vniuersality or particularity for that vnity which the two termes whose identification is enquired after must haue by being ioyned with the third becometh much varied by such diuers application and from hence shooteth vp that multitude of kindes of syllogismes which our Logitians call moodes All which I haue thus particularly expressed to the end we may obserue how this great variety hangeth vpon the sole string of identity Now these Syllogismes being as it were interlaced and wouen one within an other so that many of them do make a long chaine whereof each of them is a linke do breede or rather are all the variety of mans life they are the stepps by which we walke in all our conuersations and in all our businesses man as he is man doth nothing else but weaue such chaines whatsoeuer he doth swaruing from this worke he doth as deficient from the nature of man and if he do ought beyond this by breaking out into diuers sortes of exteriour actions he findeth neuerthelesse in this linked sequele of simple discourses the art the cause the rule the boundes and the modell of it Lett vs take a summary view of the vast extent of it and in what an immeÌ„se Ocean one may securely sayle by that neuer varying compasse when the needle is rightly touched and fitted to a well moulded boxe making still new discoueries of regions farre out of the sight and beliefe of them who stand vpon the hither shore Humane operations are comprised vnder the two generall heades of knowledge and of action if we looke but in grosse vpon what an infinity of diuisions these branch themselues into we shall become giddy our braines will turne our eyes will grow weary and dimme with ayming only att a suddaine and rouing measure of the most conspicuous among them in the way of knowledge We see what mighty workes men haue extended their labours vnto not only by wild discourses of which huge volumes are coÌ„posed but euen in the rigorous methode of Geometry Arithmetike and Algebra in which an Euclide an Apollonius an Archimedes a Diophantus and their followers haue reached such admirable heights and haue wound vp such vast bottomes sometimes shewing by effects that the thing proposed must needes be as they haue sett downe and can not possibly be any otherwise otherwhiles appaying the vnderstanding which is neuer truly at rest till it hath found the causes of the effects it seeth by exposing how it cometh to be so that the reader calling to mind how such a thing was taught him before and now finding an other vnexpectedly conuinced vpon him easily seeth that these two put together do make and force that third to be whereof he was before in admiration how it could be effected which two wayes of discourse are ordinarily knowne by the names of Demonstrations the one called a Priori the other a Posteriori Now if we looke into the extent of the deductions out of these we shall find no end In the heaueÌ„s we may perceiue Astronomy measuring whatsoeuer we can imagine and ordering those glorious lights which our Creator hath hanged out for vs and shewing them their wayes and pricking out their pathes and prescribing them for as many ages as he pleaseth before hand the various motions they may not swarue from in the least circumstance Nor want there sublime soules that tell vs what mettall they are made of what figures they haue vpon what pillars they are fixed and vpon what gimals they moue and performâ— their various periodes wittnesse that excellent and admirable worke I haue so often mentioned in my former Treatise If we looke vpon the earth we shall meete with those that will tell vs how thicke it is and how much roome it taketh vp they will shew vs how men and beastes are hanged vnto it by the heeles how the water and ayre do couer it what force and power fire hath vpon them all what working is in the depths of it and of what composition the maine body of it is framed where neyther our eyes can reach nor any of our senses can send its messengers to gather and bring back any relations of it Yet are not our Masters contented with all this the whole world of bodies is not enough to satisfy them the knowledge of all corporeall thinges and of this vast machine of heauen and earth with all that they enclose can not quench the vnlimited thirst of a noble minde once sett on fire with the beauty and loue of truth Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi Vt Gyarae clausus scopulis paruâque seripho But such heroike spirits cast their subtile nettes into an other world after the winged inhabitans of the heauens and find meanes to bring them also into account and to serue them how imperceptible soeuer they be to the senses as daynties at the soules table They enquire after a maker of the world we see and are ourselues a maine part of and hauing found him they conclude him oâ—t of the force of contradiction to be aeternall infinite omnipotent omniscient immutable and a thousand other admirable qualities they determine of him They search after his tooles and instruments wherewith he built this vast and admirable pallace and seeke to grow acquainted with the officiers and stewardes that vnder him gouerne this orderly and numerous family They find them to be inuisible creatures exalted aboue vs more then we can estimate yet infinitely further short of their and our maker then we are of them If this do occasion them to cast their thoughts vpon man himselfe they find a nature in him it is true much inferiour to these admirable Intelligences yet such an one as they hope may one day arriue vnto the likenesse of them and that euen at the present is of so noble a moulde as nothing is too bigge for it to faddome nor any thing too small for it to discerne Thus we see knowledge hath no limits nothing escapeth the toyles of science all that euer was that is or can euer be is by them circled in their extent is so vast that our very thoughts and ambitioÌ„s are too weake and too poore to hope for or to ayme at what by them may be coÌ„passed And if any man that is not invred to raise his thoughts aboue the pitch of the outward obiects he coÌ„uerseth dayly with should suspect that what I haue now said is rather like the longing dreames of passionate louers whose desires feede them with impossibilities then that it is any reall truth or should imagine that it is but a poetike Idea of science that neuer was or will be in act or if any other that hath his discoursing faculty vitiated and peruerted by hauing beene imbued in the schooles with vnsound and vmbratile principles should persuade himselfe that howsoeuer the pretenders vnto learning and science may talke loude of all thinges and make a noise with scholastike termes and persuade their ignorant hearers that they speake
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
of Physickes hath demonstrated that there can be no motion in vacuity It is true they endeauour to euade his demonstration as not reaching home to theire supposition by acknowledging it to be an euident one in such a vacuity as he there speaketh of which he supposed to be so great a one that a body may swimme in it as in an ocean and not touch or be neere any other body whereas this opinion excludeth all such vast inanity and admitteth no vacuities but so litle ones as no body whatsoeuer can come vnto but will be bigger then they and consequently must on some side or other touch the corporeall partes which those vacuities diuide for they are the seperations of the least partes that are or can be actually diuided from one an other which partes must of necessity touch one an other on some side or else they could not hang together to compose one substance and therefore the diuiding vacuities must be lesse then the diuided partes And thus no body will euer be in danger of floating vp and downe without touching any thing which is the difficulty that Aristotle chiefely impugneth I confesse I should be very glad that this supposition might serue our turne and saue the Phoenomena that appeare among bodies through theire variety of Rarity and Density which if it might be then would I straight go on to the inquiring after what followed out of this ground as Astronomers to vse our former similitude do calculate the future appearances of the celestiall bodies out of those motions and orbes they assigne vnto the heauens For as this apprehension of vacuity in bodies is very easy and intelligibile so the other which I conceiue to be the truth of the case is exceedingly abstracted and one of the most difficult pointes in all the Metaphysickes and therefore I would if it were possible auoyde touching vpon it in this discourse which I desire should be as plaine and easy and as much remooued from scholasticke termes as may be But indeed the inconueniences that follow out of this supposition of vacuities are so great as it is impossible by any meanes to slide them ouer As for example lett vs borrow of Galilaeus the proportion of weight betweene water and ayre He sheweth vs how the one is 400 times heauyer then the other And Marinus Ghetaldus teacheth vs that gold is 19 times heauyer then water so that gold must be 7600 times heauyer then ayre Now then considering that nothing in a body can weigh but the solide partes of it it followeth that the proportion of the partes of gold in a sphere of an inch diameter is to the partes of ayre of a like dimension as 7600 is to one Therefore in ayre it selfe the vacuities that are supposed in it will be to the solide partes of it in the same proportion as 7600 to one Indeed the proportion of difference will be greater for euen in gold many vacuities must be admitted as appeareth by the heating of it which sheweth that in euery the least part it is exceeding porous But according to this rate without pressing the inconuenience any further the ayre will by this reckoning appeare to be like a nett whose holes and distances are to the lines and thriddes in the proportion of 7600 to one and so would be lyable to haue litle partes of its body swimme in those greater vacuities contrary to what they striue to auoyde Which would be exceedingly more if we found on the one side any bodies heauyer and denser then gold and that were so solide as to exclude all vacuities and on the other side should ballance them with such bodies as are lighter and rarer then ayre as fire is and as some will haue the aether to be But already the disproportion is so great and the vacuity so strangely exceedeth the body in which it is as were too great an absurdity to be admitted And besides it would destroy all motion of small bodies in the ayre if it be true as Aristotle hath demonstrated in the 4th booke of his Physickes that motion can not be made but among bodies and not in vacuo Againe if rarity were made by vacuity rare bodies could not be gathered together without loosing theire rarity and becoming dense The contrary of which we learne by constant experience as when the smith and glassemender driue theire white and fury fires as they terme them when ayre pierceth most in the sharpe wind and generally we see that more of the same kind of rare bodies in lesse place worketh most efficaciously according to the nature that resulteth out of that degree of rarity Which argueth that euery litle part is as rare as it was before for else it would loose the vertue of working according to that nature but that by theire being crowded together they exclude all other bodies that before did mediate betweene the litle partes of theire maine body and so more partes being gotten together in the same place then formerly there were they worke more forcibly Thirdly if such vacuities were the cause of rarity it would follow that fluide bodies being rarer then solide ones they would be of themselues standing like nettes or cobbewebbes whereas contrariwise we see theire natures are to runne together and to fill vp euery litle creeke and corner which effect following out of the very nature of the thinges themselues must needes exclude vacuities out of that nature And lastly if it be true as we haue shewed in the last Chapter that there are no actuall partes in Quantity it followeth of necessity that all Quantity must of it selâ—e be one as Metaphysickes teach vs and then no distance can be admitted betweene one Quantity and an other And truly if I vnderstand Aristotle right he hath perfectly demonstrated that no vacuity is possible in nature neither great nor litle and consequently the whole machine raysed vpon that supposition must be ruinous His argument is to this purpose What is nothing can not haue partes but vacuum is nothing because as the aduersaries conceiue it vacuum is the want of a corporeall substance in an enclosing body within whose sides nothing is whereas a certaine body might be contained whithin them as if in a paile or bowle of a gallon there were neither milke nor water nor ayre nor any other body whatsoeuer therefore vacuum can not haue partes Yet those who admitt it do putt it expressely for a space which doth essentially include partes And thus they putt two contradictories nothing and partes that is partes and no partes or something and nothing in the same proposition And this I conceiue to be absolutely vnauoydable For these reasons therefore I must entreate my readers fauour that he will allow me to touch vpon metaphysickes a litle more then I desire or intended but it shall be no otherwise then as is said of the dogges by the riuer Nilus side who being thirsty lappe hastily of the water onely to serue
cleared the third obiection as I conceiue lett vs goe on to the fourth which requireth that we satisfy their inquisition who aske what becometh of that vast body of shining light if it be a body that filleth all the distance betweene heauen and earth and vanisheth in a moment as soone as a cloude or the moone interpâ—seth it selfe betweene the sunne and vs or that the sunne quitteth our hemisphere No signe att all remaineth of it after the extinction of it as doth of all other substances whose destruction is the birth of some new thing Whither then is it flowne We may be persuaded that a mist is a corporeall substance because it turneth to droppes of water vpon the twigges that it enuironeth and so we might beleeue light to be fire if after the burning of it out we found any ashes remaining but experience assureth vs that after it is extinguished it leaueth not the least vestigium behind it of hauing beene there Now before we answere this obiection we will entreate our aduersary to call to minde how we haue in our solution of the former declared and proued that the light which for example shineth from à candle is no more then the flame is from whence it springeth the one being condensed and the other dilated and that the flame is in a perpetuall fluxe of consumption about the circumference and of restauration att the center where it sucketh in the fewell and then we will enquire of him what becometh of that body of flame which so continually dyeth and is renewed and leaueth no remainder behind it as well as he doth of vs what becometh of our body of light which in like manner is alwayes dying and alwayes springing fresh And when he hath well considered it he will find that one answere will serue for both Which is that as the fire streameth out from the fountaine of it and groweth more subtile by its dilatation it sinketh the more easily into those bodies it meeteth withall the first of which and that enuironeth it round about is ayre With ayre then it mingleth and incorporateth it selfe and by consequence with the other litle bodies that are mingled with the ayre and in them it receiueth the changes which nature worketh by which it may be turned into the other Elements if there be occasion or be still conserued in bodies that require heate Vpon this occasion I remember a rare experiment that a noble man of much sincerity and a singular frind of mine told me he had seene which was that by meanes of glasses made in a very particular manner and artificially placed one by an other he had seene the sunne beames gathered together and precipitated downe into a brownish or purplish red pouder There could be no fallacy in this operation for nothing whatsoeuer was in the glasses when they were placed and disposed for this intent and it must be in the hoat time of the yeare else the effect would not follow And of this Magistery he could gather some dayes neere two ounces in a day And it was of a strange volatile nature and would pierce and imprint his spirituall quality into gold it selfe the heauiest and most fixed body we conuerse withall in a very short time If this be plainely so without any mistaking then mens eyes and handes may tell them what becometh of light when it dyeth if a great deale of it were swept together But from what cause soeuer this experience had its effect our reason may be satisfyed with what we haue said aboue for I confesse for my part I beleeue the appearing body might be some thing that came along with the sunne beames and was gathered by them but not their pure substance Some peraduenture will obiect those lampes which both auncient and moderne writers haue reported to haue been found in tombes and vrnes long time before closed vp from mens repayre vnto them to supply them with new fewell and therefore they beleeue such fires to feede vpon nothing and consequently to be inconsumptible and perpetuall Which if they be then our doctrine that will haue light to be nothing but the body of fire perpetually flowing from its center and perpetually dying can not be sound for in time such fires would necessarily spend themselues in light although light be so subtile a substance that an exceeding litle quantity of fewell may be dilated into a vast quantity of light Yet still there would be some consumption which how imperceptible soeuer in a short time yet after a multitude of reuolutions of yeares it must needes discouer it selfe To this I answere that for the most part the wittnesses who testify originally the stories of these lights are such as a rationall man can not expect from them that exactnesse or nicety of obseruation which is requisite for our purpose for they are vsually grosse labouring people who as they digge the ground for other intentions do stumble vpon these lampes by chance before they are aware and for the most part they breake them in the finding and they imagine they see a glimpse of light which vanisheth before they can in a manner take notice of it and is peraduanture but the glistering of the broken glasse or glased pott which reflecteth the outward light as soone as by rummaging in the ground and discouering the glasse the light striketh vpon it in such manner as some times a diamond by a certaine encountring of light in a dusky place may in the first twincling of the motion seeme to sparkle like fire and afterwardes when they shew their broken lampe and tell their tale to some man of a pitch of witt aboue them who is curious to informe himselfe of all the circumstances that may concerne such lights they straine their memory to answere him satisfactorily vnto all his demandes and thus for his sake they persuade themselues to remember what they neuer saw And he againe on his side is willing to helpe out the story a litle And so after awhile a very formall and particular relation is made of it As happeneth in like sort in reporting of all strange and vnusuall thinges which euen those that in their nature abhorre from lying are naturally apt to straine a litle and fashion vp in a handsome mould and almost to persuade themselues they saw more then they did so innate it is vnto euery man to desire the hauing of some preeminence beyond his neighbours be it but in pretending to haue seene some thing which they haue not Therefore before I engage my selfe in giuing any particular answere to this obiection of pretended inconsumptible lights I would gladly see the effect certainely auerred and vndoubtedly proued for the testimonies which Fortunius Licetus produceth who hath been very diligent in gathering them and very subtile in discoursing vpon them and is the exactest author that hath written vpon this subiect do not seeme vnto mee to make that certainty which is required for the establishing of a