Water does the Sea to which he makes such hast preserve him or destroy him And when in a foul Chimney a lump of Soot falls into the Hearth and presently burns up there can we think that the Wisdom of Nature gave the Soot an Appetite to hasten to the Fire as a greater Bulk of its Connatural Body or a Place provided by Nature for its Conservation And now I speak of such an Innate Appetite of Conjunction between Bodies I remember what I lately forgot to mention in a fitter place That Bubbles themselves may overthrow the Argument I was Answering For if a Bubble happens to arise from the bottom of a Vessel to the upper Part of it we are told that the Haste wherewith the Air moves thorow Water proceeds from the Appetite it has to quit that Preternatural Place and re-joyn the Element or great Mass of Air detain'd at the very Surface of the Water by a very thin skin of that Liquor together with which it constitutes a Bubble Now I demand how it comes to pass that this Appetite of the Air which when it was at the bottom of the Water and also in its passage upwards is suppos'd to have enabled it to Ascend with so much eagerness and force as to make its way thorow all the incumbent Water which possibly was very deep should not be able when the Air is arriv'd at the very top of the Water to break thorow so thin a Membrane of Water as usually serves to make a Bubble and which suffices to keep it from the beloved Conjunction with the great Mass of the External Air especially since they tell us that Natural Motion grows more quick the nearer it comes to the End or Place of rest the Appetites of Bodies encreasing with their approaches to the Good they aspire to upon which account Falling Bodies as Stones c. are said though falsesly to encrease their swiftness the nearer they come to the Earth But if setting aside the Imaginary Appetite of the Air we attribute the Ascension of Bubbles to the Gravity and Pressure upwards of the Water 't is easie Hydrostatically to Explicate why Bubbles often move slower when they come near the Surface of the Water and why they are detain'd there which last Phaenomenon proceeds from this that the Pressure of the Water being There incosiderable 't is not able to make the Air quite Surmount the Resistence made by the Tenacity of the Superficial Part of the Water And therefore in good Spirit of Wine whose Tenacity and Glutinousness is far less than that of Water Bubbles rarely continue upon the Surface of the Liquor but are presently broken and vanish And to make this presum'd Appetite of the smaller Portions of the Air to unite with the great Mass of it appear the less probable I shall add that I have often observ'd that Water in that state which is usually call'd its Natural State is wont to have store of Aerial Particles mingled with it notwithstanding the Neighbourhood of the External Air that is incumbent on the Water as may appear by putting a Glass full of Water into the Receiver of the new Pneumatical Engine For the Pressure of the External Air being by the Pump taken off there will from time to time disclose themselves in the Water a multitude of Bubbles made by the Aerial Particles that lay conceal'd in that Liquor And I have further try'd as I doubt not but some others also have done that by exactly inclosing in a conveniently shap'd Glass some Water thus freed from the Air and leaving a little Air at the top of the Vessel which was afterwards set by in a quiet place the Corpuscles of that incumbent Air did one after another insinuate themselves into the Water and remain'd lodg'd in it so little Appetite has Air in general to flee all Association with Water and make its escape out of that Liquor though when sensible Portions of it happen to be under Water the great inequality in Gravity between those two Fluids makes the Water press up the Air. But though 't were easie to give a Mechanical Account of the Phaenomena of mingled Air and Water yet because it cannot be done in few Words I shall not here undertake it the Phaenomena themselves being sufficient to render the Supposition of my Adversaries improbable Another Argument in favour of the Received Opinion of Nature may be drawn from the strong Appetite that Bodies have to recover their Natural state when by any means they are put out of it and thereby forced into a State that is called Preternatural as we see that Air being violently compress'd in a blown Bladder as soon as the force is remov'd will return to its first Dimensions And the Blade of a Sword being bent by being thrust against the Floor as soon as the force ceases restores itself by its innate power to its former straightness And Water being made Hot by the fire when 't is removed thence hastens to recover its former Coldness But though I take this Argument to have much more weight in it than the foregoing because it seems to be grounded upon such real Phaenomena of Nature as those newly recited yet I do not look upon it as Cogent In Answer to it therefore I shall represent that it appears by the Instances lately mention'd that the Proposers of the Argument ground it on the affections of Inanimate Bodies Now an Inanimate Portion of Matter being confessedly devoid of Knowledge and Sense I see no Reason why we should not think it uncapable of being concern'd to be in One state or constitution rather than Another since it has no knowledge of that which it is in at present nor remembrance of that from which it was forc'd and consequently no Appetite to forsake the Former that it may return to the Latter But every Inanimate Body to say nothing now of Plants and Bruit Animals because I want time to launch into an ample Discourse being of itself indifferent to all Places and States continues in in that Place or State to which the action and resistence of Other Bodies and especially Contiguous Ones effectually determine it As to the Instance afforded by Water I consider that before it be asserted That Water being Heated returns of itself to its Natural Coldness it were fit that the Assertors should determine what degree or measure of Coldness is Natural to that Liquor and this if I mistake not will be no easie Task 'T is true indeed that in reference to us Men Water is usually Cold because its minute Parts are not so briskly agitated as those of the Blood and Juices that are to be found in our Hands or other Organs of Feeling But that Water is actually cold in reference to Frogs and those Fishes that live in it whose Blood is cold as to our Sense has not that I know of been prov'd nor is easie to be so And I think it yet more difficult to determine what degree of
an admirably contriv'd Automaton the Phaenomena may by the same Author who was able to endow Bodies themselves with Active Powers as well as he could on other scores make them Causes be produc'd by Vertue and in consequence of the Primitive Construction and Motions that He gave it and still maintains in it without the Intervention of such a thing as they call Nature For This as well as the World being a Corporeal Creature we cannot conceive that either of them act otherwise than Mechanically And it seems very suitable to the Divine Wisdom that is so excellently display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe to imploy in the World already fram'd and compleated the fewest and most simple Means by which the Phaenomena design'd to be exhibited in the World could be produc'd Nor need we be much mov'd by hearing some Naturists say that Nature though not an Incorporeal Being is of an Order Superior to mere Matter as divers of the School-men teach the Things they call Material Forms to be For who can clearly conceive an Order or Kind of Beings that shall be Real Substances and yet neither Corporeal nor Immaterial Nor do I see how the Supposition of this Unintelligible or at least Unintelligent Being though we should grant it to have a kind of Life or Soul will much assist us to explicate the Phaenomena as if a Man be acquainted with the Construction of Mills he he may as well conceive how Corn is ground by a Mill driven by the Wind or by a Stream of Water which are Brute and Senseless Beings as he can by knowing that 't is kept at Work by a Horse who though an Animated Being acts in our Case but as a Part of an Engine that is determin'd to go round and who does neither intend to grind the Corn nor know that he grinds It. And in this Place though perhaps not the very fittest I may Question With what Congruity to their Master's Doctrine the School-Philosophers teach that Nature is the Principle of Motion in all the Bodies they call Natural For not to urge that those great Masses of Sublunary Matter to which they give the Name of Elements and the Mixt Bodies that consist of them are by divers learned Men said to be mov'd to or from the Centre of the Earth by distinct Internal Principles which they call Gravity in the Earth and Water and Levity in the Fire and Air and that there is ascrib'd also to every compounded Body that Quality of the Two which belongs to the Element that predominates in It. Not to urge this I say consider that the Coelestial Part of the World does so far exceed the Sub-Coelestial in Vastness that there is scarce any Comparison between them and yet the Generality of the Peripateticks after Aristotle tell us that the Coelestial Globes of Light and the vast Orbs they suppose them to be fix'd in are mov'd from West to East by Intelligences that is Rational and Separate Beings without whose Conduct they presume that the Motions of the Heavens could not be so Regular and Durable as we see they are So that in that Part of the Universe which is incompararably vaster than the Sublunary is Intelligences being the Causes of Motion there is no Recourse to be had to Nature as the true and internal Principle of It. And here it may not perhaps be improper to declare somewhat more fully a Point already touch'd upon namely that if to know what is the general Efficient Cause of Motion can much contribute to the Explication of particular Phaenomena the Hypothesis of those Naturists I now reason with will have no considerable Advantage if any at all of Ours which derives them from the Primitive Impulse given by God to Matter and from the Mechanical Affections of the greater and lesser Portions of It. For 't is all one to Him that would declare by what particular Motion as Swift Slow Uniform Accelerated Direct Circular Parabolical c. this or that Phaenomenon is produc'd to know whether the Motions of the Parts of Matter were Originally impress'd on them by Nature or immediately by God unless it be that He being of infinitely Perfect Knowledge may be more probably than a Creature suppos'd to have at first produc'd in Matter Motions best accommodated to the Phaenomena that were to be exhibited in the World Nor do I see sufficient Cause to grant that Nature Herself whatever She be produces any Motion de Novo but only that She transfers and regulates That which was communicated to Matter at the beginning of Things As we formerly noted that in the Human Body the Rational Soul or Mind has no Power to make new Motions but only to direct those of the Spirits and of the grosser Organs and Instruments of voluntary Motion For besides that many of the Modern Naturalists approve of the Cartesian Opinion That the same Quantity of Motion is always preserv'd in the whole Mass of of the Mundane Matter that was communicated to it at first though it be perpetually transferring it from one Part to another Besides this I say I consider that if Nature produces in these those Bodies Motion that were never before in Beings unless much Motion be annihilated which is a thing as yet unprov'd the Quantity of Motion in the Universe must have for some Thousands of Years perpetually increas'd and must continue to do so which is a Concession that would much disorder the whole Theory of Local Motion and much perplex Philosophers instead of assisting Them in explicating the Phaenomena of Bodies And as for the Effects of Local Motion in the Parts of the Universal Matter which Effects make a great Part of the Phaenomena of the World After what I have formerly declar'd you will not wonder to hear me confess that to me the Supposition of Nature whether Men will have Her an Immaterial or Corporeal Substance and either without Knowledge or else indowed with Understanding doth not seem absolutely Necessary nor perhaps very Useful to make us comprehend how they are produc'd The Bodies of Animals are divers of them little less curiously fram'd than Mens and most of them more exquisitely than for ought we know the great Inanimate Mass of the Corporeal World is And yet in the Judgment of no mean Naturalists some of the Mechanical Philosophers that deny Cogitation and even Sense properly so call'd to Beasts do at least as Intelligibly and Plausibly as those that ascribe to them Souls indow'd with such Faculties as make them scarce more than gradually different from Human Ones explicate the Phaenomena that are observ'd in them And I know not whether I may not on this Occasion add that the Peripateticks themselves especially the Moderns teach some things whence One may argue that the Necessity of recurring to Nature does not reach to so many things by far as is by them suppos'd For the Efformation or Framing of the Bodies of Plants and Animals which are by great
inclin'd to apprehend the First Formation of the World after some such manner as this I think it probable for I would not Dogmatize on so weighty and so difficult a Subject that the Great and Wise Author of Things did when he first Form'd the universal and undistinguish'd matter into the World put its Parts into various Motions whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless Portions of differing Bulks Figures and Scituations in respect of each other And that by his Infinite Wisdom and Power he did so guide and over-rule the Motions of these Parts at the beginning of things as that whether in a shorter or a longer time Reason cannot well determine they were finally dispos'd into that Beautiful and Orderly Frame we call the World among whose Parts some were so curiously contriv'd as to be fit to become the Seeds or Seminal Principles of Plants and Animals And I further conceive that he setled such Laws or Rules of Local Motion among the Parts of the Universal Matter that by his ordinary and preserving Concourse the several Parts of the Universe thus once completed should be able to maintain the great Construction or System and Oeconomy of the Mundane Bodies and propagate the Species of Living Creatures So that according to this Hypothesis I suppose no other Efficient of the Universe but God himself whose Almighty Power still accompanied with his Infinite Wisdom did at first Frame the Corporeal World according to the Divine Idea's which he had as well most freely as most wisely determin'd to conform them to For I think it is a Mistake to imagine as we are wont to do that what is call'd the Nature of this or that Body is wholly compris'd in its own Matter and its I say not Substantial but Essential Form as if from that or these only all its Operations must flow For an Individual Body being but a Part of the World and incompass'd with other Parts of the same great Automaton needs the Assistance or Concourse of other Bodies which are external Agents to perform divers of its Operations and exhibit several Phaenomena's that belong to it This would quickly and manifestly appear if for Instance an Animal or an Herb could be remov'd into those Imaginary Spaces the School-men tell us of beyond the World or into such a place as the Epicureans fancy their Intermundia or empty Intervals between those numerous Worlds their Master dream'd of For whatever the Structures of these living Engines be they would as little without the Co-operations of external Agents such as the Sun Aether Air c. be able to exercise their Functions as the great Mills commonly us'd with us would be to Grind Corn without the assistance of Wind or running Water Which may be thought the more credible if it be considered that by the meer Exclusion of the Air tho' not of Light or the Earth's Magnetical Effluvia c. procur'd by the Air-pump Bodies plac'd in an extraordinary large Glass will presently come into so differing a state that warm Animals cannot live in it nor flame tho' of pure Spirit of Wine burn nor Syringes draw up Water nor Bees or such winged Insects fly nor Caterpillars crawl nay nor Fire run along a train of dryed Gunpowder All which I speak upon my own experience According to the foregoing Hypothesis I consider the frame of the World already made as a Great and if I may so speak Pregnant Automaton that like a Woman with Twins in her Womb or a Ship furnish'd with Pumps Ordnance c. is such an Engine as comprises or consists of several lesser Engines And this Compounded Machine in conjunction with the Laws of Motion freely establish'd and still maintain'd by God among its Parts I look upon as a Complex Principle whence results the setled Order or Course of things Corporeal And that which happens according to this course may generally speaking be said to come to pass according to Nature or to be done by Nature and that which thwarts this Order may be said to be Preternatural or contrary to Nature And indeed though Men talk of Nature as they please yet whatever is done among things Inanimate which make incomparably the greatest part of the Universe is really done but by particular Bodies acting on one another by Local Motion Modifi'd by the other Mechanical Affections of the Agent of the Patient and of those other Bodies that necessarily concur to the Effect or the Phaenomenon produc'd N. B. Those that do not relish the knowledg of the Opinions and Rights of the Ancient Iews and Heathens may pass on to the next or V. Section and skip the whole following Excursion compris'd between double Paratheses's which though neither impertinent nor useless to the scope of this Treatise is not absolutely necessary to it In the foregoing III. Section of this Treatise I hope I have given a sufficient Reason of my backwardness to make frequent use of the Word Nature and now in this IV. Section having laid down such a Description of Nature as shews that her Votaries represent her as a Goddess or at least a Semi-Deity 'T will not be improper in this place to declare some of the Reasons of my dissatisfaction with the Notion or Thing it self as well as with the use of the Name and to shew why I am not willing to comply with those Many that would impose it upon us as very friendly to Religion And these reasons I shall the rather propose because not only the Generality of other Learned Men as I just now intimated but that of Divines themselves for want of Information or for some other cause seem not to have well consider'd so weighty a matter To manifest therefore the Malevolent Aspect that the Vulgar Notion of Nature has had and therefore possibly may have on Religion I think fit in a general way to premise what things they are which seem to me to have been the Fundamental Errors that mis-led the Heathen World as well Philosophers as others For if I mistake not the looking upon meerly Corporeal and oftentimes Inanimate Things as if they were endow'd with Life Sense and Understanding and the ascribing to Nature and some other Beings whether real or imaginary things that belong but to God have been some if not the chief of the Grand Causes of the Polytheism and Idolatry of the Gentiles The most Ancient Idolatry taking the word in its laxer sense or at least one of the earliest seems to have been the Worship of the Coelestial Lights especially the Sun and Moon That kind of Aboda zara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Iewish Writers call strange or false Worships being the most Natural as having for its Objects Glorious Bodies Immortal always regularly mov'd and very beneficial to Men. There is Recorded in the Holy Scripture a Passage of Iob who is probably reputed to be at least as Antient as Moses which seems to argue that this Worship of the two great Luminaries was
that Liquor to tend downwards and actually to fall down if it be not externally hinder'd But when Water ascends by Suction in a Pump or other Instrument that Motion being contrary to that which is wonted is made in virtue of a more Catholick Law of Nature by which 't is provided that a greater Pressure which in our case the Water suffers from the weight of the Incumbent Air should surmount a lesser such as is here the Gravity of the Water that ascends in the Pump or Pipe The two foregoing Observations may be farther illustrated by considering in what sense Men speak of things which they call Praeter-natural or else Contrary to Nature For divers if not most of their Expressions of this kind argue that Nature is in Them taken for the Particular and Subordinate or as it were the Municipal Laws establish'd among Bodies Thus Water when 't is intensly Hot is said to be in a Praeter-natural State because it is in One that 't is not usual to It and Men think doth not regularly belong to It though the Fire or Sun that thus agitates It and puts it into this State is confess'd to be a Natural Agent and is not thought to act otherwise than according to Nature Thus when a Spring forcibly bent is conceiv'd to be in a State contrary to its Nature as is argued from its incessant Endeavour to remove the compressing Body this State whether Praeter-natural or contrary to Nature should be thought such but in reference to the Springy Body For otherwise 't is as agreeable to the grand Laws that obtain among Things Corporeal that such a Spring should remain bent by the degree of Force that actually keeps it so as that it should display itself in spight of a less or incompetent Degree of Force And to omit the Six Non-natural Things so much spoken of by Physitians I must here take notice that though a Disease be generally reckon'd as a Praeter-natural Thing or as Others carry the Notion further a State contrary to Nature yet that must be understood only with reference to what customarily happens to a human Body Since excessively cold Winds and immoderate Rains and sultry Air and other Usual Causes of Diseases are as Natural Agents and act as agreeably to the Catholick Laws of the Universe when they produce Diseases as when they condense the Clouds into Rain or Snow blow Ships into their Harbour make Rivers overflow ripen Corn and Fruit and do such other Things whether they be hurtful or beneficial to Men. And upon a like Account when Monsters are said to be Praeternatural Things the Expression is to be understood with regard to that particular Species of Bodies from which the Monster does enormously deviate though the Causes that produce that Deviation act but according to the general Laws whereby Things Corporeal are guided 3. I doubt whether I should add as a Third Remark or as somewhat that is referrable to one or both of the Two foregoing that sometimes when 't is said that Nature performs this or that Thing we are not to conceive that this Thing is an Effect really produc'd by other than by proper Physical Causes or Agents but in such Expressions we are rather to look upon Nature either as a Relative Thing or as a Term imployed to denote a Notional Thing with reference whereunto Physical Causes are consider'd as acting after some peculiar manner whereby we may distinguish their Operations from those that are produc'd by other Agents or perhaps by the same consider'd as acting in another Way This I think may be Illustrated by some other receiv'd Expressions or Forms of Speech As when many of the Ancient and some of the Modern Philosophers have said that Things are brought Fatally to pass they did not mean that Fate was a distinct and separate Agent but only that the Physical Causes perform'd the Effect as in their Actings they had a necessary Dependance upon one another or an inviolable Connexion that link'd them together And on the other side when Men say as they too frequently do that Fortune or Chance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Aristotle and his Followers distinguish Them ascribing to the former what unexpectedly happens to Deliberating or Designing and to the later what happens to Inanimate or Undesigning Beings has done this or that Considerate Philosophers do not look upon Fortune or Chance as a true and distinct Physical Cause but as a Notional Thing that denotes that the proper Agents produc'd the Effect without an Intention to do so as I have more fully declar'd in the Fourth Section One may for ought I know without Impertinence refer to this our Third Observation That many Things are wont to be attributed to Time as when we say that Time ripens some Fruits that are too early gather'd that it makes many things moulder and decay Tempus edax rerum that 't is the Mother of Truth that it produces great Alterations both in the Affairs of Men and in their Dispositions and their Bodies To omit many other Vulgar Expressions which represent Time as the Cause of several Things whereof really it is but an Adjunct or a Concomitant of the Effects however Coincident with the successive Parts of Time and so some way related to It being indeed produc'd by other Agents that are their true and proper Efficients Sometimes likewise when it is said that Nature does this or that we ought not to suppose that the Effect is produc'd by a distinct or separate Being but on such Occasions the Word Nature is to be conceiâ—â—d to signifie a Complex or Convention of all the Essential Properties or necessary Qualities that belong to a Body of that Species whereof the real Agent is or to more Bodies respectively if more must concur to the Production of the Effect To this sense we are to expound many of those Forms of Speech that are wont to be imploy'd when Physicians or others speak of what Nature does in reference to Diseases or the Cure of them And to give a right sense to such Expressions I consider Nature not as a Principal and Distinct Agent but a kind of Compounded Accident that is as it were made up of or results from the divers Properties and Qualities that belong to the true Agents And that the Name of a Compounded Accident may not be startled at I shall to explain what I mean by it observe that as there are some Qualities or Accidents that at least in comparison of others may be call'd Simple as Roundness Streightness Heat Graviâ—â— c. so there are others that may be conceiv'd as Compounded or made up of several Qualities united in one Subject As in divers Pigments Greenness is made up of Blew and Yellow exquisitely mix'd Beauty is made up of fit Colours taking Features just Stature fine Shape graceful Motions and some other Accidents of the Human Body and its Parts And of this sort of Compounded Accidents
account as they think of Religion against the care I take to decline the frequent use of that Word Nature in the Vulgar Notion of it Reserving to another and fitter place some other things that may relate to the Theological scruples if any occur to me that our Free Inquiry may occasion The Philosophical Reason that inclines me to forbear as much as conveniently I can the frequent use of the Word Nature and the Forms of Speech that are deriv'd from it is That 't is a Term of great Ambiguity On which score I have observ'd that being frequently and unwarily imploy'd it has occasion'd much darkness and confusion in many Mens Writings and Discourses And I little doubt but that others would make the like Observations if early Prejudices and universal Custom did not keep them from taking notice of it Nor do I think my self oblig'd by the just Veneration I owe and pay Religion to make use of a Term so inconvenient to Philosophy For I do not find that for many Ages the Israelites that then were the only People and Church of God made use of the Word Nature in the Vulgar Notion of it Moses in the whole History of the Creation where it had been so proper to bring in this first of second Causes has not a word of Nature And whereas Philosophers presume that she by her Plastick Power and Skill forms Plants and Animals out of the Universal Matter the Divine Historian ascribes the Formation of them to Gods immediate Fiat Gen. i. 11. And God said let the Earth bring forth Grass and the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit tree yielding Fruit after his kind c. And again Vers. 24 God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after its kind c. Vers. 25 And God without any mention of Nature made the Beast of the Earth after his kind And I do not remember that in the Old Testament I have met with any one Hebrew word that properly signifies Nature in the sense we take it in And it seems that our English Translators of the Bible were not more fortunate in that than I for having purposely consulted a late Concordance I found not that Word Nature in any Text of the Old Testament So likewise though Iob David and Solomon and other Israelitish Writers do on divers occasions many times mention the Corporeal Works of God yet they do not take notice of Nature which our Philosophers would have his great Vicegerent in what relates to them To which perhaps it may not be impertinent to add that though the late famous Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel has purposely written a Book of numerous Problems touching the Creation yet I do not remember that he imploys the Word Nature in the receiv'd Notion of it to give an account of any of Gods Mundane Creatures And when St. Paul himself who was no stranger to the Heathen Learning writing to the Corinthians who were Greeks speaks of the Production of Corn out of Seed sown he does not attribute the produc'd Body to Nature but when he had spoken of a grain of Wheat or some other seed put into the ground he adds that God gives it such a Body as he pleaseth and to every seed it s own Body i. e. the Body belonging to its kind And a greater than St. Paul speaking of the gaudiness of the Lillies or as some will have it Tulips uses this Expression If God so cloath the grass of the Field c. Matt. vi 28 29 30. The Celebrations that David Iob and other Holy Hebrews mention'd in the Old Testament make an occasion of the admirable Works they contemplated in the Universe are address'd directly to God himself without taking notice of Nature Of this I could multiply Instances but shall here for brevity's sake be contented to name a few taken from the Book of Psalms alone In the hundredth of those Hymns the Penman of it makes this That God has made us the ground of an Exhortation To enter into his Gates with Thanksgiving and into his Courts with Praise Psal. lxxix 34. And in another Let the Heaven and Earth praise God that is give Men ground and occasion to Praise Him congruously to what David elsewhere says to the Great Creator of the Universe All thy work 's shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Psal. cxlv 10. And in another of the Sacred Hymns the same Royal Poet says to his Maker Thou hast cover'd me in my Mothers womb I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psal. cxxxix 13 14. I have sometimes doubted whether one may not on this occasion add that if Men will need takes in a Being subordinate to God for the management of the World it seems more consonant to the Holy Scripture to depute Angels to that charge than Nature For I consider that as to the Coelestial Part of the Universe in comparison of which the Sublunary is not perhaps the ten-thousandth part both the Heathen Aristotelian's and the School Philosophers among the Christians teach the Coelestial Orbs to be moved or guided by Intelligences or Angels And as to the lower or sublunary World besides that the Holy Writings teach us that Angels have been often imploy'd by God for the Government of Kingdoms as is evident out of the Book of Daniel and the Welfare and Punishment of particular Persons one of those Glorious Spirits is in the Apocalypse expresly styl'd the Angel of the Waters Which Title divers Learned Interpreters think to be given him because of his Charge or Office to oversee and preserve the Waters And I remember that in the same Book there is mention made of an Angel that had Power Authority or Iurisdiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Fire And though the Excellent Grotius gives another conjecture of the Title given the Angel of the Waters yet in his Notes upon the next Verse save one he teaches That there was an Angel appointed to preserve the Souls that were kept under the Altar there-mention'd And if we take the Angel of the Waters to be the Guardian or Conserver of them perhaps as the Romans in whose Empire St. Iohn wrote had special Officers to look to their Aqueducts and other Waters it may not be amiss to observe upon the by that he is introduc'd Praising his and his fellow-Spirits Great Creator Which is an Act of Religion that for ought I know none of the Naturists whether Pagan or even Christians ever mention'd their Nature to have perform'd I know it may on this occasion be alledg'd that subordinata non pugnant and Nature being God's Vicegerent her Works are indeed his But that he has such a Vicegerent it is one of the main businesses of this Discourse to call in Question and till the Affirmative be solidly prov'd nay and tho' it were so I hope I shall be excus'd if with
Nature's abhorrence of a Vacuum That heavy Bodies unhinder'd fall to the Ground in a Perpendicular Line because Nature directs them the shortest way to the Centre of the Earth and that Bubbles Rise thro' the Water and Flames Ascend in the Air because Nature directs these Bodies to re-join themselves to their respective Elements to omit other Instances of this sort that there will be occasion to mention hereafter Till when these may suffice to warrant my taking most of my Instances from Inanimate Bodies though I shall not confine my self to these especially when I shall come to Answer Objections that are taken from living Creatures The foregoing Advertisement will be I hope found conducive to clear the way for my Fifth Argument lately propos'd which concludes that if indeed there were such a Being as Nature is usually Represented to be several things would be otherwise Administred in the Universe than Experience shews they are To enumerate all the Particulars that may be propos'd to make this good would swell this Discourse much beyond the Bulk to which my Haste obliges me to confine it But to make you amends for the Paucity of Instances I shall now name by the kind of them I shall propose such as for the most part are taken from those very things whence the Wisdom and Vigilancy of Nature is wont to be confidently Argued which I the rather do that by such I may make way for and shorten the Answers I am to give to the Arguments e're-long to be Examined First then Whereas the great Care and Vigilancy of Nature for the common Good of the Universe is wont to be Demonstrated from the watchful Care she takes to prevent or replenish a Vacuum which would be very Prejudicial to the Fabrick of the World I Argue the quite contrary from the Phaenomena that occur about a Vacuum For whereas 't is Alledg'd that Nature in great Pumps and in the like Cases lifts up the heavy Body of Water in spight of its tendency towards the Centre of the Earth to obviate or fill up a Vacuity and that out of a Gardener's Pot or Inverted Pipe stopp'd at one end neither the Water nor even Quick-Silver that is near fourteen times as heavy will fall down lest it should leave a Vacuum behind it I demand how it comes to pass that if a Glass-Pipe be but a Foot longer than 34 or 35 Feet or an Inverted Tube fill'd with Quick-silver be but a Finger's breadth longer than 30 Inches the Water in the one and the Quick-silver in the other will subside though the one will leave but about a Foot and the other but about an Inch of deserted Space which they call Vacuum at the top of the Glass Is it possible that Nature that in Pumps is said to raise up every Day so many Hundred Ton of Water and if you will believe the Schools would raise it to any height left there should be a Vacuum should not have the Discretion or the Power to lift up or sustain as much Water as would serve to fill one Foot in a Glass-Tube or as much Quick-silver as an Inch of a slender Pipe will contain to obviate or replenish the Vacuum she is said so much to abhor sure at this rate she must either have very little Power or very little Knowledge of the Power she has So likewise when a Glass-Bubble is blown very thin at the Flame of a Lamp and Hermetically seal'd whilst 't is very hot the Cause that is rendered why 't is apt to break when it grows cold is that the inward Air which was before rarefied by the Heat coming to be Condens'd by the Cold left the space deserted by the Air that thus Contracts itself should be left void Nature with violence breaks the Glass in pieces But by these Learned Mens favour if the Glass be blown but a little stronger than ordinary though at the Flame of a Lamp the Bubble as I have often tryed will continue unbroken in spight of Natures pretended abhorrency of a Vacuum Which needs not at all to be recurr'd to in the Case For the Reason why the thin Glass-Bubble broke not when 't was hot and did when it grew cold is plainly this That in the former state the Agitation of the Included Air by the Heat did so strengthen the Spring of it that the Glass was thereby assisted and enabled to resist the weight of the Incumbent Air Whereas upon the Cessation of that Heat the Debilitated Spring of the Internal being unable to assist the Glass as formerly to resist the Pressure of the External Air the Glass itself being too thin becomes unable to support the Weight or Pressure of the Incumbent Air the Atmosphaerical Pillar that leans upon a Bubble of about two Inches Diameter amounting to above one Hundred Pound Weight as may be manifestly concluded from a late Experiment that I have try'd and you may meet with in another Paper And the Reason why if the Bubble be blown of a due thickness it will continue whole after it is Cold is that the thickness of it though but faintly assisted by the weakned Spring of the Included Air is sufficient to support the Weight of the Incumbent Air though several times I have observed the Pressure of the Atmosphaere and the resistence of the Bubble to have been by Accident so near the aequipollent that a much less outward Force than one would imagine applyed to the Glass as perhaps a Pound or a less Weight gently laid on it would enable the outward Air to break it with Noise into a Multitude of pieces And now give me leave to consider how ill this Experiment and the above-mentioned Phaenomena that happen in Glass-Pipes wherein Water and Quick-silver subside agree with the Vulgar Apprehension Men have of Nature For if in case She did not hinder the falling down of the Water or the Quicksilver there would be no such Vacuum produced as She is said to abhor Why does She seem so solicitious to hinder it And why does She keep three or four and thirty Foot of Water in Perpendicular height contrary to the nature of all heavy Bodies suspended in the Tube And Why does she furiously break in pieces a thin seal'd Bubble such as I come from speaking of to hinder a Vacuum if in case She did not break it no Vacuum would ensue And on the other side if we admit her Endeavours to hinder a Vacuum not to have been superfluous and consequently foolish we must confess that where these endeavours succeed not there is really produc'd such a Vacuum as She is said to abhor So that as I was saying either She must be very indiscreet to trouble Herself and to transgress Her own ordinary Laws to prevent a danger She need not fear or Her strength must be very small that is not able to fill a Vacuity that half a Pint of Water or an Ounce of Quick-silver may replenish or break a tender Glass-Bubble which
perhaps a Pound Weight on it would with the help of so light a Body as the Incumbent Air crush in pieces The other Grand Instance that is given of the Wisdom of Nature and Her watchfulness for the Good of the whole World is the Appetite She has Implanted in all heavy Bodies to descend to the Centre of the Earth and in all light Ones to ascend towards Heaven or as some would have it towards the Element of Fire contiguous to the Orb of the Moon But for positive Levity 'till I see it better prov'd than it hath hitherto been I allow no such thing Implanted in Sublunary Bodies the praepollent Gravity of some sufficing to give others a Comparative or Respective Lightness As a piece of Oak or the like Wood being let go in the Air falls down by its own Gravity or rather by virtue of the Efficient of that Gravity but if it be let go under Water it will though it be never so great a Log or piece of Timber ascend with a considerable force to the top of the Water which I hope will not be ascribed to a positive Levity since when it descended in the Air 't was by its Gravity that it did so But not to insist on this nor to take notice how wisely Nature has Implanted into all heavy Bodies an Appetite to Descend to the Centre of the Earth which being but a Point is not able to contain any one of Them not to urge these things I say I will only invite you to consider one of the most familiar things that occur among heavy Bodies For if for Example you let fall a Ball upon the Ground it will Rebound to a good height proportionable to that from whence you let it fall or perhaps will make several lesser Rebounds before it come to rest It it be now ask'd Why the Ball being let out of your Hand does not fall on this or that side or move upwards but falls directly toward the Centre of the Earth by that shortest Line which Mechanitians call Linea Directionis which is the Diameter of the Earth prolong'd to the Centre of Gravity of the Ball 'T will be readily Answer'd That this proceeds from the Balls Gravity i. e. an Innate Appetite whereby it tends to the Centre of the Earth the nearest way But then I demand Whence comes this Rebound i. e. this Motion upwards For 't is plain 't is the Genuine Consequence of the Motion downwards and therefore is encreas'd according as that Motion in the Ball was encreas'd by falling from a greater height So that it seems that Nature does in such Cases play a very odd Game since She forces a Ball against the Laws of heavy Bodies to ascend divers times upwards upon the Account of that very Gravity whose Office it is to carry it downwards the directest way And at least She seems in spight of the Wisdom ascribed to Her to take Her Mâ—asures very ill in making the Ball move downwards with so much violence as makes it divers times fly back from the place She intended it should go to As if a Ball which a Child can play with and direct as he pleases were so unweildy a Thing that Nature cannot manage it without letting it be hurried on with far greater violence than her Design requires The Reflection I have been making on a Ball may mutatis mutandis as they speak be applyed to a Pendulum For since 't is unanimously affirm'd by all that have written of it that it falls to the Perpendicular upon the Account of its Gravity It must not be deny'd that 't is from a Motion proceeding from the same Gravity that the swinging Weight passes beyond the Perpendicular and consequently ascends and oftentimes makes a multitude of Diadroms or Vibrations and consequently does very frequently ascend before it comes to rest in the Perpendicular Which is the Position wherein its Gravity is best comply'd with and which therefore it had been best setled in at first I shall not here mention those Grand Anomalies or Exorbitances even in the vaster Bodies of the Universe such as Earth-quakes that reach some Hundreds of Leagues Deluges Destructive Eruptions of Fire Famines of a large spread Raging Pestilences Coelestial Comets Spots in the Sun that are recorded to have obscured it for many Months the sudden Appearing the Dis-appearing and the Re-appearing of Stars that have been judg'd to be as high as the Region of the fix'd Ones I will not I say enquire how far these Anomalies agree to the Character wont to be given of Natures Watchfulness and Vigilancy because probably I may have hereafter a fit opportunity to do it and must now proceed to the remaining Instances I promis'd you which are taken from what happens to Animals As soon as I shall have dispatch'd some Considerations and Advertisements that seem necessary to be premis'd to what I have to offer about that difficult Subject If the past Discourse give rise to a Question Whether the World and the Creatures that compose it are as perfect as they could be made The Question seems to me because of the Ambiguity of the Terms too intricate to be resolv'd by a single Answer But yet because the Problem is not wont to be discuss'd and is in my Opinion of Moment in reference to Natural Theology I shall venture briefly to intimate some of the Thoughts that occurr'd to me about it Having first declar'd that I am with reason very backward to be positive in a matter of this Nature the Extent of the Divine Power and Wisdom being such that its Bounds in case it have any are not known to me This premis'd I consider that the sense of the Question may be Whether God could make the Material World and the Corporeal Creatures It consists of better and more perfect that they are speaking in a general way and absolute sense Or else Whether the particular Kinds or Orders of the Creatures in the World could any of them be made more perfect or better than they have been made To Answer the Question in the first-nam'd sense of it I think it very unsafe to deny that God who is Almighty and Omniscient and an Owner of Perfections which for ought we know are participable in more different manners and degrees than we can comprehend could not Display if it be not fitter to say Adumbrate them by Creating a Work more excellent than this World And his Immense Power and Unexhausted Wisdom considered it will not follow either that because this World of Ours is an admirable piece of Workmanship the Divine Architect could not have better'd It or because God himself is able to make a greater Master-piece this exquisitely contriv'd System is not admirably Excellent But the propos'd Question in the other sense of it will require some more words to resolve it For if we look upon the several Species of Visible Creatures under a more absolute Consideration without respect to the Great System of the
Coldness is natural to Water since this Liquor perpetually varies its Temperature as to Cold and Heat according to the temper of the Contiguous or the Neighbouring Bodies especially the Ambient Air. And therefore the Water of an unshaded Pond for Instance though it rests in its proper and natural Place as they speak yet in Autumn if the Weather be fair the Temperature of it will much vary in the compass of the same Day and the Liquor will be much hotter at Noon than early in the Morning or at Midnight though this great diversity be the Effect only of a Natural Agent the Sun acting according to its regular Course And in the depth of Winter 't is generally confess'd that Water is much colder than in the Heat of Summer which seems to be the Reason of what is observ'd by Watermen as a wonderful thing namely that in Rivers Boats equally Laden will not sink so deep in Winter as in Summer the cold Condensing the Water and consequently making it heavier in specie than it is in Summer when the Heat of the Ambient Air makes it more thin In divers parts of Africk that Temperature is thought natural to the Water because 't is that which it usually has which is far hotter than that which is thought natural to the same Liquor in the frigid Zone And I remember on this occasion what perhaps I have elsewhere mention'd upon another that the Russian Czars chief Physician inform'd me that in some Parts of Siberia one of the more Northern Provinces of that Monarch's Empire Water is so much more Cold not only than in the Torrid Zone but than in England that two or three foot beneath the surface of the Ground all the Year long even in Summer itself it continues Concreted in the form of Ice so Intense is the Degree of Cold that there seems natural to it This odd Phaenomenon much confirms what I lately intimated of the Power of Contiguous Bodies and especially of the Air to vary the Degree of the coldness of Water I particularly mention the Air because as far as I have try'd it has more Power to bring Water to its own Temperature than is commonly suppos'd For though if in Summer-time a Man puts his Hand into Water that has lain expos'd to the Sun he will usually feel it Cold and so conclude it much colder than the Ambient Air yet that may often happen upon another Account namely that the Water being many Hundred times a more Dense Fluid than the Air and consisting of Particles more apt to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Skin a greater Part of the Agitation of the Blood and Spirits contained in the Hand is communicated to the Water and thereby lost by the Fluids that part with it And the Minute Particles of the Water which are perhaps more Supple and Flexible insinuating themselves into the Pores of the Skin which the Aerial Particles by Reason of their Stifness and perhaps Length cannot do they come to affect the somewhat more Internal Parts of the Hand which being much Hotter than the Cuticula or Scarf-skin makes us feel them very Cold as when a Sweating Hand is plung'd into Luke-warm Water the Liquor will be judg'd Cold by Him who if his Other Hand be very Cold will with it feel the same Water Hot. To confirm which Conjecture I shall add that having sometimes purposely taken a Seal'd Weather-glass whose included Liquor was brought to the Temperature of the Ambient Air and thrust the Ball of it under Water kept in the same Air there would be discover'd no such Coldness in the Water as One would have expected the former Reason of the sensible Cold the Hand feels when thrust into that Liquor having here no Place To which I shall add that having for Tryal's sake made Water very Cold by dissolving Sal-armoniac in it in Summer time it would after a while return to its usual degree of Warmth And having made the same Experiment in Winter it would return to such a Coldness as belong'd to it in that Season So that it did not return to any Determinate degree of Coldness as Natural to it but to that Greater or Lesser that had been Accidentally given it by the Ambient Air before the Sal-armoniac had Refrigerated It. As to the Motion of Restitution observable upon the Removal or Ceasing of the Force in Air violently compress'd and in the Blade of a Sword forcibly bent I confess it seems to me a very difficult Thing to assign the true Mechanical Cause of It. But yet I think it far more likely that the Cause should be Mechanical than that the Effect proceeds from such a Watchfulness of Nature as is pretended For First I question Whether we have any Air here Below that is in Other than a Preternatural or Violent State the Lower Parts of our Atmospherical Air being constantly compress'd by the weight of the Upper Parts of the same Air that lean upon them As for the Restitution of the bent Blade of a Sword and such like Springy Bodies when the force that bent them is remov'd my Thoughts about the Theory of Springynes belong to another Paper And therefore I shall here only by way of Argument ad Hominem consider in Answer to the Objection That if for Example you take a somewhat long and narrow Plate of Silver that has not been hammer'd or compress'd or which is surer has been made red-hot in the Fire and suffer'd to cool leasurely you may bend it which way you will and it will constantly retain the last curve Figure that you gave It. But if having again streightned this Plate you give it some smart stroaks of a Hammer it will by that meerly Mechanical Change become a Springy Body So that if with your Hand you force it a little from its Rectitude as soon as you remove your Hand it will endeavour to regain its former Streightness The like may be observ'd in Copper but nothing near so much or scarce at all in Lead Now upon these Phaenomena I demand Why if Nature be so careful to restore Bodies to their former State She does not restore the Silver Blade or Plate to its Rectitude when it is bent this way or that way before it be Hammer'd And why a few stroaks of a Hammer which acting violently seems likely to have put the Metal into a Preternatural State should entitle the Blade to Nature's peculiar Care and make Her solicitous to restore it to its Rectitude when it is forc'd from It And Why if the Springy Plate be again Ignited and Refrigerated of itself Nature abandons Her former Care of It and suffers it quietly to continue in what crooked Posture One pleases to put it into Not now to demand a Reason of Nature's greater Partiality to Silver and Copper and Iron than to Lead and Gold itself in Reference to the Motion of Restitution I shall add to what I was just now saying that even in
that all Bodies once in the State of Actual Motion whatever Cause first brought them to It are mov'd by an Internal Principle As for Instance an Arrow that actually flies in the Air towards a Mark moves by some Principle or other residing within itself for it does not depend on the Bow 't was shot out of since 't would continue tho' That were Broken or even annihilated nor does it depend upon the Medium which more resists than assists its Progress as might be easily shewn if it were needful and if we should suppose the Ambient Air either to be annihilated or which in our Case would be Aequialent render'd uncapable of either furthering or hindring its Progress I see not why the Motion of the Arrow must necessarily cease since in this Case there remains no Medium to be penetrated and on that account oppose its Progress When in a Watch that is wound up the Spring endeavours to unbend or display itself and when the String of a drawn Bow is broken or let go the Spring of the former and the wooâ—y Part of the later does each return to a less crooked Line And though these Motions be occasioned by the forcible Acts of External Agents yet the Watch Spring and the Bow have in themselves for ought appears to those I Reason with an inward Principle by which they are mov'd till they have attain'd their Position Some perhaps would add that a Squib or a Rocket though an artificial Body seems as well as a falling Star to move from an Internal Principle But I shall rather observe that on the other side External Agents are requisite to many Motions that are acknowledg'd to be Natural as to omit the Germination and Flourishing of divers Plants as Onions Leeks Potato's c. though hung up in the Air by the heat of the Sun in the Spring to pass by this I say if in the Pneumatical Engine or Air-Pump you place divers Insects as Bees Flies Catterpillars c. and withdraw the Common Air from the Receiver they will lye moveless as if they were dead though it be for several hours whilst they are kept from enjoying the presence of the Air But when the External Air is permitted again to return upon them they will presently be reviv'd as I have with pleasure try'd and be brought to move again according to their respective Kinds as if a Fly for Instance resembled a little Windmill in this that being Moveless of itself it required the Action of the Air to put its Wings and other Parts into Motion But to insist no farther on these Arguments ad Hominem we may consider that since Motion does not essentially belong to Matter as Divisibility and Impenetrableness are believ'd to do the Motions of all Bodies at least at the beginning of Things and the Motions of most Bodies the Causes of whose Motions we can discern were impress'd on them either by an External Immaterial Agent God or by other Portions of Matter which are also Extrinsecal Impellers acting on them And this occasion invites me to observe that though Motion be deservedly made one of the Principal Parts of Aristotle's Definition of Nature yet Men are wont to call such Motions Natural as are very hard to distinguish from those they call Violent Thus when Water falls down to the Ground they tell us that this Motion is Natural to that Liquor as 't is a heavy Body but when a Man spurts up Water out of his Mouth into the Air they pronounce that Motion because of its tendency upwards to be contrary to Nature And yet when he draws Water into his Mouth by sucking it through a long Pipe held Perpendicularly they will have this Motion of the Water though directly upwards to be not Violent but Natural So when a Foot-Ball or Blown Bladder being let fall upon a hard Floor rebounds up to a good height the Descent and Ascent are both said to be Natural Motions though the former tends towards the Centre of the Earth and the later recedes as far as it can do from it And so if from a considerable height you let fall a Ball of some close Wood that yet is not too heavy as Oak or the like into a deep Vessel of Water it will descend a great way in that Liquor by a Natural Motion and yet its contrary Motion upwards ought not to be esteem'd Violent since according to the Schools being lighter in Specie than Water 't is Natural to it to affect its proper Place for which purpose it must ascend to the top of the Liquor and lye afloat there and yet 't is from these tendencies to opposite Points as the Zenith and the Nadir that Men are wont to judg many Motions of Bodies to be Natural or Violent And indeed since it must be indifferent to a Lifeless and Insensible Body to what place 't is made to move all its Motions may in some respect be said to be Natural and in another Violent For as very many Bodies of visible Bulk are set a moving by External Impellents and on that score their Motions may be said to be Violent so the generality of Impell'd Bodies do move either upwards downwards c. toward any Part of the World in what Line or Way soever they find their Motion least resisted which Impulse and Tendency being given by vertue of what they call the general Laws of Nature the Motion may be said to be Natural I might here take notice that according to the Epicurean Hypothesis it need not at all be admitted that Motion must be produc'd by such a Principle as the Schoolmens Nature For according to that great and ancient Sect of Philosophers the Atomists every indivisible Corpuscle has actual Motion or an incessant endeavour to change Place essentially belonging to it as 't is an Atom Insomuch that in no case it can be depriv'd of this Property or Power And all sensible Bodies being according to these Physiologers but casual Concretions or Coalitions of Atoms each of them needs no other Principle of Motion than that unloseable endeavour of the Atoms that compose it and happen on the account of Circumstance to have the Tendency of the more numerous or at least the predominant Corpuscles determin'd one way And to these I might add some other such Reflections But I shall in this place say no more concerning Motion not only because even after having consider'd the differing Definitions that Aristotle Cartesius and some other Philosophers have given of it I take it to be too difficult a Subject to be clearly explicated in few words but because the only occasion I had to mention it here was to shew that the vulgar Distinction of it into Natural and Violent is not so clear and well-grounded as to oblige us to admit what it supposes that there is such a Being as the Naturists assert I come now to consider the Argument that may be drawn in favour of the Receiv'd Notion of Nature
touch'd upon the contrary Pole of the same or another vigorous Load-stone the Lilly will presently forget its former Inclination and regard the Southern Part of Heaven to which Position it will as it were spontaneously return having been forc'd aside towards the East or towards the West if it be again left to its Liberty So that though it formerly seem'd so much to affect one Point of Heaven yet it may in a trice be brought to have a strong Propensity for the Opposite The Lilly having indeed no Inclination for one Point of Heaven more than another but resting in that Position to which it was last determin'd by the prevalence of Magnetical Effluvia And this Example may serve to illustrate and confirm what we have been lately saying in General II. Another Received Axiom concerning Nature is That She never fails or misses of Her End Natura sine suo nunquam excidit This is a Proposition whose Ambiguity makes it uneasie for me to deliver my Sense of It. But yet to say somewhat if by Nature we here understand that Being that the School-men Style Natura Naturans I grant or rather assert that Nature never misseth its End For the Omniscient and Almighty Author of Things having once fram'd the Word and establish'd in It the Laws of Motion which he constantly maintains there can no Irregularity or Anomaly happen especially among the greater Mundane Bodies that he did not from the Beginning foresee and think fit to permit since they are but genuine Consequences of that Order of Things that at the Beginning he most wisely Instituted As I have formerly declar'd in Instances of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon to which I could add Others as the Inundations of Nilus so necessary to the Health and Plenty of Aegypt And though on some special Occasions this Instituted Order either seemingly or really has been violated as when the Sun is said to have Stood still in the days of Ioshua and the Red Sea to have Divided itself to give free Passage to the Israelites led by Moses yet these things having been rarely done for weighty Ends and Purposes by the peculiar Intervention of the first Cause either guiding or over-ruling the Propensities and Motions of Secundary Agents it cannot be said that God is frustrated of his Ends by these design'd though seeming Exorbitances by which he most Wisely and Effectually accomplishes Them But if by Nature be meant such a Subordinate Principle as Men are wont to understand by that Name I doubt the Axiom is in many Cases false for though it it be true as I have often said that the Material World is so constituted that for the most part Things are brought to pass by Corporeal Agents as regularly as if they designed the Effects they produce yet there are several Cases wherein Things happen quite otherwise Thus 't is confess'd that when a Woman is with Child the Aim of Nature is to produce a Perfect or Genuine human Foetus and yet we often see that Nature widely missing Her Mark instead of That produces a Monster And of This we have such frequent Instances that whole Volumes have been publish'd to recount and describe these gross and deform'd Aberrations of Nature We many times see and have formerly noted that in Feavers and other acute Diseases She makes Critical Attempts upon improper Days and in these unseasonable Attempts does not only for the most part miss of her End which is to Cure the Patient but often brings him to a far worse Condition than he was in before She us'd those miscarrying Endeavours To this may may be referr'd the Cheats Men put upon Nature as when by Grafting the Sap that Nature raises with Intention to feed the Fruit of a white Thorn for Instance is by the Gardener brought to nourish a Fruit of quite another Kind So when Maulsters make Barley to sprout that Germination whereby Nature intended to produce Stalks and Ears is perverted to a far differing Purpose and She deluded And now to annex some Arguments ad Hominem we are told that Nature makes every Agent aim at assimulating the Patient to itself and that upon this account the Fire aims at converting Wood and the other Bodies it works on into Fire But if this be so Nature must often miss of Her End in Chymical Furnaces where the Flame does never turn the Bricks that it makes red-hot into Fire nor the Crucibles nor the Cuples nor yet the Gold and Silver that it throughly pervades and brings to be of a Colour the same or very near the same with its own and keeps in a very intense Degree of Heat and in actual Fusion And even when Fire acts upon Wood there is but one Part of it turn'd into Fire since to say nothing of the Soot and concreted Smoke the Ashes remain fix'd and incombustible And so to add another Instance ad Hominem when we are told that Nature makes Water ascend in Sucking-Pumps ob fugam Vacui She must needs as I formerly noted to another Purpose miss of Her Aim when the Pump exceeds Five and Thirty or Forty Foot in Height for then though you Pump never so much and withdraw the Air from the upper Part of the Engine the Water will not ascend to the Top and consequently will leave a Cavity for whole replenishing She was suppos'd to have rais'd that Liquor Two or Three and Thirty Foot III. Another of the celebrated Axioms concerning Nature is that She always acts by the shortest or most compendious Ways Natura semper agit per vias brevissimas But this Rule as well as divers Others does I think require to be somewhat explained and limited before it be admitted For 't is true â—hat as I have frequently occasion to inculcate the Omniscient Author of the Universe has so Fram'd It that most of the Parts of it act as regularly in order to the Ends of It as if they did it with Design But since Inanimate Bodies at least have no Knowledge it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that they moderate and vary their own Actions according to the Exigency of particular Circumstances wherewith they must of necessity be unacquainted and therefore it were strange if there were not divers Occurrences wherein they are determin'd to Act by Other than the shortest Ways that lead to particular Ends if those Other Ways be more congruous to the General Laws or Customs established among Things Corporeal This I prove by Instances taken from Gravity itself which is perhaps that Quality which of all others is most probably referr'd to an inbred Power and Propension For 't is true that if a Stone or another heavy Body be let fall into the free Air 't will take its Course directly towards the Centre of the Earth and if it meet with an inclining Plane which puts it out of its Way it will not for all that loss its Tendency towards the Centre but run along that Plane by which Means its Tendency downwards
is prosecuted though not as before in a perpendicular Line yet in the shortest Way it is permitted to take These obvious Phaenomena I confess agree very well with the Vulgar Axiom and possibly were the chief Things that induc'd Men to frame it But now let us suppose that a small Bullet of Marble or Steel after having for a pretty space fallen through the Air lights upon a Pavement of Marble or some such hard Stone that lies as Floors are wont to do Horizontal in this Case Experience shews as was formerly noted on another occasion that the falling Stone will rebound to a considerable Height in Proportion to That it fell from and falling down again rebound the second time tho' not so high as before and in short rebound several times before by setling upon the Floor it approaches as near as is permitted it to the Centre of heavy Bodies Whereas if Nature did in all Cases act by the most Compendious ways this Bullet ought not to rebound at all but as soon as it found by the hardness of the Floor it could descend no lower it ought to have rested there as in the nearest place it could obtain to the Centre of the Earth whence every Rebound must necessarily remove it to a greater Distance And so likewise when a Pendulum or Bullet fasten'd to the end of a String is so held that the String is praeter propter Perpendicular to the Horizon if it be thence let fall it will not stop at the Perpendicular Line or Line of Direction which is suppos'd to reach from the Nail or other Prop through the Centre of the Bullet to the Centre of the Earth but will pass beyond it and vibrate or swing to and fro 'till it have pass'd again and again the Line of Direction for a great while before the Bullet come to settle in it though whenever it removes out of it towards either hand it must really ascend or move upwards and so go further off from the Centre of the Earth to which 't is pretended its innate Propensity determines it to approach as much and as soon as is possible But this Instance having been formerly touch'd upon I shall now observe to the same purpose that having taken a good Sea-Compass and the Experiment succeeded with a naked yet nicely pois'd Needle and suffer'd the Magnetick Needle to rest North and South if I held the proper Pole of a good Loadstone at a convenient Distance on the right or left hand of the Lilly this would be drawn aside from the North Point towards the East or West as I pleas'd and then the Loadstone being remov'd quite away the Lilly of the Needle would indeed return Northward but would not stop in the Magnetick Meridian but pass on divers Degrees beyond it and would thence return without stopping at the Meridian Line And so would by its Vibrations describe many Arches still shorter and shorter 'till at length it came to settle on it and recover that Position which if Nature always acted by the most Compendious Ways it should have rested at the first time that by the removal of the Loadstone it had regain'd it But the Truth is that at least Inanimate Bodies acting without knowledg or design of their own cannot stop or moderate their own Action but must necessarily move as they are determin'd by the Catholick Laws of Motion according to which in one Case the Impetus that the Bullet acquires by falling is more powerful to carry it on beyond the Line of Direction than the Action of the Causes of Gravity is to stop it assoon as it comes to the nearest place they can give it to the Centre of the Earth And something like this happens in Levity as well as Gravity for if you take an oblong and conveniently shap'd piece of light Wood as Firr or Deal and having thrust or sunk it to the Bottom of a somewhat deep stagnant Water give it Liberty to ascend it will not only regain the Surface of the Water where by the Laws of Gravity it ought to rest and did rest before it was forc'd down but it will pass far beyond that Surface and in part as it were shoot itself up into the Incumbent Air and then fall down again and rise a second time and perhaps much oftner and fall again before it come to settle in its due place in which it is in an aequilibrium with the Water that endeavours to press it upwards Another of the Sentences that are generally receiv'd concerning Nature is that She always does what is best to be done Natura semper quod optimum est facit But of this it will not be safe for me to deliver my Opinion 'till I have endeavour'd to remove the ambiguity of the Words for they easily admit of two different Senses since they may signifie that Nature in the whole Universe does always that which is best for the conservation of It in its present State or that in reference to each Body in particular Nature does still what is best that is what most conduces to the Preservation and Welfare of that Body If the first of these Senses be pitch'd upon the Axiom will be less liable to Exception But then I fear it will be difficult to be positively made out by such Instances as will prove that Nature acts otherwise than necessarily according to Laws Mechanical and therefore 'till I meet with such Proofs I shall proceed to the other Sense that may be given our Axiom which though it be the most usual yet I confess I cannot admit without it be both explain'd and limited I readily grant that the All-wise Author of Things Corporeal has so fram'd the World that most things happen in it as if the particular Bodies that compose it were watchful both for their Own Welfare and That of the Universe But I think withall that particular Bodies at least Those that are Inanimate acting without either Knowledg or Design their Actions do not tend to what is best for them in their private Capacities any further than will comport with the general Laws of Motion and the important Customs establish'd among Things Corporeal So that to conform to these divers Things are done that are neither the Best nor so much as Good in reference to the welfare of particular Bodies These Sentiments I am induc'd to take up not only by the more Speculative Considerations that have been formerly discours'd of and therefore shall not here be repeated but by daily Observations and obvious Experience We see oftentimes that Fruit-Trees especially when they grow old will for one Season be so overcharg'd with Fruit that soon after they decay and die and even whilst they flourish the excessive Weight of the too numerous Fruits does not seldom break off the Branches they grow upon and thereby both hinders the Maturity of the Fruit and hastens the Death of the Tree Whereas this fatal Profuseness would have been prevented if a wise Nature