which is in the flame of a litle candle would appeare vnto vs if it were dilated and stretched out to the vtmost extent that excesse of rarity can bring it vnto Suppose that so much flame as would fill a cone of two inches height and halfe an inch diameter should suffer so great an expansion as to replenish with his light body a large chamber and then what can we imagine it would seeme to be How would the continuall driuing it into a thinner substance as it streameth in a perpetuall flood from the flame seeme to play vpon the paper And then iudge whether it be likely to be a body or no when our discourse suggesteth vnto vs that if it be a body those very appearances must follow which our eyes giue vs euidence are so in effect If gold beaten into so ayery a thinnenesse as we see guilders vse doth remaine still gold notwithstanding the wonderfull expansion of it why shall we not allow that fire dilated to his vtmost periode shall still remaine fire though extremely rarifyed beyond what is was We know that fire is the rarest and the subtilest substance that nature hath made among bodies and we know likewise that it is engendered by the destroying and feeding vpon some other more grosse body lett vs then calculate when the oyle or tallow or waxe of a candle or the bulke of a fagott or billet is dilated and rarifyed to the degree of fire how vast a place must it take vp To this lett vs adde what Aristotle teacheth vs that fire is not like a standing poole which continueth full with the same water and as it hath no wast so hath it no supply but it is a fluent and brookelike current Which also we may learne out of the perpetuall nutriment it requireth for a new part of fewell being conuerted into a new part of fire as we may obserue in the litle atomes of oyle or melted waxe that continually ascend apace vp the weeke of a burning candle or lampe of necessity the former must be gone to make roome for the latter and so a new part of the riuer is continually flowing Now then this perpetuall fluxe of fire being made of a grosse body that so rarifyed will take vp such a vast roome if it dye not att the instant of its birth but haue some time to subsist be it neuer so short it must needes runne some distance from the fountaine whence it springeth Which if it do you neede not wonder that there should be so great an extent of fire as is requisite to fill all that space which light replenisheth nor that it should be still supplyed with new as fast as the cold of the ayre killeth it for considering that flame is a much grosser substance then pure fire by reason of the mixture with it of that viscous oyly matter which being drawne out of the wood and candle serueth for fewell to the fire and is by litle and litle conuerted into it and with all reflecting vpon the nature and motion of fire which is to dilate it selfe extremely and to fly all about from the center to the circumference you can not choose but conceiue that the pure fire struggling to breake away from the oyly fewell which is still turning into new fire doth att length free his winges from that birdlime and then flyeth abroad with extreme swiftnesse and swelleth and dilateth it selfe to a huge bulke now that it hath gotten liberty and so filleth a vast roome but remaineth still fire till it dye which it no sooner doth but it is still supplyed with new streames of it that are continually strained and as it were squeesed out of the thicke flame which did imprison it and kept it within it till growing fuller of fire then it could containe by reason of the continuall attenuating the oyly partes of it and conuerting them into fire it giueth liberty vnto those partes of fire that are next the superficies to fly whither theire nature will carry them And thus discourse would informe a blind man after he hath well reflected on the nature of fire how it must needes fill a mighty extent of place though it haue but a narrow begining att the spring-head of it and that there by reason of the condensation of it and mixture with a grosser body it must needes burne other bodies but that when it is freed from such mixture and suffereth an extreme expansion it can not haue force to burne but may haue meanes to expresse it selfe to be there present by some operation of it vpon some body that is refined and subtilised enough to perceiue it And this operation a seeing man will tell you is done vpon his eyes whose fittenesse to receiue impression from so subtile an Agent Anatomistes will teach you And I remember how a blind schoolemaster that I kept in my house to teach my children who had extreme subtile spirits and a great tendernesse through his whole body and mett with few distractions to hinder him from obseruing any impression neuer so nicely made vpon him vsed often to tell me that he felt it very perceptibly in seuerall partes of his body but especially in his braine But to settle vs more firmely in the persuasion of light his being a body and consequently fire lett vs consider that the properties of a body are perpetually incident to light looke what rules a ball will keepe in its reboundes the same doth light in its reflexions and the same demonstration doth alike conuince the one and the other Besides light is broken like a body as when it is snapped in pieces by a tougher body It is gathered together into a litle roome by looking or burning glasses as water is by ordering the gutters of a house so as to bring into one cisterne all that raineth dispersedly vpon the whole roofe It is seuered and dispersed by other glasses and is to be wrought vpon and cast hither and thither att pleasure all by the rule of other bodies And what is done in light the same will likewise be done in heate in cold in wind and in sound And the very same instruments that are made for light will worke their effects in all these others if they be duly managed So that certainely were it not for the authority of Aristotle and of his learned followers that presseth vs on the one side and for the seemingnesse of those reasons we haue already mentioned which persuadeth vs on the other side our very eyes would carry vs by streame into this consent that light is no other thing but the nature and substance of fire spred farre and wide and freed from the mixture of all other grosse bodies Which will appeare yet more euident in the solutions of the oppositions we haue brought against our owne opinion for in them there will occurre other arguments of no lesse importance to prooue this verity then these we haue already proposed THE SEVENTH CHAPTER Two
and be contained many times in the bignesse of the sight of a mans eye Out of which we may gather what an infinity of obiects may seeme vnto us to crosse themselues in the same indiuisible place and yet may haue roome sufficient for euery one to passe his way without hindering his fellow Wherefore seeing that one single light could not send rayes enough to fill euery litle space of ayre that is capable of light and the lesse the further it is from the flame it is obuious enough to conceiue how in the space where the ayre is there is capacity for the rayes of many candles Which being well summed vp will take away the great admiration how the beames of light though they be corporeall can in such great multitudes without hindering one an other enter into bodies and come to our eye and will shew that it is the narrownesse of our capacities and not the defect of nature which maketh these difficulties seeme so great for she hath sufficiently prouided for all these subtile operations of fire as also for the entrance of it into glasse and into all other solide bodies that are diaphanous vpon which was grounded the last instance the second obiection pressed for all such bodies being constituted by the operation of fire which is alwayes in motion there must needes be wayes left for it both to enter in and to euaporate out And this is most euident in glasse which being wrought by an extreme violent fire and swelling with it as water and other thinges do by the mixture of fire must necessarily haue great store of fire in it selfe whiles it is boyling as we see by its being red hoat And hence it is that the workemen are forced to lett it coole by degrees in such relentinges of fire as they call their nealing heates least it should shiuer in pieces by a violent succeeding of ayre in the roome of the fire for that being of greater partes then the fire would straine the pores of the glasse too soddainly and breake it all in pieces to gett ingression whereas in those nealing heates the ayre being rarer lesser partes of it succeede to the fire and leisurely stretch the pores without hurt And therefore we neede not wonder that light passeth so easily through glasse and much lesse that it getteth through other bodies seeing the experience of Alchymistes doth assure vs that it is hard to find any other body so impenetrable as glasse But now to come to the answere of the first and in appearance most powerfull obiection against the corporeity of light which vrgeth that his motion is performed in an instant and therefore can not belong to what is materiall and clothed with quantity Wee will endeauour to shew how vnable the sense is to iudge of sundry sortes of motions of Bodies and how grossely it is mistaken in them And then when it shall appeare that the motion of light must necessarily be harder to be obserued then those others I conceiue all that is raised against our opinion by so incompetent a iudge will fall flatt to the ground First then lett mee putt the reader in minde how if euer he marked children when they play with firestickes they mooue and whirle them round so fast that the motion will cosen their eyes and represent an entire circle of fire vnto them and were it somewhat distant in a darke night that one played so with a lighted torch it would appeare a constant wheele of fire without any discerning of motion in it And then lett him consider how slow a motion that is in respect of what it is possible a body may participate of and he may safely conclude that it is no wonder though the motion of light be not descryed and that indeede no argument can be made from thence to prooue that light is not a body But lett vs examine this consideration a litle further and compare it to the motion of the earth or heauens lett the appearing circle of the fire be some three foote diameter and the time of one entire circulation of it be the sixtieth part of a minute of which minutes there are 60. in an houre so that in a whole day there will be but 86400. of these partes of time Now the diameter of the wheele of fire being but of three foote the whole quantity of space that it mooueth in that atome of time will be att the most 10. foote which is three paces and a foote of which partes there are neere eleuen millions in the compasse of the earth so that if the earth be mooued round in 24. houres it must go neere 130. times as fast as the boyes sticke doth which by its swift motion deceiueth our eye But if we allow the sunne the moone and the fixed starrs to moue how extreme swift must their flight be and how imperceptible would their motion be in such a compasse as our sight would reach vnto And this being certaine that whether the earth or they do moue the appearances to vs are the same it is euident that as now they can not be perceiued to moue as peraduenture they do not so it would be the very same in shew to vs although they did moue If the sunne were neere vs and galloped att that rate surely we could not distinguish betweene the beginning and ending of his race but there would appeare one permanent line of light from East to West without any motion att all as the torch seemeth to make with so much a slower motion one permanent immooueable wheele of fire But contrary to this effect we see that the sunne and starrs by onely being remooued further from our eyes do cosen our sight so grossely that we can not discerne them to be mooued att all One would imagine that so rapide and swift a motion should be perceiued in some sort or other which whether it be in the earth or in them is all one to this purpose Eyther we should see them change their places whiles we looke vpon them as arrowes and birdes do when they fly in the ayre or else they should make a streame of light bigger then themselues as the torch doth But none of all this happeneth lett vs gaze vpon them so long and so attentiuely that our eyes be dazeled with looking and all that while they seeme to stand immooueable and our eyes can giue vs no account of their iourney till it be ended They discerne it not whiles it is in doing so that if we consult with no better cownsailour then them we may wonder to see that body at night setting in the West which in the morning we beheld rising in the East But that which seemeth to be yett more strange is that these bodies mooue crosse vs and neuerthelesse are not perceiued to haue any motion att all Consider then how much easier it is for a thing that mooueth towardes vs to be with vs before we are aware A nimble fencer will put in
light which two termes passe through all the bodies we haue notice of Therefore proceeding vpon our groundes before layed to witt that no body can be mooued of it selfe wee may determine those motions to be naturall vnto bodies which haue constant causes or percutients to make them alwayse in such bodies and those violent which are contrary to such naturall motions Which being supposed we must search out the causes that so constantly make some bodies descend towardes the center or middle of the earth and others to rise and goe from the center by which the world is subiect to those restlesse motions that keepe all thinges in perpetuall fluxe in this changeing sphere of action and passion Lett vs then begin with considering what effects the sunne which is a constant and perpetuall cause worketh vpon inferior bodies by his being regularly sometimes present and sometimes absent Obserue in a pott of water hanging ouer a fire how the heate maketh some partes of the water to ascend and others to supply the roome by descending so that as long as it boyleth it is in a perpetuall confused motion vp and downe Now hauing formely cōcluded that fire is light and light is fire it can not be doubted but that the sunne doth serue instead of fire to our globe of earth and water which may be fittly compared to the boyling pott and all the day long draweth vapors from those bodies that his beames strike vpon For he shooting his little darts of fire in multitudes and in continued streames from his owne center against the Python the earth we liue on they do there ouertake one an other and cause some degree of heate as farre as they sinke in But not being able by reason of their great expansion in their long iorney to conuert it into their owne nature and sett it on fire which requireth a high degree of condensation of the beames they do but pierce and diuide it very subtilely and cutt some of the outward partes of it into extreme litle atomes Vnto which they sticking very close and being in a manner incorporated with them by reason of the moisture that is in thē they do in their rebound backe from the earth carry them along with them like a ball that struck against a moist wall doth in its returne from it bring backe some of the mortar sticking vpon it For the distance of the earth from the sunne is not the vtmost periode of these nimble bodies flight so that when by this solide body they are stopped in their course forwardes on they leape backe from it and carry some litle partes of it with them some of them a farther some of them a shorter iorney according as their litlenesse and rarity make them fitt to ascend As is manifest by the consent of all authors that write of the regions of the ayre who determine the lower region to reach as farre as the reflexion of the sunne and conclude this region to be very hoat For if we marke how the heate of fire is greatest when it is incorporated in some dense body as in iron or in seacoale we shall easily conceiue that the heate of this region proceedeth mainely out of the incorporation of light with those litle bodies which sticke to it in its reflexion And experience testifyeth the same both in our sultry dayes which we see are of a grosse temper and ordinarily goe before raine as also in the hoat springes of extreme cold countries where the first heates are vnsufferable which proceede out of the resolution of humidity congealed and in hoat windes which the Spaniards call Bochornos from Boca de horno by allusion to the breathing steame of an ouen when it is opened which do manifestly shew that the heate of the sunne is incorporated in the litle bodies which compose the steame of that wind And by the principles we haue already layed the same would be euident though we had no experience to instruct vs for seeing that the body of fire is dry the wett partes which are easilyest resolued by fire must needes sticke vnto them and accompany them in their returne from the earth Now whiles these ascend the ayre must needes cause others that are of a grosser complexion to descend as fast to make roome for the former and to fill the places they left that there may be no vacuity in nature And to find what partes they are and from whence they come that succeede in the roome of light and atomes glewed together that thus ascend we may take a hinte from the maxime of the Optikes that light reflecting maketh equall angles whence supposing the superficies of the earth to be circular it will follow that a perpendicular to the center passeth iust in the middle betweene the two rayes the incident and the reflected Wherefore the ayre betweene these two rayes and such dodies as are in it being equally pressed on both sides those bodies which are iust in the middle are neerest and likelyest to succeede immediately in the roome of the light and atomes which ascend from the superficies of the earth and their motion to that point is vpon the perpendicular Hence it is euident that the ayre and all such bodies as descend to supply the place of light and atomes which ascend from the earth do descend perpendicularly towardes the center of the earth And againe such bodies as by the force of light being cutt from the earth or water do not ascend in forme of light but do incorporate a hidden light and heate within them and thereby are rarer then these descending bodies must of necessity be lifted vp by the descent of those denser bodies that goe downewardes because they by reason of their density are mooued with a greater force And this lifting vp must be in a perpendicular line because the others descending on all sides perpendicularly must needes raise those that are betweene them equally from all sides that is perpendicularly from the center of the earth And thus we see a motion sett on foote of some bodies continually descending and others continually ascending all in perpendicular lines excepting those which follow the course of lights reflexion Againe as soone as the declining sunne groweth weaker or leaueth our horizon and that his beames vanishing do leaue the litle horsemen which rode vpon them to their owne temper and nature from whence they forced them they finding themselues surrounded by a smart descending streame do tumble downe againe in the night as fast as in the day they were carryed vp and crowding into their former habitations they exclude those that they find had vsurped them in their absence And thus all bodies within reach of the sunnes power but especially our ayre are in perpetuall motion the more rarifyed ones ascending and the dense ones descending Now thē because no bodies wheresoeuer they be as we haue already shewed haue any inclination to moue towardes a particular place otherwise thē as they are
other can be imagined vnlesse it were variety of figure But that can not be admitted to belong in any constant manner to those least particles where of bodies are framed as though determinate figures were in euery degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therefore the Elements would conserue themselues in those figures as well in their least atomes as in massye bulke for seeing how these litle partes are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily ioyne and take the figures which the dense ones giue them and that they againe iustling one an other do crush themselues into new shapes which their mixture with the liquide ones maketh them yield the more easily vnto it is impossible that the Elements should haue any other naturall figure in these their least partes then such as chance giueth them But that one part must be bigger then an other is euident for the nature of rarity and density giueth it the first of them causing diuisibility into litle partes and the latter hindering it Hauing then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies lett vs now beginne our mixture In which our ground to worke vpon must be earth and water for onely these two are the basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and that submitt themselues to tryall whereas if we should make the predominant Element to be ayre or fire and bring in the other two solide ones vnder their iurisdiction to make vp the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be eyther in continuall consumption as ordinary fire is or else imperceptible to our eyes or touch and therefore not a fitt subiect for vs to discourse of since the other two afford vs enough to speculate vpon Peraduenture our smell migh take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it selfe vpon our health but it concerneth not vs now to look so farre our designe requireth more maniable substances Of which lett water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three Elements in excesse ouer one an other by turnes but still all of them ouerswayed by a predominant quantity of water and then lett vs see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth preuayle aboue fire and ayre and arriue next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needes prooue hardly liquide and not easy to lett its partes runne a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holdeth it together Yet some inclination it will haue to fluidnesse by reason the water is predominant ouer all which also will make it be easily diuisible and giue very litle resistance to any hard thing that shall be applyed to make way through it In a word this mixture maketh the constitution of mudde durt honey butter and such like thinges where the maine partes are great ones And such are the partes of earth and water in themselues Lett the next proportion of excesse in a watry compound be of ayre which when it preuayleth it incorporateth it selfe chiefely with Earth for the other Elements would not so well retaine it Now because its partes are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it driueth the Earth and water likewise into lesser partes The result of such a mixture is that the partes of a boby compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibbe and generally it will burne and be easily conuerted into flame Of this kind are those which we call oyly or vnctuous bodies whose great partes are easily separated that is they are easily diuisible in bulke but the small ones very hardly Next the smallnesse and well working of the partes by meanes of the ayres penetrating euery dense one and sticking close to euery one of them and consequently ioyning them without any vneuennesse causeth that there can be no ruggednesse in it and therefore it is glibbe in like manner as we see plaster or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causeth it to be catcking and the shortenesse of euery part maketh that where it sticketh it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of ayre next vnto fire admitteth it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire vpon it And therefore oyles are the proper foode of that Element And accordingly we see that if a droppe of oyle be spilled vpon a sheete of paper and the paper be sett on fire att a corner as the fire cometh neere the oyle the oyle will disperse and spread it selfe vpon the paper to a broader compasse then it had which is because the heat rarifyeth it and so in oyle it selfe the fire rarifying the ayre maketh it penetrate the earthy partes adioyned vnto it more then it did and so subtiliseth them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate his owne nature vnto them and thus he turneth them into fire and carrieth them vp in his flame But if fire be predominant ouer earth and ayre in a watry compound it maketh the body so proportioned to be subtile rare penetratiue hoat in operation light in weight and subiect to burne Of this kind are all sortes of wines and distilled spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquauites in latine Aquae ardentes These will loose their vertues meerely by remaining vncouered in the ayre for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find meanes rayseth it selfe into the ayre as we see in the smoake of boyling water which is nothing else but litle bodies of fire that entring into the water do rarify some partes of it but haue no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can gett out they fly away but the humide partes of the water which they haue rarifyed being of a sticking nature do ioyne themselues vnto them and ascend in the ayre as high as the fiery atomes haue strength to carry them which when it faileth them that smoake falleth downe in a dew and so becometh water againe as it was All which one may easily discerne in a glasse vessell of water sett ouer the fire in which one may obserue the fire come in att the bottome and presently swimme vp to the toppe like a litle bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoake and that will att last conuert it selfe into droppes and settle vpon some solide substance thereabouts Of these fyry spirits some are so subtile as of themselues they will vanish and leaue no residue of a body behind them and Alchymistes profâ—sse to make them so etheriall and volatile that being poured out of a glasse from some reasonable height they shall neuer reach the ground but
phlegmes and earth Now these are not pure and simple partes of the dissolued body but new coÌ„pounded bodies made of the first by the operation of heat As smoake is not pure water but water and fire together and therefore becometh not water but by cooling that is by the fire flying away from it So likewise those spirits salts oyles and the rest are but degrees of thinges which fire maketh of diuers partes of the dissolued body by seperating them one from an other and incorporating it selfe with them And so they are all of them compounded of the foure Elements and are further resoluable into them Yet I intend not to say that there are not originally in the body before its dissolution some loose partes which haue the properties of these bodies that are made by the fire in the dissoluing of it for seeing that nature worketh by the like instruments as art vseth she must needes in her excesses and defects produce like bodies to what art doth in dissolution which operation of art is but a kind of excesse in the progresse of nature but my meaning is that in such dissolution there are more of these partes made by the working of fire then were in the body before Now because this is the naturall and most ordinary dissolution of thinges lett vs see in particular how it is done suppose then that fire were in a conuenient manner applyed to a body that hath all sortes of partes in it and our owne discourse will tell vs that the first effect it worketh will be that as the subtile partes of fire do diuide and passe through that body they will adhere to the most subtile partes in it which being most agile and least bound and incorporated to the bowels of the body and lying as it were loosely scattered in it the fire will carry them away with it Thâ—se will be the first that are seperated from the maine body which being retained in a fitt receiuer will by the coldenesse of the circumdant ayre grow outwardly coole themselues and become first a dew vpon the sides of the glasse and then still as they grow cooler condense more and more till att the length they fall downe congealed into a palpable liquor which is composed as you see of the hoatest partes of the body mingled with the fire that carried them out and therefore this liquor is very inflammable and easily turned into actuall fire as you see all spirits and Aquae ardentes of vegetables are The hoat and loose partes being extracted and the fire continuing and encreasing those that will follow next are such as though they be not of themselues loose yet are easyest to be made so and are therefore most separable These must be humide and those little dry partes which are incorporated with the ouerflowing humide ones in them for no partes that we can arriue vnto are of one pure simple nature but all are mixed and composed of the 4 Elements in some proportion must be held together with such grosse glew as the fire may easily penetrate and separate them And then the humide partes diuided into little atomes do sticke to the lesser ones of the fire which by their multitude of number and velocity of motion supplying what they want of them in bulke do carry them away with them And thus these phlegmaticke partes fly vp with the fire and are afterwardes congealed into an insipide water which if it haue any sauour is because the first ardent spirits are not totally separated from it but some few of them remaine in it and giue some little life to the whole body of that otherwise flatt liquor Now those partes which the fire separateth next from the remaining body after the firy and watry ones are carryed away must be such as it can worke vpon and therefore must abound in humidity But since they stirre not till the watry ones are gone it is euident that they are composed of many dry partes strongly incorporated and very subtilely mixed with the moist ones and that both of them are exceeding small and are so closely and finely knitt together that the fire hath much adoe to gett betweene them and cutt the thriddes that tye them together and therefore they require a very great force of fire to cary them vp Now the composition of these sheweth them to be aeriall and together with the fire that is mingled with them they congeale into that consistence which we call oyle Lastly it can not be otherwise but that the fire in all this while of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiseth hath hardned and as it were rosted some partes into such greatnesse and drynesse as they will not fly nor can be carried vp with any moderate heate But greate quantity of fire being mingled with the subtiler partes of his baked earth maketh them very pungent and acrimonious in tast so that they are of the nature of ordinary salt and are so called and by the helpe of water may easily be separated from the more grosse partes which then remaine a dead and vselesse earth By this discourse it is apparant that fire hath been the instrument which hath wrought all these partes of an entire body into the formes they are in for whiles it carryed away the fiery partes it swelled the watry ones and whiles it lifted vp them it digested the aeriall partes and whiles it droue vp the oyles it baked the earth and salt Againe all these retaining for the most part the proper nature of the substance from whence they are extracted it is euident that the substance is not dissolued for so the nature of the whole would be dissolued and quite destroyed and extinguished in euery part but that onely some partes containing the whole substance or rather the nature of the whole substance in them are separated from other partes that haue likewise the same nature in them The third instrument for the separation and dissolution of bodies is water Whose proper matter to worke vpon is salt And it serueth to supply what the fire could not performe which is the separation of the salt from the earth in calcined bodies All the other partes fire was able to seuer But in these he hath so baked the little humidity he hath left in them with their much earth as he can not diuide them any further And so though he incorporateth him selfe with them yet he can carry nothing away with him If then pure water be putt vpon that chalke the subtilest dry partes of it do easily ioyne to the superuenient moysture and sticking close to it do draw it downe to them but because they are the lighter it happeneth to them as when a man in a boate pulleth the land to him that cometh not to him but he remoueth himselfe and his boate to it so these ascend in the water as they dissolue And the water more and more penetrating them and by addition of its partes making the humidity which
Elements haue their actiuity and they being in all bodies whatsoeuer as we haue proued aboue it followeth euidently that there is not a body in the world but hath about it selfe an orbe of emanations of the same nature which that body is of Within the compasse of which orbe when any other body cometh that receiueth an immutation by the little atomes whereof that orbe is composed the aduenient body seemeth to be affected and as it were replenished with the qualities of the body from whence they issue Which is then said to worke vpon the body that imbibeth the emanations that flow from it And because this orbe regularly speaking is in the forme of a sphere the passiue body is said to be within the sphere of the others actiuity Secondly when Philosophers pronounce that No corporeall nature can operari in distans that is that no body can worke vpon an other remote from it without working first vpon the body that lyeth betweene them which must continue and piece vp the operation from the Agent to the patient The reason and truth of this maxime is in our Philosophy euident for we hauing shewed that action among bodies is performed for the most part by the emission of little partes out of one body into an other as also that such little partes can not streame from the body that is their fountaine and settle vpon a remote body without passing through the interiacent bodies which must furnish them as it were with channels and pipes to conuey them whither they are to goe It followeth manifestly that the actiue emissaries of the working body can neuer reach their distant marke vnlesse they be successiuely ferryed ouer the medium that lyeth betweene them in which they must needes leaue impressions of their hauing beene there and so worke vpon it in their passage and leaue in it their qualities and complexions as a payment for their waftage ouer But peraduenture some may contend that these inuisible serieants and workmen are too feeble and impotent to performe those visible great effects we dayly see As when fire att the length burneth a board that hath beene a great while opposed to it though it touch not the body of the fire or when a loadestone draweth vnto it a great weight of iron that is distant from it Vnto whom we shall reply that if he will not grant these subtile emanations from the agent body to be the immediate workers of these effects he must allott that efficacy vnto the whole corpulency of all the Agent working in bulke for besides the whole and the partes there is no third thing to be considered in bodies since they are constituted by quantity but the whole can not worke otherwise then by locall motion which in this case it can not doe because by the supposition it is determined to keepe its distance from the passiue body and not to moue towardes it Therefore this is impossible whereas the other can appeare but difficult att the worst and therefore must be admitted when no better and more intelligible solution can be found But withall we must note that it is not our intention to say but that it may in some circumstances happen that some particular action or effect may be wrought in a remote part or body which shall not be the same in the intermediate body that lyeth between the Agent and the patient and that conueyeth the Agents working atomes to the others body As for example when tinder or Naphtha is by fire made to burne att a yarde distance from it when the interiacent ayre is but warmed by that fire Or when the sunne by meanes of a burning glasse or of some other reflexion setteth some bodies on fire and yet onely enlighteneth the glasse and the ayre that are in the way The reason of which is manifest to be the diuers dispositions of the different subiects in regard of the Agent and therefore it is no wonder that diuers effects should be produced according to those diuers dispositions A third position among Philosophers is that all bodies which worke vpon others do likewise at the same time wherein they worke suffer from those they worke vpon and contrariwise that all bodies which suffer from others do att the same time worke backe againe vpon them For the better vnderstanding whereof lett vs consider that all action among bodies is eyther purely locall motion or else locall motion with certaine particularities which giue it a particular name As when we expresse the locall motion of little atomes of fire or of earth or water vpon and into other bodies by the wordes of heating or cooling and so of the like Now if the action be pure locall motion and consequently the effect produced by that action be meerely change of place we must call to mind how two dense bodies mouing one against the other do each of them beare before them some little quantity of a rarer body immediately ioyned vnto them and consequently these more rare bodies must be the first to feele the power of the dense bodies and to receiue impressions from their motions each of them by the opposite rare body which like an huissier goeth before to make way for his following master that obligeth him to this seruice Now when these rareâ— vshers haue struggled a while like the first lightly armed rankes of two armies in the interiacent field between their maine battalies that follow them close att the heeles they must att the length yield when they are ouerborne by a greater weight then they can sustaine and then they recoyle backe as it were to saue themselues by getting in among the files of the dense bodies that droue them on which not opening to admitt them and yet they still flying violently from the mastering force that pursueth them they presse so hard vpon what att the first pressed them on as notwithstanding their density and strength they force them to retire backe for vnlesse they do so they are not of the number of those that worke vpon one an other And this retiring is eyther on both sides or but of one side If both then it is euident how each of them is an Agent and each of them a sufferer each of them ouercoming his opposite in such sort as himselfe likewise receiueth blowes and losse But if onely one of the dense bodies be so shocked as to recoyle backe then that onely suffereth in its body and the other suffereth onely in its vertue that is in the ayre or other rare body it sendeth before it which it driueth with such a violence that it mastereth and quelleth the opposition of the other body before it can reach to shake the dense body before which it runneth Yet that rare body must be pressed and broken into in some measure by the encounter of the other which though neuer so weake yet maketh some resistance but much more when it cometh to grapple with the dense body it selfe and so
measured So that looking ouer all the seuerall specieses of Quantity it is euident our definition of it is a true one and expresseth fully the essence of it when we say it is diuisibility or a capacity to be diuided into partes and that no other notion whatsoeuer besides this reacheth the nature of it THE THIRD CHAPTER Of Rarity and Density I INTEND in this Chapter to looke as farre as I can into the nature and causes of the two first differences of bodies which follow out of Quantity as it concurreth with substance to make a body for the discouery of them and of the various proportions of them among themselues will be a great and important steppe in the iourney we are going But the scarcity of our language is such in subiets remooued from ordinary conuersation though in others I thinke none is more copious or expressiue as affordeth vs not apt wordes of our owne to expresse significantly such notions as I must busie my selfe about in this discourse Therefore I will presume to borrow them from the Latine schoole where there is much adoe about them I would expresse the difference betweene bodies that vnder the same measures and outward bulke haue a greater thinnenesse and expansion or thicknesse and solidity one then an other which termes or any I can find in English do not signify fully those affections of Quantity that I intend here to declare therefore I will do it vnder the names of Rarity and Density the true meaning of which will appeare by what we shall hereafter say It is euident vnto vs that there are different sortes of bodies of which though you take equall quantities in one regard yet they will be vnequall in an other Theire magnitudes may be the same but theire weights will be different or contrariwise theire weights being equall theire outward measures will not be so Take a pinte of ayre and weigh it against a pinte of water and you will see the ballance of the last goe downe amaine but if you driue out the ayre by filling the pinte with lead the other pinte in which the water is will rise againe as fast which if you poure out and fill that pinte with quickesiluer you will perceaue the lead to be much lighter and againe you will find a pinte of gold heauier then so much Mercury And in like manner if you take away of the heauy bodies till they agree in weight with the lighter they will take vp and fill different proportions and partes of the measure that shall containe them But from whence this effect ariseth is the difficulty that we would lay open Our measures tell vs theire quantities are equall and reason assureth vs there can not be two bodies in one and the same place therefore when we see that a pinte of one thing outweigheth a pinte of an other that is thinner we must conclude that there is more body compacted together in the heauy thing then in the light for else how could so litle of a solide or dense thing be stretched out to take vp so great roome as we see in a basen of water that being rarifyed into smoake or ayre filleth a whole chamber and againe shrinke backe into so litle roome as when it returneth into water or is contracted into yce But how this comprehension of more body in equall roome is effected doth not a litle trouble Philosophers To find a way that may carry vs through these difficulties that arise out of the Rarity and Density of bodies lett vs do as Astronomers when they enquire the motions of the Spheres and Planets they take all the Phenomena or seuerall appearances of them to our eyes and then attribute to them such orbes courses and periodes as may square and fitt with euery one of them and by supposing them they can exactly calculate all that will euer after happen to them in theire motions So lett vs take into our consideration the cheife properties of rare and dense bodies and then cast with our selues to find out an hypothesis or supposition if it be possible that may agree with them all First it seemeth vnto vs that dense bodies haue theire partes more close and compacted then others haue that are more rare and subtile Secondly they are more heauy then rare ones Againe the rare are more easily diuided then the dense bodies for water oyle milke honey and such like substances will not onely yield easily to any harder thing that shall make its way through them but they are so apt to diuision and to loose theire continuity that theire owne weights will ouercome and breake it whereas in iron gold marble and such dense bodies a much greater weight and force is necessary to worke that effect And indeed if wee looke well into it we shall find that the rarer thinges are as diuisible in a lesser Quantity as the more dense are in a greater and the same force will breake the rarer thing into more and lesser partes then it will an equall one that is more dense Take a sticke of light wood of such a biggenesse that being a foote long you may breake it with your handes and an other of the same biggenesse but of a more heauy and compacted wood and you shall not breake it though it be two foote long and with equall force you may breake a loafe of bread into more and lesse partes then a lumpe of lead that is of the same biggenesse Which also will resist more to the diuision of fire the subtilest diuider that is then so much water will for the litle atomes of fire which we shall discourse of hereafter will pierce and cutt out in the water almost as litle partes as themselues and mingling themselues with them they will fly away together and so conuert the whole body of water into subtile smoake whereas the same Agent after long working vpon lead will bring it into no lesse partes then small graines of dust which it calcineth it into And gold that is more dense then lead resisteth peremptorily all the diuiding power of fire and will not at all be reduced into a calx or lime by such operation as reduced lead into it So that remembring how the nature of Quantity is Diuisibility and considering that rare thinges are more diuisible then dense ones we must needes acknowledge that the nature of Quantity is some way more perfectly in thinges that are rare then in those that are dense On the other side more compacted and dense thinges may happily seeme to some to haue more Quantity then those that are rare and that it is but shruncke together which may be stretched out and driuen into much greater dimensions then the Quantity of rare thinges taking the quantities of each of them equall in outward appearance As gold may be beaten into much more and thinner leafe then an equall bulke of syluer or lead A waxe candle will burne longer with equall light then a tallow candle of
obiections answered against light being fire with a more ample proofe of its being such HAVING then said thus much to persuade vs of the corporeity of this subtile thing that so queintly playeth with our eyes wee will in the next place examine those obiections that at the beginning we did sett downe against its being a body and if after a through discussion of them we find they do in truth conclude nothing of what att the first sight they beare so great a shew of but that we shall be able perfectly to solue and enerue their force no body will thinke it rashnesse in vs to craue leaue of Aristotle that we may dissent from him in a matter that he hath not looked to the bottome of and whose opinion therein can not be defended from plaine contradictions and impossibilities It is true neuer any one man looked so farre as he into the bowels of nature he may rightly be termed the Gemus of it and whosoeuer followeth his principles in the maine can not be led into error but we must not beleeue that he or any man else that relyeth vpon the strength and negotiation of his owne reason euer had a priuiledge of infallibility entayled to all he said Lett vs then admire him for what he hath deliuered vs and where he falleth short or is weary in his search and suffereth himselfe to be borne downe by popular opinions against his owne principles which happeneth very seldome to him lett vs seeke to supply and relieue him But to pursue our intent wee will begin with answering the third obiection which is that if light were fire it must heat as well as enlighten where it shineth There is no doubt but it doth so as is euident by the weather glasses and other artificiall musicall instruments as organs and virginals that played by themselues which Cornelius Drebbel that admirable master of mechanikes made to shew the king All which depended vpon the rarefaction and condensation of some subtile body conserued in a cauity within the bulke of the whole instrument for as soone as the sunne shined they would haue motion and play their partes And there is no doubt but that grew out of the rarefaction of the subtile liquor he made vse of which was dilated as soone as the ayre was warmed by the sunne beames Of whose operation it was so sensible that they no sooner left the horizon but its motion ceased And if but a cloude came betweene the instrument and them the musike would presently goe slower time And the antient miracle of Memnons statue seemeth to be a iuggling of the Aehiopian Priests made by the like inuention But though he and they found some spirituall and refined matter that would receiue such notable impressions from so small alterations of temper Yet it is no wonder that our grosse bodies are not sensible of them for we can not feele heate vnlesse it be greater then that which is in our sense And the heate there must be in proportion to the heate of our blood which is in a high degree of warmeth And therefore it is very possible that an exceeding rarifyed fire may cause a farre lesse impression of heate then we are able to feele Consider how if you sett pure spiritt of wine on fire and so conuert it into actuall flame yet it will not burne nor scarce warme your hand and then can you expect that the light of a candle which filleth a great roome should burne or warme you as farre as it shineth If you would exactly know what degree of heate and power of burning that light hath which for example shineth vpon the wall in a great chamber in the middest whereof there standeth a candle doe but calculate what ouerproportion of quantity all the light in the whole roome beareth to the quantity of the litle flame att the toppe of the candle and that is the ouerproportion of the force of burning which is in the candle to the force of burning which is in so much light att the wall as in extension is equall to the flame of the candle Which when you haue considered you will not quarrell att it s not warming you att that distance although you grant it to be fire streaming out from the flame as from the spring that feedeth it and extremely dilated according to the nature of fire when it is att liberty by going so farre without any other grosse body to imprison or clogge it It is manifest that this rule of examining the proportion of burning in so much of the light as the flame is by calculating the proportion of the quantity or extension of all the light in the roome to the extension of the flame of the candle and then comparing the flame of the candle to a part of light equall in extension vnto it is a good and infallible one if we abstract from accidentall inequalities since both the light and the flame are in a perpetuall fluxe and all the light was first in the flame which is the spring from whence it continually floweth As in a riuer wherein euery part runneth with a settled streame though one place be straighter and an other broader yet of necessity since all the water that is in the broad place came out of the narrow it must follow that in equall portions of time there is no more water where it hath the liberty of a large channell then where the bankes presse it into a narrower bed so that there be no inequalities in the bottome In like manner if in a large stoue a basen of water be conuerted into steame that rarifyed water which then filleth the whole stoue is no more then what the basen contained before and consequently the power of moistening which is in a footes extension for example of the stoue wherein that steame is must be in proportion to the vertue of wetting in the footes extension of water as the quantity of that great roome which the steame filleth is to the quantity of the water contained in the basin for although the rarifyed water be not in euery least part of that great place it seemeth to take vp by reason that there is ayre in which it must swimme Yet the power of wetting that was in the basin of water is dilated through the whole roome by the coniunction of the miste or dew to all the sensible partes of the ayre that is in the roome and consequently the power of wetting which is in any foote of that roome is in a manner as much lesse then the power of wetting which was in the foote of water as if the water were rarifyed to the quantity of the whole roome and no ayre were left with it And in the same manner it fareth with dilated fire as it doth with dilated water with onely this difference peraduenture that fire groweth purer and more towardes its owne nature by dilatation whereas water becometh more mixed and is carried from its nature by suffering the like
effect Yet dilated water will in proportion moisten more then dilated fire will burne for the rarefaction of water bringeth it neerer to the nature of ayre whose chief propriety is moisture and the fire that accompanieth it when it raiseth it into steame giueth it more powerfull ingression into what body it meeteth withall whereas fire when it is very pure and att entire liberty to stretch and spread it selfe as wyde as the nature of it will carry it getteth no aduantage of burning by its mixture with ayre and allthough it gaineth force by its purity yet by reason of its extreme rarefaction it must needes be extremely fainte But if by the helpe of glasses you will gather into lesse roome that which is diffused into a great one and so condense it as much as it is for example in the flame of a candle then that fire or compacted light will burne much more forcibly then so much flame for there is as much of it in quantity excepting what is lost in the carriage of it and it is held in together in as litle roome and it hath this aduantage besides that it is clogged with no grosse body to hinder the actiuity of it It seemeth to me now that the very answering this obiection doth besides repelling the force of it euidently prooue that light is nothing but fire in his owne nature and exceedingly dilated for if you suppose fire for example the flame of a candle to be stretched out to the vtmost expansion that you may well imagine such a grosse body is capable of it is impossible it should appeare and worke otherwise then it doth in light as I haue shewed aboue And againe we see plainely that light gathered together burneth more forcibly then any other fire whatsoeuer and therefore must needes be fire Why then shall we not confidently conclude that what is fire before it getteth abroade and is fire againe when it cometh together doth likewise remaine fire during all its iourney Nay euen in the iourney it selfe we haue particular testimony that it is fire for light returning backe from the earth charged with litle atomes as it doth in soultry gloomy weather heateth much more then before iust as fire doth when it is imprisoned in a dense body Philosophers ought not to iudge by the same rules that the common people doth Their grosse sense is all their guide and therefore they can not apprehend any thing to be fire that doth not make it selfe be knowne for such by burning them But he that iudiciously examineth the matter and traceth the pedigree and periode of it and seeth the reason why in some circumstances it burneth and in others it doth not is too blame if he suffer himselfe to be led by others ignorance contrary to his owne reason When they that are curious in perfumes will haue their chamber filled with a good sent in a hoat season that agreeth not with burning perfumes and therefore make some odoriferous water be blowne about it by their seruants mouthes that are dexterous in that Ministery as is vsed in Spaine in the summer time euery one that seeth it done though on a suddaine the water be lost to his eyes and touch and is onely discernable by his nose yet he is well satisfyed that the sent which recreateth him is the very water he saw in the glasse extremely dilated by the forcible sprouting of it out from the seruants mouth and will by litle and litle fall downe and become againe palpable water as it was before and therefore doubteth not but it is still water whiles it hangeth in the ayre diuided into litle atomes Whereas one that saw not the beginning of this operation by water nor obserued how in the end it sheweth it selfe againe in water might the better be excused if he should not thinke that what he smelled were water blowne about the ayre nor any substance of it selfe because he neither seeth nor handleth it but some aduentitious quality he knoweth not how adhering to the ayre The like difference is betweene Philosophers that proceede orderly in their discourses and others that pay themselues with termes which they vnderstand not The one see euidence in what they conclude whiles the others guesse wildely att randome I hope the Reader will not deeme it time lost from our maine drift which we take vp thus in examples and digressions for if I be not much deceiued they serue exceedingly to illustrate the matter which I hope I haue now rendred so plaine as no man that shall haue well weighed it will expect that fire dilated into that rarifyed substance which mankind who according to the different appearance of thinges to their sense giueth different names vnto them calleth light should burne like that grosser substance which from doing so they call fire nor doubt but that they may be the same thing more or lesse attenuated as leafe gold that flyeth in the ayre as light as downe is as truly gold as that in an ingott which being heauier then any other substance falleth most forcibly vnto the ground What we haue said of the vnburning fire which we call light streaming from the flame of a candle may easily be applyed to all other lights depriued of sensible heat whereof some appeare with flame others without it of the first sort of which are the innoxious flames that are often seene on the haire of mens heads and horses manes on the mastes of shippes ouer graues and fatt marish groundes and the like and of the latter sort are glow wormes and the light conseruing stones rotten wood some kindes of fish and of flesh when they begin to putrify and some other thinges of the like nature Now to answere the second part of this obiection that we dayly see great heates without any light as well as much light without any heat and therefore light and fire can not be the same thing you may call to mind how dense bodies are capable of great quantities of rare ones and thereby it cometh to passe that bodies which repugne to the dilatation of flame may neuerthelesse haue much fire enclosed in them As in a stoue let the fire be neuer so great yet it appeareth not outwardes to the sight although that stoue warme all the roomes neere it So when many litle partes of heate are imprisoned in as many litle celles of grosse earthy substance which are like so many litle stoues to them that imprisonement will not hinder them from being very hoat to the sense of feeling which is most perceptible of dense thinges But because they are choaked with the closenesse of the grosse matter wherein they are enclosed they can not breake out into a body of flame or light so to discouer their nature which as we haue said before is the most vnfitt way for burning for we see that light must be condensed to produce flame and fire as flame must be to burne violently Hauing thus
appeare shaken And lastly it is easier for the ayre or wind to destroy the light then it is to remooue it out of its place wherefore it can neuer so remoue it out of its place as that we should see it in an other place But if it should remooue it it would wrappe it vp within it selfe and hide it In conclusion after this long dispute concerning the nature of light if we consider well what hath beene said on both sides to which much more might be added but that we haue already trespassed in length and I conceiue enough is said to decide the matter an equall iudge will find the ballance of the question to hang vpon these termes that to proue the nature of light to be materiall and corporeall are brought a company of accidents well knowne to be the proprieties of quantity or bodies and as well knowne to be in light Euen so farre as that it is manifest that light in its begining before it be dispersed is fire and if againe it be gathered together it sheweth it selfe againe to be fire And the receptacles of it are the receptacles of a body being a multitude of pores as the hardnesse and coldnesse of transparent thinges do giue vs to vnderstand of which we shall hereafter haue occasion to discourse On the contrary side whatsoeuer arguments are brought against lights being a body are onely negatiues As that we see not any motion of light that we do not discerne where the confines are betweene light and ayre that we see not roome for both of them or for more lights to be together and the like which is to oppose negatiue proofes against affirmatiue ones and to build a doctrine vpon the defect of our senses or vpon the likenesse of bodies which are extremely vnlike expecting the same effects from the most subtile as from the most grosse ones All which together with the autority of Aristotle and his followers haue turned light into darknesse and haue made vs almost deny the light of our owne eyes Now then to take our leaue of this important question lett vs returne to the principles from whence we began and consider that seeing fire is the most rare of all the Elements and very dry and that out of the former it hath that it may be cutt into very small pieces and out of the latter that it conserueth its owne figure and so is apt to diuide whatsoeuer fluide body and ioyning to these two principles that it multiplyeth extremely in its source It must of necessity follow that it shooteth out in great multitudes litle small partes into the ayre and into other bodies circūfused with great dilatation in a sphericall manner And likewise that these litle partes are easily broken and new ones still following the former are still multiplyed in straight lines from the place where they breake Out of which it is euident that of necessity it must in a manner fill all places and that no sensible place is so litle but that fire will be found in it if the medium be capacious As also that its extreme least partes will be very easily swallowed vp in the partes of the ayre which are humide and by their enfolding be as it were quite lost so as to loose the appearance of fire Againe that in its reflections it will follow the nature of grosser bodies and haue glidinges like them which is that we call refractions That litle streaminges from it will crosse one an other in excessiue great numbers in an vnsensible part of space without hindering one an other That its motion will be quicker then sense can iudge of and therefore will seeme to mooue in an instant or to stand still as in a stagnation That if there be any bodies so porous with litle and thicke pores as that the pores arriue neere vnto equalling the substance of the body then such a body will be so filled with these litle particles of fire that it will appeare as if there were no stoppe in its passage but were all filled with fire and yet many of these litle partes will be reflected And whatsoeuer qnalities else we find in light we shall be able to deriue them out of these principles and shew that fire must of necessity doe what experience teacheth vs that light doeth That is to say in one word it will shew vs that fire is light But if fire be light then light must needes be fire And so we leaue this matter THE NINETH CHAPTER Of Locall Motion in common THOVGH in the fifth chapter we made onely earth the pretender in the controuersy against fire for superiority in actiuity and in very truth the greatest force of grauity doth appeare in those bodies which are eminently earthy neuerthelesse both water and ayre as appeareth out of the fourth chapter of the Elements do agree with earth in hauing grauity And grauity is the chiefe vertue to make them efficients So that vpon the matter this plea is common to all the three Elements Wherefore to explicate this vertue whereby these three weighty Elemēts do worke lett vs call to minde what we said in the beginning of the last chapter concerning locall motion to witt that according as the body mooued or the diuider did more and more enter into the diuided body so it did ioyne it selfe to some new partes of the medium or diuided body and did in like manner forsake others Whence it happeneth that in euery part of motion it possesseth a greater part of the medium then it selfe can fill att once And because by the limitation and confinednesse of euery magnitude vnto iust what it is and no more it is impossible that a lesser body should att once equallise a greater It followeth that this diuision or motion whereby a body attaineth to fill a place bigger then it selfe must be done successiuely that is it must first fill one part of the place it mooueth in then an other and so proceede on till it haue measured it selfe with euery part of the place from the first beginning of the line of motion to the last periode of it where the body resteth By which discourse it is euident that there can not in nature be a strength so great as to make the least or quickest mooueable that is to passe in an instāt or all together ouer the least place that can be imagined for that would make the mooued body remaining what it is in regard of its biggenesse to equallise ad fitt a thing bigger then it is Therefore it is manifest that motion must consist of such partes as haue this nature that whiles one of them is in being the others are not yet and as by degrees euery new one cometh to be all the others that were before do vanish and cease to be Which circumstance accompanying motion we call succession And whatsoeuer is so done is said to be done in time which is the common measure of all succession for the
directed and impelled by extrinsecall AgeÌ„ts lett vs suppose that a body were placed att liberty in the opeÌ„ ayre And then casting whether it would be mooued from the place we suppose it in and which way it would be mooued we shall find that it must of necessity happen that it shall descend and fall downe till it meete with some other grosse body to stay and support it For although of it selfe it would mooue no way yet if we find that any other body striketh efficaciously enough vpon it we can not doubt but that it will mooue that way which the striking body impelleth it Now it is strucken vpon on both sides aboue and below by the ascending and the descending atomes the rare ones striking vpon the bottome of it and driuing it vpwardes and the denser ones pressing vpon the toppe of it and bearing it downewardes But if you compare the impressions that the denser atomes make with those that proceede from the rare ones it is euident that the dense ones must be the more powerfull and therefore will assuredly determine the motion of the body in the ayre that way they goe which is downewardes Nor neede we feare least the litlenesse of the agents or the feeblenesse of their stroakes should not be sufficient to worke this effect since there is no resistance in the body it selfe and the ayre is continually cutt in pieces by the sunne beames and by the motions of litle bodies so that the adhesion vnto ayre of the body to be mooued will be no hinderance to this motion especially considering the perpetuall new percussions and the multitude of them and how no force is so litle but that with time and multiplication it will ouercome any resistance But if any man desireth to looke vpon as it were att one view the whole chaine of this doctrine of grauity lett him turne the first cast of his eyes vpon what we haue said of fire when we explicated the nature of it To witt that it beginneth from a litle source and by extreme multiplication and rarefaction it extendeth it selfe into a great sphere And then he will perceiue the reason why light is darted from the body of the sunne with that incredible celerity wherewith its beames flye to visite the remotest partes of the world and how of necessity it giueth motion to all circumstant bodies since it is violently thrust forward by so extreme a rarefaction and the further it goeth is still the more rarifyed and dilated Next lett him reflect how infinitely the quickenesse of lights motion doth preuent the motion of a moist body such an one as ayre is and then he will plainely see that the first motion which light is able to giue vnto the ayre must needes be a swelling of that moist element perpendicularly round about the earth for the ray descendent and the ray reflectent flying with so great a speede that the ayre betweene them can not take a formall plye any way before the beames of light be on both sides of it it followeth that according to the nature of humide thinges it must first onely swell for that is the beginning of motion in them when heate entereth into them and worketh vpon them And thus he may confidently resolue himselfe that the first motion which light causeth in the ayre will be a swelling of it betweene the two rayes towardes the middle of them That is perpendicularly from the surface of the earth And out of this he will likewise plainely see that if there be any other litle dense bodies floating in the ayre they must likewise mount a litle through this swelling and rising of the ayre But that mounting will be no more then the immediate partes of the ayre themselues do moue Because this motion is not by way of impulse or stroake that the ayre giueth those denser bodies but by way of containing them in it and carrying them with it â—o that it giueth them no more celerity then to make them go with it selfe and as partes of it selfe Then lett him consider that light or fire by much beating vpon the earth diuideth some litle partes of it from others whereof if any do become so small and tractable as not to exceede the strength which the rayes haue to manage them the returning rayes will att their going backe carry away with them or driue before them such litle atomes as they haue made or meete with and so fill the ayre with litle bodies cutt out of the earth After this lett him consider that when light carrieth vp an atome with it the light and the atome do sticke together and do make one ascending body in such sort as when an empty dish lyeth vpon the water the ayre in the dish maketh one descendent body together with the dish it selfe so that the density of the whole body of ayre and dish which in this case are but as one body is to be esteemed according to the density of the two partes one of them being allayed by the other as if the whole were throughout of such a proportion of density as would arise out of the composition and kneading together the seuerall densities of those two partes Now then when these litle compounded bodies of light and earth are carried vp to a determinate height the partes of fire or light do by litle and litle breake away from them and thereby the bulke of the part which is left becometh of a different degree of density quantity for quantity from the bulke of the entire atome when light was part of it and consequently it is denser then it was Besides lett him consider that when these bodies ascend they do goe from a narrow roome to a large one that is from the centerwardes to the circumference but when they come downe againe they goe from a larger part to a narrower Whence it followeth that as they descend they draw closer and closer together and by consequence are subiect to meete and to fall in one with an other and thereby to encrease their bulke and to become more powerfull in density not onely by the losse of their fire but also by the encrease of their quantity And so it is euident that they are denser coming downe then going vp Lastly lett him consider that those atomes which went vp first and are parted from their volatile companions of fire or light must begin to come downe apace when other new atomes which still haue their light incorporated with them do ascend to where they are and do goe beyond them by reason of their greater leuity And as the latter atomes come vp with a violence and a great celerity so must the first goe downe with a smart impulse and by consequence being more dense then the ayre in which they are carryed must of necessity cutt their way through that liquide and rare medium and goe the next way to supply the defect and roome of the atomes which ascend that is perpendicularly to the earth
those partes they touch cutt the others that they are forced vpon In such sort as I remember happened to a gentleman that stood by me in a sea fight I was in with a coate of maile vpon his body when a bullett coming against a bony part in him made a great wound and shattered all the bones neere where it strucke and yet the coate of maile was whole it seemeth the little linkes of the maile yielding to the bullets force made their way into the flesh and to the bone But now it is time to come to the other two instruments of separation of bodies fire and water and to examine how they dissolue compounds Of these two the way of working of fire is the easiest and most apparant to be discerned We may readily obserue how it proceedeth if we but sett a piece of wood on fire in which it maketh little holes as if with bodkins it pierced it So that the manner of its operation in common being plaine wee neede but reflect a little vpon the seuerall particular degrees of it Some bodies it seemeth not to touch as clothes made of Asbestus which are onely purifyed by it Others it melteth but consumeth not as gold Others it turneth into pouder suddainely dissoluing their body as lead and such mettalls as are calcined by pure fire Others againe it seperateth into a greater number of differing partes as into spirits waters oyles salts earth and glasse of which ranke are all vegetables And lastly others it conuerteth into pure fire as strong waters or Aquauites called aquae ardentes and some pure oyles for the smoake that is made by their setting on fire and peraduenture their salt is so little as is scarce discernable These are in summe the diuisions which fire maketh vpon bodies according to the nature of them and to the due application of it vnto them for by the helppe and mediation of other thinges it may peraduenture worke other effects Now to examine a little in particular how the same fire in differing subiects produceth such defferent effects Limus vt hic durescit haec vt cera liquescit Vno eodemque igni We will consider the nature of euery one of the subiects apart by it selfe First for the Asbestus it is cleare that it is of a very dry substance so that to looke vpon it when it is broken into very little pieces they seeme to be little bundles of short haires the liquidity within being so little as it affordeth the partes neyther length nor breadth and therefore fire meeteth with litle there that it can dilate But what it can not dilate it can not separate nor carry away any thing of it but what is accidentally adhereÌ„t vnto the outsides of it And so it seemeth onely to passe through the pores and to cleaÌ„se the litle thriddes of it but bringeth no detriment att all to the substance of it In this I speake onely of an ordinary fire for I doubt not but such a one it might be as would perfectly calcine it The next body we spoke of is gold This aboundeth so much in liquidity that it sticketh to the fire if duely applyed but its humidity is so well vnited to its earthy partes and is so perfectly incorporated with theÌ„ as it can not carry away one without likewise carrying away both but both are too heauy a weight for the litle agile partes of fire to remoue Thus it is able to make gold swell as we see in melting it in which the gold receiueth the fire into its bowels and retaineth it a loÌ„g time with it but at its departure it permitteth the fire to carry nothing away vpon its winges as is apparant by the goldes no whitt decay of weight after neuer so long fusion And therefore to haue fire make any separation in gold requireth the assistance of some other moyst body that an the one side may sticke closely to the gold when the fire driueth it into it and on the other side may be capable of dilatation by the action of the fire vpon it As in some sort we see in strong waters made of saltes which are a proper subiect for the fire to dilate who by the assistance of fire mingling themselues closely with litle partes of the gold do pull them away from their whole substaÌ„ce and do force them to beare them coÌ„pany in their iourny vpwardes in which multitudes of litle partes of fire do concurre to presse theÌ„ on and hasteÌ„ theÌ„ and so the weight of gold being att leÌ„gth ouercome by these two powerfull Agents whereof one supplyeth what the other wanteth the whole substance of the metall is in litle atomes diffused through the whole body of the water But this is not truly a dissolution or a separation of the substantiall partes of gold one from an other it is onely a corrosion which bringeth it into a subtile pouder when the water and saltes are seperated from it much like what filing though farre smaller or grinding of leafe gold vpon a porphyre stone may reduce it into for neyther the partes of the water nor of the fire that make themselues a way into the body of the gold are small and subtile enough to gett betweene the partes that compose the essence of it and therefore all they can attaine vnto is to diuide it onely in his quantity or bulke not in the composition of its nature Yet I intend not to deny but that this is possible to be arriued vnto eyther by pure fire duly applyed or by some other assistance as peraduenture by some kind of Mercury which being of a neerer cognation vnto mettalls then any other liquor is may happily haue a more powerfull ingression into gold then any other body whatsoeuer and being withall very subiect to rarefaction it may after it is entered so perfectly penetrate the gold as it may seperate euery least part of it and so reduce it into an absolute calx But in this place I explicate no more then what ordinarily passeth leauing the mysteries of this art to those who professe it To goe on then with what we haue in hand lead hath aboundance of water ouermingled with its earth as appeareth by its easy yielding to be bend any wâ—y and by its quiet standing bent in the same position that the force which bowed it leaueth it in And therefore the liquide partes of lead are easily separated from its dry and earthy ones and when it is melted the very shaking of it causeth the grosse partes to descend and many liquid ones to fly away with the fire so that suddainely it is thus conuerted into pouder But this pouder is grosse in respect of other mettalls vnlesse this operation be often reiterated or the fire more powerfully applyed then what is iust enough to bring the body of the lead into pouder The next consideration of bodies that fire worketh vpon is of such as it diuideth into spirits saltes oyles waters or
between them it is wounded and enfeebled like those souldiers that first enter a breach in a owne from whence when they haue driuen the enemy they pursue him to the cittadell and force him from thence too and so how maymed soeuer they proue they make a free and easy way without resistance for the whole body of their army to follow them and take quiett possession of that which did cost them so much to winne And thus we see how it may happen that one of these mouing bodies doth not suffer so much as to be stayed in its iourney much lesse to be driuen backe And yet the other body att the same time worke in some measure vpon it by working vpon what is next to it which recoyling against it must needes make some impression vpon it since there can be no opposition but must haue some effect Now this impression or effect though it be not perceptible by causing a contrary motion yet it must needes enfeeble the vertue of the conquering Agent and deaden the celerity of its motion And thus it is euident that in all pure locall motions of corporeall Agents euery one of them must in some proportion suffer in acting and in suffering must act And what we haue said of this kind of action may easily be applyed to the other where the effect of locall motion is designed by a particular name as it is in the exāples we gaue of heating and cooling And in that the proceeding will appeare to be the very same as in this for if fire doth heate water the water reacteth againe eyther vpō the fire and cooleth it if it be immediate vnto it or else vpon the interiacent ayre if it be att a distance from the fire And so the ayre is in some measure cooled by the cold atomes that issue from the water whose compasse or sphere of actiuity being lesser then the fires they can not coole so farre off as the others can heate but where they do arriue they giue their proportion of cold in the very middest of the others army of fiery atomes notwithstanding their multitude and violence According to which doctrine our countryman Suisseth his argument that in the schooles is held insoluble hath not so much as any semblance of the least difficulty for it is euident that such atomes of fire and of water as we determine heate and cold to be may passe and croude by one an other into the subiects they are sent vnto by diuers little streames without hindering one an other as we haue declared of ayre and light and each of them be receiued in their owne nature and temper by the same subiect though sense can iudge onely according to which of them is predominant and according to the proportion of its superiority Vpon which occasion we can not choose but note how the doctrine of qualities is not onely vnable to giue account of the ordinary and plaine effects of nature but also vseth to end in cleere impossibilities and contradictions if it be driuen farre as this argument of Suisseth sheweth and many others of the like nature A fourth position among Philosophers is that some notions do admitt the denominations of Intension and Remission but that others do not The reason of which we shall cleerely see if we but consider how these termes of intension and remission do but expresse more or lesse of the thing that is said to be intended or remitted for the nature of more and lesse doth imply a latitude and diuisibility and therefore can not agree with the nature of such thinges as consist in an indiuisible being As for example to be a whole or to be an equall can not be sometimes more sometimes lesse for they consist in such a rigorous indiuisible being that if the least part imaginable be wanting it is no longer a whole and if there be the least excesse between two thinges they are no longer equall but are in some other proportion then of equality in regard of one an other And hence it is that Aristotle teacheth vs that substance and the species of Quantity do not admitt of intension and remission but that Quality doth For first in substance we know that the signification of this word is that which maketh a thing be what it is as is euident by our giuing it for an answere to the question what a thing is And therefore if there were any diuisibility in substance it would be in what the thing is and consequently euery diuision following that diuisibility would make the thing an other what that is an other thing And so the substance that is pretended to be changed by intension or remission would not be diuided as is supposed but would cease to be and an other substance would succeede in the roome of it Whereby you see that euery mutation in substance maketh a new thing and that more and lesse in Quiddity can not be pronounced of the same thing Likewise in Quantity it is cleere that its Specieses do consist in an indiuisible for as in numbers tenne lions for example or tenne Elephants are no more in regard of multitude then tenne fleas or tenne moates in the sunne and if you adde or take any thing from tenne it is no more tenne but some other number so likewise in continued extension a spanne an elle an ounce or any other measure whatsoeuer ceaseth to be a spanne and the rest if you adde to it or diminish from it the least quantity imaginable And peraduenture the same is also of figures as of a sphere a cube a circle a square c. though they be in the ranke of Qualities But if we consider such qualities as heat cold moysture drynesse softnesse hardnesse weight lightnesse and the like we shall find that they may be in any body sometimes more sometimes lesse according as the excesse of any Element or mixture is greater in it att one time then att an other and yet the body in which these qualities are intended or remitted remaine still with the same denomination As when durt continueth still softe though sometimes it be lesse softe other whiles softer and waxe remaineth figurable whether it be melted or congealed and wood is still hoat though it loose or gaine some degree of heate But such intension in any subiect whatsoeuer hath its determinate limits that it can not passe for when more of that quality that we say is intended that is more of the atomes of the actiue body is brought into the body that suffereth the intension then its complexion can brooke it resigneth its nature to their violence and becometh a new thing such an one as they are pleased to make it As when wood with extremity of heating that is with bringing into it so many atomes of fire that the fire is stronger in it then its owne nature is conuerted into fire smoake water and ashes and nothing remaineth of the nature of wood But before we end this chapter
all the ayre in this our hemisphere is as it were strewed ouer and sowed with aboundance of northerne atomes and that some brookes of them are in station others in a motion of retrogradation backe to their owne north pole the southerne atomes which coming vpon them att the equator do not onely presse in among them wheresoeuer they can find admittance but do also go on fowardes to the north pole in seuerall files by themselues being driuen that way by the same accidentall causes which make the others retire backe seising in their way vpon the northerne ones in such manner as we described in filtration and thereby creeping along by them wheresoeuer they find them standing still and going along with them wheresoeuer they find them going backe must of necessity find passage in great quantities towardes and euen to the north pole though some partes of them will euer and anone be checked in this their iourney by the maine current preuayling ouer some accidentall one and so be carried backe againe to the aequator whose line they had crossed And this effect can not choose but be more or lesse according to the seasons of the yeare for when the sunne is in the Tropike of Capricorne the southerne atomes will flow in much more aboundance and with farre greater speede into the torride zone then the northerne atomes can by reason of the sunnes approximation to the south and his distance from the north pole since he worketh faintest where he is furthest off and therefore from the north no more emanations or atomes will be drawne but such as are most subtilised and duly prepared for that course And since onely these selected bandes do now march towardes the aequator their files must needes be thinner then when the sunnes being in the aequator or Tropike of Cancer wakeneth and mustereth vp all their forces And consequently the quiett partes of ayre betweene their files in which like atomes are also scattered are the greater whereby the aduenient southerne atomes haue the larger filter to clymbe vp by And the like happeneth in the other hemisphere when the sunne is in the Tropike of Cancer as who will bestow the paines to compare them will presently see Now then lett vs consider what these two streames thus incorporated must of necessity do in the surface or vpper partes of the earth First it is euident they must needes penetrate a pretty depth into the earth for so freesing persuadeth vs and much more the subtile penetration of diuers more spirituall bodies of which we haue sufficiently discoursed aboue Now lett vs conceiue that these steames do find a body of a conuenient density to incorporate themselues in in the way of density as we see that fire doth in iron and in other dense bodies and this not for an houre or two as happeneth in fire but for yeares as I haue beene told that in the extreme cold hilles in the Peake in Darbyshire happeneth to the dry atomes of cold which are permanently incorporated in water by long continuall freesing and so make a kind of chrystall In this case certainely it must come to passe that this body will become in a māner wholy of the nature of these steames which because they are drawne from the Poles that abound in cold and drynesse for others that haue not these qualities do not contribute to the intended effect the body is aptest to become a stone for so we see that cold and drought turneth the superficiall partes of the earth into stones and rockes and accordingly wheresoeuer cold and dry windes raigne powerfully all such countries are mainely rocky Now then lett vs suppose this stone to be taken out of the earth and hanged in the ayre or sett conueniently vpon some little pinne or otherwise putt in liberty so as a small impulse may easily turne it any way it will in this case certainely follow that the end of the stone which in the earth lay towardes the north pole will now in the ayre conuert it selfe in the same manner towardes the same point and the other end which lay towardes the south turne by consequence to the south I speake of these countries which lye betweene the aequator and the North in which it can not choose but that the streame going from the north to the aequator must be stronger then the opposite one Now to explicate how this is done suppose the stone hanged east and west freely in the ayre the streame which is drawne from the north pole of the earth rangeth along by it in its course to the aequator and finding in the stone the south steame which is growne innate to it very strong it must needes incorporate it selfe with it and most by those partes of the steame in the stone which are strongest which are they that come directly from the North of the stone by which I meane that part of the stone that lay northward in the earth and that still looketh to the north pole of the earth now it is in the ayre And therefore the great flood of atomes coming from the north pole of the earth will incorporate it selfe most strongly by the north end of the stone with the little flood of southerne atomes it findeth in the stone for that end serueth for the coming out of the southerne atomes and sendeth them abroad as the south end doth the northerne steame since the steames do come in att one end and do go out att the opposite end From hence we may gather that this stone will ioyne and cleaue to its attractiue whensoeuer it happeneth to be within the sphere of its actiuity Besides if by some accident it should happen that the atomes or steames which are drawne by the sunne from the Polewardes to the aequator should come stronger from some part of the earth which is on the side hand of the Pole then from the very Pole it selfe in this case the stone will turne from the Pole towardes that side Lastly whatsoeuer this stone will do towardes the Pole of the earth the very same a lesser stone of the same kind will do towardes a greater And if there be any kind of other substance that hath participation of the nature of this stone such a substance will behaue it selfe towardes this stone in the same manner as such a stone behaueth it selfe towardes the earth all the Phenomens whereof may be the more plainely obserued if the stone be cutt into the forme of the earth And thus we haue found a perfect delineation of the loadestone from its causes for there is no man so ignorant of the nature of a loadestone but he knoweth that the properties of it are to tend towardes the North to vary sometimes to ioyne with an other loadestone to draw iron vnto it and such like whose causes you see deliuered But to come to experimentall proofes and obseruations vpon the loadestone by which it will appeare that these causes are well esteemed and
of it selfe yet euery one requireth to be directed and putt on in its motion by an other and they must all of them though of very different natures and kindes of motion conspire together to effect any thing that may be for the vse and seruice of the whole And thus we find in them perfectly the nature of a mouer and a moueable each of them mouing differently from one an other and framing to themselues their owne motions in such sort as is most agreeable to their nature when that part which setteth them on worke hath stirred them vp And now because these partes the mouers and the moued are partes of one whole we call the entire thing Automatum or se mouens or a liuing creature Which also may be fittly compared to a ioyner or a painter or other crafteâ—man that had his tooles so exactly fitted about him as when he had occasion to do any thing in his trade his toole for that action were already in the fittest positioÌ„ for it to be made vse of so as without remouing himselfe froÌ„ the place where he might sitt enuironed with his tooles he might by only pulling of some little chordes eyther apply the matter to any remote toole or any of his tooles to the matter he would worke vpon according as he findeth the one or the other more conuenient for performance of the action he intendeth Whereas in the other there is no variety of motions but one and the same goeth quite through the body froÌ„ one end of it to the other And the passage of the moysture through it from one part to an other next which is all the motion it hath is in a manner but like the rising of water in a stille which by heate is made to creepe vp by the sides of the glasse and from thence runneth through the nose of the limbâ—ke and falleth into the receiuer So that if we will say that a plant liueth or that the whole moueth it selfe and euery part moueth other it is to be vnderstood in a farre more imperfect manner then when we speake of an animall and the same wordes are attributed to both in a kind of aequiuocall sense But by the way I must note that vnder the title of plants I include not zoophytes or plantanimals that is such creatures as though they goe not from place to place and so cause a locall motion of their whole substance yet in their partes they haue a distinct and articulate motion But to leaue comparisons and come to the proper nature of the thinges lett vs frame a conception that not farre vnder the superficies of the earth there were gathered together diuers partes of little mixed bodies which in the whole summe were yet but little and that this little masse had some excesse of fire in it such as we see in wett hay or in muste of wine or in woort of beere and that withall the drought of it were in so high a degree as this heate should not find meanes being too much compressed to play his game and that lying there in the bosome of the earth it should after some little time receiue its expected and desired drinke through the beneuolence of the heauen by which it being moystened and thereby made more pliable and tender and easy to be wrought vpon the little partes of fire should breake loose and they finding this moysture a fitt subiect to worke vpon should driue it into all the partes of the little masse and digesting it there should make the masse swell Which action taking vp long time for performance of it in respect of the small encrease of bulke made in the masse by the swelling of it could not be hindered by the pressing of the earth though lying neuer so weightily vpon it according to the maxime we haue aboue deliuered that any little force be it neuer so little is able to ouercome any great resistance be it neuer so powerfull if the force do multiply the time it worketh in sufficiently to equalife the proportions of the agent and the resistant This encrease of bulke and swelling of the litle masse will of its owne nature be towardes all sides by reason of the fire and heate that occasioneth it whose motion is on euery side from the center to the circumference but it will be most efficacious vpwardes towardes the ayre because the resistance is least that way both by reason of the litle thicknesse of the earth ouer it as also by reason that the vpper part of the earth lyeth very loose and is exceeding porous through the continuall operation of the sunne and falling of raine vpon it It can not choose therefore but mount to the ayre and the same cause that maketh it do so presseth att the same time the lower partes of the masse downewardes But what ascendeth to the ayre must be of the hoater and more moist partes of the fermenting masse and what goeth downewardes must be of his harder and dryer partes proportionate to the contrary motioÌ„s of fire and of earth which predominate in these two kindes of partes Now this that is pushed vpwardes coming aboue ground and being there exposed to sunne and wind contracteth thereby a hard and rough skinne on its outside but within is more tender in this sort it defendeth it selfe from outward iniuries of weather whiles it mounteth and by thrusting other partes downe into the earth it holdeth it selfe steadfast that although the wind may shake it yet it can not ouerthrow it The greater this plant groweth the more iuice is dayly accrewed vnto it and the heate is encreased and consequently the greater aboundance of humors is continually sent vp Which when it beginneth to clogge att the toppe new humour pressing vpwardes forceth a breach in the skinne and so a new piece like the maine stemme is thrust out and beginneth on the sides which we call a branch Thus is our plaÌ„t amplifyed till nature not being able still to breede such strong issues falleth to workes of lesse labour and pusheth forth the most elaborate part of the plants iuice into more tender substances but especially att the endes of the branches where aboundant humour but att the first not well concocted groweth into the shape of a button and more and better concocted humour succeding it groweth softer and softer the sunne drawing the subtilest partes outwardes excepting what the coldnesse of the ayre and the roughnesse of the wind do harden into an outward skinne So then the next partes to the skinne are tender but the very middle of this button must be hard and dry by reason that the sunne from without and the naturall heate within drawing and driuing out the moysture and extending it from the center must needes leaue the more earthy partes much shruÌ„cke vp and hardened by their euaporating out from them whâ—ch hardening being an effect of fire within and without that baketh this hard substance incorporateth much of it selfe with it as we
shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder it pag. 91. § 6. The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme pag. 92. § 7. The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames pag. 93. § 8. The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres pag. 95. § 9. The seuenth obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beate continually vpon vs. ibidem § 10. How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing pag. 96. § 11. The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason pag 97. § 12. The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences pag. 98. CHAP. XII Of Violent Motion pag. 100. § 1. The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion ibid. § 2. That the medium is the onely cause which continueth violent motion ibidem § 3. A further explication of the former doctrine pag. 101. § 4. That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable pag. 102. § 5. An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent motion cometh to cease pag 103. § 6. An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies pag. 104. § 7. An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then long wayes pag. 105. CHAP. XIII Of three sortes of violent motion Reflexion Vndulation and Refraction pag. 106. § 1. That reflexion is a kind of violent motion ibid. § 2. Reflection is made at equall angles ibid. § 3. The causes and properties of vndulation pag. 107. § 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towardes the perpendicular at the going out it is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first pag. 108. § 5. A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction pag. 109. § 6. An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion pag. 111. § 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body pag. 112. § 8. A generall rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sortes of surfaces pag. 113. § 9. A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores pag. 114. § 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light pag. 115. CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities and generation of Mixed bodies pag. 116. § 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it ibid. § 2. That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire pag. 117. § 3. The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity ibid. § 4. The second sort of coniunction is compactednesse in simple Elements and it procedeth from density pag. 118. § 5. The third coniunction is of parres of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together ibid. § 6. The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly pag. 119. § 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately ibid. § 8. How mixed bodies are framed in generall pag. 121. § 9. The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies ibid. § 10. The rule where vnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies pag. 122. § 11. Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies pag. 123. § 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element ibid. § 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element pag. 124. § 15. Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element pag. 125. § 16. Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other three Elements ibid. § 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant ibid. § 19. Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant pag. 126. § 20. All the secōd qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density ibid. § 21. That in the planets and starres there is a like variety of mixed bodies cause by light as here vpon Earth pag. 127. § 22. In what manner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue ibid. § 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls pag. 128. CHAP. XV. Of the dissolution of Mixed bodies pag. 130. § 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies ibid. § 2. How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies pag. 131. § 3. The seueral effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolue all compounded bodies ibid. § 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire pag. 132. § 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but can not consume it ibid. § 6. Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire pag. 133. § 7. Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are ibid. § 8. How water the third instrument to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata pag. 135. § 9. How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies pag. 136. § 10. How putrefaction is caused ibid. CHAP. XVI An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world pag. 137. § 1. What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents ibid. § 2. The reason why no body can worke in distance pag. 138. § 3. An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiome pag. 139 § 4. Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and acte in suffering ibid. § 5. The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine pag. 141. § 6. Why some notions do admitt
it findeth within its power to master be they light or heauy or of what contrary natures soeuer it compresseth them as much as it can and draweth them into a lesse compasse and holdeth them strongly together making them sticke fast to one an other Which effect Aristotle tooke for the proper notion of cold and therefore gaue for definition of the nature of it that it gathereth thinges of diuers natures and experience sheweth vs in freesing and all great coolinges that this effect proceedeth from cold But if wee examine which of the two sortes of dense bodies the fluide or the consistent is most efficacious in this operation wee shall find that the lesse dense one is more capable of being applyed round about the body it shall besiege and therefore will stoppe closer euery litle hole of it and will more easily send subtile partes into euery litle veine of it and by consequence shrinke it vp together and coagulate and constringe it more strongly then a body can that is extremely dense which by reason of its great density and the stubbornesse of its partes can not so easily bend and plye them to worke this effect And therefore a body that is moderately dense is colder then an other that is so in excesse seeing that cold is an actiue or working power and that which is lesse dense doth excell in working On the contrary side rare bodies being hoat because theire subtile partes enuironing a compounded body will sinke into the pores of it and to theire power seperate its partes it followeth that those wherein the grauity ouercometh the rarity are lesse hoat then such others as are in the extremity and highest excesse of rarity both because the former are not able to pierce so litle partes of the resisting dense body as extreme rare ones are and likewise because they more easily take plye by the obstacle of the solide ones they meete with then these doe So that out of this discourse wee gather that of such bodies that differ precisely by the proportion of Rarity and Density those which are extremely rare are in the excesse of heate and are dry withall that weighty rare bodies are extremely humide and meanely hoat that fluide dense bodies are moist though not in such excesse as rare ones that are so but are coldest of any and lastly that extreme dense bodies are lesse cold then fluide dense ones and that they are dry But whether the extreme dense bodies be more or lesse dry then such as are extremely rare remaineth yet to be decided Which wee shall easily doe if wee but reflect that it is density which maketh a thing hard to be diuided and that rarity maketh it easie for a facility to yield vnto diuision is nothing else but a plyablenesse in the thing that is to be diuided whereby it easily receiueth the figure which the thing that diuideth it doth cast it into Now this plyablenesse belongeth more to rare then to dense thinges and accordingly wee see fire bend more easily by the concameration of an ouen then a stone can be reduced into due figure by hewing And therefore since drynesse is a quality that maketh those bodies wherein it raigneth to conserue themselues in theire owne figure and limits and to resist the receiuing of any from an other body it is manifest that those are dryest wherein these effects are most seene which is in dense bodies and consequently excesse of drynesse must be allotted vnto them to keepe company with theire moderate coldnesse Thus wee see that the number of Elements assigned by Aristotle is truly and exactly determined by him and that there can be neither more nor lesse of them and that theire qualities are rightly allotted to them which to settle more firmely in our mindes it will not be misse-spent time to summe vp in short the effect of what wee haue hitherto said to bring vs vnto this conclusion First wee shewed that a body is made and constituted a body by quantity Next that the first diuision of bodies is into rare and dense ones as differing onely by hauing more and lesse quantity And lastly that the coniunction of grauity with these two breedeth two other sortes of combinations each of which is also twofold the first sort concerning rarity out of which ariseth one extremely hoat and moderately dry and an other extremely humide and moderately hoat the second sort concerning density out of which is produced one that is extremely cold and moderatly wett and an other extremely dry and moderatly cold And these are the combinations whereby are constituted fire ayre water and earth So that wee haue thus the proper notions of the foure Elements and haue both them and theire qualities driuen vp and resolued into theire most simple principles which are the notions of Quantity and of the two most simple differences of quantatiue thinges Rarity and Density Beyond which mans witt can not penetrate nor can his wishes ayme att more in this particular seeing he hath attained to the knowledge af what they are and of what maketh them be so and that it is impossible they should be otherwise and this by the most simple and first principles which enter into the composition of theire nature Out of which it is euident that these foure bodies are Elements since they can not be resolued into any others by way of physicall composition themselues being constituted by the most simple differences of a body And againe all other bodies whatsoeuer must of necessity be resolued into them for the same reason because no bodies can be exempt from the first differencies of abody Since then wee meane by the name of an Element a body not composed of any former bodies and of which all other bodies are composed wee may rest satisfyed that these are rightly so named But whether euery one of these foure elements do comprehend vnder its name one onely lowest species or many as whether there be one onely species of fire or seuerall and the like of the rest wee intend not here to determine Yet wee note that there is a greate latitude in euery kind seeing that Rarity and Density as wee haue said before are as diuisible as quantity Which latitudes in the bodies wee conuerse withall are so limited that what maketh it selfe and other thinges be seene as being accompanied by light is called fire What admitteth the illuminatiue action of fire and is not seene is called ayre What admitteh the same action and is seene in the ranke of Elements is called water And what through the density of it admitteth not that action but absolutely reflecteth it is called earth And out of all we said of these foure Elements it is manifest there can not be a fifth as is to be seene att large in euery Aristotelian Philosopher that writeth of this matter I am not ignorant that there are sundry obiections vsed to be made both against these notions of the first qualities and against
this diuision of the Elements but because they and theire solutions are to be found in euery ordinary Philosopher and that they be not of any greate difficulty and that the handling them is too particular for the designe of this discourse and would make it too prolixe I referre the Reader to seeke them for his satisfaction it those authors that treate physickes professedly and haue deliuered a compleate body of Philosophy And I will end this Chapter with aduertising him least I should be misvnderstood that though my disquisition here hath pitched vpon the foure bodies of fire ayre water and earth yet it is not my intention to affirme that those which wee ordinarily call so and do fall dayly within our vse are such as I haue here expressed them or that these Philosophicall ones which arise purely out of the combination of the first qualities haue theire residence or consistence in great bulkes in any places of the world be they neuer fo remote as fire in the hollow of the moones orbe water in the bottome of the sea ayre aboue the cloudes and earth below the mines But these notions are onely to serue for certaine Idaeas of Elements by which the foure named bodies and the compoundes of them may be tryed and receiue theire doome of more or lesse pure and approaching to the nature from whence they haue theire denomination And yet I will not deny but that such perfect Elements may be found in some very litle quantities in mixed bodies and the greatest aboundance of them in these foure knowne bodies that we call in ordinary practise by the names of the pure ones for they are least compounded and approach most to the simplenesse of the Elements But to determine absolutely theire existence or not existence eyther in bulke or in litle partes dependeth of the manner of action among bodies which as yet we haue not meddled with THE FIFTH CHAPTER Of the Operations of the Elements in generall And of their Actiuities compared with one another HAVING by our former discourse inquired out what degrees and proportions of rarity and density compounded with grauity are necessary for the production of the Elements and first qualities whose combinations frame the Elements our next consideration in that orderly progresse we haue proposed vnto our selues in this treatise wherein our ayme is to follow successiuely the steppes which nature hath printed out vnto vs will be to examine the operations of the Elements by which they worke vpon one an other To which end lett vs propose to our selues a rare and a dense body encountring one an other by the impulse of some exterior agent In this case it is euident that since rarity implyeth a greater proportion of Quantity and quantity is nothing but diuisibility rare bodies must needes be more diuisible then dense ones and consequently when two such bodies are pressed one against an other the rare body not being able to resist diuision so strongly as the dense one is and being not permitted to retire backe by reason of the externe violence impelling it against the dense body it followeth that the partes of the rare body must be seuered to lett the dense one come betweene them and so the rare body becometh diuided and the dense body the diuider And by this we see that the notions of diuider and diuisible do immediately follow rare and dense bodies and do so much the more properly agree vnto them as they exceede in the qualities of Rarity and Density Likewise we are to obserue in our case that the dense or diuiding body must necessarily cutt and enter further and further into the rare or diuided body and so the sides of it be ioyned successiuely to new and new partes of the rare body that giueth way vnto it and forsake others it parteth from Now the rare body being in a determinate situation of the vniuerse which we call being in a place and is a necessary condition belonging to all particular bodies and the dense body coming to be within the rare body whereas formerly it was not so it followeth that it looseth the place it had and gaineth an other This effect is that which we call locall motion And thus we see by explicating the manner of this action that locall motion is nothing else but the change of that respect or relation which the body mooued hath to the rest of the vniuerse following out of Diuision and the name of locall motion formally signifyeth onely the mutation of a respect to other extrinsecall bodies subsequent to that diuision And this is so euident and agreeable to the notions that all mankinde who as we haue said is iudge and master of language naturally frameth of place as I wonder much why any will labour to giue other artificiall and intricate doctrine of this that in it selfe is so plaine and cleare What neede is there to introduce an imaginary space or with Ioannes Grammaticus a subsistent quantity that must runne through all the world and then entayle to euery body an ayery entity an vnconceiuable moode an vnintelligible Vbi that by an intrinsecall relation to such a part of the imaginary space must thereunto pinne and fasten the body it is in It must needes be a ruinous Philosophy that is grounded vpon such a contradiction as is the allotting of partes vnto that which the authors themselues vpon the matter acknowledge to be meerely nothing and vpon so weake a shift to deliuer them from the inconueniencies that in theire course of doctrine other circumstances bring them vnto as is the voluntary creating of new imaginary Entities in thinges without any ground in nature for them Learned men should expresse the aduantage and subtility of theire wittes by penetrating further into nature then the vulgar not by vexing and wresting it from its owne course They should refine and carry higher not contradict and destroy the notions of mankind in those thinges that it is the competent Iudge of as it vndoubtedly is of those primary notions which Aristotle hath ranked vnder ten heades which as we haue touched before euery body can conceiue in grosse and the worke of schollers is to explicate them in particular and not to make the vulgar beleeue they are mistaken in framing those apprehensions that nature taught them Out of that which hath been hitherto resolued it is manifest that place really and abstracting from the operation of the vnderstanding is nothing else but the inward superficies of a body that compasseth and immediately containeth an other Which ordinarily being of a rare body that doth not shew it selfe vnto vs namely the ayre is for the most part vnknowne by vs. But because nothing can make impression vpon our mind and cause vs to giue it a name otherwise then by being knowne therefore our vnderstanding to make a compleate notion must adde something else to this fleeting and vnremarkable superficies that may bring it vnto our acquaintance And for this end we may
actiue qualities heate and cold whereof the first was in its greatest excesse in fire and the latter in water To reconcile these we are to consider that the action of cold in its greatest height is composed of two partes the one is a kind of pressing and the other is penetration which requireth applicability Of which two the former ariseth out of density but the latter out of moderation of density as I haue declared in the precedent Chapter Wherefore the former will exceede more in earth though the whole be more eminent in water For though considering onely the force of moouing which is a more simple and abstracted notion then the determination and particularisation of the Elements and is precedent to it therein earth hath a precedency ouer water yet taking the action as it is determined to be the action of a particular Element and as it concurreth to the composition or dissolution of mixed bodies in that consideration which is the chiefe worke of Elements and requireth an intime application of the Agents water hath the principality and excesse ouer earth As for fire it is more actiue then eyther of them as it will appeare clearely if we consider how when fire is applyed to fewell and the violence of blowing is added to its owne motion it incorporateth it selfe with the fewell and in a small time conuerteth a great part of it into its owne nature and shattereth the rest into smoake and ashes All which proceedeth from the exceeding smallnesse and drynesse of the partes of fire which being mooued with violence against the fewell and thronging in multitudes vpon it they easily pierce the porous substance of it like so many extreme sharpe needles And that the force of fire is as greate and greater then of earth we may gather out of our former discourse where hauing resolued that density is the vertue by which a body is moued and doth cutt the medium and againe considering that celerity of motion is a kind of density as we shall by and by declare it is euident that since blowing must of necessity presse violently and with a rapide motion the partes of fire against the fewell and so condense them exceedingly there both by theire celerity and by bringing very many partes together there it must needes also giue them actiuity and vertue to pierce the body they are beaten against Now that celerity is a kind of density will appeare by comparing theire natures For if we consider that a dense body may be dilated so as to possesse and fill the place of a rare body that exceeded it in bignesse and by that dilatation may be diuided into as many and as greate partes as the rare body was diuisible into wee may conceiue that the substance of those partes was by a secret power of nature foulded vp in that litle extension in which it was before And euen so if we reflect vpon two riuers of equall channels and depths whereof the one goeth swifter then the other and determine a certaine length of each channell and a common measure of time wee shall see that in the same measure of time there passeth a greater bulke of water in the designed part of the channell of the swifter streame then in the designed part of the slower though those partes be equall Neither doth it import that in velocity we take a part of time whereas in density it seemeth that an instant is sufficient and consequently there would be no proportion betweene them For knowing Philosophers do all agree that there are no instants in time and that the apprehension of them proceedeth meerely from the manner of our vnderstanding And as for partes in time there can not be assumed any so litle in which the comparison is not true and so in this regard it is absolutely good And if the Reader haue difficulty att the disparity of the thinges which are pressed together in density and in celerity for that in density there is onely substance and in celerity there is also quantity crowded vp with the substance he will soone receiue satisfaction when he shall consider that this disparity is to the aduantage of what we say and maketh the nature of density more perfect in celerity and consequently more powerfull in fire then in earth Besides if there were no disparity it would not be a distinct species of density but the very same By what we haue spoken aboue it appeareth how fire getteth into fewell now lett vs consider how it cometh out for the actiuity of that fierce body will not lett it lye still and rest as long as it hath so many enemies round about it to rouse it vp Wee see then that as soone as it hath incorporated it selfe with the fewell and is growne master of it by introducing into it so many of its owne partes like so many soldiers into an enemies towne they breake out againe on euery side with as much violence as they came in For by reason of the former resistance of the fewell theire continuall streaming of new partes vpon it and one ouertaking an other there where theire iourney was stopped all which is encreased by the blowing doth so exceedingly condense them into a narrower roome then theire nature affecteth that as soone as they gett liberty and grow masters of the fewel which att the first was theire prison they enlarge theire place and consequently come out and flye abroad euer ayming right forwardes from the point where they begin theire iourney for the violence wherewith they seeke to extend themselues into a larger roome when they haue liberty to do so will admitt no motion but the shortest which is by a straight line So that if in our fantasie we frame an image of a round body all of fire wee must withall presently conceiue that the flame proceeding from it would diffuse it selfe euery way indifferently in straight lines in such sort that the source seruing for the center there would be round about it an huge sphere of fire and of light vnlesse some accidentall and externe cause should determine its motion more to one part then to an other Which compasse because it is round and hath the figure of a sphere is by Philosophers termed the sphere of its actiuity So that it is euident that the most simple and primary motion of fire is a fluxe in a direct line from the center of it to its circumference taking the fewell for its center as also that when it is beaten against a harder body it may be able to destroy it although that body be in its owne nature more dense then fire For the body against which it presseth eyther hath pores or hath none as the Elements haue none if it hath pores then the fire by reason of the violent motion of the impellent driueth out the litle bodies which fill vp those pores and succeeding in theire roome and being multiplyed there causeth those effects which in our discourse of the
calleth heate and maketh a notion of distinct from the notion of the fire from whence it issueth to burne the wood that is neere it is nothing else in the fire but the very substance of it in such a degree of rarity or a continuall streame of partes issuing out of the maine stocke of the same fire that entereth into the wood and by the rarity of it maketh its way through euery litle part and diuideth them All which actions are comprised by the vnderstanding vnder one notion of burning and the power which is fire it self to doe these actions vnder one notion of the quality of heate though burning in effect and explicated Philosophically be nothing else but the continuance of those materiall motions we haue euen now described In like manner the cubicall figure of a deye is nothing else but the very body of the deye it selfe limited by other bodies from being extended beyond those dimensiōs it hath and so the quality of figure or squarenesse which in common speech is said to be in it is truly the substance it selfe vnder such a consideration as is expressed by that word But to come to our question vpon the decision of which dependeth the fate of all the fictitious Entities which in the schooles are termed qualities The cheife motiues that persuade light to be one of those may to my best remembrance be reduced to fiue seuerall heades The first is that it illuminateth the ayre in an instant and therefore can not be a body for a body requirreth succession of time to mooue in whereas this seemeth to spread it selfe ouer the whole hemisphere in an instant for as farre as the sunne is distant from vs he no sooner raiseth his head aboue our horizon but his dartes are in our face and generally no imagination can be framed of any motion it hath in its dilatation The next is that whereas no body can admitt an other into its place without being remooued away it selfe to leaue that roome vnto the aduenient one neuerthelesse plaine experience sheweth vs dayly that two lights may be in the same place and the first is so farre from going away att the coming of the second that the bringing in of a second candle and setting it neere the first encreaseth the light in the roome which diminisheth againe when the second is remooued away And by the same reason if light were a body it should driue away the ayre which is likewise a body wheresoeuer it is admitted for within the whole sphere of the irradiation of it there is no point wherein one may sett their eye but light is found And therefore if it were a body there would be no roome for ayre in that place which light taketh vp And likewise we see that it penetrateth all solide bodies and particularly glasse as experience sheweth in wood stone mettals and any other body whatsoeuer if it be made thinne enough The third argument why light can not be a body is that if it were so it can be none other but fire which is the subtilest and most rarifyed of all bodies whatsoeuer But if it be fire then it can not be without heate and cōsequently a man could not feele cold in a sunne-shining day The contrary of which is apparent all winter long whose brighest dayes oftentimes proue the coldest And Galilaeus with diuers others since did vse from the sunne to gather light in a kind of stone that is found in Italy which is therefore by them called la calamita della luce and yet no heate appeared in it A glow worme will giue light to read by but not to warme you any whitt att all And it is said that diamonds and carbuncles will shine like fire in the greatest darkes yet no man euer complained of being serued by them as the foolish Satyre was by kissing of a burning coale On the contrary side if one consider how great heates may be made without any light att all how can one be perswaded that light and heate shoud be the same thing or indeed any whitt of kinne The fourth motiue to induce vs to beleeue that light can not be a body is the suddaine extinction of it when any solide body cometh betweene the fountaine of it and the place where he sendeth his beames What becometh of that great expansion of light that shined all about when a cloud interposeth it selfe betweene the body of the sunne and the streames that come from it Or when it leaueth our horizon to light the other world His head is no sooner out of our sight but att the instant all his beames are vanished If that which filleth so vast a roome were a body some thing would become of it it would att least be changed to some other substance and some relikes would be left of it as when ashes remaine of burned bodies for nature admitteth not the annihilation of any thing And in the last place we may conceiue that if light were a body it would be shaken by the windes and by the motion of the ayre and wee should see it quauer in all blustering weather Therefore summing vp all we haue said it seemeth most improbable and indeed wholy impossible that light should be a body and consequently must haue his place among qualities But on the other side before we apply ourselues to answere these obiections lett vs take a short suruay of those inducements that preuayle with vs to beleeue light a body notwithstanding so forcible oppositions I admitt so farre of the third argument as to allow light to be fire for indeed it can not be imagined to be anything else all properties agreeing so fully betweene them But withall I must adde that it is not fire in euery forme or fire ioyned with euery substance that expresseth it selfe by light but it is fire extremely dilated and without mixture of any other grosse body Lett mee hold a piece of linnen or paper close by the flame of a candle and by litle and litle remooue it further and further of and me thinkes my very eyes tell me that there is vpon the paper some part of that which I see in the candle and that it groweth still lesse and lesse like as I remooue the paper further from it so that if I would beleeue my sense I should beleeue it as very a body vpon the paper as in the candle though enfeebled by the laxity of the channell in which it floweth And this seemeth to be strengthened by the consideration of the aduersaries position for if it were a quality then seeing it hath no contrary to destroy or stoppe it it should still produce an equall to it selfe without end or growing feeble whensoeuer it meeteth with a subiect capable to entertayne it as ayre is The better to apprehend how much this faint resemblance of flame vpon the paper maketh for our purpose lett vs turne the leafe and imagine in our owne thoughts after what fashion that fire
vnresistable force to pierce and shatter not onely the ayre but euen the hardest bodies that are Peraduenture some may thinke it reasonable to grant the consequence in due circumstances since experience teacheth vs that the congregation of a litle light by a glasse will sett very solide bodies on fire and will melt mettals in a very short space which sheweth a great actiuity and the great actiuity sheweth a great percussion burning being effected by a kind of attrition of the thing burned And the great force which fire sheweth in gunnes and in mines being but a multiplication of the same doth euidently conuince that of its owne nature it maketh a strong percussion when all due circumstances concurre Whereas it hath but litle effect if the due circumstances be wanting as we may obserue in the insensible burning of so rarifyed a body as pure spiritt of wine conuerted into flame But we must examine the matter more particularly and must seeke the cause why a violent effect doth not alwayes appeare wheresoeuer light striketh for the which wee are to note that three thinges do concurre to make a percussion great The bignesse the density and the celerity of the body mooued Of which three there is only one in light to witt celerity for it hath the greatest rarity and the rayes of it are the smallest parcels of all naturall bodies And therefore since only celerity is considerable in the account of lights percussions we must examine what celerity is necessary to make the stroke of a ray sensible first then we see that all the motes of the ayre nay euen feathers and strawes do make no sensible percussion when they fall vpon vs therefore we must in light haue att the least a celerity that may be to the celerity of the straw falling vpon our hand for example as the density of the straw is to the density of light that the percussion of light may be in the least degree sensible But let vs take a corne of gunnepowder insteede of a straw betweene which there can not be much difference and then putting that the density of fire is to the density of gunnepowder as 1. to 125000 and that the density of the light we haue here in the earth is to the density of that part of fire which is in the sunnes body as the body of the sunne is to that body which is called Orbis magnus whose semidiameter is the distance betweene the sunne and the earth which must be in subtriple proportion of the diameter of the sunne to the diameter of the great orbe it followeth that 125000. being multiplyed by the proportion of the great orbe vnto the sunne which Galileo telleth vs is as 106000000. vnto one will giue a scantling of what degree of celerity light must haue more then a corne of gunnepouder to recompence the excesse of weight which is in a corne of gunnepouder aboue that which is in a ray of light as bigge as a corne of gunnepouder Which will amount to be much greater then the proportion of the semidiater of Orbis magnus to the semidiater of the corne of gunnepouder for if you reckon 5. graines of gunnepouder to a barley cornes breadth and 12. of them in an inch and 12. inches in a foote and 3. feete in a pace and 1000. paces in a mile and 3500. miles in the semidiameter of the earth and 1208. semidiameters of the earth in the semidiameter of the Orbis magnus there will be in it but 9132480000000. graines of gunnepouder whereas the other calculation maketh light to be 13250000000000. times raver then gunnepouder which is almost tenne times a greater proportion then the other And yet this celerity supplyeth but one of the two conditions wanting in light to make its percussions sensible namely density Now because the same velocity in a body of a lesser bulke doth not make so great a percussion as it doth in a bigger body and that the littlenesse of the least partes of bodies followeth the proportion of their rarity this vast proportion of celerity must againe be drawne into it selfe to supply for the excesse in bignesse that a corne of gunnepouder hath ouer an atome of light and the product of this multiplication will be the celerity required to supply for both defects Which euidently sheweth it is impossible that a ray of light should make any sensible percussion though it be a body Especially considering that sense neuer taketh notice of what is perpetually done in a moderate degree And therefore after this minute looking into all circumstances we neede not haue difficulty in allowing vnto light the greatest celerity imaginable and a percussion proportionate to such a celerity in so rare a body and yett not feare any violent effect from its blowes vnlesse it be condensed and many partes of it be brought together to worke as if they were but one As concerning the last obiection that if light were a body it would be fanned by the wind wee must first consider what is the cause of a thinges appearing to be mooued and then examine what force that cause hath in light As for the first part we see that when a body is discerned now in one place now in an other then it appeareth te be mooued And this we see happeneth also in light as when the sunne or a candle is carried or mooueth the light thereof in the body of the candle or sunne seemeth to be mooued along with it And the likes is in a shining cloud or comete But to apply this to our purpose wee must note that the intention of the obiection is that the light which goeth from the fire to an opacous body farre distant without interruption of its continuity should seeme to be iogged or putt out of its way by the wind that crosseth it Wherein the first fayling is that the obiectour conceiueth light to send species vnto our eye from the middest of its line whereas with a litle consideration he may perceiue that not light is seene by vs but that which is reflected from an opacous body to our eye so that the light he meaneth in his obiection is neuer seene att all Secondly it is manifest that the light which stricketh our eye doth strike it in a straight line and seemeth to be att the end of that straight line wheresoeur that is and so can neuer appeare to be in an other place but the light which wee see in an other place wee conceiue to be an other light Which maketh it againe euident that the light can neuer appeare to shake though wee should suppose that light may be seene from the middle of its line for no part of wind or ayre can come into any sensible place in that middle of the line with such speede that new light from the source doth not illuminate it sooner then it can be seene by vs wherefore it will appeare to vs illuminated as being in that place and therefore the light can neuer
that before they come thither they will be so rarifyed by that litle motion as they shall grow inuisible like the ayre and dispersing themselues all about in it they will fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seene The last excesse in watry bodies must be of water it selfe which is when so litle a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible out of this composition do arise all those seuerall sortes of iuices or liquors which we commonly call waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements haue peculiar properties beyond simple Elementall water The generall qualities whereof we shall not neede any further to expresse because by what we haue already said of water in common they are sufficiently knowne In our next suruay we will take earth for our ground to worke vpon as hitherto we haue done water which if in any body it be in the vtmost excesse of it beyond all the other three then rockes and stones will grow out of it whose dryenesse ad hardnesse may assure vs that Earth swayeth in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightnesse in respect of some other Earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceedeth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of pores wherewith their dryenesse causeth them to abound and hindereth not but that their reall solide partes may be very heauy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceede the fire and ayre but still inferior to the earth we shall produce mettalls whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainely telleth vs that the smallest of waters grosse partes are the glew that holdeth the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easye changing of partes being most proper to water Quickesiluer that is the generall matter whereof all the mettalls are immediately coÌ„posed giueth vs euidence hereof for fire worketh vpon it with the same effect as vpon water And the calcination of most of the mettalls proueth that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therefore must be rather of a watry then of an ayry substance Likewise the glibbenesse of Mercury and of melted mettalls without catching or sticking to other substances giueth vs to vnderstand that this great temper of a moyst Element with Earth is water and not ayre and that the watry partes are comprised and as it were shutt vp within the earthy ones for ayre catcheth and sticketh notably to all thinges it toucheth and will not be imprisoned the diuisibity of it being exceeding great though in neuer so short partes Now if ayre mingleth it selfe with earth and be predominant ouer water and fire it maketh such an oyly and fatt soile as husbandmen account their best mould which receiuing a betterment from the sunne and temperate heat assureth vs of the concurse of the ayre for wheresoeuer suâ—h heate is ayre can not faile of accompanying it or of being effected by it and the richest of such earth as port earth and marle will with much fire grow more compacted and sticke closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pottes or fine brickes Whereas if water were the glew betweene the dense partes fire would consume it and crumble them a sunder as it doth in those bodies it calcineth And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirmeth that ayre aboundeth in them for it is the nature of ayre to sticke so close where once it is kneaded in as it can not be seperated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscous holding together of the partes of glasse when it is melted sheweth euidently that ayre aboundeth in vitrifyed bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an ouerruling proportion ouer ayre and water And this I conceiue produceth those substances which we may terme coagulated iuices and which the latines do call Succi concreti whos 's first origine seemeth to haue beene liquors that haue beene afterwardes dryed by the force eyther of heate or of cold Of this nature are all kind of saltes niters sulfurs and diuers sortes of bitumens All which easily bewray the relikes an deffects of fire left in them some more some lesse according to their degrees And thus we haue in generall deduced from their causes the complexions of those bodies whereof the bulke of the world subiected to our vse consisteth and which serue for the production and nourishment of liuing creatures both animall and vegetable Not so exactly I confesse nor so particularly as the matter in it selfe or as a treatise confined to that subiect would require yet sufficiently for our intent In the performance whereof if more accurate searchers of nature shall find that we haue peraduenture beene mistaken in the minute deliuering of some particular bodies complexion their very correction I dare boldly say will iustify our principall scope which is to shew that all the great variety we see among bodies ariseth out of the coÌ„mixtion of the first qualities and of the Elements for they will not be able to correct vs vpon any other groundes then those we haue layed As may easily be perceiued if we cast a summary view vpon the qualities of composed bodies All which we shall find to spring out of rarity and density and to sauour of their origine for the most manifest qualities of bodies may be reduced to certaine paires opposite to one an other As namely some are liquide and flowing others are consistent some are soft others hard some are fatty viscous and smooth others leane gritty and rough some grosse othert subtile some tough others brittle and the like Of which the liquide the soft the fatt and the viscous are so manifestly deriued from rarity that we neede not take any further paines to trace out their origine and the like is of their contraries from the contrary cause to witt of those bodies that are consistent hard leane and gritty all which do euidently spring from density As for smoothnesse we haue already shewed how that proceedeth from an ayry or oyly nature and by consequence from a certaine degree of rarity And therefore roughnesse the contrary of it must proceede from a proportionable degree of density Toughnesse is also a kind of ductility which we haue reduced to watrynesse that is to an other degree of rarity and consequently brittlenesse must arise from the contrary degree of density Lastly grossenesse and subtilenesse do consist in a difficulty or facility to be diuided into small partes which appeareth to be nothing else but a certaine determination of rarity and density And thus we see how the seuerall complexions of bodies are reduced to the foure Elements that compound them and the qualities of those bodies to the two primary differencies of
quantatiue thinges by which the Elements are diuersifyed And out of this discourse it will be euident that these complexions and qualities though in diuerse degrees must of necessity be found wheresoeuer there is any variation in bodies for seeing there can be no variation in bodies but by rarity and density and that the pure degrees of rarity and density do make heate cold moisture and drynesse and in a word the foure Elements it is euident that wheresoeuer there is variety of bodies there must be the foure Elements though peraduenture farre vnlike these mixed bodies which we call Elements And againe because these Elements can not consist without motion and because by motion they do of necessity produce mixed bodies and forge out those qualities which we come from explicating it must by like necessity follow that wheresoeuer there is any variety of actiue and passiue bodies there mixed bodies likewise must reside of the same kindes and be endewed with qualities of the like natures as those we haue treated of though peraduenture such as are in other places of the world remote from vs may be in a degree farre different from ours Since then it can not be denyed but that there must be notable variety of actiue and passiue bodies wheresoeuer there is light neyâ—her can it be denyed but that in all those great bodies from which light is reflected vnto vs there must be a like variety of complexions and of qualities and of bodies tempered by them as we find here in the orbe we liue in Which systeme how dâ—fferent it is from that which Aristotle and the most of the schoole haue deliuered vs as well in the euidencies of the proofes for its being so as in the position and modell of it I leaue vnto the prudent readers to consider and iudge Out of what hath beene already said it is not hard to discouer in what manner the composition of bodies is made In effecting of which the maine hinge whereon that motion depeÌ„deth is fire or heate as it likewise is in all other motions whatsoeuer Now because the composition of a mixed body proceedeth fâ—om the action of one simple body or element vpon the others it will not be amisse to declare by some example how this workâ— passeth for thâ—t purpose lett vs examine how fire or heate woâ—keth vpon his fâ—llowes By what wâ— haue formerly deliuered it is cleare that fire streaming out from its center and diffusing it selfe abroad so as to fill the circumference of a larger circle it must needes follow that the beames of it are most condensed and compacted together neere the center and the further they streame from the center the more thinne and rarifyed they must grow yet this is with such moderation as we can not any where discerne that one beame doth not touch an other and therefore the distances must be very small Now lett vs suppose that fire happeneth to be in a viscous and tenacious body and then consider what will happen in this case of one side the fire spreadeth it selfe abroad on the other side the partes of the tenacious body being moist as we haue formerly determined their edges on all handes will sticke fast to the dry beames of the fire that passe betweene them Then they stretching wider and wider from one an other must needes draw with them the partes of that tenacious body which sticke vnto them and stertch them into a greater widenesse or largenesse then they enioyed before froÌ„ wheÌ„ce it followeth that seeing there is no other body neere thereaboutes but they two eyther there must be a vacuity left or else the tenacious body must hold and fill a greater space then it did before and consequently be more rare Contrarywise if any of the other Elements be stronger then fire the denser Elements breake off from their continued streame the little partes of fire which were gotten into their greater partes and sticking on all sides about them they do so enclose them that they haue no more semblance of fire and if afterwardes by any accident there cometh a great compression they force them to loose their naturall rarity and to become some other Element Thus it fareth with fire both in acting and in suffering And the same course we haue in both these regardes expressed of it passeth likewise in the rest of the Elements to the proportion of their contrarieties Hence it followeth that when fire meeteth with humidity in any body it diuideth and subtiliseth it and disperseth it gently and in a kind of equall manner through the whole body it is in if the operation of it be a naturall and a gentle one and so driueth it into other partes which att the same time it prepareth to receiue it by subtilising likewise those partes And thus moderate fire maketh humour in very small partes to incorporate it selfe in an euen or vniforme manner with the dry partes it meeteth withall which being done whether the heate doth afterwardes continue or that cold succeedeth in lieu of it the effect must of necessity be that the body thus composed be bound vp and fastened more or lesse according to the proportion of the matter it is made of and of the Agents that worke vpon it and of the time they employ about it This is euery day seene in the ripening of fruites and in other frequent workes as well of art as of nature and is so obuious and sensible to any reasonable obseruation that it is needelesse to enlarge my selfe much vpon this subiect Onely it will not be amisse for examples sake to consider the progresse of it in the composing or augmenting of mettalls or of earths of diuers sorts first heate as we haue said draweth humour out of all the bodies it worketh vpon then if the extracted humour be in quantity and the steames of it do happen to come together in some hollow place fitt to assemble them into greater partes they are condensed and they fall downe in a liquide and running body These steames being thus corporifyed the body resulting out of them maketh it selfe in the earth a channell to runne in and if there be any loose partes in the channell they mingle themselues with the running liquor and though there be none such yet in time the liquor it selfe looseneth the channell all about and imbibeth into its owne substaÌ„ce the partes it raiseth And thus all of them compacted together do roule along till they tumble into some low place out of which they can not so easily gett to wander further When they are thus settled they do the more easily receiue into them and retaine such heate as is euery where to be mett withall because it is diffused more or lesse through the earth This heate if it be sufficient digesteth it into a solide body the temper of cold likewise concurring in its measure to this effect And according to the variety of the substances whereof the first liquour was made
and which it afterwardes drew along with it the body that resulteth out of them is diuersifyed In confirmation of all which they that deale in mines tell vs they vse to find mettalls oftentimes mingled with stones as also coagulated iuices with both and earths of diuers natures with all three and they with it and one with an other among themselues And that sometimes they find the mines not yet consolidated and digested throughly into mettall when by their experience knowing after how many yeares they will be ripe they shutt them vp againe till then Now if the hollow place wherein the body stayed which att the first was liquid and rouling be not att once filled by it but it taketh vp onely part of it and the same liquor continueth afterwardes to flow thither then this body is augmented and groweth bigger and bigger And although the liquors should come att seuerall times yet they become not therefore two seuerall bodies but both liquors do grow into one body for the wett parts of the aduentitious liquor do mollify the sides of the body already baked and both of them being of a like temper and cognation they easily sticke and grow together Out of this discours it followeth euidently that in all sortes of compounded bodies whatsoeuer there must of necessity be actually comprised sundry partes of diuers natures for otherwise they would be but so many pure degrees of rarity and density that is they would be but so many pure Elements and each of them haue but one determinate vertue or operation THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER Of the dissolution of Mixed bodies THus much for composition of bodies Their dissolution is made three wayes eyther by fire or by water or by some outward violence We will beginne with examining how this last is done To which end we may consider that the vnity of any body consisting in the connexion of its partes it is euident that the force of motion if it be exercised vpon them must of necessity separate them as we see in breaking cutting filing drawing a sunder and the like All these motions because they are done by grosse bodies do require great partes to worke vpon and are easily discerned how they worke so that it is not difficult to find the reason why some hard bodies breake easily and others with much adoe The first of which are called brittle the others tough For if you marke it all breaking requireth that beÌ„ding hould precede which on the one side compresseth the partes of the bended body and condenseth them into a lesser roome then they possessed before and on the otherside stretcheth them out and maketh them take vp more place This requireth some fluide or moueable substance to be within the body else it could not be done for without such helpe the partes could not remoue Therefore such hard bodies as haue most fluide partes in them are most flexible that is are toughest And those which haue fewest though they become thereby hardest to haue impression made vpon them yet if the force be able to do it they rather yield to breake then to bend and thence are called brittle Out of this we may inferre that some bodies may be so soddainely bent as that thereby they breake asunder whereas if they were leisurely and gently dealed withall they would take what ply one desireth And likewise that there is no body be it neuer so brittle and hard but that it will bend a litle and indeed more then one would expect if it be wrought vpon with time and dexterity for there is none but coÌ„taineth in it some liquide partes more or lesse euen glasse and bricke Vpon which occasion I remember how once in a great storme of wind I saw the high slender bricke chimnyes of the Kinges house att St Iames one winter when the ourt lay there bend from the wind like bowes and sharke exceedingly and totter And at other times I haue seen some very high and pointy spire steeples do the like And I haue beene assured the like of the whole pile of a high castle standing in a gullett in the course of the wind namely the castle of Wardour by those who haue often seene it shake notably in a fierce wind The reason of all which may be deduced out of what we haue said aboue for seeing that the bending of a body maketh the spirits or humors that are within it to sally forth it is cleare that if the violence which forceth it be not so soddaine nor the motion it receiueth be not so quicke but that the moisture may oose gently out the body will bend still more and more as their absence glueth it leaue But if the motion that is wrought in it be too quicke then the spirits not hauing time allowed them to goe leisurely and gently out do force their prison and breake out with a violence and so the body is snapped into two Here peraduenture some remembring what we haue said in an other place namely that it is the shortenesse and littlenesse of the humide partes in a body which maketh it sticke together and that this shortenesse may be in so high a degree as nothing can come betweene the partes they glew together to diuide them may aske how a very dense body of such a straine can be broken or diuided But the difficulty is not great for seeing that the humide partes in whatsoeuer degree of shortenesse they be must necessarily haue still some latitude it can not be doubted but there may be some force assigned greater then their resistance can be All the question is how to apply it to worke its effect vpon so close a compacted body in which peraduenture the continuity of the humide partes that bind the others together may be so small as no other body whatsoeuer no not fire can goe betweene them in such sort as to separate part from part Att the worst it can not be doubted but that the force may be so applyed att the outside of that body as to make the partes of it presse and fight one against an other and att the length by multiplication of the force constraine it to yield and suffer diuision And this I conceiue to be the condition of gold and of some pretious stones in which the Elements are vnited by such little partes as nothing but a ciuill warre within themselues stirred vp by some subtile outward enemy whereby they are made to teare their owne bowels could bring to passe their destruction But this way of dissoluing such bodies more properly belongeth to the next way of working vpon them by fire yet the same is done when some exterior violence pressing vpon those partes it toucheth maketh them cuâ—t a way betweene their next neighbours and so continuing the force diuide the whole body As when the chisell or euen the hammer with beating breaketh gold a sunder for it is neyther the chisell nor the hammer that doth that effect immediately but they make
gleweth their earthy partes together greater and greater doth make a wider and wider separation betweene those little earthy partes And so imbueth the whole body of the water with thē into which they are dispersed in little atomes Those that are of biggest bulke remaine lowest in the water And in the same measure as their quantities dissolue into lesse and lesse they ascend higher and higher in the water till att the length the water is fully replenished with them and they are diffused through the whole body of it whiles the more grosse and heauy earthy partes hauing nothing in them to make a present combination betweene them and the water do fall downe to the bottome and settle vnder the water in dust In which because earth alone doth predominate in a very great excesse we can expect no other vertue to be in it but that which is proper to meere earth to witt drynesse and weight Which ordinary Alchymistes looke not after and therefore call it Terra damnata but others find a fixing quality in it by which they performe very admirable operations Now if you powre the impregnated water from the Terra damnata and then euaporate it you will find a pure white substance remaining Which by its bulke sheweth it selfe to be very earthy and by its pricking and corrosiue tast will informe you much fire is in it and by its easy dissolution in a moist place that water had a great share in the production of it And thus the saltes of bodies are made and extracted Now as water doth dissolue salt so by the incorporation and vertue of that corrosiue substance it doth more then salt it selfe can doe for hauing gotten acrimony and more weight by the mixture and dissolution of salt in it it maketh it selfe a way into solide bodies euen into mettals as we see in brasse and iron which are easily rusted by salt dissoluing vpon them And according as the saltes are stronger so this corrosiue vertue encreaseth in them euen so much as neyther syluer nor gold are free from their eating quality But they as well as the rest are diuided into most small partes and are made to swimme in water in such sort as we haue explicated aboue and whereof euery ordinary Alchymist teacheth the practise But this is not all salts do helpe as well to melt hard bodies and mettalls as to corrode them for some fusible salts flowing vpon them by the heate of the fire and others dissolued by the streame of the mettall that incorporateth with them as soone as they are in fluxe they mingle with the naturall iuice of the mettall and penetrate them deeper then without them the fire could doe and swell them and make them fitt to runne These are the principall wayes of the two last instruments in dissoluing of bodies taking each of them by it selfe But there remaineth one more of very great importance as well in the workes of nature as of art in which both the former are ioyned and do concure and that is putrefraction Whose way of working is by gentle heate and moisture to wett and pierce the body it worketh vpon whereby it is made to swell and the hoat partes of it being loosened they are att length druncke vp and drowned in the moist ones from whence by fire they are easily separated as we haue already declared and those moist partes afterwardes leauing it the substance remaineth dry and falleth in pieces for want of the glew that held it together THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities af bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world OVt of what we haue determined concerning the naturall actions of bodies in their making and destroying one an other it is easy to vnderstand the right meaning of some termes and the true reason of some maximes much vsed in the schooles As first when Philosophers attribute vnto all sortes of corporeall Agents a Sphere of Actiuity The sense of that manner of expression in fire appeareth plainely by what we haue already declared of the nature and manner of operation of that Element And in like manner if we consider how the force of cold consisteth in a compression of the body that is made cold we may preceiue that if in the cooled body there be any subtile partes which can breake forth from the rest such compression will make them do so Especially if the compression be of little partes of the compressed body within themselues as well as of the outward bulke of the whole body round about for at first the compression of such causeth in the body where they are little holes or pores in the places they are compressed and driuen from which pores they filled vp when they were dilated att their owne naturall liberty But being thus forcibly shrunke vp into lesse roome afterwardes they squeese againe out of their croude all such very loose and subtile partes residing till then with them as can find their way out from among them And these subtile partes that thus are deliuered from the colds compression gett first into the pores that we haue shewed were made by this compression But they can not long stay there for the atomes of aduenient cold that obsesse the compressed body do likewise with all their force throng into those pores and soone driue out the subtile guestes they find there because they are more in number bigger in bulke and more violent in their course then they Who therefore must yield vnto them the little channels and capacities they formerly tooke vp Out of which they are thrust with such an impetuosity that they spinne from them with a vehemence as quickesiluer doth through leather when to purify it or to bring an Amalgame to a due consistence it is strained through the sides of it Now these shoures or streames of atomes issuing from the compressed body are on all sides round about it att exceeding little distances because the pores out of which they are driuen are so likewise And consequently there they remaine round about besieging it as though they would returne to their originall homes as soone as the vsurping strāgers that were too powerfull for thē will giue thē leaue And according to the multitude of thē and to the force with which they are driuen out the compasse they take vp round about the cōpressed body is greater or lesser Which besieging atomes are not so soone carried away by any exterior and accidentall causes but they are supplyed by new emanations succeeding them out of the said compressed body Now this which we haue declared by the example of cold cōpressing a particular body happeneth in all bodies wheresoeuer they be in the world for this being the vnauoydable effect of heate and of cold wheresoeuer they reside which are the actiue qualities by whose meanes not onely fire and water and the other two Elements but all other mixed bodies composed of the
or without by pressing vpon what containeth it and so making it selfe a way vnto it And that this latter way is able to worke this effect may be conuinced by the contrary effect from a contrary cause for take a bladder stretched out vnto its greatest extent by ayre shutt vp within it and hang it in a cold place and you will see it presently contract it selfe into a lesse roome and the bladder will grow wrinckeled and become too bigge for the ayre within it But for immediate proofe of this position we see that the addition of a very small degree of heate rarifyeth the ayre in a weather glasse the ayre receiuing the impression of heate sooner then water and so maketh it extend it selfe into a greater place and consequently it presseth vpon the water and forceth it downe into a lesse roome then formerly it possessed And likewise we see quickesyluer and other liquors if they be shutt vp in glasses close stopped and sett in sufficient heate and a little is sufficient for this effect they will swell and fill their glasses and att the last breake them rather then not find a way to giue themselues more roome which is then growne too straight in the glasse by reason of the rarefaction of the liquors by the fire working vpon them Now againe that this effect may be wrought by the inward heate that is enclosed in the bowels of the substance thus shutt vp both reason and experience do assure vs for they teach vs that if a body which is not extremely compacted but that by its loosenesse is easily diuisible into little partes such a one as wine or other spirittfull liquors be enclosed in a vessell the little atomes that perpetually moue vp and downe in euery space of the whole world making their way through euery body will sett on worke the little partes in the wine for example to play their game so that the hoat and light partes if they be many not enduring to be compressed and kept in by the heauy and cold ones do seeke to breake out with force and till they can free themselues from the dense ones that would imprison them they carry them along with them and make them to swell out as well as themselues Now if they be kept in by the vessell so that they haue not play enough they driue the dense ones like so many little hammers or wedges against the sides of it and att the length do breake it and so do make themselues way to a larger roome But if they haue vent the more fiery hoat spirits fly away and leaue the other grosser partes quiett and att rest On the other side if the hoat and light partes in a liquor be not many nor very actiue and the vessell be so full that the partes haue not free scope to remoue and make way for one an other there will not follow any great effect in this kind as we see in bottled beere or ale that worketh little vnlesse there be some space left empty in the bottle And againe if the vessell be very much too bigge for the liquor in it the fiery partes find roome first to swell vp the heauy ones and att the length to gett out from them though the vessell be close stopped for they haue scope enough to floate vp and downe between the surface of the liquor and the roofe of the vessell And this is the reason that if a little beere or small wine be left long in a great caske be it neuer so close stopped it will in time grow dead And then if att the opening of the bunge after the caske hath beene long vnstirred you hold a candle close to it you shall att the instant see a flash of flame enuironing the veâ—t Which is no other thing but the subtile spirits that parting from the beere or wine haue left it dead and flying abroad as soone as they are permitted are sett on fire by the flame that they meete with in their iourney as being more combustible because more subtile then that spiritt of wine which is kept in forme of liquor and yet that likewise though much grosser is sett on fire by the touch of flame And this happeneth not onely to wine and beere or ale but euen to water As dayly experience sheweth in the east Indian shippes that hauing beene 5. or 6. yeares att sea when they open some of their caskes of Thames water in their returne homewardes for they keepe that water till the last as being their best and most durable and that groweth lighter and purer by the often putrifyinges through violent motions in stormes euery one of which maketh new grosse and earthy partes fall downe to the bottome and other volatile ones ascend to the toppe a flame is seene about their bunges if a candle be neere as we said before of wine And to proceed with confirming this doctrine by further experience we dayly see that the little partes of heate being agitated and brought into motioÌ„ in any body they enter and pierce into other partes and incorporate themselues with them and sett them on fire if they be capable thereof as we see in wett hay or flaxe layed together in great quantity And if they be not capable of taking fire then they carry them with them to the outside and when they can transport them no further part flyeth away and other part stayeth with them as we see in new beere or ale and in must of wine in which a substance vsually called the mother is wrought vp to the toppe Which in wine will att the last be conuerted into Tartar when the spirits that are very volatile are flowne away and do leaue those partes from whence they haue euaporated more grosse and earthy then the others where the grosser and subtiler partes continue still mixed But in beere or rather in ale this mother which in them we call barme will continue longer in the same consistence and with the same qualities for the spirits of it are not so firy that they must presently leaue the body they haue incorporated themselues withall nor are hoat enough to bake it into a hard consistence And therefore bakers make vse of it to raise their bread which neyther it will do vnlesse it be kept from cold both which are euident signes that it worketh in force of heate and consequently that it continueth still a hoat and light substance And againe we see that after wine or beere hath wrought once a violent motion will make it worke anew As is dayly seene in great lightninges and in thunder and by much rocking of them for such motion rarifyeth and consequently heateth them partly by separating the little partes of the liquor which were before as glewed together and therefore lay quietly but now by their pulling asunder and by the liquors growing thereby more loose then it was they haue freedome to play vp and downe and partly by beating one part against an other which
breaketh and diuideth them into lesser atomes and so bringeth some of them into the state of fire which you may remember is nothing else but a body brought into such a degree of littlenesse and rarity of its partes And this is the reason why such hard and dry bodies as haue an vnctuous substance in them are by motion eyther easily sett on fire or att the least fire is easily gotten out of them As happeneth in flintes and in diuers other stones which yield fire when they are strucken and if presently after you smell vnto them you shall perceiue an odour of brimstone and of burning which is a certaine signe that the motion did conuert into fire the naturall brimstone that was mingled with the flint and whose denser partes were growne cold and so stucke to the stone And in like manner the iuywood and diuers others as also the Indian canes which from thence are called firecanes being rubbed with some other sticke of the same nature if they be first very dry will of themselues sett on fire and the like will happen to coach wheeles in summer if they be ouerheated with motion To conclude our discourse of rarefaction we may looke a little into the power and efficacity of it which is no where to be seene so clearly as in fire And as fire is the generall cause of rarefaction so is it of all bodies that which is most rarifyed And therefore it is no maruayle if its effects be the greatest that are in nature seeing it is the proper operatioÌ„ of the most actiue Element The wonderfull force of it we dayly see in thunder in gunnes in granados and in mines of which continuall experience as well as seuerall historyes wittnesseth litle lesse then miracles Leauing them to the remarkes of curious Persons we will onely looke into the way by which so maine effects do proceed from causes that appeare so slender It is euident that fire as we haue said before dilateth it selfe spherically as nature sheweth vs manifestly in bubbles of boyling water and of mike and generally of such substances as are of a viscous composition for those bubbles being round do assure vs that the cause which made them did equally dilate them from the center vnto all partes Now then remembring the infinite multiplication which is in fire we may conceiue that when a graine of gunnepouder is turned thereinto there are so many little bubbles of a viscous substance one backing an other with great celerity as there are partes of fire more then there were of gunnepouder And if we make a computation of the number and of the celerity of these bubbles we shall find that although euery one of them single do seeme to be of an inconsiderable force yet the whole number of them together will exceed the resistance of the body moued or broken by them especially if we note that when hard substances haue not time allowed them to yield they break the sooner And then we shall not so much admire the extremities we see acted by these meanes Thus hauing looked into the nature of rarefaction and traced the progresse of it from the motion of the sunne and fire in the next place we are to examine the nature of condensation And we shall oftentimes find it likewise an effect of the same cause otherwise working for there being two different wayes to dry any wett thing the one by taking away that iuice which maketh a body liquid the other by putting more drought to the wett body that it may imbibe the moisture this latter way doth as well as the former condense a body for by the close sticking of wett to dry the most part of condensation is effected in compounded bodies The first of these wayes doth properly and immediately proceed from heate for heate entering into a body incorporateth it selfe with the moist and viscous partes it findeth there as purging medicines do with the humors they worke vpon which when the stomacke can no longer entertaine by reason of their vnruly motions in wrestling together they are both eiected grappling with one an other and the place of their contention is thus by the superuenience of a guest of a contrary nature that will not stay long there purged from the superaboundance of the former ones that annoyed it Euen so the fire that is greedily drunke vp by the watry and viscous partes of a compounded body and whose actiuity and restlesse nature will not endure to be long emprisoned there quickly pierceth quite through â—he body it entereth into and after a while streameth out att the opposite side as fast as it entered on the side next to it and carryeth away with it those glewy partes it is incorporated with and by their absence leaueth the body they part from dryer then att the first it was Which course we may obserue in sirupes that are boyled to a consistence and in brothes that are consumed vnto a gelly ouer which whiles they are making by the fire vnder them you see a great steame which is the watry partes that being incorporated with fire fly away in smoake Likewise when the sea water is condensed into salt you see it is an effect of the sunne or fire that exhaleth or boyleth away all the palpable moisture And so when wett clothes are hanged eyther in the sunne or att the fire we see a smoake about the clothes and heate within them which being all drawne out from them they become dry And this deserueth a particular note that although they should be not quite dry when you take them from the fire yet by then they are coole they will be dry for the fire that is in them when they are remoued from the maine stocke of fire flying away carryeth with it the moisture that was incorporated with it and therefore whiles they were hoat that is whiles the fire was in them they must also be moist because the fire and the moisture were growne to be one body and could not become through dry with that measure of fire for more would haue dryed them euen whiles they where hoat vntill they were also growne through cold And in like manner sirupes hydromels gellies and the like grow much thicker after they are taken off from the fire then they were vpon the fire and much of their humidity flyeth away with the fire in their cooling whereby they lessen much of their quantity euen after the outward fire hath ceased from working vpon them Now if the moist partes that remaine after the drying be by the heate well incorporated in the dry partes and so do occasion the dry partes to sticke close together then that body is condensed and will to the proportion of it be heauyer in a lesse bulke as we see that mettalls are heauyer then stones Allthough this effect be in these examples wrought by heate yet generally speaking it is more proper to cold which is the second way of drying a moist body As
were lighter and consequently more rare then water because it swimmeth vpon it which is an effect of the ayres being contained in the belly of it as it is in yce not a signe of the mettalls being more rare then water Whereas on the contrary side the proofe is positiue and cleare for vs for it can not be denyed but that the mingling of the water with other bodies more dense then it must of necessity make the compound and also the water it selfe become more dense then it was alone And accordingly we see that yce halfe thawed for then much of the ayre is driuen out and the water beginneth to fill the pores wherein the ayre resided before sinketh to the bottome as an iron dish with holes in it whereby the water might gett into it would do And besides we see that water is more diaphanous then yce and yce more consistent then water Therefore I hope we shall be excused if in this particular we be of a contrary opinion to this great personage But to returne vnto the thridde of our discourse The same that passeth here before vs passeth also in the skye with snow haile raine and wind Which that we may the better vnderstand lett vs consider how windes are made for they haue a maine influence into all the rest When the sunne or by some particular occurrent rayseth great multitudes of atomes from some one place and they eyther by the attraction of the sunne by some other occasion do take their course a certaine way this motion of those atomes we call a wind which according to the continuance of the matter from whence these atomes rise endureth a longer or a shorter time and goeth a farther or a shorter way like a riuer or rather like those eruptions of waters which in the Notherne partes of England they call Gypsies the which do breake out att vncertaine times and vpon vncertaine causes and flow likewise with an vncertaine duration So these windes being composed of bodies in a determinate proportion heauyer then the ayre do runne their course from their hight to the ground where they are supported as water is by the floore of its channell whiles they performe their carrire that is vntill they be wasted eyther by the drawing of the sunne or by their sticking and incorporating into grosser bodies Some of these windes according to the complexion of the body out of which they are extracted are dry as those which come from barren mountaines couered with snow others are moist as those that come out of marishy or watry places others haue other qualities as of heate or cold of wholesomenesse or vnwholesomenesse and the like partly from the source and partly frō the bodies they are mingled with in their way Such then being the nature and origine of windes if a cold one do meete in the ayre with that moist body whereof otherwise raine would haue been made it changeth that moist body into snow or into haile if a dry wind meete with a wett body it maketh it more dry and so hindereth the raine that was likely to be but if the wett body ouercome the dry wind it bringeth the wind downe along with it as we see when a shoure of raine allayeth a great wind And that all this is so experience will in some particulars instruct vs as well as reason from whence the rest may be euidently inferred For we see that those who in imitation of nature would conuert water into yce do take snow or yce and mingle it with some actiue dry body that may force the cold partes of the snow from it and then they sett the water in some fitt vessell in the way that those little bodies are to take which by that meanes entering into it do straight incorporate themselues therewith and of a soddaine do conuert it into yce Which processe you may easily trye by mingling salt armoniake with the snow but much more powerfully by setting the snow ouer the fire whiles the glasse of water to be congealed standeth in it after the manner of an egg in salt And thus fire it selfe though it be the enemy and destroyer of all cold is made the instrument of freesing And the same reason holdeth in the cooling of wine with snow or yce when after it hath beene a competent time in the snow they whose charge it is do vse to giue the vessell that containeth the wine three or foure turnes in the snow so to mingle through the whole body of the wine the cold receiued first but in the outward partes of it and by pressing to make that without haue a more forcible ingression But the whole doctrine of Meteores is so amply so ingeniously and so exactely performed by that neuer enough praysed Gentleman Monsieur Des Cartes in his Meteorologicall discourses as I should wrong my selfe and my Reader if I dwelled any longer vpon this subiect And whose Physicall discourses had they beene diuulged before I had entered vpon this worke I am persuaded would haue excused the greatest part of my paines in deliuering the nature of bodies It were a fault to passe from treating of condensation without noting so ordinary an effect of it as is the ioyning together of partes of the same body or of diuers bodies In which we see for the most part that the solide bodies which are to be ioyned together are first eyther heated or moistened that is they are rarifyed and then they are left to cold ayre or to other cold bodies to thicken and condense as aboue we mentioned of syrupes and gellies and so they are brought to sticke firmely together In the like manner we see that when two mettalls are heated till they be almost brought to runninge and then are pressed together by the hammer they become one continued body The like we see in glasse the like in waxe and in diuers other thinges On the contrary side when a broken stone is to be pieced together the pieces of it must be wetted and the ciment must be likewise moistened and then ioyning them aptly and drying them they sticke fast together Glew is moistened that it may by drying afterwardes hold pieces of wood together And the spectaclemakers haue a composition which must be both heated and moistened to ioyne vnto handles of wood the glasses which they are to grinde And broken glasses are cimented with cheese and chalke or with garlike All these effects our sense euidently sheweth vs arise out of condēsation but to our reasō it belōgeth to examine particularly by what steppes they are performed Frst then we know that heate doth subtilise the little bodies which are in the pores of the heated body and partly also it openeth the pores of the body it selfe if it be of a nature that permitteth it as it seemeth those bodies are which by heate are mollifyed or are liquefactible Againe we know that moysture is more subtile to enter into small creekes then dry bodies are especially
the want of a continuall sucker But if the nose of that arme that hangeth out of the water be but euen with the water then the water will stand still in both pipes or armes of the syphon after they are filled with sucking But if by the running out of the water the outward pipe do grow shorter then to reach as low as the superficies of the water in the fountaine from whence it runneth in this case the water in each arme of the syphon will runne backe into the fountaine Withall it is to be noted that though the arme which is out of the water be neuer so long yet if it reach not lower then the superficies of the fountaine the ouer quantity and weight of the water there more then in the other arme helpeth it nothing to make it runne out Which is because the decliuity of the other arme ouerrecompenceth this ouerweight Not that the weight in the shorter pipe hath so much force as the weight in the longer pipe but because it hath more force then the greater weight doth exercise there in its running for the greatest part of its force tendeth an other way then to the end of the pipe to witt perpendicularly towardes the center And so is hindered from effect by the great sloaping or little decliuity of the pipe vpon which it leaneth But some considering how the water that is in the longer arme of the syphon is more in quantity then the water that is in the other arme of it whereat it runneth out do admire why the greater quantity of water doth not draw backe the lesse into the cisterne but suffereth it selfe to be lifted vp and drayned away as if it runne steeply downewardes And they imagine that hence may be deduced that the partes of water in the cisterne doe not weigh as long as they are within the orbe of their owne body Vnto when we answere that they should consider how that to haue the greater quantity of water which is in the longer arme of the syphon which arme is immersed in the water of the cisterne to draw backe into the cisterne the water which is in the other arme of the syphon that hangeth out in the ayre it must both raise as much of the water of the cisterne as its owne bulke is aboue the leuell which att present the whole bulke of water hath and withall it must att the same time pull vp the water which is in the other arme Now it is manifest that these two quantities of water together are heauyer then the water in the sunke arme of the syphon since one of them single is equall vnto it And by consequence the more water in the sunke arme can not weigh backe the lesse water in the hanging arme since that to do that it must att the same time weigh vp ouer and aboue as much more in the cisterne as it selfe weigheth But turning the argument I say that if once the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre be supposed to draw any water be it neuer so little out of the cisterne whether occasioned by sucking or by whatsoeuer other meanes it followeth that as much water as is drawne vp aboue the leuell of the whole bulke in the cisterne must needes presse into the suncken arme from the next adiacent partes that is from the bottome to supply its emptying and as much must of it selfe presse downe from aboue according to its naturall course when nothing violenteth it to rest in the place that the ascending water which is lower then it leaueth att liberty for it to take possession of And then it can not be doubted but that this descending water hauing all its weight in pressing downe applyed to driue vp the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon and the water in the other arme of the syphon without hauing all its weight in running out applyed att the same time to draw vp the same water in the sunke arme this single resistant must yield to their double and mastering force And consequently the water in the arme of the syphon that is in the ayre must needes draw the water that is in the other immersed arme as long as the end of its pipe reacheth lower then the leuell of the water in the cisterne for so long it appeareth by what we haue said it must needes be more weighty since part of the rising water in the sunke arme of the syphon is counterpoysed by as much descending water in the cisterne And thus it is euident that out of this experiment it can not be inferred that partes of water do not weigh within the orbe of their owne whole but onely that two equall partes of water in their owne orbe namely that which riseth in the sunken arme and that which presseth downe from the whole bulke in the cisterne are of equall weight and do ballance one an othet So that neuer so little oddes between the two counterpoysing parcells of water which are in the ayre must needes make the water runne out att that end of the syphon where the ouerweight of water is The attraction whose cause next to this is most manifest is that which is made by the force of heate or of fire for we see that fire euer draweth ayre vnto it so notably that if in a close roome there be a good fire a man that standeth att the dore or att the window especially without shall heare such a noise that he will thinke there is a great wind within the chamber The reason of this attraction is that fire rarifying the ayre which is next vnto it and withall spending it selfe perpetually causeth the ayre and his owne body mingled together to fly vp through the chimney or by some other passage Whence it followeth of necessity that the next body must succeed into the place of the body that is flowne away This next body generally is ayre whose mobility and fluidity beyond all other bodies maketh it of all others the fittest to be drawne and the more of it that is drawne the more must needes follow Now if there be floating in this ayre any other atomes subiect to the current which the ayre taketh they must also come with it to the fire and by it must be rarifyed and be exported out of that little orbe Hence it is that men with very good reason do hold that fire ayreth a chamber as we terme it that is purifyeth it both because it purifyeth it as wind doth by drawing a current of ayre into it that sweepeth through it or by making it purify it selfe by motion as a streame of water doth by running as also because those vapours which approach the fire are burned and dissolued So that the ayre being noysome and vnwholesome by reason of its grossenesse proceeding from its standing vnmoued like a stagnation of dead water in a marish place the fire taketh away that cause of annoyance By this very rule we learne that other hoat
haue formerly declared in the making of salt by force of fire This button thus dilated and brought to this passe we call the fruite of the plant whose harder part encloseth oftentimes an other not so hard as dry The reason whereof is because the outward hardenesse permitteth no moysture to soake in any aboundance through it and then that which is enclosed in it must needes be much dryed though not so much but that it still retaineth the common nature of the plant This drought maketh these inner partes to be like a kind of dult or att the least such as may be easily dryed into dust when they are brused out of the huske that encloseth them And in euery parcell of this dust the nature of the whole resideth as it were contracted into a small quantity for the iuice which was first in the button and had passed from the roote through the manifold varieties of the diuers partes of the plant and had suffered much concoction partly from the sunne and partly from the inward heate imprisoned in that harder part of the fruite is by these passages strainings and concoctions become att the length to be like a tincture extracted out of the whole plant and is att the last dryed vp into a kind of magistery This we call the seede which is of a fitt nature by being buried in the earth and dissolued with humour to renew and reciprocate the operation we haue thus described And thus you haue the formation of a Plant. But a sensiue creature being compared to a plant as a plant is to a mixed body you can not but conceiue that he must be compounded as it were of many plantes in like sort as a plant is of many mixed bodies But so that all the plants which concurre to make one animal are of one kind of nature and cognation and besides the matter of which such diuersity is to be made must of necessity be more humid and figurable then that of an ordinary plant and the artificer which worketh and mouldeth it must be more actiue Wherefore we must suppose that the masse of which an animal is to be made must be actually liquid and the fire that worketh vpon it must be so powerfull that of its owne nature it may be able to conuert this liquide matter into such breathes and steames as we see do vse to rise from water when the sunne or fire worketh vpon it Yet if the masse were altogether as liquide as water it would vanish away by heate boyling it and be dryed vp therefore it must be of such a conuenient temper that although in some of its partes it be fluide and apt to runne yet by others it must be held together as we see that vnctuous thinges for the most part are which will swell by heate but not flye away So then if we imagine a great heate to be imprisoned in such a liquour and that it seeketh by boyling to breake out but that the solidenesse and viscousnesse of the substance will not permitt it to euaporate it can not choose but comport it selfe in some such sort as we see butter or oyle in a frying panne ouer the fire when it riseth in bubbles but much more efficaciously for their body is not strong enough to keepe in the heate and therefore those bubbles fall againe whereas if it were those bubbles would rise higher and higher and stretch themselues longer and longer as when the soape boylers do boyle a strong vnctuous lye into soape and euery one of them would be as it were a litle brooke whereof the channell would be the enclosing substance and the inward smoake that extendeth it might be compared to the water of it as when a glasse is blowne out by fire and ayre into a long figure Now we may remember how we haue said where we treated of the production and resolution of mixed bodies that there are two sortes of liquide substantiall partes which by the operation of fire are sent out of the body it worketh vpon the watry and the oyly partes For though there appeare some times some very subtile and aethereall partes of a third kind which are the aquae ardentes or burning spirits yet in such a close distilling of circulation as this is they are not seuered by themselues but do accompagny the rest and especially the watry partes which are of a nature that the rising Ethereall spirits easily mingle with and extend themselues in it whereby the water becometh more efficacious and the spirits lesse fugitiue Of these liquide partes which the fire sendeth away the watry ones are the first as being the easiest to be raysed the oyly partes rise more difficultly and therefore do come last And in the same manner it happeneth in this emission of brookes the watry and oyly steames will each of them flye into different reserues and if there arriue vnto them aboundance of their owne quality each of them must make a substance of its owne nature by settling in a conuenient place and by due concoction Which substance after it is made and confirmed if more humidity and heate do presse it will againe break forth into other litle channels But when the watry and oyly partes are boyled away there remaine yet behind other more solide and fixed partes and more strongly incorporated with fire then eyther of these which yet can not drye vp into a fiery salt because a continuall accessiō of humour keepeth them alwayes flowing and so they become like a couldron of boyling fire Which must propagate it selfe as wide as eyther of the others since the actiuity of it must needes be greater then theirs as being the source of motion vnto them and that there wanteth not humidity for it to extend it selfe by And thus you see three rootes of three diuers plants all in the same plant proceeding by naturall resolution from one primitiue source Whereof that which is most watry is fittest to fabricate the body and common outside of the triformed plant since water is the most figurable principle that is in nature and the most susceptible of multiplication and by its cold is easyest to be hardened and therefore fittest to resist the iniuries of enemy bodies that may infest it The oyly partes are fittest for the continuance and solidity of the plant for we see that viscosity and oylinesse hold together the partes where they abound and they are slowly wasted by fire but do conserue and are an aliment to the fire that consumeth them The partes of the third kind are fittest for the conseruation of heate which though in them it be too violent yet it is necessary for working vpon other partes and for mainetaining a due temper in them And thus we haue armed our plant with three sortes of riuers or brookes to runne through him with as many different streames the one of a gentle balsamike oyle an other of streaming fire and the third of a connaturall and cooler water to irrigate
the distance of working vpon vs those only within whose sphere of actiuity we are planted can offend or aduantage vs and of them some are neere vs others further from vs. Those that are next vnto vs we discerne according as they are qualifyed eyther by our touch or by our tast or by our smelling which three senses do manifestly appeare to consist in a meere gradation of more or lesse grosse and their operations are leuelled to the three Elements that presse vpon vs earth water and ayre By our other two senses our hearing and our seeing we haue notice of thinges further off and the agents which worke vpon them are of a more refined nature But we must treat of them all in particular and that which we will beginne with shall be the touch as being the grossest of them and that which conuerseth with none but the most materiall and massye obiects We see it dealeth with heauy consistent bodies and iudgeth of them by coniunction vnto them and by immediate reception of something from them And according to the diuers impressions they make in it it distinguisheth them by diuers names which as we said of the qualities of mixed bodies are generally reduced to certaine payres as hoat and cold wett and drye soft and hard smooth and rough thicke and thinne and some others of the like nature which were needelesse to enumerate since we pretend not to deliuer the science of them but only to shew that they and their actions are all corporeall And this is sufficiently euident by meere repeating but their very names for it is plaine by what we haue already said that they are nothing else but certaine affections of quantity arising out of different degrees of rarity and density compounded together And it is manifest by experience that our sense receiueth the very same impressions from them which an other body doth for our body or our sense will be heated by fire and will also be burned by it if the heate be too great as well as wood it will be constipated by cold water moystened by humide thinges and dryed by dry bodies in the same manner as any other body whatsoeuer likewise it may in such sort as they be wounded and haue its continuity broken by hard thinges be pleased and polished by those that are soft and smooth be pressed by those that are thicke and heauy and be rubbed by those that are rugged c. So that those masters who will teach vs that the impressions vpon sense are made by spirituall or spiritelike thinges or qualities which they call intentionall specieses must labour att two workes the one to make it appeare that there are in nature such thinges as they would persuade vs the other to proue that these materiall actions we speake of are not able to performe those effects for which the senses are giuen vnto liuing creatures And vntill they haue done that I conceiue we should be much too blame to admitt such thinges as we neyther haue ground for in reason nor can vnderstand what they are And therefore we must resolue to rest in this beliefe which experience breedeth in vs that these bodies worke vpon our senses no other wayes then by a corporeall operation and that such a one is sufficient for all the effects we see proceede from them as in the processe of this discourse we shall more amply declare The element immediately next to earth in grossenesse is water And in it is the exercise of our tast our mouth being perpetually wett within by meanes of which moysture our tongue receiueth into it some litle partes of the substance which we chewe in our teeth and which passeth ouer it You may obserue how if we take any herbe or fruite and hauing chopped or beatē it small we thē putt it into a wooden dish of water and do squeese it a litle the iuice communicating and mingling it selfe with the water infecteth it with the tast of it selfe and remaining a while in the bowle sinketh by litle and litle into the very pores of the wood as is manifest by its retaining a long time after the tast and smell of that herbe In like manner nature hath taught vs by chewing our meate and by turning it into our mouthes and pressing it a litle that we may the more easily swallow it to imbue our spittle with such litle partes as easily diffuse themselues in water And then our spittle being continuate to the moysture which is within our tongue in such sort as we declared of the moysture of the earth that soaketh into the roote of a plant and particularly in the sinewes of it must of necessity affect those litle sensible stringes with the qualities which these petty bodies mixed euery where with the moysture are themselues imbued withall And if you aske what motions or qualities these be Physitians vnto whom it belongeth most particularly to looke into them will tell you that some dilate the tongue more and some lesse as if some of these litle bodies had an aereall and others a watry disposition and these two they expresse by the names of sweete and fatty That some do contract and draw the tongue together as choaky and rough thinges do most and next to them crabby and immature sharpenesse That some do corrode and pierce the tongue as salt and soure thinges That bitter thinges do search the outside of it as if they swept it and that other thinges do as it were pricke it as spices and hoat drinkes Now all these are sensible materiall thinges which admitt to be explicated clearely by the varieties of rarity and density concurring to their compositions and are so proportionable to such materiall instruments as we can not doubt but that they may be throughly declared by our former principles The next element aboue water is ayre which our nosethrilles being our instrument to sucke in we can not doubt but what affecteth a man by his nose must come vnto him in breath or ayre And as humidity receiueth grosser and weightier partes so those which are more subtile and light do rise vp into the ayre and these we know attaine vnto this lightnesse by the commixtion of fire which is hoat and dry And therefore we can not doubt but that the nature of smell is more or lesse tending to heate and drought which is the cause that their commixtion with the braine proueth comfortable vnto it because of its owne disposition it is vsually subiect to be too moyst and too cold Whether there be any immediate instrument of this sense to receiue the passion or effect which by it other bodies make vpon vs or whether the sense it selfe be nothing but a passage of these exhalations and litle bodies vnto the braine fittly accommodated to discerne what is good or hurtfull for it and accordingly to moue the body to admitt or reiect them importeth not vs att present to determine lett Physitians and Anatomistes resolue that question
noysome smell that would almost poysone an other man And thus if in the breath of the wolfe or in the steame coming from his body be any quality offensiue to the lambe as it may very well be where there is so great a contrariety of natures it is not strange that at the first sight and approach of him he should be distempered and fly from him as one fighting cocke will do from an other that hath eaten garlike and the same happeneth between the weasell and the toade the lyon and the cocke the toade and the spider and seuerall other creatures of whom like enmities are reported All which are caused in them not by secret instincts and antipathies and sympathies whereof we can giue no account with the bare sound of which wordes most men do pay themselues without examining what they meane but by downe right materiall qualities that are of contrary natures as fire and water are and are eyther begotten in them in their originall constitution or are implanted in them afterwardes by their continuall foode which nourishing them changeth thier constitution to its coÌ„plexion And I am persuaded this would goe so farre that if one man were nourished continually with such meate and greedily affected it which an other had auersion from there would naturally follow much dislike betweene them vnlesse some superiour regard should master this auersion of the sense And I remember to haue seene two notable examples of it the one in Spaine of a Gentleman that had a horrour to garlike who though he was very subiect to the impressions of beauty could neuer weane himselfe from an auersion he had settled him to a very handsome woman that vsed to eate much garlike though to winne him she forebore the vse of that meate which to her was the most sauory of all others And the like I knew in EnglaÌ„d betweene two whereof the one did extremely loue cheese and the other as much hated it and would fall into a strange agony and be reduced one would thinke to the point of death if by inaduertence or others tryall of him he had swallowed neuer so litle of what the other would haue quitted all meates else to liue vpon And not only such auersions as spring from differences of complexions in the constitutions of seuerall animals do cause these effects of feare and of trembling and of flying from those that do make such impressions but euen the seeing them angry and in fury doth the like for such passions do alter the spirits and they issuing from the body of the animal in passion can not choose but be receiued by an other in a different manner then if they were of an other temper Then if the one kind be agreeable to their nature the other must needes be displeasing And this may be the reason why bees neuer sting such as are of a milde and gentle disposition and will neuer agree with others that are of a froward and angry nature And the same one may obserue among dogges and peraduenture a mans fantasy may be raised to such a height of fury that the fiercest beastes may be affraide to looke vpon him and can not endure that those mastering spirits which streame out of the mans eyes should come into his so much they distemper his fantasy and therefore he will turne away from the man and auoyde him Which discourse may be coÌ„firmed by sundry examples of lyons and beares that haue runne from angry and confident men and the like Since then a man that in his naturall hew giueth no distast doth so much affright fiercest beastes when he putteth on his threatning lookes it is no wonder that beastes of a milder and softer nature should haue feare of him settled in them when they neuer saw him otherwise then angry and working mischiefe to them And since their brood do receiue from their parents a nature easily moued vnto feare or anger by the sight of what moued them it is not strange that at the first sight they should tremble or swell according as the inward motion of the spirits affordeth Now if this hath rendered the birdes in the wilde Islandes affraide of men who otherwise would be indifferent to them it is no maruayle to see more violent effects in the lambes auersion from the wolfe or in the larkes from the hobbey since they peraduenture haue ouer and aboue the hurt they vse to do them a diâ—formity in their constitutions and therefore though a larke will flye as well from a man as from a hobbey yet because there is one cause more for his dislike against the hobbey then against the man namely the diâ—formity of their constitutions he will flye into the mans hand to auoyde the hawkes talons Vnto some of these causes all antipathies may be reduced and the like reason may be giuen for the sympathies we see betweene some creatures The litle corporeities which issue from the one haue such a conformity with the temper of the other that it is thereby moued to ioyne it selfe vnto the body from whence they flow and affecteth vnion with it in that way as it receiueth the impression If the smell do please it the beast will alwayes be smelling at it if the tast nothing shall hinder it from feeding vpon it when it can reach it The fishermen vpon the banke ouer against newfound land do report that there flocketh about them a kind of bird so greedy of the fishes liuers which they take there as that to come at them and feede vpon them they will suffer the men to take them in their handes and will not fly away as long as any of their desired meate is in their eye whence the French men that fish there do call them Happe foyes The like power a certaine worme hath with nigthingales And thus you see how they are strong impressions vpon sense and not any discourse of reason that do gouerne beastes in their actions for if their auoyding men did proceed from any sagacity in their nature surely they would exercise it when they see that for a bitte of meate they incurre their destruction and yet neyther the examples of their fellowes killed before their eyes in the same pursuite nor the blowes which themselues do seele can serue them for warning where the sense is so strongly affected but as soone as the blow that remoued them is passed if it misle killing or laming them and they be gotten on wing againe they will returne to their prey as eagerly and as confidently as if nothing were there to hinder them This then being the true reason of all sympathy and antipathy we can not admitt that any beastes should loue or hate one on other for any other cause then some of those we haue touched All which are reduced to locall motion and to materiall application of bodies of one nature to bodies of an other and are as well transmitted to their yong ones as begotten in themselues and as the
conception of Being is from all others that enter by our senses as from the conceptions of colours of soundes and the like if we but reflect vpon that act in vs which maketh it and then compare it with the others for we shall find that all they do consist in or of certaine respects betwixt two thinges whereas this of Being is an absolute and simple conception of it selfe without any relation to ought else and can not be described or expressed with other wordes or by comparing it to any other thing only we are sure we vnderstand and know what it is But to make this point the clearer it will not be amisse to shew more particularly wherein the other sort of apprehensions are different from this of Being and how they consist in certaine respects betweene differēt thinges and are knowne only by those respects whereas this is knowne only in it selfe abstracting from all other thinges whatsoeuer An example will do it best when I apprehend the whitenesse in the wall I may consider how that white is a thing which maketh such an impression vpon my fantasy and so accordingly I know or expresse the nature of white by a respect or proportion of the wall to worke vpon my fantasy In like manner if we take a notion that ariseth out of what entereth immediately by our senses for by ioyning such also to the notion of Being we make ordinary apprehensions we shall find the same nature as when I consider how this white wall is like to an other white wall the apprehension of likenesse that I haue in my mind is nothing else but a notion arising out of the impression which both those walles together do make vpon my fantasy so that this apprehension is as the former a certaine kind of respect or proportion of the two walles to my imagination not as they make their impressions immediately vpon it but as an other notion ariseth out of comparing the seuerall impressions which those two white walles made in it Lett vs proceede a litle further and examine what kind of thing that is which we call respect or proportion and where it resideth We shall find that there is a very great difference betweene what it is in it selfe or in its owne essence and what it is in the thinges that are respectiue for in them it is nothing else but the thinges being plainely and bluntly what they are really in themselues as for example two white walles to be like is in them nothing else but each of them to be white and two quantities to be halfe and whole is in them nothing else but each quantity to be iust what it is But a respect in its owne nature is a kind of tye comparison tending or order of one of those thinges to an other and is no where to be found in its formall subsistence but in the apprehension of man and therefore it can not be described by any similitude nor be expressed by any meanes but like Being by the sound of a word which we are agreed vpon to stirre vp in vs such a notion for in the thinges it is not such a thing as our notion of it is which notion is that which we vse to expresse by prepositions and coniunctions and which Aristotle and Logitians expresse in common by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ad and therefore there is nothing out of vs to paint it by as I could do white or square or round or the like because these haue a being in the thinges that are white or square c and consequently they may be expressed by others of the like nature but the likenesse that one white hath to an other or the respect that eyther of them hath to mans imagination is only in Man who by comparing them giueth birth to the nature and Being of respect Out of this discourse we may collect two singularities of man which will much import vs to take particular notice of the one is that Being or a thing the formall notion of both which is meerely Being is the proper affection of man for euery particular thing is in him by being as I may say grafted vpon the stocke of Existence or of Being and accordingly we see that whatsoeuer we speake of we say it is something and whatsoeuer we conceiue we giue it the nature of a thing as when we haue said the wall is white we frame whitenesse as a thing so did we immediately before speaking of Respect we tooke respect as it were a thing and enquired where it is so that it is euident that all the negotiation of our vnderstanding tradeth in all that is apprehended by it as if they were thinges The other singularity we may obserue in man is that he is a comparing power for all his particular knowledges are nothing else but respects or comparisons betweene particular thinges as for example for a man to know heate or cold c is to know what effects fire or water c can worke vpon such or such bodies Out of the first of these proprieties it followeth that what affecteth a man or maketh impression vpon his vnderstanding doth not thereby loose its owne peculiar nature nor is it modifyed to the recipient the contrary of which we see happeneth perpetually in bodies obserue the sustenance we take which that it may be once part of our body is first changed into a substance like our body and ceaseth being what it was whē water or any liquid body is receiued into a vessell it looseth its owne figure and putteth on the figure of the vessell it is in if heate entereth into a body that is already hoat that heate becometh thereby more heate if into a cold body it is conuerted into warmeth and in like manner all other corporeall thinges are accommodated to the qualities of the recipient and in it they loose their owne proper termes and consistences but what cometh into the vnderstanding of a man is in such sort receiued by him or ioyned to him that it still retaineth its owne proper limitations and particular nature notwithstanding the assūption of it vnto him for Being is ioyned to euery thing there since as we haue said it is by Being that any thing cometh thither and consequently this stocke of Being maketh euery graft that is inoculated into it Be what of its owne nature it is for Being ioyned to an other notion doth not change that notion but maketh it be what it was before sithence if it should be changed Being were not added to it as for example adde Being to the notion of knife and it maketh a knife or that notion to Be a knife and if after the addition it doth not remaine a knife it was not Being that was added to a knife Out of the later of the singularities proper to man it followeth that multitude of thinges may be vnited in him without suffering any confusion among themselues but euery one of them
different from that which is vsed in bodies and among materiall thinges And if you obiect that not only a body but euen any other substance whatsoeuer suppose it as spirituall as you will can not be eyther like or identifyed to nothing and therefore this argument will as well proue that the soule is not a thing or substance as that it is not a body we answere that it is euident out of what we haue already said that the vnderstanding is not the obiects it vnderstandeth by way of similitude but by a higher meanes which we haue shewed to be by way of Respects Now then the respect which a thing hath to an other thing by not hauing such a respect vnto it as a third thing formerly considered hath therevnto may be expressed in way of Respects though it can not in way of similitude and so our vnderstanding is able to expresse what neyther our fansy nor any corporeall thing can arriue to the expression of as when first we find that one man hath a respect to the wall which we call the power of seeing it if afterwardes we find that an other man hath a respect vnto the wall of impotence that he can not see it this second respect the vnderstanding hath a power to expresse as well as the first as we haue touched aboue As for the opposition that occurreth in our thoughts we may consider it of two kindes the one is of the thinges or obiects that come into our thougths or into our soule and this is not properly an opposition in the soule for although the thinges be opposite by their owne nature in themselues yet they do not exercise their opposition in the soule nay though the oppositiō be euen in the soule it selfe if the soule with this oppositiō be considered as an obiect it maketh no opposition in the soule for so you may consider your soule learned and vnlearned ignorant and knowing good and bad and the like all which are oppositions in a soule supposed to be so qualifyed but are no oppositions in a soule that considereth them no more then fire and water heauy thinges and light white and blacke being and not being an affirmatiue proposition and its negatiue and the like all which are in themselues so contrary and opposite to one an other that they can not consist together in one subiect they haue an incompossibility among themselues wheresoeuer the one of them is by its very entrance it driueth out its opposite and yet in the soule they agree together without reluctance she knoweth and considereth and weigheth both sides of the scale at the same time and ballanceth them euenly one against an other for vnlesse both the opposites were in the same instant in the same comparing power that power could not by one act whose beginning implyeth its ending iudge the difference and opposition of them as when we say blacke is contrary to white or darkenesse is the want of light we pronounce one common not being of both extremes We may then boldely conclude that since no body whatsoeuer can entertaine at the same time and in the same place these quarrelling Antagonistes but that by their conflict they presently destroy one an other and peraduenture the body too into which they presse for entrance and the entire possession of which each of them striueth for those of them I meane that are proportioned to the reception of bodies and that the soule imbibeth them together without any difficulty or contrast and preserueth them allwayes frendes euen in the face of one an other and lodgeth them together in the same bed and that in a word these opposite thinges do enioy an admirable and vnknowne manner of Being in the soule and which hath no parallele nor argument in bodily thinges we may I say boldely conclude that the soule it selfe in which all these are is of a nature and hath a manner of Being altogether vnlike the nature of bodies and their manner of Being Out of this agreeing of all obiects in the soule and their hauing no opposition there euen whiles she knoweth the opposition that is betweene them in themselues there followeth an other consideration of no lesse importance which is that the amplitude of our soule in respect of knowledge is absolutely infinite that is to say she is capable of knowing at the same time obiects without end or measure For the explicating whereof we are to cōsider that the latter conclusions which the soule gaineth knowledge of do hang to the former by identificatiō or by the soules seeing that two notions are identifyed because they are identifyed to a third as is before expressed and the first principles which seeme to be immediately ioyned vnto the soule haue the identity of their termes plaine and euident euen in the very termes themselues Nay if we insist further we shall find that the first truthes must haue an identification to the very soule it selfe for it being euident that truth or falsehoode is not in the soule but so farre forth as she doth apply her selfe to the externall obiect or to the existence of thinges in themselues and that we find that the soules knowing with euidence that any thing is or hath being implyeth her knowing that her selfe is for she can not know that a thing seemeth so to her or maketh such an impression in her without knowing that her selfe is though peraduenture she may not know what her selfe is but taketh her selfe to be no other thing then the body of the man in which she is it is euident that the first truthes which enter into the soule to witt that this or that seemeth so or so vnto her and these truthes no sceptike euer doubted of are identifyed with the soule it selfe seeing that an obiects seeming to be such or such is nothing else but the soule so qualifyed And by this we find that the certainty of the first Principles as for example of this Proposition That the whole is bigger then the Part will depend in a particular soule of her certainty of her owne Being for although this proposition would haue a necessity in the very connexion of the termes notwithstanding there were not in nature any whole or Part yet this necessity would not be a necessity of Existence or of Being in the obiect but a necessity of connexion as it were of two partes of the soule and so if verity and falsity be not perfectly in the soule but in comparison to actuall existence the soule would not be perfectly true or to say more properly would not haue the perfection of truth in her by hauing or knowing this proposition vnlesse withall she were certaine that there were existēt an obiect of this Propositiō of which as we haue said she can not be certaine without being certaine of her owne Being so that in effect the identification of other thinges among themselues by which such thinges are knowne doth come at the last to be retriued in
surfaces 9 A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores 10 A coÌ„firmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1 The coÌ„nexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2 That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire 3 The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4 The second sort of coniunction is coÌ„pactednesse in simple Elements and it proceedeth from density 5 The third coniunction is of partes of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together 6 The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly 7 That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately 8 How mixed bodies arâ— framed in generall 9 The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10 The rule wherevnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11 Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12 What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two 13 Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element 14 What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15 Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16 Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other threâ— Elements 17 Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominâ—t Element ouer the other two 18 Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant 19 Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20 All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density 21 That in the planets and starres there is a like varietâ— of mixed bodies caused by light as here vpon Earth 22 In what maÌ„ner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the compositioÌ„ of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue 23 A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls 1 Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies 2 How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies 3 The seuerall effects of fire the second and chiefest instrumeÌ„t to dissolue all coÌ„pounded bodies 4 The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire 5 The reason why fire molteth gold but can not consume it 6 Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7 Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are 8 How water the third iâ—strumeÌ„t to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata 9 How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies 10 How putrefactioÌ„ is caused 1 What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents 2 The reason why no body can worke in distance 3 An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiomâ— 4 Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each AgeÌ„t must suffer in acting and actâ— in suffering 5 The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6 Why some notions do admitt of intension and Remission and others do not 7 That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure ElemeÌ„ts are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke 1 The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2 That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward and inward heat and how this is performed 3 Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4 The first manner of condensation by heate 5 The second manner of condensation by cold 6 That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed 7 How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed 8 How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation 9 Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstaÌ„ding receiue more of an other 10 The true reason of the former effect 11 The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others 1 What AttractioÌ„ is and from whence it proceedeth 2 The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity 3 The true reasâ— of attraction 4 Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer 5 The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons 6 That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe 7 Concerning attraction caused by fire 8 Concerning attractioÌ„ made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. 9 The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall 1 What is Filtration and how it is effected 2 What causeth the water in filtration to ascend 3 Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water 4 Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5 Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely 6 Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch 7 How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles 8 Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it 9 Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motâ—ons 1 The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiacke draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone Chap. 18. §. 7. 2 The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other 3 By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuatâ—d from one Pole to the other 4 Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5 This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone 6 A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect 7 The Loadestones generatioÌ„ by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe 8 Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2 Obiections against the former positioÌ„ answered 3 The loadestone is imbued
consider further that as this superficies hath in it selfe so the body enclosed in it gaineth a certaine determinate respect unto the stable and immoouable bodies that enuiron it As for example we vnderstand such a tree to be in such a place by hauing such and such respects to such a hill neere it or to such a house that standeth by it or to such a riuer that runneth vnder it or to such an immoouable point of the heauen that from the sunnes rising in the aequinox is called east and such like To which purpose it importeth not whether these that we call immoouable bodies and pointes be truly so or do but seeme so to mankinde For man talking of thinges according to the notions he frameth of them in his minde speech being nothing else but an expression to an other man of the images he hath within himselfe and his notions being made according to the seeming of the thinges he must needes make the same notions whether the thinges be truly so in themselues or but seeme to be so when that seeming or appearance is alwayes constantly the same Now then when one body diuiding an other getteth a new immediate cloathing and consequently new respects to the stable and immoouable bodies or seeming such that enuiron it we do vary in our selues the notion we first had of that thing conceiuing it now accompanied with other circumstances and other respects then formerly it had Which notion we expresse by saying it hath changed its place and is now no longer where it was att the first And this change of place we call Locall motion to witt the departing of a body from that hollow superficies which inclosed it and its changing vnto an other whereby it gaineth new respects to those partes of the world that haue or in some sort may seeme to haue immobility and fixed stablenesse So as hence it is euident that the substance of locall motion consisteth in diuision and that the alteration of Locality followeth diuision in such sort as becoming like or vnlike of one wall to an other followeth the action whereby one of them becometh white And therefore in nature we are not to seeke for any entity or speciall cause of applying the mooued body to a place as place which is but a respect consequent to the effect of diuision but onely to consider what reall and physicall action vniteth it to that other body which is called its place and truly serueth for that effect And consequently they who thinke they haue discouered a notable subtility by bringing in an Entity to vnite a body to its place haue strained beyond theire strength and haue grasped but a shadow Which will appeare yet more euident if they but marke well how nothing is diuisible but what of it selfe abstracting from diuision is one For the nature of diuision is the making of many which implyeth that what is to be diuided must of necessity be not many before it be diuided Now quantity being the subiect of diuision it is euident that purely of it selfe and without any force or adioyned helpes it must needes be one wheresoeuer some outward agent doth not introduce multiplicity vpon it And whensoeuer other thinges worke vpon quantity as quantity it is not the nature and power of theire operation to produce vnity in it and make it one for it is already one but contrariwise the immediate necessary effect that floweth from them in this case is to make one quantity many according to the circumstances that accompany the diuider and that which is to be diuided And therefore although wee may seeke causes why some one thing sticketh faster together then some other yet to aske absolutely why a body sticketh together were preiudiciall to the nature of quantity whose essence is to haue partes sticking together or rather to haue such vnity as without it all diuisibility must be excluded Out of which discourse it followeth that in locall motion we are to looke only for a cause or power to diuide but not for any to vnite For the very nature of quantity vniteth any two partes that are indistant from one an other without needing any other cement to glew them together as we see the partes of water and all liquide substances do presently vnite themselues to other partes of like bodies when they meete with them and to solide bodies if they chance to be next vnto them And therefore it is vaine to trouble our heades with Vnions and imaginary Moodes to vnite a body to the place it is in when theire owne nature maketh them one as soone as they are immediate to each other And accordingly if when we see a boule mooue we would examine the causes of that motion we must consider the quantity of ayre or water it maketh to breake from the partes next vnto it to giue place vnto it selfe and not speculate vpon an intrinsecall relation from the body to a certaine part of the imaginary space they will haue to runne through all thinges And by ballancing that quantity of ayre or water which it diuideth we may arriue to make an estimate of what force the boule needeth to haue for its motion Thus hauing declared that the locality of motion is but an extrinsecall denomination and no reality in the thing mooued wee may now cast an eye vpon a vast consequence that may be deduced out of what wee haue hitherto said For if we consider the nature of a body that is that a body is a body by quantity and that the formall notion of quantity is nothing else but diuisibility and that the adaequate act of diuisibility is diuision it is euident there can be no other operation vpon quantity nor by consequence among bodies but must eyther be such diuision as we haue here explicated or what must necessarily follow out of such diuision And diuision as we haue euen now explicated being locall motion it is euident that all operations among bodies are either locall motion or such as follow out of locall motion Which conclusion howsoeuer vnexpected and may att the first hearing appeare a Paradoxe will neuerthelesse by the ensuing worke receiue such euidence as it can not be doubted of and that not onely by force of argumentation and by necessity of notions as is already deduced but also by experience and by declaration of particulars as they shall occurre But now to apply what we haue said to our proposed subiect it is obuious to euery man that seeing the diuider is the agent in diuision and in locall motion and that dense bodies are by theire nature diuiders the earth must in that regard be the most actiue among the Elements since it is the most dense of them all But this seemeth to be against the common iudgement of all the searchers of nature who vnanimously agree that fire is the most actiue Element As also it seemeth to impugne what we our selues haue determined when we said there were two