the causality of Coction to heat alone but how erroneously you may now easily judge since that I
in the 17th Chap. declares the necessity and certainty of mans death particularly in v. 5. Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his Moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass I cannot here omit the detecting of that dull vulgar Errour and Doubt arising about these very words of Job Their way of Argumentation is If the life of man is determined to a year a Moneth Day and Minute ergo it will prove in vain for me to have that care of my health and caution of hazarding my Life at Sea or at Land In fine there is neither Anticipation or Posticipation of Life Man acts voluntarily that is freely without any necessary or fatal impulse wherefore one who is drowned at Sea was not compelled to go and be drowned but went thither freely or might have stayed away if then he might have stayed away ergo his life might have been prolonged by staying away Or otherwise suppose a man is diseased with a Gangreen in some one extreme part of his body Cannot we say that this man if he lists may have his life prolonged by ampntating the gangrenous Member or if he will that he may accelerate his death in suffering it to increase and creep on But to Answer to the Text. Determination of Dayes is twofold 1. Of the Natural Course of mans Life as suppose that the Temperament of man will last and endure if it run off in a Natural Course to a hundred and twenty yeares some more some less now this term may be said to be Gods Determination of the Dayes of man when he hath determined that his temperament shall endure no longer then he hath made it to endure naturally 2. There is a Determination of life before it hath run out his natural course as when God doth manifestly cut down a man in the full strength of his years Again there is an ordinary determination of the duration of beings by which God hath determined that all things shall have their natural course of being acting and continuing Were it not for this ordinary determination of God he would never suffer the wicked to live or that any Natural thing should be serviceable to them 2. There is also an extraordinary Determination through which God hath determined to act beyond his ordinary determination in through or upon things which are ordinarily determined This determination is secret and called Gods hidden will Neither doth his extraordinary determination contradict or clip or change his ordinary determination but that God may or doth sometimes determinate beyond it This premitted I do assert that the determination of mans dayes in the Text is to be understood of Gods ordinary determination of the Natural Course of mans Life I confess although God according to his ordinary determination hath determined the Natural course of mans dayes yet he may through his extraordinary determination prolongate the same mans life to many years and notwithstanding thereby he doth not contradict his ordinary determination for a man having run out his full Natural course of life hath therein answered Gods ordinary determination which being expired God may and sometimes doth supernaturally and by his extraordinary determination superadd other natural Principles through which his life is prolonged thus was the life of King Hezekiah prolonged by God superadding new Principles of life whereby his life was protracted 15 years longer for through Gods ordinary determination he must have died fifteen years before because all his natural heat was spent through his Disease and his temperament run off Wherefore as the Text saith 2 Kings 20. 1. he must have died of a necessity but God extraordinarily superadding a new heat and a new life prolonged his dayes In the same manner doth God oft-times through his extraordinary determination cut down the wicked and shorten their dayes Psal. 55. Look back to the 9 and 10 Chap. of my Natur. Theol. Here may be demanded how Adam and Eves Bodies could have been of an eval duration supposing they had remained in their Innocency their bodies being tempered ad justitiam only and not ad pondus I Answer That according to all probability their primogenial temperature was by far more perfect compariativè then ours and therefore did not consume faster then their Natures could adunite other parts in the room of the dissipated ones besides that heat which was dissipated was only part of the moveable heat as for their fixt heat that was so arctly united and tempered that its nexe was indissoluble which through their Fall is become soluble This Controversie is stated and handled more at large by Beverovit Lib. de vit term and Gregor Horst Lib. 2. de Nat. human Exerc 4. Quest. 10 11. whom you may peruse at your leisure As Generation did import a twofold signification so doth Corruption 1. In a large sense it implies a natural dissolution together with the declining alteration thereunto tending 2. Strictly it signifies a violent dissolution of a mixt body through a preceding Putrefaction Hence those may be advertised who do erroneously confound Putrefaction and Corruption taking them for one Its Species are Combustion Petrification Corruption by waterish moysture and Corruption through ayry moysture You may easily understand the natures of them by what hath been spoken before Whether Corruption is possible to the Elements as they are now consisting mutually mixt one with the other is a Doubt moved by some I Answer that a total Corruption is impossible a partial one happens every hour for we see ayry bodies as Clouds dissolved every day the like happens in the Region of Fire where fiery bodies are dissolved every day and others again generated In the Earth and Water some bodies are likewise corrupted and others generated every day so Gold Silver and all other hard Metals are sometimes violently corrupted under the earth from an extrinsick potent and putrifying heat CHAP. XXI Of Light 1. What Light is The manner of the production of a Flame 2. The Properties and Effects of Light 3. That Light is an Effect or consequent of a Flame Whence it happens that our Eyes strike fire when we hit our Foreheads against any hard Body That Light is not a quality of fire alone That Light is not fire rarefied That where there is Light there is not alwaies heat near to it How Virginals and Organs are made to play by themselves 4. That Light is a continuous obduction of the Air. That Light is diffused to a far extent in an instant and how Why the whole tract of Air is not enlightned at once 5. The manner of the Lights working upon the Eye-sight That sight is actuated by reception and not by emission 6. The reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction That Light cannot be precipitated 7. That Light is not the mediate cause of all the Effects produced by the Stars That Light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick
makes all bodies therein contained shew greater Besides water containing much air in her body suffereth also an obtension of that whereby bodies must necessarily appear bigger then they are The reason why a piece of Money in a Bason with water appears bigger then it is is because the water through impregnation with peregrine air proper thickness and continuity doth reflect and admit much obtended air or light which being altered by the colour of the money doth appear much bigger then if seen through thin air alone Light is diminisht because the air is condensed so that whatever doth condense the air must diminish its light and obduction Whatever body light appulses against it is thereby darkned because the body which it strikes against condenses the air According to this degree of condensation the light is gradually diminisht and darkned if it be terminated in a most dense earthy body then it appears black if against a body that hath less earth or density it appears brown that is to say at the point of reflection against an Object and so gradually in all other This change being wrought upon the terminating obtension by an objected body it is repercussed to a certain distance namely as far as the repercutient action of that object can reach which is as far as until the Air doth recover its proper station If we are far off from an Object it appears less then it is because its action doth diminish gradually like unto the streams of water which about the center of action are greater but the more remote they are the less they grow A Flame is called a Light Lux because it begets light The light begot in the Air is called Lumen an Illumination Wherefore these lights are not really distinguisht but ratione Neither is a flame to be called a light unless when it doth obduct the Air neither is the Air to be termed a light or illumination unless when it is obducted by a flame Radius a Beam is a diducted line of a flame tending directly from the Center to the Circumference A Splendor is the intention of light by a reflection or refraction upon a thick continuous smooth body The Lights begot by the Stars and other flames are not distinguisht specie because they depend upon the same causes namely upon Fire and Air. Their difference consists in consistency purity bigness c. The Coelum Empyreum or Heavens of the Angels are said to be lucid which may be understood tropically or properly If properly possibly it hath a vertue of obducting the air like unto a flame If tropically lucid is equipollent to glorious The Bodies of the risen Saints shall appear glorious and splendid possibly because they shall be more ayry and fiery that is flammy CHAP. XXII Of Colours 1. The Authors Definition of a Colour That Light is a Colour Aristotles Definition of colour examined 2. Scaligers Absurdities touching Colours and Light 3. What colour Light is of and why termed a single Colour That Light doth not efficienter render an Object visible How a mixt Colour worketh upon the sight and how it is conveyed to it 4. The Causes of the variations of Mercury in its colour through each several preparation 5. That Colours are formally relations only to our sight That a mixt colour is not an intentional quality That besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original Subjects How the same fundamental colours act 6. That there are no apparent colours but all are true 7. The Differences of colours What colour focal fire is of The fundamental colours of mixt bodies 8. What reflection of light is What refraction of colours is Aristotles Definition of colour rejected The Effects of a double reflection The Reasons of the variations of Colour in Apples held over the water and Looking-glasses The variation of Illumination by various Glasses 9. The Division of Glasses The cause of the variation of colour in a Prism 10. The Nature of Refraction Why colours are not refracted in the Eye I. COlour is a Mode or Quality of a mixt being through which it moves the sight if so then certainly Light is a Colour For 1. It proceeds from a mixt body 2. It moves the sight primarly immediately and per se. I prove it We do distinguish light from darkness and a light body from a dark one by our sight ergo it moves the sight Probably you may deny my Definition of colour wherefore I shall for your further satisfaction compare it with that of Aristotle and prove it to be consentaneous to it differing only in Precision ours being less universal and nearer to sense then his Lumen which is equipollent to colour est actus perspicui quatenus perspicui Light or rather Illumination is the act of a perspicuous body quatenus perspicui is redundant By actus is implied an actuation or motion 2. By perspicuous is intended a body that is capable of receiving or rather of reflecting light And is not the sight capable of receiving or reflecting light and of being actuated by it Or if you will take colour for a quality following the temperament and mistion of the Elements the difference is not great this being a Definition of colour as it is considered in it-self a priori the other described a posteriori relatively and accidentally for it is per accidens to it to move the sight I cannot but reflect at Scaligers boldness who pretending to exceed Cardan in subtility so as he seemed to reprehend and correct him in every Distinction but with more absurdity then he supposed Cardan to be less subtil and particularly about Colours and light Exercit. CCCXXV d. 2. Here he infers a real and formal difference between an Accident and its Subject the contrary hath so plainly been demonstrated 2. That an Accident is constituted out of a Power and Act. The falsity of which is detected in my Disp. of Pow. These Assertions are not exempted from Absurdities 1. An Accident and a Substance being really and formally different and owing their production to one substantial efficient it follows that a Substance produceth effects differing from it self in specie 2. That a Substance is an efficient of a Power and Act. Power and Act being two positive contraries one substancial efficient is inferred to be an efficient secundum idem ad idem of two positive contraries for a power according to Aristotle is not a privation for then it were a non ens reale but a positive 3. Neither is Power or Substance the true matter of colour Not the power for that is like to the matter not the substance that being the sole whole substance Wherefore if neither power or substance be the true matter it cannot be any real thing because whatever is real consists of Matter and Form Wherefore saith he we should say that it hath a substance for its subject wherein it is inherent but in it self it hath a power and act out
ordinary doubt moved by the Peripateticks Through what medium a sound is deferred to the hearing Their solution is that a sound is really deferred through the air as through a medium but intentionally through the water This seems to partake of no small absurdity for many of them do assert that a sound is subjectively in the air if so then a sound would be said to be its own medium which is absurd for a medium is ever intended to be a different thing from that to which it is a medium Touching their Solution it is partly false in that they affirm a sound to be intentionally only deferred through the water But why more intentionally through the water then through the air I will first propose an Instance inferring water to be capable of receiving a Sound and then enquire further into the case Frogs croaking under the water make a Sound there which we hear above the water likewise we hear the Sound of a Pole hitting against a stone under water Certainly none will deny but that the Sound of these is really propagated by obtruding the air through its bursting upwards for we see the water plainly burst or pluffe upwards a little before we hear the noyse made by a Frog or Pole ergo the action of a Sound is real as well in or through the water as through the air Possibly they may grant me that the noyse made in the water is a real action but deny the noyse made in the air and propagated through the water to be real asserting it to be intentional only I prove it to be reall A great sound made in the air doth sensibly cause a streame in the water ergo its action is really continued upon the water But again a sound being made in the air its action is much obtused because of the improportion between water being very thick and air being very thin so that a great noise in the air will make but a little noise in the water and a little noise in the air will make no sensible noise in the water But were this audible quality in the water intentional then the least sound in the air would be perceptible in the water But the one is false ergo the other is false also That a great sound in the air is audible in the water yet but very obtusely is testified by duckers or divers under the water the same is seconded by Pliny in his natural history 10. b. 70. Chap. attributing hearing and tasting unto fishes and relating that fishes have been called together by a certain sound to take their food Gellius lib. 16. noct attic c. 19. doth also recite out of Herodotus that Arion being cast over-board by the Sea-men did through the harmonical sound of his Musick draw the Dolphins to him whereof one took him upon his back and carried him safe to a Harbor Supposing this to be but a story nevertheless the allusion of the famous Inventor witnesses that fishes can hear under the water IV. Certainly few will require any proof from me that a sound is a real concussion or pluffing of the ayr since there is no great sound but it shakes air houses and the earth too whereon we stand and that sometimes to a very great distance Some years past it hapned that the Magazine of Delf a Town in the Low-countries was blown up by an accidental fire sighted upon the gunpowder the great sound or Concussion of the ayr caused through this blast was extended to many miles insomuch that it was very perfectly perceived at Amsterdam The same blast forced open one of the windows of the Chamber where an Acquaintance of mine lay then at the Hague with that violence that its rebounding against the Wall broke most of the panes At Dunkirk the sound raised by blowing up of two or three barrels of Gunpowder killed a boy although at some distance from it which accident hapned because the Concussion or pluffing of the ayr was continuated with that force that it did in that manner violently concusse or rather disrupt the animal and vital spirits of the boys body which in a manner are as I said before a continuous ayr intermixt with some contiguities of fire and earth I have formerly told you That the propagation of ayr or any quality or effect inherent and impressed in and upon the ayr reaches no further than its continuity is extending and works only upon other continuous bodies The reason is because the same action is continued only upon bodies which are of the same nature and which receive that action in the same manner Wherefore ayr and water being both continuous and united in continuity do receive the effects acted upon their continuities alike and in the same manner that is to say as far as they are both continuous and the effects are acted upon their continuities in a like manner Saving that the tenuity of the one and crassitude of the other doth hinder or facilitate augment or diminish the said action thus continuated from one to the other Further as much as one is deprived from its continuity by having its body intermixt with contiguous indivisibles so much there is detracted from the intenseness of the act continuated unto it by another continuous body Thirdly as the various incidence of light doth alter the face of colours so doth the various continuation of other various bodies variously qualified in their continuity by having other contiguous bodies immixt in them alter the property of the sound continued in them Lastly since a sound is an effect impressed upon the continuity of the ayr nothing is more averse to it or drowns it sooner than a contiguous body By help of these Theorems you may now resolve the node of several difficulties touching sounds 1. Why doth earth or fire dead a sound more than water glass or paper or why is a sound propagable through water glass or paper and is quite deaded by earth in a manner that by how much earth or fire there is contained in a body by so much a sound is deaded by that body and by how much water or ayr there is contained in an intermediate body by so much a sound is propagated further The reason is because a propagated sound is nothing else but the vibration of ayr continuously continued upon a continuous body to which continuity contiguity is contrary I will explain it to you by a conquassation of water whereby it is concussed into streams these streams so concussed are propagated into other more remote streams but if you interpose a board near the centrical streams in will hinder the propagation of the same streams because it doth divide the continuity of water Even so it is with water glass and paper those being continuous do propagate the ayrs quality in as much as they are continuous But let us dive a little further into this and question whether the continuity of the thick waterish substance of glass and of
I. A Tast Sapor is a quality whereby a mixt being moveth the tasting faculty The tasting Faculty is inherent immediately in the fixt animal spirits and mediately in the influent ones of the Tongue and Palat. These Spirits are in two degrees thicker then the auditory spirits there being the olfactive spirits intercedent differing but one degree in thickness from the said auditory spirits The object of this faculty is required to be respondent to it in consistency wherefore the faculty viz. the Spirits being dense and thick the Objects of the tast do move the same faculty by a greater density and thickness then those of visibles and audibles Otherwise if the Object be thinner and rarer then is requisite it is uncapable of moving the tast hence it is that we cannot tast air or warmth proceeding from fire That which is thick moves the tast by a kind of continuous compression of the spirits in the tongue thus fair water affects the tast which the more ayry and thin it is affects the tongue the more Water being tempered with Spirits makes a kind of a sharp and brisk tast for instance Wine Dense bodies move the Palat by a contiguous compression and therefore make a more distinct and forcible tast Summarily tast is nothing else but the discerning of the several temperatures of mixt bodies effecting several passions in the tongue and upon its gustative faculty which several passions are said to be several tasts Hence it is also obvious that the quality whereby a tast moves the gustative faculty is nothing but its action whereby it acteth distinctly in several Subjects wherein a different gustable quality is inherent Since the Gustative Spirits are deeply latent within a porous and Spongie body nothing can move the tast unless it be of that thinness or small quantity as that it may pass the pores of the tongue the passing of which subtilities waterish Moysture doth very much facilitate which proves in stead of a Vehicle to them and makes those passages slippery Hence it is that no great bodies have any tast unless they be first attrited and diminisht by the teeth and the more they be diminisht the more their tast becomes perceptible Dry bodies are not so gustable as when they are a little moistened whereby they reserate the pores of the tongue and procure a passage to the seat of the taste II. As many different waies as objects move the taste or cause severall passions in it so many different tasts there be That which doth only gently shake the taste and as it were doth but tickle it is sweet and deriving from a temperateness yet so as that water is abounding in it That which doth sensibly alterate the taste is an intermediate sapour that which doth most alterate it so as it may not pervert the faculty is an extream sapour Extreme sapours depend upon the greatest predominance of each Element in a several mixt body which being four do also constitute four extreme tastes 1. A fiery hot taste as in Pepper Ginger c. 2. An earthy taste 3. A waterish taste 4. An ayry tast not such as Theophrastus cals a fat taste like there is in oyl The rest are intermediate as bitter acerbe acid and salt for that is a tast mixt out of a waterish and ayry tast Peripateticks assert that tastes for to move the gustable faculty are to be immediately applyed to it and there they assert that tastes are only real among all the sensible qualities But this doth not alwaies hold true for tasts may be communicable through a medium and if the air is at any time to be allowed to be a medium it is sometimes in tasts and alwaies in odors to wit the air as Apothecaries do all testifie for when they are powdering or a peeling of Colocynthis its bitter taste doth very sensibly reach their tongue III. A smell or scent is a quality or action whereby a mixt body moves the olfactive faculty The difference between this and the gustable faculty is none other but that the one consists in a degree of a finer and thinner consistency of spirituous air and the same difference is between their objects viz. a taste is of a thicker body than a scent in manner that the scent is too subtil to strike the gustable faculty and a sapour is too thick to strike the olfactive faculty wherefore that which through its subtility passeth the sence of taste doth thereby reach to the sense of smelling moving its faculty withal It is thâ—n apparent That the objects of both these senses are the same differing only in subtilty of body and that they are nothing but temperaments of bodies comminuted and moving the said powers immediately yet not so but that the subtiler parts for to move the sense are requisite to be separated from the courser and more then that each needs a Vehicle or a medium for to be carried and directed through the subtil passages to the deep latent sensory The vehicle of tasts is water to which spittle and drink are equipollent as being through its thickness respondable to receive so thick and course an object a thinner vehicle as the air could not receive it because it is too thin to support it The vehicle of scents is air as being through its thinness proportionated to receive and convey such subtil bodies were this vehicle thicker it would through its gravity expel or express bodies of that subtility that smells are of You may here observe the depravate Judgments of the Peripateticks concerning the mediums of sensible objects where they ought to grant a medium as to scents and tastes they withhold it where they should allow no medium there they grant it as to audibles and visibles I stated temperaments of bodies to be the objects of sense by which you are to understand the subtiller and volatick parts of substances reduced to a certain degree of temperament and obtaining certain vertues of acting So that hereby I do not intend any quality distinct from a substance for the objects of sense but real bodies so qualified as to move sense where mark qualities are not really distinguished from their bodies but really identificated with them in the concrete although in the abstract they are distinguisht ratione for what is a quality in a body else but a body qualified Wherefore the action performed through the quality of a body is not to be taken as if the body were one thing and the quality another but as one and that action proceeds from the body qualified of this I have discoursed more at large in my Metaphysicks IV. Smels do nourish no more than tastes nourish the animal spirits none doubts but that neither nourishes the solid or humoral parts because of their unsutableness in consistency and temperament Wherefore although some are said to have sustained their life for a long time through smels alone as it is recorded of Democritus who sustained his life three daies through the
so improportionable a measure that they cannot be thought to impel the earth to the least local motion Moreover earth is of so heavy a body that it is rendered altogether incapable of circular local motion otherwise were the Mass of earth so prone to such a swift circular motion certainly its parts as terrestrial mixt bodies would retain the same inclination to the same motion which we find to be contrary According to the Perip this supposition all light bodies ordinarily so called must be said to be heavy and all heavy bodies light for bodies by them are counted heavy which move downward that is towards the center ergo fire must be said to be heavy earth light because the one moves upwards to its supposed universal center the other from it But this is absurd Can a point move through so vast or almost immense a Region and with that velocity In all other Natural things we find that a Point of any Element hath no force or proportion to move through a span of another Element although that point be supposed to be detained violently Take a particle of Earth which is no point and let it fall out of your hand it will hardly move down to the earth or if it doth it is so slow that is hardly perceptible but much less would a point move If then the earth be but as a point to so immense a Region it cannot be supposed to move Possible you do reply that it is impelled by an extrinsick movent Suppose I granted it its motion being violent could not be durable besides the proportion of a point is insinitely too little for to receive such a most swift impulse which through its littleness it would doubtless effuge Were the Earth a Planet or Star it is supposed it should cast a light which is repugnant to its Nature through which as I have shewed before she is rendered dark and is the cause of all darkness Were this absurdity admitted all our knowledge which hitherto wise men have so laboured to accomplish would be in vain for as I said before earth and earthy bodies must be light fire and fiery bodies must be heavy and enjoy their rest water and waterish bodies must be likewise heavy the air and ayry bodies must be weighty and enjoy their rest for if the earth moves it is certainly moved through the air the which according to that supposition must be immoveable because all moveables omne mobile sit super immobili are moved upon an immoveable Subject All dark colours must be supposed light all Astronomical appearances shadows sounds tasts Sents and all mixt bodies must then be understood to be contrary to what really they are Scripture is likewise plain against it Job 26. 7. Psal. 24. 2. For he hath founded it namely the earth upon the Seas and est ablisht it upon the flouds Job 38. 6. Whereupon are the foundations there of to wit of the Earth fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof Psal. 104. 5. Who laid the foundations of the Earth that it should not be moved for ever What need there more words to consute so absurd an Opinion But to return to my Proposition That the Earth must necessarily be the Center of the world I proved it above where I did defer the reason of its rest to this place The earth of all the elements doth alone enjoy her rest because she alone doth possess a Center whereby she enjoyes her own natural internal motion but suppose another element to possess the place of her center the Earth to cover it immediately then doubtless the Earth would continue in external motion because its parts are violently detained from a center press upon that body which doth oppose it by keeping her out of her place until she had removed it which being removed it could not be thought to be longer in external local motion since she had recovered her natural place unless we should absurdly imagine that one part should move against the other for to gain a penetration of bodies If then N. Copern D. Origan and others who strive to maintain the threefold motion of the earth viz. of inclination and declination its dayly and yearly motion had discovered that the earth were violently detained by some other Element or body then they might have thence demonstrated a motion but then this motion could have been no other than the motion of water is about the earth whereby the earth would have moved about its detaining body which if it had it would have been immoveable nevertheless as to its external place only it would have turned about and have made several appearances of faces or spots in brief it would have had the same motion which Copernicus adscribed to the Sun Hence it is more than apparent that the earth is the Center of the world and doth enjoy her rest The reason of its rest is so demonstrative that no rational body can deny it I proceed III. The earth may commodiously be divided into three regions differing from one another in purity of body weight density c. The first Region I call the central region because it extends nearest about the Cencer It s Periphery is about 120. degrees its Diameter is 38 â— â— This Region consists of most pure earth and most freed from the peregrin Elements wherefore its weight and density is the weightiest and most dense It contains no mixt bodies within it self because it is so remote that the peregrin Elements cannot move thither besides that smallest proportion of peregrin Elements which may happily be supposed to be detained in the central region is so much depressed and firmely detained by the weight of the earth that it is impossible it should come to any head to constitute a mixt body It s colour must be conceived to be a pure fundamental black The second or the middle region contains in its circumference 240 degrees its Latitude is 191 9 degr This region is less weighty and dense than the central as being accompanied with a greater proportion of extraneous Elements It harbours some mixt bodies as imperfect stones but no Metals The reason of this assertion is drawn from the proportion of the Elements which there are not enough in quantity to constitute the body of metals or perfect stones besides we cannot imagine that the earth should contain any hollownesses in the second region which are requisite as I shall shew by and by for the generation of perfect stones and metals IV. The third region of the earth comprehends in its circuit 360 degrees in its Latitude not its compleat diameter 191 9. This last or extreme region consists of most that is more than the two former regions extraneous Elements because it is situated nearer to the proper regions of the said extraneous Elements which do violently strive to enter her body as you shall read anon whereby and through which the earth especially near to her surface is
the cause and a false one too by the effect A notion by far inferiour to those of the wanderers and that which adds to this absurdity is to imagine that these streaks should retain their shape notwithstanding their continual and long grinding against the air in their descent and not change their shape a hundred times over Doth not a cloud which must be supposed to be of a firmer consistency than those particles make choice of a new shape every moment But how much the more these small tender bodies And that which is most absurd is to propose that such a vast number or troops of these particles should arrive hither into our North Hemisphere from the South so obliquely without changing their shape further he supposeth them to come bearing down directly through the Earth and through the Magnete which is impossible unless it be in a right sphaere whereas we here are situated in a very oblique sphere and consequently the Magnet is also obliquely seated here wherefore it is requisite that these streakes should alwaies beat against the Magnet in these Regions obliquely and change their shape very oft But how monstrous is it to maintain these particles to flie through the Diameter of the Earth and water being bodies most dense close thick in many places shutting out fire and air being substances by a Million of degrees exceeding Des-Cartes in subtility or how is it possible they should pass the most Icy and deep thick body of water well and yet through all this difficulty they should retain their shape this is an absurdum absurdissimorum absurdissimum The earth is pervious in such a manner as to fit the shape of the Coelestial streakes and were it so certainly it moving about the Sun according to his assent must change its passages and so thwart the entrance of the Coelestial subtilities As for the passages of the Magnete we grant them to be numerously seminated through its body but their shape is quite different My time doth even weary me in making disquisition upon so dishering and monstrous a Chimera I should easier give credit to Rablais his Pantagruel or the Fables of AEsope than to so obtuse a phantasm XIII There remains yet a word or two touching the fabulous property of this Stone which you have described by Famianus de Strada Libavius and others viz. that two Loadstones although at a great distance do so sympathize with one another that they move at one anothers passive impulsion and that towards the same place as for two friends residing in different Countries and intending to signifie their meaning or desires to each other they are only to make use of two steel needles of an equal size to rub them both against the same side of the Magnete and afterwards to place them in a Compass Box and so turning either of the Needles to any Point of the Compass the other is thought to obey to the same motion whereby they come to know one anothers meaning as having mutually at their last meeting agreed to impose a certain signification upon each point of the said Compass Hence they deduce a Magnetical or like to it sympathy in curing of wounds a sympathy in the affinity of bloud a sympathy between the guts and their excrements between superlunary sublunary bodies between men and men men and beasts men and parts of beasts men and plants beasts and beasts beasts and plants some natural bodies and others So that whereas formerly Philosophers used to excuse their ignorance by occult qualities now having worn them out they accur to Magnetical sympathies There is not a Surgeon or Apothecary so ignorant but he will as cunningly find out a cause whereby to explain the most abstruse effect of nature and instantly tell you such or such an effect happens through a Magnetical sympathy as the most learned Mr. Doctor But is this the great advancement of Learning and Philosophy which our Age doth so much boast of Is it not rather a grand piece of impudence to propose such absurdities and much more to give credit to them If Loadstones are subjected to such a necessary sympathy then one Magnet being retracted to a certain point of the Compass all must yield to the same point But the consequence is ridiculous ergo the Antecedence is no less 2. This sympathy is either communicable through means of the air or through it self without any intermediate body and consequently a natural action must agere in distans not the first for it is impossible that its steames should be conveighed to such a distance in their full vigour not the second that sounding absurd in the ears of all Naturalists The other kind of sympathies I intend to treat of elsewhere CHAP. IV. Of Life and living Bodies 1. What Life is 2. The Form of Life Why Vegetables are generated no where but near to the Surface of the Earth 3. The properties of a Vital Form 4. The definiton of Nutrition and the manner of it Whether food is required to be like to the dissipated parts 5. What Accretion is and the manner of it 6. The manner of the generation of a Plant. 7. The manner of the germination of a Plant. A delineation of all the parts of a Plant. 8. What the Propagation of a Plant is and the manner of it 1. HItherto we have proposed to you the nature of Earths Minerals and Stones which are the lowest degree of natural bodies and therefore do most of all resemble their predominating Element in nature and properties the next degree to this is wherein Vegetables or Plants are constituted and through whose prerogative a more noble Essence and dignities are allotted to them consisting in Life Accretion and Propagation The life of a Plant is its singular nature through which it is nourished and accreased and doth propagate As Generation and Corruption in a strict sense are only appropriated to in animated naturals so are Life and Death restrained to animated ones namely to Plants Animals and Men. Peripateticks seem to observe a twofold difference of life viz. Substantial and Accidental The former is taken for the principle of the vital operations The latter for the actions of life as Nutrition Accretion and Propagation We here intend neither abstractly but define the life of a Plant concretely that is a living body substance or plant to be a being composed out of a Physical matter specified by a distinct form from pure naturals and through its Essence to be qualified to nourish it self accrease and to generate Wherefore Aristotles Followers do justly condemn Cardan lib. 7. de subtil and Cornel. Valer. Cap. 44. instit Phys. for maintaining life it self to be an action that is a quality or property really distinct from its subject But withall stumble into no small an inconvenience in defining it to be an Actus which is no otherwise distinguished from an action than a concrete from an abstract So that in inserting actus they must mean an
substantia agens acting substance which if so then an accident is not really distinguisht from a substance and a substance must be conceived to act immediately through her self Aristotle lib. de respir. describes life to be the permansion or abiding of the vegetable foul with the heat From which that of Scaliger exercit 202. sect 5. is little different Life is the union of the soul with the body Here the Philosopher appears only to describe life to be a duration which is but an accident neither doth Scaliger's union signifie any thing more 2. They distinguish the soul really from the heat and body which in the same sense are identificated The matter and form of life of a living substance or a Plant are originally the matter and form of the Elements That the matter of living substances is Elementary there are few or none among the wandring Philosophers but will assert it with me yet as for their form their great Master hath obliged them to deny it to be Elementary and to state it to be of no baser a rice than Coelestial Give me leave here to make inquiry what it is they imply for a form Is it the vegetable soul which Aristotle makes mention of in his definition of life Or is it the soul together with the heat wherein it is detained which is accounted of an extract equally noble with her Be it how it will the soul is really distinguisht by them from the matter and from the Celestial heat here they take heat in a sense common with Physicians for Calidum innatum that is heat residing it the radical moisture its subject and acknowledged for a form So likewise the heat Calidum innatum is diversified from the matter and from the soul wherefore it is neither matter or form What then Their confession owns it to be a body Celestial and therefore no Elementary matter Were I tied to defend their tenents I should answer that there was a twofold matter to be conceived in every living body the one Celestial and the other Elementary But then again one might justly reply That beings are not to be multiplied beyond necessity They do answer for themselves That it is to be imagined a tye vinculum whereby the soul is tied to the body So then according to this Doctrine of theirs I should understand the vegetable soul to be immaterial and of the same nature in respect to its rice and immortality with the rational soul for even that is in like manner tied to the body by means of the Calidum innatum and are both apprehended by Aristotle to be Celestial of no mixt body and really differing from their matter If so the vegetable soul must be received for immortal as being subject to no corruption or dissolution because it is Celestial and consequently a single Essence without any composition and to which no sublunary agent can be contrary But again how can it be a single essence since it is divisible and therefore consisteth of a quantitative extension and is a totum integrale Such is their Philosophy full of contradictions and errours In the next place I would willingly know how this innate heat together with its primogenial moisture may properly be termed Celestial since it is not freed from corruption and dissolution whereas all Celestial bodies are exempted from dissolution and therefore the Philosopher takes them for eternal Are not coldness and dryness as much necessary per se for life as heat and moisture Are heat and moisture sole agents without coldness or dryness or are fire and water sufficient principles for actuating life In no wise for as you have read they are uncapable of existing in one subject unless accompanied by air and earth II. Wherefore I say That the form of life is spirits or subtilities of the Elements united in mixtion and a just temperament Spirits are derived from the word spiro I breathe as being bodies no less subtil than a breath Their constitution is out of the best concocted temperated and nearest united parts of the Elements in which parts the Elements embracing one another so arctly minutely and intimately do of a necessity separate themselves from the courser parts of the mixture and so become moveable through the said course parts they acquire withal a great force through the predominancy of fire condensed by earthy minim's and glued together by incrassated air The force and agility in motion of the influent Spirits depends upon the compression of the weighty parts of the body depressing the said spirits out of their places because they hinder the weighty parts from their center which being through their incrassated air naturally gendred glib and slippery do the easier yield to slip out and in from one place to another The efficient of spirits is the universal external heat viz. The Celestial heat mainly proceeding from the greater mixt bodies contained within the heavens For although the peregrin Element's contained within the earth are capable enough of uniting themselves and constituting a mixt body through their proper form yet they remain unable of uniting themselves so arctly as thereby to become spiritous and constitute a living substance wherefore they do stand in need of the external efficiency of the Celestial bodies which through their subtil heat do accelerate their most intimate union in uniting the internal heat before dispersed through the parts of a body to a center whereunto they could not reach without the arct and firm adherence of some incrassated aerial and terrestrial parts which here are yet more closely united into one and refined from their grosser parts Hence it is that Vegetables are no where generated but where a sufficient influence may arrive from the Celestial bodies and for this reason the earth at a certain depth doth not harbour any living Creature as any Vermine or Plants but only near to its Surface The qualification or gradual distinction of this heat partially effects the difference of living bodies for to such a Vegetable only such a degree and qualification of Celestial heat is requisite and to another another and withal observe that this efficient heat doth not become formal neither doth it unite it self to the intrinsick heat of a Plant but exhales after the execution of its office The reason is because it is in many particulars unlike to the internal spirit of a Vegetable and therefore being unfit to be united to it must consequently after the performance of its function expire The spirits predominating in fire reside in an incrassated air the which being continuated throughout the whole matter is the immediate subject whereby the spirits are likewise extended throughout the same body and are although mediately rendred continuous III. The properties of a vegetative form are to be moveable forcible actually warm mollifying attractive recentive concocting expulsive nutritive accretive and plastick The two former I have touched just before Touching the third I say those spirits are actually warm but not sensible to our
frequently happens near to the Moons quarters whose middle is marked by the Moons Full and New Aspect being when it flows with the greatest force causing the highest high waters and the lowest low waters and tends towards its ending when it remits from its height and intends in lowness This augmentation and diminution may be resembled to the fermentation of Wine or Beer swelling gradually untill its height and thence decreasing again Touching the beginning and ending of the Seas single diurnal circuit if we consider it simpliciter it hath none because it is ever in motion as never being eased by a total rest but if agreeing to state the beginning where the Ocean is slowest in its course and thence tending to a swifter motion then the Proposition is resolveable And according to this Supposition the beginning and ending must be moveable differing every single course near 11 degrees This by the way Returning to explain the cause of the gradual augmentation of water and intention of force I am to remember you of the great proportion of the Oceans peregrin Elements consisting of most Earth then Air and lastly fire of whose close coherence with the waters their saltness is an undoubted argument These salin particles violently detaining the waters from recovering the center must necessarily add force to the gravity of the waters and consequently in intending their force they must also augment them in quantity because the more force the waters use the more in quantity they bear along with them The detention of the said salin particles being at their beginning of no great strength or in no great quantity do therefore cause no great intention of the Oceans force but every single period piercing gradually by rarefaction upon the waters must necessarily also augment their tumefaction gradually higher and higher every day untill at last being arrived to their height of penetration which ordinarily happens in 15 circuits the Ocean is likewise elevated unto its height Some of these salin particles being penetrated through the body of the waters are gradually depressed to the ground through their own disposition and the weight of the Ocean others being attrited and confused through their passive motion against the water and the decess of their heaviest particles do more and more gradually desist from their violent detention every circuit returning to the bottom and so the Ocean doth also gradually every day incline nearer and nearer to its natural force and detumescence of its water untill it is returned to its own proper course at which season its force and intumescence are equally at their lowest During this space those subsiding particles begin again to be expanded rarefied and attenuated because of the grinding of the water against them and through the expansion of the aerial and igneous parts adunited to them do bear up again The others elevated atop beginning to concentrate through the conquiescence of the Sea are ready to be compressed downwards both which gradually striving a reciprocal meeting do in the foregoing manner gradually reunite the force and augmentation of the Water V. Here we cannot but admit the Suns intense hear every day beating down the torrid Zone to be a great instrumental and adjuvant cause to the stirring of the aforesaid salin particles But this continuing in one measure equality and station in respect to the torrid Zone all the year long cannot in any wise be thought the principal cause of a motion varying twice every day Likewise the Moon being beset with a great quantity of dampish and heavy particles doth every day spread down some of those particles whereby the Ocean is also gradually filled more more every day And like as these said particles are most apt to rain down the nearer the Moon doth appropinquate to the Ecliptick because the air enjoyeth a greater subtility there from the rarefaction of the Sun hence it is that the Moon frees her self most of these heavy concomitants near her Conjunction and at her apposition So they are most apt to ascend the further the Moon is declined from the Ecliptick as happens in her quarters when for that reason the waters are also at their lowest That these two Lights are accidental causes of the intention of the Oceans force and daily augmentation of its waters is plain enough and their mutual concurrence to the effecting of the same effect we have confirmed beyond all doubting whereby the absurdity of the Moons compression proposed by Des-Cartes and so disagreeing with his own position of the nature of the air is likewise set before you The Moon near her Conjunction makes very high waters because conversing with the hot rayes of the Sun sends down a great number of the foresaid bodies and not because she is impregnated with the light of the Sun whereby she should be grown more potent to excite vapours and exhalations This is ridiculous for we find other bodies to be swelled near that time not only through exhalations raised out of themselves but particularly through particles demitted by the conveyance of the air into their pores The like happens although in a weaker manner when the Moon is in her full Aspect because of her nearer approximation to the Ecliptick But much more in a Lunar Eclipse because she is then found directly in the Ecliptick And most of all yea twice higher than ordinary at the Full Moon of March and September because the Sun being then in the AEquinoxial and most directly over the torrid Zone under which the greatest body of the Ocean floats and the Moon in the same way near the Ecliptick must needs joyntly cause a vast decidence of the forenamed bodies intending and augmenting the waters Or to declare the matter plainer to you The continuation of the Seas Motion forward is not only depending upon the pulsion of succeeding parts bending by refraction naturally forward but also by a kind of attraction or suction of preceding parts thus Suppose the Earth to be excavated into certain great cavities like to great pipes whereof of those that are formed from the East towards the West by the South the furthermost are alwaies deeper and longer than those which are nearest to the East Likewise conceive such Cavities framed in the same proportion to one another from West back again to the East by the North Now I say that the deepest and furthermost cavity must alwaies attract the water out of the shallower and lesser in the same manner as the longer pipe of a sucker a Siphon as some do call it must attract all the moisture of the shorter because the parts of water being continuous and consequently cleaving to one another the lesser part must follow and yield to the greater the which through its crastitude being pressed forwards must also draw the lesser part after Since then the water is no sooner arrived into one cavity but is thence drawn into another hence it is that this tumefaction of waters is not sensible to us in the Ocean
most to tend through the disposition of water and earth contained within those vapours and the greater force of the heavens driving them towards the Poles as the weaker places for there motion is least observed where being arrived are by the privative coldness of that Region assisted to free themselves of the fire and air the water now cleaving to the earth and divided into millions upon millions of minima's make up a dense body whence through the depression of the air they are devolved down to the earth Waters that are least in motion less fiery and aerial are most disposed to concretion Hence fresh waters are aptest to be frozen Whereas the Sea is seldom reduced to concretion because of its continual motion expelling the frosty minima's as fast as they are received or precipating them to the bottom or by melting their body through the fiery salin and aerial particles contained within it Notwithstanding is the Sea reduced to concretion in some Climates viz. within the Polars where you have the Oceanus Glacialis or Icy Ocean whose Ice is in some places 60 or 80 fathom deep in others reaching from the bottom of the Sea to the top insomuch that the tops of many of those Icy mountains stick out as far above the Surface of the liquid Sea as the same Sea is deep underneath The properties of that Ice is to be clear and transparent like glass Herodotus doth likewise make mention of the freezing of the Bosphorus so Beda lib. de natur rer c. 9. writes that within a daies sail from the Isle Tyle towards the North the Sea is frozen Olans Magn. tells us of the Gothiek Sea being frozen But this hapneth because the Sea thereabout may be deprived of its saltness yea some assert that those mountains of Ice are most fresh water concreased which being precipitated to the bottom through the density of the frosty minima's constantly descending like showers under the Pole the remaining Surface of fresh water is soon congealed Before I close this Paragraph I shall only adde the cause of a strange passion befalling the Glacial Sea where sometimes of a sudden and in a moment a whole mountain of Ice is melted away causing a dangerous current subverting or carrying away many a ship and yet the frost continueth The cause of this is not the broyling and melting heat of the Sun for the Sun is never so kind there but the union of those fiery salin particles precipitated as we told you above by the frosty minims down into the mud whence working or bursting with an united condensed force upwards do occasion such sudden degelations VIII Lastly Waters in respect of wholsomness differ very much in excellency and choice Spring water and those of Rivers are commended above others of Pools Lakes and Pit waters because these latter through their standing still contract a muddiness and filth out of the earth and sometimes noxious particles co gulated out of exhalations transpiring out the said mud besides that they are disposed to putrefactions through the abundance of peregrin bodies protruding venomous herbs and generating Toads Frogs Leeches Snails Eeles and other filthy Insects Snow waters are no less noxious than the former because of their crudity nitrosity and thickness Waters gathered and kept in a Leaden Cistern through Leaden or Tin spouts are crude and windy because they descend out of the cold region of the air Moreover as Galen doth well except they contract a pernicious quality from the Lead Wherefore Fountain or River waters carry the bell before them all but which of these two excells the other we must next distinguish Fountain waters as they spring out of the mountains are yet filled with wind and earthy minima's and therefore must yield to River waters I mean such as are derived from a Fountain In these the waters through their rapid streams depose those earthy crude and windy bodies which they brought along with them out of the Fountains Cavern and are attenuated and clarified through the Sun beams and lastly depose their dregs into the earth through being strained through its dense and clear sands And among these there is a great difference those that take their rice from a standing water or a Lake and flow through a muddy ground are much inferiour to many fountain waters But others that stream rapidly from a bright fountain and take their course through a pure sandy or gravelly ground and meet the East Sun are the best River waters in hot Countries where the air is clear are preferred before others in cold Climats Hence Rivers of a Continent take place before those of an Iland because the latter is generally beset with a nubilous air filling the said waters with mud and keeping off the rayes of the Sun from concocting them Wherefore River waters in the Southeast parts of France are esteemed before any in England those of the Southeast parts of Spain before others of the same Continent where the River Tago is much extolled for its wholsomeness of water In Persia the Choaspis affords the best waters In India the Ganges c. The Rivers of Thames affords the best water in England but further up towards the Woodmongers Gallows Oxford not about London where the ground is muddy besides that it is infected by the Tides flowing out of the Sea with many saltish particles dirt dung carkasses c. There must also notice be taken of the rice of a River viz. That it do not spring out of a Mine and of the Countries through which it passeth whether Chalky Gravelly or Clayish Insumma waters that are the lightest thinnest clearest and most limpid of no strong tangue but of a sweet pleasing rellish are the best The weight of waters is known by weighing one with the other in Scales By letting them run through a small sieve or thick close linnen their tenuity is known by dropping them upon a Looking-glass whereof that which drops the least drops and makes the greatest splatch is the subtillest by distillation boyling dissolving Salt or Soape in them by their shaking smalness and number of streams by the swimming of a piece of wood in them viz. that wherein it smimmeth deepest is the lightest and thinnest c. CHAP. XIV Of the commerce of the air with the other Elements 1. How the air moves downwards What motions the Elements would exercise supposing they enjoyed their Center Why the Air doth not easily toss the terraqueous Globe out of its place How the Air is capable of two contrary motions 2. That the Air moves continually from East through the South to West and thence back again to the East through the North. 3. An objection against the airs circular motion answered 4. The Poles of the Air. 5. The proportion of Air to Fire its distinction into three profundities 1. AIr is a debtor for its name to aer in Latine which again to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lift up because it was lifted up as it were
it blows hard the vulgar renders it that there is a taring wind abroad That it is a puffing and disruption is sensibly perceived since the aerial Element is divided and being continuous it is subjected to no other violent separation of parts but to a disruption If so that which doth disrupt or puffe up certainly can be no other but a continuous body Because a contiguous one would pass with a single perforation of parts as the rain fire c. whereas a disruption and puffing is continuous What can this disrupting body be It is not water for that would be perceived by its weight Ergo it must be incrassated air 2. The air puffed is continuated unto the earth For we feel its puffing effects in that we perceive it to cause a light compression or a puffe upon our faces 3. That it is oft a disruption of the air our face and lips do testifie being subjected to be cut and cloven in windy weather 4. The causality of winds may not be imputed to exhalations as Aristotle and his Peripateticks did strangely imagine because those are never so cohering and continuous as to cause continuous disruptions or puffings throughout a whole Zone Besides exhalations according to the Philosopher are described to be sulphureous hot and dry whereas black cold winds in the Winter and wet winds in September are quite opposite and have no sign of sulphur or heat Winds according to the forementioned supposition should be most frequent and highest in the torrid Zone and that when the Sun is in the AEquinox which falls out quite contrary Lastly VVho would be so simple as to conceive that such a vast proportion of exhalations should be excited as to continuate wind a whole half year or longer together as Monzones provincial and Etesian winds c Neither are winds generated out of vapours as most do now adaies believe Because then all winds would be moist whereas most winds are drying Neither will the grosseness of vapours permit themselves to pass with such a fury violence and incomprehensible swiftness Ergo nothing but air a little incrassated can quadrate to the subtility fierceness swiftness and long continuation of winds The manner of their generation is thus In the clouds being as I said before water incorporated with air each Element striveth for the Center within them viz. The air by sinking down and water by pressing downwards Air having the advantage if inclosed in a great proportion through its tenuity recovers the central parts water unites in continuation all about the air now being slipt away but the air without sinking all about upon the besieging water especially from above because the whole Element of air sinks downwards adds no small force to its pressure whereby it is enabled to squeeze out the inclosed air being somewhat incrassated and thence rendred unlike to the ambient air for otherwaies they would unite and so its force would be stayed with a violence into the extrinsick air through which it taires it to some extent and aftervvards puffs it up further not unlike to the wind squeezed out of bellows or a bladder A Fan raises a wind by puffing the air An AEolipile doth evidently confirm to us the foresaid discourse of generation of winds I shall first describe it then subnect the manner of using of it An AEolipile is a hollovv ball made of Brass or any other matter that may resist the fire whereinto a little hole is pierced This laid to the fire and heated is cast into a bowl of water of which it draws in some part This done the hole is to be stopped very close and the ball afterwards laid to the fire untill it grows hot then unstop it and it will emit a durable wind considering the proportion of the water for a half quarter of a pint of water will suffice to maintain a wind for an hour long This instance tells us that wind is nothing else but air incrassated or a little water attenuated by much air squeezed out by the compression of the extrinsick air entring with the fire through the Pores of the Ball. The difference between the eruption of incrassated air detruding rain and that which causeth winds is that the former is much thicker than the latter less in proportion and more dispersed in particles between the thick and dense clouds the latter is less incrassated more in proportion and cohering Air incrassated and vapours differ in consistency Secundum magis minus V. The differences of winds are taken either from their duration and type whence they are said to continue long or short to be typical or erratick The former are again distinguisht into Trade winds Provincial winds Etesian winds Land winds and General winds Trade winds or Monzons are winds blowing one way for six months together and another way the other six months They are called Trade winds because they serve to carry Ships up to and fro the Indian Coasts for to trade or to make trading voyages as they are usually termed They ordinarily meet with them in the Channel of Mozambique in the month of August whence they make their voyage to Goa Cochin or other places of the East Indies in thirty daies In March and April the wind begins to serve them to return from the Indies to the said Channel Provincial winds are such as do particularly perstate a Country and do not exceed beyond the length of it Thus the West-North-west wind according to Seneca his relation lib. 5. nat quaest cap. 17. is proper to Calabria Tataegis to Pamphylia Atabulus to Apulia North Northwest to Narbone in France West Northwest to Athens a West wind to this Island for the greater part of the year an East wind to Portugal during the Summer c. To these common winds are opposites such as perslate a whole Zone or Climate at any time of the year Annual winds are such as do return at certain times of the year and last for a certain term of daies These are observed to be three 1. The Ornithean so called from birds or Chelidonian from Swallows or Rose winds are westerly winds which usually begin to blow but calmly at the first appearance of certain birds as Storkes or Swallows or the budding of Roses 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forerunners are North Northwest winds blowing for the space of eight daies before the appearance of the Dog Star They are called forerunners because they precede the Etesian winds 3. The Etesian or annual winds derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a year are North Northwest winds blowing forty daies every year beginning two daies after the appearance of the Dog-Star They usually rise about three a clock in the day and are laid again at night Land winds are such as blow from the land at a certain season of the day or night and are opposite to those that blow from the Sea They are otherwise by the Portugeses named Terreinhos as those from the Seaward Viracons They
remoteness the air is aptest for concretion 2. Those winds blow stronger in the night than in the day Because the internal air of the clouds is then strongest squeezed and least dispersed through the Suns heat 3. The Monzones that blow from the South blow usually stronger and somewhat longer than the others because the Sun being then got into the arctick declination is now obliquely imminent upon the waters and therefore raises the greater quantity of vapours VVhereas on the other side a greater part of its oblique rayes are taken up by the Land 4. They are oft intended by the Moons demission of weighty minima's upon them The common winds are deprehended in the temperate and rigid Zones The East winds blow when a cloud opens at its VVest side in the East the North wind blows when it is vented at the South side in the North c. The winds if any thing durable must spout out of great long clouds otherwise they would soon be emptied besides clouds through the commotion of the air do succeed one another and are united when the former is suckt out as it vvere Sometimes the vvind seems to come dovvn from over our heads because a cloud is opened there More frequently from the finitor because clouds do most usually meet in union thereabout Sometimes the vvindes blovv from the North and South at once because tvvo clouds in those Regions are a venting Sometimes besides the continuation of a durable vvind there breaks out suddenly another vvind upon us by a blast because there is a cloud breaks out underneath those great ones that cause the durable vvind Provincial vvinds are occasioned through bursting out of those clouds that surround the respective Provinces For example If a Country is apt to be most beset vvith clouds on its North sides then Northerly winds vvill prove its Provincials Annual vvinds are caused through the particular aspects of the Sun at such a time of the year raising vapours tovvards such a plage or corner and rarefying their clouds at such a side Winds accidentally and violently are most of them coole and dry because bursting out with a force they must necessarily cause a compression upon objected bodies and through their tenuity must rub off the dampness from the same bodies Yet some winds prove more particularly very cold and dry because many earthy minims that are incorporated with the imprisoned air break forth along with them causing a strong punctual compression or acute cold Hence North winds happen to partake so much of coldness because they are incorporated with many terrestrial minima's transmitted from the Polars North Northeast winds in winter feel very pinching and nipping cold yea numming because of the commixture of frosty minims with their air South winds are moist because their production depends upon clouds transmitted from the Meridies whose body is very damp and waterish they are hot besides because they have been smitten with the Suns torrid rayes These are noxious and pernicious because through their warm moisture communicated to the ambient air they move relaxe swell and dissolve all the humours of the body whence there must necessarily arise an exestuation or fermentation of the bloud By the way let me tell you the reason why many clouds move against the stream of the air Because their winds bursting on the contrary side draw them like fire bursting out of a squib draweth the same after it Winds blow equally through their equal eruption high through their greater union and force directed outward and being augmented by the violent detention of the ambient cloud Some winds rise in the night because the internal breath of their clouds is now united through a privative and positive coldness Others are intended by the help of the dissolving Sun for the cloud being too close outwardly and the inward breath not very strong needed the rarefaction of the Sun Hence Northern winds are raised in the day because the faces of the clouds are objected directly against the heat of the Sun Whereas South winds are laid in the day because the Sun rarefying the back parts of their clouds attracts their breath backwards and disperseth it Tempestuous winds are distinguisht by five names 1. Ecnephias from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the clouds or an Oricane which is a sudden and most impetuous wind bursting out directly from above out of the sky and breaking in upon the Sea and Ships cause it to rise into mountainous waves and these oft to be overset if their sails be up wherefore Mariners in the East and VVest Indian Ocean as soon as they spy a small cloud in the heavens seemingly not much bigger than the top of ones hat take in their Sails immediately or if at anchor they are forced to cut their Cables and expose themselves to the free waves of the Sea for to prevent foundring The cause of so sudden a fury is questionless a great quantity of incrassated air admitted to condensed fire pent in hard within the stiff clouds and so setting force against force the air and condensed fire are forced with one violence to break through the thick clouds which although strongly striving to keep themselves in continuation yet at last choose to give way and to suffer some parts of them to be gathered into a small cloud whereupon that furious AEolus soon puts the whole Climate into a commotion scattering withall a spout of hot water kindled through the great sight rotting whatever it touches especially wollen cloaths and breeding worms 2. Turbo Typhon from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beat or a violent whirlwind is caused through the same condensed fire and incrassated air violently bursting out of several spouts whose circular refraction meeting upon the Surface of the water or land oft carries a Ship sheer out of the water or any other moveable bodies from the land I have oft been told of Ships that have been lifted out of the water and cast upon the shore by such winds as these but how true I know not although it seems probable enough 3. Praester from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I kindle is a surious wind caused through the violent eruption of exhalations or a condensed fire kindled within the clouds and incrassated air which doth not only ruinate houses and trees but oft burns them down to the ground and puts the Sea into a boyling heat 4. Exhydria is a vehement bursting out of wind attended with a great shower of rain and hail But none of these violent winds prove lasting because the flatuosity contained within the clouds erupting in so great a measure must soon be exhausted whereas were it evacuated in a less proportion they must necessarily prove more durable Among all the winds none delights more in the greatest and longest furies and storms than the South Southwest in the winter because it derives from the Meridies or torrid Zone where vapours are drawn up in very great measures and that constantly because of the
the water or vapours into small or narrow lanes obtending the air between them Now if the water or clouds are equally pliable all about it it appears hairy all about its Circumference if the fore-part of the cloud be somewhat dense and thence indisposed to give way but resists and only the back-part be pliable it formes streaks backwards seeming like a tail and so according to the pliableness of the air it flashes out in figures If you are free to understand by a Comet any new appearing Star descending from its former seat or lately generated I must agree with you that these are only seated in the lower fiery Region some below or above the Moon and in this acception I have made use of the name of Comets in some of the preceding Chapters Authors in treating of Comets seldom forget the inserting their predictions which are 1. Storms 2. Great drinesses 3. Tempestuous Seas 4. Earthquakes 5. Great alterations to befall a Country by the death of their King or Prince All the former are no more frequently consequents of Comets than of all other fiery Meteors because with those great stores of vapours and exhalations there cannot but be a great proportion of slatuosities attracted whose bursting out proves the efficient of the now mentioned effects But as for the last there can little reason be given for it saving only that such a constitution of air causeth commotions of humours and thence may cause diseases in general but why it should light more upon such great personages than others is beyond all guess therefore the truth of it is suspicious Likewise the fabulous presages of other fiery Meteors may be placed in the same rank of dubiousness CHAP. XVIII Of the term Antiperistasis and a Vacuum 1. Whether there be such a thing as an Antiperistasis 2. Whether a Vacuum be impossible and why 3. Experiments inferring a Vacuum answered 4. Whether a Vacuum can be effected by an Angelical or by the Divine Power 5. Whether Local Motion be possible in a Vacuum A threefold sense of the doubt proposed In what sense Local Motion is possible in a Vacuum in what not 1. I Could not conveniently without interruption of my Subject insist before upon the examining that term of the Schools so oft assumed by them to expound the manner of generation of the fiery Meteors viz. Antiperistasis being described to be the intension of heat or cold in bodies caused through the cohibition repulsion or reflection of their own vertues by their contraries without the addition of any new formal parts or retention of their steams Thus many Wells are cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter and exhalations grow hotter in the cold region of the air because of the Antiperistasis of the ambient cold against their heat and of their heat again against the external cold in effect it is nothing but the condensation if such a term may be improperly used or rather union of the qualities of the Elements by the resistance and collecting of their vertues by their opposites But since the collection or uniting these qualities depends upon the condensation or incrassation of their substances there is no need of introducing another frustraneous notion But suppose an Antiperistasis or intension of qualities without the condensation of their substances were granted how do fiery Meteors become flames Never a word of this And when flames why do they cause a disruption of the air in a Thunder Because say they of avoiding a penetration of bodies A good one what fear is there of a penetration of bodies when there is only an intension of qualities through an Antiperistasis without an augmentation of bodies Possibly they will take their refuge to a contrary assertion and tell me that the foresaid disruption happens because of avoiding a Vacuum This is just like them to run from one extremity to another But how a Vacuum Because the flame pent close within consumes or hath consumed or expelled its ambient air which done there must needs follow a Vacuum if Nature did not prevent it by causing the extrinsick air to break in or the internal to break out for anguish This is improbable for the Vacuum may be filled up by the concentration of the ambient clouds Since I am accidentally here fallen into the discourse of a Vacuum I will think it worth my labour to inquire whether such a thing be naturally possible within the Circumference of the Universe I do not mean an imaginary Vacuum without the heavens neither a space void of any gross body although filled up only with air but a place or external Surface freed from air or any other body For answer I assert a Vacuum to be repugnant to nature because the nature of the Elements is to move towards one another with the greatest force imaginable through their respective forms because of their own preservation Hence the Elements would sooner change into a confusion than be debarred from one minimum without having its space filled up with another Wherefore it is not enough to assert as usually they do that there is no Vacuum possible in Nature because she doth so much abhor it as if Nature was an Animal sensible of any hurt and why doth she abhor that they know not However some state the cause of her abhorrence to be Natures providence in ordering that sublunar bodies through mediation of interposed bodies should be disposed to receive the Celestial influences which a Vacuum would otherwise eclipse from them How frivilous As if a moments partial vacuity which could through its being violent not prove lasting should hinder a communication of the Elements or as if the said influences could not be transmitted to sublunars by mediation of bodies that limit the said supposed vacuity Arriaga holds it to be for to prevent a penetration of bodies That is idem per idem for one might as well demand why Nature doth so much abhor a penetration of bodies and be answered because of avoiding a Vacuum Vasquez a Jesuit is of opinion that Nature can never attain to a Vacuum because every body is impowered with an attractive vertue attracting the next body that is contiguous to it in such a manner that no body can be stirred except it attracts its next adherent with it Oh how grosly Doth fire attract water or earth air They all apprehend attraction to be violent and notwithstanding they affirm Nature to abhor a Vacuum naturally and how can this hang together III. Arguments for the proof of a Vacuum many are offered but none of any strength however for your satisfaction I will propose some few 1. A Bason filled up with ashes contains as much water poured into it as if the same Vessel were void ergo there must either be allowed a penetration of bodies or a pre-existent Vacuum But so antiquity hath found the Antecedence Ergo the consequence must be admitted I must needs assert this ancient experiment to be an ancient falshood for
of external Local motion Which is either direct reflex or circular A direct motion tends singly from one point to another in a right line A reflex motion is either strictly so called and is whereby a moveable is reflected or beaten back towards the point either perpendicularly or obliquely whence it first moved or refracted as they vulgarly term it whereby a moveable is moved in an oblique Line to a terminus ad quem A Circular motion is an oblique motion into a circle This is either singly circular whereby a motion is contorted into one circle or manifold and reflected whereby it is either spirally or vortically that is like a whirl-pool contorted into many circles each inferiour circle being reflected into a greater superiour one or each superiour greater circle being reflected into somewhat a lesser inferiour circle Lastly Motion is either swift slow or mean The first is which in a short time doth absolve a long space The next which in a long time absolves but a short space A mean motion is which in a long or short time absolves a mean motion These definitions and divisions premitted we shall next adscribe some useful Theorems II. All alterative and quantitative motions are absolutely and per se primarily direct That the primar and natural motions of the Elements are direct their definitions testifie For since they do each primarily move from their Center to the Circumference or from the Circumference to the Center and that all motions from the Center to the Circumference and from the Circumference to the Center are direct it must necessarily follow that those said motions primarily adscribed to them are direct 2. All external Local motions proper to mixt bodies being moved with an Element that enjoys its Center are direct because such bodies being moved by the said presupposed Element must be directed to the same term that the Element is which as hath been proved is likewise direct III. All external Local Motions are violent or moved by an extrinsick movent That is no natural body whether mixt or simple can or doth move it self locally I prove it external Local Motion is caused by expulsion but all expulsions as the name it self doth import are caused by an external principle expelling the body that doth disrupt or dispossess it of its place Ergo. I confirm the Minor what can a body be said to expel it self Expulsion is caused by the body injured but that is the discontinuated and external body only Ergo. 2. The body expelled enjoys a center ergo it cannot move for one since all motions are for a center 3. External Local Motion is caused by compression but a natural body cannot compress it self Ergo. Possibly you may say that a body may compress the extraneous body and so lift it self up No for if so then it is rather lifted up by the renitency of the extraneous body But how is a natural body capable of compressing an extrinsick body What By rarefaction well if so a body cannot rarefie it self Possibly you will suppose a vertual rarefaction proceeding from the internal form of a body and such a quality is not in rerum natura 4. The name it self makes the same inference viz. External Local motion is a change of external place ergo the vertue changing must proceed from without or externally because it is impossible that an internal power should reach beyond its sphere of activity which extends no further than its internal body or matter All bodies do naturally covet rest from external Local motion ergo the same external motion must be violent or from without Doth earth that is in particles ever move Locally out of its place No but is attracted or forced upwards as in exhalations by extrinsick efficients as external air and fire In summa all instances in the world do confirm to us that external Local Motion is from without But I instance in particulars A Bullet being swallowed down by any living Creature is detruded downwards and evacuated by stool but if thrust down its throat when it is dead resteth in the body ergo it is the depressing vertue of that living Creature doth extrinsecally move it locally since when it is dead the bullet is not affected by any such motion IV. All weighty mixt bodies being removed from their Element are disposed to be detruded downwards from without but do not move from any internal inclination they have to their universal center I prove the latter part because all bodies can obtain but one motion for their preservation but that is of moving to their own center whither whence and whereupon they move Ergo. The Minor is confirmed by that we see that water and earth in an extraneous Element as in the air or fire do move to their own particular center as appears in drops of rain that fall down from the air Doth not Mercury move directly to its own center although it be never so many times divided Do not air and fire erupt out of the water in a round bubble Ergo their motion was from their own center as appears by their rotundity Doth noth a flame in a candle strive to maintain its center I shall add one argument more A part retains the nature of the whole which in a weighty body is of moving to its own center ergo all weighty bodies do primarily move to their own center Amputate any member of a living Creature and you will find it to shrink immediately into a rotundity or towards its own center whereas had it any inclination or appetite to that body whence it was prescinded it would remain in the same shape and form it was cut off for so it would be aptest to be reunited If then all weighty bodies do primarily move to their own center how can they then existing in the air move or have an inclination of moving down to the earth since they in moving to their own particular center do manifestly move from her Ergo there can be no such thing as an appetite or inclination in mixt bodies to an universal center when separated from it although when united they have a particular respect to it as a part hath to the whole Next I prove the first branch of the Conclusion viz. That all weighty mixt bodies being seated without their Element are disposed to be moved downwards Downwards quasi to it namely to the center wards or into it wards Upwards quasi outwards that is from the Center to the Circumference Likewise the German Synonyma's confirms this Etymology viz. Nach beneden or downwards quasi Nach binnen or inne that is into wards Or nach boven upwards quasi butenwarts and that quasi ouswarts or outwards Whence we may learn that in every particular mixt body there is as properly a downwards and an upwards as in the universal body So then the fore-stated downwards is to be understood to the earthwards that is to the terraqueous Globe and upwards from the earthwards I say they
are disposed to be moved downwards because they cannot move themselves thither but concur to that motion only by their disposition V. This disposition is nothing else but the renitency or stubbornness of the weighty mixt body discontinuating the air or fire and resisting their motion to the center-wards the intension and remission of the said renitency depends upon the greater or lesser density or crassitude whence it is also that some bodies are moved swifter downwards because they consist of a greater density sustaining a more violent impulse of the air which were they less dense would be moved slower because of a less renitency 2. Or thus the air being discontinuated by an interposed weighty mixt body doth primarily strive from all parts to a reunion by its expansive vertue especially from above because of its greater strength there as being less discontinuated and weakened by exhalations and vapours whence the greatest force descending doth also direct the impulsion downwards Wherefore a weighty body as Mercury or any other Mineral is moved much swifter downwards or according to the ordinary Ideom of speech weighs much heavier on the top of high hills than below But you shall read more in the next Chapt. VI. All light bodies being seated in a weighty Element are disposed to be moved upwards whence it is that subterraneous air is oft forced upwards by the earths compressing vertue Likewise a piece of Cork depressed under water is by the waters gravity closing underneath in the same manner as we have explained it in the 2. Part. the 1. Book Chap. 16. 2. Par. squeezed upwards without any intrinsick propensity for otherwise the same Cork being also disposed to be pressed downwards in the air must be supposed to have two internal propensities which is absurd A flame burning in the ayry Regions is forced upwards by its disposition of levity tenuity and rarity Thus The air sinding it self injured by the discontinuating flame presses upon her and strives from all sides to squeeze her away The flame being over-powered is forced to slip or slide away whether its disposition may best yield downwards it cannot tend because there it is resisted by the courser air infested with weighty peregrin Elements Ergo upwards because there it finds the way most open to give free passage to its light rarity and tenuity On the contrary a weighty body because of its density and crassitude finds the passage clearer downwards by reason it is most driven from the tenuity of the air atop but supposing the air to enjoy its center doubtless those weighty bodies would be cast forth upwards to the Circumference VII Ayry bodies that are seated in a fiery Element are moved downwards because the rarity of the fire sinking downwards for a center doth impell them also thither whose disposition being continuous and thin are the better disposed to slide away from the fire compressing them all about downwards because upwards the said bodies striving to maintain their particular Centers would be more discontinuated where the force of fire must also be strongest Whence you may observe that weighty bodies and light bodies are both moved to one terminus ad quem in the fiery regions Touching the causes of refraction and reflection you shall read them in the next Chapter Hence a great part of the first Book of the second Part will be rendred much plainer which I did forbear to illustrate further because of avoiding needless repetitions intending to treat of these by themselves viz. why water or any other weighty body being violently detained is much intended in its strength or why water is more depressing atop or when it is most remote from her Center than underneath namely because of the depression of the air adding much to the drowning of a man as we have mentioned in 12th and 16th Chapters and so many other passages CHAP. XX. Of Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent Motion 1. How air is attracted by a water-spout or Siphon 2. The manner of another kind of Attraction by a sucking Leather 3. How two flat Marble stones clapt close together draw one another up 4. How a Wine-Coopers Pipe attracts Wine out of a Cask 5. How sucking with ones mouth attracts water 6. How a Sucker attracts the water 7. The manner of Attraction by Filtration 8. The manner of Electrical attraction 9. How fire and fiery bodies are said to attract 10. What Projection is and the manner of it 11. What Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion are 1. I Thought fit to subject these remaining kinds of motion to the preceding and to treat of them in a distinct Chapter viz. Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion I shall only insist upon some particular kinds of attraction What Attraction is the name doth explain How air is attracted by water and water properly by air hath been proposed in the foregoing Chapters Attraction is further evident 1. In a Siphon or water-spout wherewith they usually cast up water for to quench a fire Here the water is attracted by the drawing up of the Sucker not through a bending for to avoid a Vacuum but through the natural cohesion in continuancy of the air to the Sucker or aerial parts contained within the Sucker Now the air doth cohere more strongly because there is no body to discontinue it within the Siphon but is rather assisted in a continuated cohesion by the continuity of the sides of the Siphon and of the Sucker Or otherwise if the air did strive to separate how could it For suppose it should be discontinuated from the Sucker then through that discontinuation there must be some certain void space effected if so then that air which did before fill up that void space must have been withdrawn into some other place or else it must through penetration have sunk into its own substance besides the air that was expelled up vards must have penetrated into its own body by condensation or into the body of the water all which is impossible since a penetration of bodies is an annihilation But here inquiry may be made whether it is the continuated cohesion of the air with the water causes the succession of the water upon the air or whether the air which through haling up of the Sucker is expelled upwards out of the Siphon doth for to procure a place protrude the air cohering about the external sides of the Siphon downwards into the water through whose insufflation the water is propelled upwards into the Siphon I answer both waies for it is impossible that such a great weight of water should ascend so easily with so little a force as the attraction of the Sucker unless it were assisted by the strong force of the air pomped out out of a necessity and impossibility of shrinking pressing down and protruding the water upwards That this is so the external circular pressure and dent which we see about the outsides of the water about the lower end
and propelled upwards which commonly tends to the emitting body because the greater quantity of those steams are gathered perpendicularly under the said emitting body and so do return the same way Hence observe That Amber doth not attract so potently on the top of high Mountains because its steams being weightier than the air is there do spread themselves further whereby they are deprived of a return Neither will Amber attract in a thick vapourous air because its steams are detained from dispersion IX Fire and fiery bodies as Onions Soap c. are said to attract but improperly because their attraction is nothing else but an expulsion of those bodies which they are imagined to attract For instance Fire is said to attract water air c. This is nothing else but fire piercing into the substance of water or air whereby it doth expel them into those places which it leaves or which are near to it Hence vapours are seldom attracted or rather expelled into the places where fire doth continually pass as directly under the AEquator because it fills those places with its own presence but are reflected towards the sides as towards the North and South Pole whose spaces are not filled up with its torrid rayes Now judge a little of that most barbarous practice among Physitians in applying Reddishes Salt leaven yea Epispastick Plasters to the Wrists and Feet of Feaverish Patients What rage what torments are poor men put to how are their Feavers Paraphrensies exacerbated through their diabolical practice These things do not attract without piercing into a mans Veins and Arteries and through their greater force of heat and violence do protrude the less heat of the body and by a short stay do put the whole body into a consuming fire How many men have I seen murthered in that manner 'T is true in malignant and Pestilential Feavers they have their use but not in single putrid ones Now by what hath been proposed in this Paragraph we may easily apprehend the manner of all water-works and of raising water higher than its source as that which is performed by the invention of Archimedes through a brazen or leaden Serpent or by wheels impelling water into Pipes c. Hence we may also conceive the manner of the attraction or rather expulsion of the degrees of water in a Thermometer or invention to measure the degrees of heat and cold and the differences of them in several Rooms Towns Seasons of the year c. The Instrument is nothing but a long glass Pipe towards the end somewhat turning up being left open for to poure in any liquor which according to the rarefaction or condensation of the air contained within the Pipe above will either ascend or descend in so many more or less degrees as the air is altered by rarefaction through the heat of the ambient air or condensation through the cold minims of earth within the said ambient air compressing the water more or less through its increase of quantity Touching the Magdenburg Invention the air is attracted outwards in the same manner as we have explained the attraction of water by a water-spout namely by a continuation cohesion and adhesion to the Sucker The air attracted out of the capacity of the Receiver doth also through the same means attract air and fire inhering in the rarefied and attenuated water without in the koop that again in the koop attracts air from without for to fill up its spaces which is as ready to press in because that air which was pumped out of the capacity wants room without This succession of air is continuated by pumping untill the air within is quite filled up with the incrassated air attracted from without whose thickness will not suffer it self to be pumped out any longer so that as the air within begins to be incrassated so the pumping without falls harder and harder Towards the latter end there seems to be a forcible retraction of the Sucker making a great noise through its return because the capacity of the Receiver being replenisht to the very pores of the glass which being rendred somewhat flexible through the passing and tumefying of the incrassated and rarefied air afterwards beginning to condense through greater access of fire is violently through the great external force of the pumping somewhat forced to bend or yield inwards whose renitency and force to return retracts the Sucker through continuation and cohesion of the incrassated air Next we are to pursue the manner of acceleration of weighty bodies downwards It is certain that a natural mixt weighty body falling directly down from atop without interruption to the bottom doth acquire a greater celerity the further it recedes from the beginning of its descent because the lower or farther it descends through propulsion of the superiour air the more and the greater body viz. of air under it it compresses which for to prevent the penetration of its own body is the more and violenter irritated to run round about the descending weighty body for to recover the place left by the said body where arriving doth as it were rebound against the superiour parts of the air which doth very much intend the celerity of the said bodies motion and the same gradually increasing doth also gradually accelerate the descending body the further it falls Some are of opinion that the acceleration of descending bodies is caused by Atoms falling down from the Celestial Orbs which as they do more and more encrease by being retained by the descending body do likewise more and more accelerate its descent This can scarce be because those Atoms reflecting and returning from the Surface of the Terrestrial Globe are in greater number underneath the body than above ergo according to that manner of reasoning a body falling from on high should rather be gradually retarded 3. A body should also fall swifter in the Winter than in the Summer in cold Countries than in hot because those Atoms are most numerous there but the contrary is true Ergo no true consequence In like manner do light bodies acquire a greater swiftness in ascending the higher they are propelled whence it is that Fowl flying high move much swifter than below Retardation is caused through causes opposite to these now mentioned X. Projection is whereby a body is moved swifter by the forcible impulse of the Projector than it would do otherwise Thus an Arrow is swiftly moved out of a Bow or a stone being cast out of the hand because of the force of the impulse of the Projector The cause of the intention of this impulse is the great swiftness of the said impulse at the beginning whereby the air is swiftly propelled before whose most swift return about the sides of the body projected causes the continuation of the swiftness of the first impulse but gradually diminishing by how much the further it recedes from the beginning A ball projected out of a Canon is propelled with that swiftness because of the swiftness of
the first smart impulse The truth of the foresaid reason and manner is apparent in shooting a pole through the water where we may see the water at the farther end raised into a tumor which running about the sides to the other end causeth its propulsion Whence it is also that when there appears no more of the tumor of the water before the pole its motion doth instantly cease XI Disruption or bursting is a sudden separation of the parts of a body through a violent force moving from within This we see happens oft in Canons when over-charged or in bottels filled with water being frozen in the Winter o. Wine in the Summer being close stopt The cause of these latter must be imputed to frosty or fiery minims entring through the pores of the bottels in greater quantity than their capacity can take in and disrupting them for to avoid a penetration of bodies Bodies are oft said to burst through driness as Instruments c. but very improperly since it is the fiery or frosty minims entring their pores and filling their capacities and afterwards disrupting them because of avoiding a penetration of bodies So Instrument-strings are apt to break in moist weather because their continuation is disrupted through penetration of moist bodies into their pores Undulation is a motion whereby a body is moved to and fro like to water shaken in a basin or to the motion of a Bell. The cause is likewise adscribed to the first motion of the Impulsor which being terminated at the end of its return is beat back through the direct descent of the air impelling it by reason it lieth athwart Recurrent motion being but little different from this I shall therefore say no more of it The cause of reflection is the return of the impulse impressed upon the air or water both being media deferentia perpendicularly or obliquely upwards from a hard and plane reflecting body Of refraction the cause is the shuving off of the impulse downwards by the shelving sides of an angular hard body CHAP. XXI Of Fire being an Introduction to a New Astronomy 1. The Fires division into three Regions 2. The qualification of the inferiour Region What the Sun is What his torrid Rayes are and how generated 3. How the other Planets were generated 4. How the fixed Stars were generated 5. A further explanation of the Stars their Ventilation That there are many Stars within the Planetary Region that are invisible Of the appearance of new Stars or Comets Of the Galaxia or Milk-way 6. That the fiery Regions are much attenuated I. THe ground of the fires tending downwards you may easily collect from what I have set down touching the waters and airs commerce with the other Elements It s profundity we may likewise divide into three Regions The first whereof containing the Planetary bodies the next the fixed Stars and the third consisting most of purefire II. The inferiour Region through its nearer approximation to the air and its immersion into it is cast into a subtil flame whose subtility doth effuge our sight and Tact. The Sun is a great body generated out of the peregrin Elements contained in the inferiour igneous Region consisting most of condensed fire and incrassated air extended and blown up into the greatest flame and conglomerated within the greatest fiery cloud These igneous clouds are like to the windy clouds of the air which as they do daily blast down wind upon the earth so do these cast fiery rayes among which that which surrounds the Sun doth vendicate the greatest power to it selfe The manner of casting of its fiery rayes is the same with that of winds viz. The Region of fire forceth up every day or continually a great quantity of air somewhat incrassated and condensed into its own sphere through its descending force striving for a Center This incrassated and condensed air is impelled violently into the body of the Stars by other subtil flames as being more forcible to drive the said adventitious matter from them because their parts are so closely ingaged that they can scarce slow a minim without a penetration Wherefore they must necessarily be impelled gradually into the bodies of the Stars because these are mixt bodies that give way so much in themselves by expelling fiery or torrid minima's down into the air as to be capacious enough of receiving so many airy particles as the Elementary fire doth force up every moment But before I proceed in unfolding the manner of the Celestial mixt bodies their ventilations I must insist somewhat further upon their constitution III. The Celestial mixt bodies are not only like to clouds in their daily and minutely ventilations but also in their constitutions viz. The inferiour ones as the Planets are constituted out of the courser and more mixt matter of the finer cloudy air in the inferiour Region of the Element of fire like the clouds of the inferiour Region of air are constituted out of the courser part of vapours Their coagulation is effected through the force of the fiery Element crushing their matter from below upwards and again is repelled back from the superiour parts of the said fiery Elements because through its being pressed up are scanted of room and therefore do press downwards not only for room but also because of reuniting where they are divided by the said coagulated bodies Now it may easily appear to you 1. Whence that rotundity or rather globosity doth arrive to them viz. because they are circularly crusht 2. Because the air and fire of the said Planets do naturally spread themselves equally from the Center to the Circumference whence a circular figure must needs follow Also 3. That Stars are nothing else but the thicker and denser part of the Heavens coagulated into fiery mixt bodies to wit flames 3. That as they do decrease by Ventilation every day so they do also increase by the introsusception of new aerial particles 4. That they must necessarily be very durable because of the duration of their causes For as the great force of the inferiour parts of the igneous Heavens never desist from striving for the Center and do every day cast up great proportions of aerial matter so do the superiour parts never cease from compressing them into the bodies of the other condensed flames being disposed as I said before through their ventilation to receive them 2. Because the aerial parts being got into the Center of the flames cease from all external Local motion striving only to maintain their Center in rest IV. Fixed Stars are generated out of the subtiler parts of the forementioned aerial evaporations being through their less resisting gravity redounding from water earth in them rendred capable of being screwed up higher to the second Region where they are coagulated through the same motions of the Heavens that Planetary clouds are These are responding to the permanent clouds of the second Region of the air which as they are spread into more large
Surface VIII Why doth the Herb of the Sun vulgarly called Chrysantemum Peruvianum or Crowfoot of Peru because its Leaves and Flowers resemble those of our Crowfoot turn the faces of its Leaves and Flowers about with the Sun Answ. Because the Sun through its igneous Beames doth rarefie that side of the Leaves and Flowers which is obverted to it whereby he doth expel their continuous streames whose egress doth attract or incline them that way whither they are expelled in the same manner as we have explained the Attraction of the Loadstone IX Why is the Laurel seldom or never struck by Lightning Answ. Because it is circumvested with a thick slimy Moysture which doth easily shove or slide off the Glance of a Lightning CHAP. II. Containing Problemes relating to Water 1. Why is red hot Iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water 2. Whence is it there fals a kind of small Rain every day at noon under the AEquinoctial Region 3. How Glass is made 4. Whence it is that so great a Mole as a Ship yields to be turned by so small a thing as her Rudder 5. What the cause of a Ships swimming upon the water is 6. Whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire I. VVHy is red hot Iron rendered harder by being quencht in cold water Answ. Because the water doth suddenly pierce into the Pores of iron being now open and violently expel the fire and air both which as we have shewed in B. 1. Part 2. are the sole Causes of the softness of a body and being expelled leave the same indurated by the weighty Elements pressing more forcibly and harder to their Center II. Whence is it that there fals a kind of small Rain every day from 11 or 12 of the Clock to 2 or 3 in the Afternoon under the AEquinoctial Region Answ. The Sun at his Rising and Descending doth through his oblique Rayes excite a multitude of small vapours which through the privative coldness of the air in the night are concreased into small clouds but reduced into drops of rain through the Suns rarefaction or fiery minims when he is perpendicularly imminent upon them III. How is Glass made Answ. The matter of ordinary Glass is generally known to be Ashes or Chalck burnt out of stones or both The Venice Glasses differing from others in clearness and transparency are made out of chalck burnt out of stones which they fetch from Pavia by the River Ficinum and the ashes of the weed Kall growing in the deserts of Arabia between Alexandria and Rossetta which the Arabians make use of for fuell In the first Book second Part I have told you how a body was reduced into ashes through the expulsion of its thinner glutinous moisture by the vibrating fiery minims The same fire being intended doth through its greater violence enter mollifie diduct and thence melt and equallize the courser thick remaining glutinous moisture by its own presence together with the air which it imports along with it whereby the Terrestial minims that were before clotted are exactly and equally spread throughout the foresaid thick glutinous moisture The fire and air being only admitted from without not incorporated with the said bodies through want of a matrix because they being in that extream overpowring quantity that they may as easily free themselves from the said body as they entered are expelled again as soon as they are exposed to the cold ambient air and so desert the body leaving it glib smooth continuously hard friable rigid and transparent So that it appears hence that Glass is nothing but water reduced nearer to its absolute nature which we have shewed is hard and clear by freeing it from the thin glutinous moisture or air and fire incorporated with a small proportion of water through barning its first subject into ashes and afterwards by uniting diducting and equallizing its own parts contained in the ashes By the forementioned thick or course glutinous moisture I intend a mixture of much water incorporated with a little earth and least air and fire That Glass is water nearer reduced to its absolute nature I shall prove by its properties 1. That glib smoothness of Glass depends upon the continuity of the parts of water necessarily accompanied by a glib smoothness because it doth not consist of any contiguous rough minims 2. It is continuously hard because water of her absolute nature is continuously hard 3. It is friable because the water is throughout divided by the minims of earth which render it so brittle and rigid whereas were it all water it would be harder than any stone It is transparent because it is but little condensed by earth whose condensation renders all bodies obscure 2. Because it is luminous that is apt to receive the lumen from any lucid body as being throughout porous through which it is rendred capable of harbouring the obtended air Glass is distinguisht from Crystallin hardness and transparency because this latter appropriates more of water in her absolute state and less of earth IV. Whence is it that so great a mole as a Ship yields so readily in turning or winding to so small a thing as a Rudder This Problem will make plain that an impulse is intended by a medium or deferens A Ship swimming in the water and being impelled by the wind or a board-hook raiseth the water into a tumour before at her bowes which is violently impelled what by the air lifted up by the tumour what by her own bent to recover that place behind at the stern whence it was first propelled and where you shall alwaies observe a hollowness in the water proportionable to her rising before and therefore as you may see runs swiftly about both the sides and meeting in both the streams abaft doth propel the Ship forward by a reflection and this you may also perceive in taking notice of that most eager meeting of the streams of water from both sides behind at the Rudder which being removed to either side viz. To Star-boord or Lar-boord side directs the Ship towards the sides because the force of the water in returning doth beat hard against that side of the Rudder which is obverted to her as resisting most and collecting her force is shoved towards the opposite side of the Stern whereby her head comes too to the other side whence we may plainly observe that a Ship doth not begin to turn before but alwaies abaft This I prove A Ship hitting her breech against the ground at Sea usually striketh abaft because she draweth more water there than before now the shoving of the Helm to the other side brings her off immediately and brings her head too which is a certain sign that a Ship is moved from abaft and begins first to turn there If it is so it is beyond doubting that the force of the water is forcible behind beyond imagination and thence adding that intention to the impulse V. What is the cause of the swimming of
a Board or Ship upon the water Because the water being continuously thick coheres together and will not suffer her self to be divided whereby they happen to be lifted up by the water VI. Whether all hard waterish bodies are freed from fire No For although a slame is extinguisht by them yet that hinders not but that fire may be contained within them in particles and close shut up between their pores This appears in Crystal which being smartly struck by another hard body doth emit sparks of slaming fire from it like unto a Flint So neither is Ice it self bare within its pores of some small particles of fire CHAP. III. Comprizing Problems touching the Air. 1. Whether Air be weighty 2. Whether a Bladder blown up with wind be heavier than when empty 3. Why water contained in a beer glass being turned round with ones hand doth turn contrary against the motion of the Glass 4. Why a breath being blown with a close mouth doth feel cool and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm 5. Why an armed point of an Arrow groweth hot in being shot through the air 6. Why Beer or Wine will not run out of the Cask without opening a hole atop 7. What difference there is between an Oricane and a Travada 8. Whether it be true that Winds may be hired from Witches or Wizards in Iseland 9. Why is it quieter in the night than in the day I. VVHether Air be weighty Answ. Air considered as enjoying its Center is light and doth not participate of any weight since it would only move from the Center to the Circumference and ever force extraneous bodies upwards Ergo Air absolutely conceived is only light 2. Air in its present state is also weighty but accidentally only and not essentially because of its sinking downwards towards the Center II. Whether a Bladder blown up with wind be heavier than when empty Answ. There hath been trial made of this to wit of the weight of a bladder blown up by Bellows atop of a high hill in a pair of Scales and it was found that an empty bladder weighed heavier than one filled with wind the same is also deprehended by casting them both into the water where we shall find the empty bladder first to be equal with the Surface of the water and afterwards to sink down a little whereas the windy one swimmeth atop The cause is by reason a bladder extended by the air within is supported by it and being rendred more porous and subtil through its obduction the air doth easily pass without any resistance and therefore doth not depress it so much as an empty bladder which through its corrugation and lesser diduction is more dense and therefore receiving the depressing force of the air much stronger besides being more acute is apter for to cut through the inferiour air whereas a bladder blown up is obtuse and doth as it were swim in the air But if a bladder be blown up with ones breath then doubtless it will prove heavier than an empty one because of the vaporous or heavy waterish air contained within III. Why doth the water contained in a beer glass being turned round with your hand turn contrary against the motion of the glass the same is observed in rouling a barrel full of water where the liquor turns contrary against the barrel Ans. The water is here detained flat or held fast by the air sinking down whence it is that the water seems to move against the motion of the Vessel being glib or slippery and smooth and therefore not detaining the vessel in its motion IV. Why doth a breath being blown with a close mouth feel cool and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm Answ. Because the breath or incrassated air of a close mouth is more united and longer continuated whereby it doth vigorously puffe the ambient air whose compression felt causes cold as I have explained it in Book 1. Part 2. Now through the union of the incrassated air that is efflated the hot minims of the breath are deeply and equally impressed into the substance of the vaporous air whence their vertue is also suppressed but in breathing of the said air out of an open mouth the fiery minims do come forth in troops unequally and but superficially mixt in or supported by the said incrassated air whence they abide energick besides the air being but little puffed makes little or no compression Hence you may also collect a reason why the air doth refrigrate being agitated with a Fan. V. Why doth an armed point of an Arrow grow hot in being shot through the air Answ. Because its body and pores are somewhat opened by the air grinding against it whereby its fiery parts procure an occasion of being unired and condensed This doth also resolve us why a Knife being smartly whetted emits sparks of fire or why a Flint being struck hard against a piece of Steel doth likewise sparkle fire from it viz. because its solid parts are opened and disjoyned through the concussion whereby the fiery minims happen to be united and condensed Likewise many cold bodies by being chawed or contrited do afterwards grow hot VI. Why will not Beer or Wine run out of the Cask without opening a hole atop Answ. Because of the continuous adhesion or cohesion of the continuous parts of the liquor to the continuous parts of the Cask but as soon as it is averruncated divided and impelled downwards by the air entring at the upper hole it runs freely out of the Tap. That it is the air entring atop which presseth out the liquor is apparent by the cavity atop which the fore-impulse of the air entring causeth VII What difference is there between an Oricane and a Travada Answ. An Oricane is usually much more violent and therefore also much less lasting bursting down circularly from all parts like to a Whirlwind A Travada is more lasting and less violent and erupts directly down from one tract and in no wise circularly which as it oft rages upon the Seas off the shores of Coramandel Manicongo Guiny c. so the former is more frequent in the West-Indian Climates VIII Whether it be true that Winds may be hired from Witches or Wizzards in Iseland Answ. It is certain that the Winds blow very variously and manifold about that Island insomuch that it is not rare to see Ships sailing several courses at once all of them being equally favoured by a good wind The cause of this being vulgarly not known hath occasioned people to brand the old men and women there with Witchcraft whom the roughness of the air may cause to look rugged like the devils correspondents selling the winds by retail The causes of this variety are great winds erupting oft out of several holes of the earth about the Island especially about the Mount Hecla which many believe to be the mouth of hell because of those prodigious thunders and murmurings of winds that are perceived thereabout IX Why is it
quieter in the night than in the day Answ. Because in the day the air being fluid and continuous is agitated into waves by the Suns fiery beams whose bodies clashing together cause a small noise in the day which the night season is freed of CHAP. IV. Containing Problems touching the fire 1. Why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling 2. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire 3. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder 4. VVhat are the Ingredients of Gunpowder 5. VVhence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpowder 6. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence I. VVHy doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling Answ. Because fire in lime is detained or imprisoned within a thick glutinous moisture which being attenuated through the thinner moisture of water is forced to suffer the igneous parts before dispersed and imprisoned to unite whence being condensed and incompassed by a thin glutinous air is changed into a hidden flame whereby the water is rendred boyling hot II. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire Answ. Because the flaming fire exufflating the spirituous air of the salt within its body doth also force it to burst out the report whereof is not unlike to a cracking noise III. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder Answ. In the first place touching the dispute whether the invention of it is to be adscribed to the Chineses or the Europeans it is very probable the Chineses were the first Authors of Gunpowder because they were found practising upon it at the same time that it was first invented in Europe Next who was the Author of it among the Europeans is uncertain but certain that he was a German whose name some would call Berthold Swarts a Monck of Friburg said to have found it out accidentally by leaving a mixture of Saltpeter and Sulphur in a Mortar covered with a stone whereinto a spark of the candle lighting by chance forced the stone up with no small report from this he was also supposed to have taken the fabrick of a Gun IV. What are the ingredients of Gunpowder Answ. Its materials are ordinarily Saltpeter Sulphur and dust of Charcoal All which being very igneous do very much intend one anothers force in blowing up a fire V. Whence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpowder Ans. The Saltpeter which is the chiefest of the ingredients consisting of very weighty dense and waterish parts contains a great proportion of fiery minims within its body but dispersed through those weighty parts and suppressed by them these being somewhat diducted and opened through the rarefying and expanding vertue of an external actual flaming fire give occasion to the fiery minims interwoven with incrassated air to unite and through the compression of the weighty parts to be condensed whence erupting into the air doth attract other fire latent or rather is forced to it by the accurss of the ambient air and dispersed throughout the air whereby its flame is much amplified and continuated for it seemeth very improbable that so much fire should have been latent in the Gunpowder as the flame requires 2. The dilatation of the said erupting flame is also attenuated by the accurss of the air expanding the thick and course erupting flame gradually into a thinner larger flame whence it is that the flame near where the Powder was kindled appears dusky red and further off light and flashy VI. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence Answ. The Powder being kindled into a flame at the Touch-hole divides or discontinuates the air more than any other body imaginable whereunto the air accurrs from all parts especially from above with the greatest velocity and force for to expell the flame which being propagated further partly by its own force partly by the intrusion of the air causeth a more violent discontinuation of air within being pent up whereunto again a greater power of air accedes from without and attenuates the flame within whereby together with the compression of the sides of the Gun and the great access of air from without the flame is violently expelled effecting a great report through its disrupting and pluffing of the air Here observe 1. How the flame is augmented within the Gun not by a vertual rarefaction as if the parts of the Gunpowder could be augmented without access of other matter from without for that would suppose either a Vacuum and a new creation of parts or a penetration and an annihilation of foregoing parts Wherefore I say it is augmented by attracting fire out of the acceding air and secondly by being attenuated and diducted into a large flame by the parts of the irrupting air 2. That it is the air entring at the touch-hole that doth expell the flame is evident 1. Because the air is shut out before by the bullet and tow 2. The touch-hole being stopt at the next instant after the Powder begins to kindle the flame is immediately suppressed and extinguisht or at least bursleth up behind Whence it doth appear that it is the air entring doth attenuate vulgarly termed rarefie and expand the flame which the advenient fire doth augment and that the said air doth expell the flame out at the muzzel 3. That the air doth make use of the weighty minims of the salt-peter in compressing and expelling the flame outwards 4. Why is a hot glass bursted by casting a drop of cold water upon it Answ. Because the fiery minims contained within its pores are condensed and violently compressed by the gravity of the water whereby they are forced to disrupt the glass Why doth a woodden Arrow being shot out of a Gun pierce deeper than an Iron one Answ. Because the woodden one gives way into it self or shrinks as it makes a hole whence being rendred lesser passeth the easier through whereas an Iron one is stubborn and is rather somewhat flatned against the body aimed at whence being rendred more obtuse and bigger at the point is hindred in penetrating Labore constantia Soli Deo triuni gloria honos in Saecula Saeculorum AMEN Errata PAge 9. line 12. dele that p. 11. l. 3. read into p. 21. l. 20. after Pellines c. must be inserted those words below beginning l. 30. I was much abused c. ending at l. 34. at breathing p. 35. l. 14. r. Fire is rough p. 44. in marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundo p. 135. l. 25. r. a man couragious p. 144. l. 13. r. Medicine p. 145. l. 28. r. procatarctick p. 148. l. 4. r. it s naturall p. 167. l. 18. r. the lumina p. 170. l. 21. for are r. is p. 191. l. 26. r. Cyzicum p. 194. l. 15. r. in oyl for that is a tast mixt out of a waterish and ayry tast The rest are