Elements not being clearly known it is impossible to discover the Nature of the Bodies which are composed of them This Philosopher says true that there are four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth But he does not clearly know the Nature of them He gives no distinct Idea of them Nay he will not have his Elements to be composed of the Fire Air Water and Earth that we see for in short if it were so we should at least have some Knowledge of them by our Senses It is true in many Places of his Works he endeavours to explain them by the Qualities of Heat and Cold Humidity and Driness Weight and Lightness But this manner of Explication is so impertinent and ridiculous that I cannot conceive how so many learned Men should be satisfied with it 'T is what I am going to prove Aristotle in his Book of the Heavens pretends that the Earth is the Center of the World and that all Bodies which he pleases to call simple because he supposes them to move by their own Nature must be moved by simple Motions He affirms that besides the Circular Motion which he maintains to be simple and by which he proves that the Heavens he supposes to move Circularly are a simple Body that there is only two which are simple The one descending or from the Circumference to the Center the other ascending or from the Center to the Circumference That these simple Motions agree with simple Bodies consequently that the Earth and Fire are simple Bodies one of which is absolutely heavy and the other absolutely light But because Heaviness and Lightness may meet in one Body either absolutely or in part he concludes that there are also two Elements or simple Bodies one of which is heavy in part and the other light in part viz. Water and Air. This is the Method he takes to prove that there are four Elements and no more It is evident to such as examine Mens Opinions by their own Reason that all these Propositions are false or at least they can never pass for clear and indisputable Principles of which we have very clear and distinct Idea's and which may serve for the Foundations of Physicks It is certain that there is nothing more absurd than an Essay to establish the Number of Elements by Imaginary Qualities of Weight and Lightness In saying without any Proof that there are some Bodies which are heavy others light through a Principle in their own Nature For if we may speak without proving what we say we may affirm that all Bodies are naturally heavy and that all endeavour to approach to the Center of the World as the Place of their Rest And we may on the contrary maintain that all Bodies are Naturally light and have a Tendency to the Heavens as the Place of their greatest Perfection For if we object to him who says all Bodies are heavy that Air and Fire are light he can only answer that Fire and Air are not light but only less weighty than Earth and Water and that is the Reason they seem light It is so with these Elements as if a Piece of Wood which seems light in Water not because it is light of it self since it falls down when it is in the Air but because the Water which is more heavy makes it ascend and bears it up If on the contrary we should object to one who would maintain that all Bodies are Naturally light that Earth and Water are heavy he would likwise answer that these Bodies seem heavy because they are not so light as others which surround them That Wood for instance seems heavy in the Air not because it is heavy since it swims when it is in the Water but because it is not so light as Air. It is therefore ridiculous to suppose these Principles indisputable that Bodies are heavy or light in their own Nature On the contrary 't is plain that all Bodies have not the Power of Motion in themselves and that 't is indifferent to them whether they are moved upward or downward East or West North or South or any other Way we can conceive But if according to Aristotle there are four Elements such as he wishes them to be Two Naturally heavy and two Naturally light viz. Fire Air Earth and Water What Consequence can we draw from thence to discover the Knowledge of the Universe These Four Elements are not such Fire Air Water and Earth as we see they are quite different we know them not by our Senses and still less by Reason because we have no distinct Idea of them I mean we know all Natural Bodies are composed of them since Aristotle has said it But the Nature of these compounded Bodies is unknown to us and we cannot discover them but by knowing the Four Elements or simple Bodies which compose them for we know the compound only by the simple Fire Aristotle says is Naturally light the ascending Motion is simple Therefore Fire is a simple Body since Motion must be proportioned to what it moves Natural Bodies are compounded of simple Bodies Therefore there is Fire in all Natural Bodies But a Fire which is not like to that we see for Fire is often only in Power in Bodies which are compounded of it What is it these Periparetick Discourses teach us That there is Fire in all Bodies either Actual or Potential that all Bodies are composed of something which we do not see and whose Nature we are unacquainted with We see then that here is very much advanced But if Aristotle does not discover to us the Nature of Fire and the other Elements of which all Bodies are composed probably we may imagine he has discovered at least the chief Qualities and Properties of them We shall further examine what he says thereof He declares to us there are four principal Qualities which belong to the Sense of feeling l. 2. c. 2 3. de gen corrupu Heat Cold Moist and dry of which all others are composed In this manner he distributes these first Qualities to the Four Elements To the Fire he gives Heat and Dryness to the Air Heat and Moistness to the Water Coldness and Humidity and to the Earth Coldness and Dryness Chap. 2. He affirms Heat and Cold to be active Qualities and Dryness and Humidity to be passive ones He thus defines Heat That what collects things of the same kind Cold which assembles all things either of the same or of a different kind Moisture that which is not easily contained in its own Bounds but in Foreign Limits and Dryness that which is easily contained in its own Bounds and not easily in the Limits of the Bodies that are about it Thus according to Aristotle Fire is a hot and dry Element 'T is therefore an Element which collects things of the same Nature which is easily contained within its own Limits and difficultly in the Limits of Forreign Bodies The Air is an hot and moist Element and therefore assembles
to fight against himself but because he designed to make use of this shocking of Bodies as an occasion to establish the general Law of the communication of Motions by which he foresaw he might produce an infinite number of admirable Effects For I am perswaded that these two Natural Laws which are the most simple of all Viz. That all Motion inclines to put it self in a right Line And That in the time of concurrence Motions are communicated in proportion to the magnitude of the Bodies which are shockt are sufficient to produce the World as we see it at this day I mean the Heavens the Stars the Planets Comets Earth and Water Air and Fire In a word the Elements and all inorganized or inanimate Bodies For organized Bodies depend upon many other Natural Laws which are wholly unknown to us It may be also that animate Bodies are not formed like others by a certain number of Natural Laws For 't is very probable they were all formed at the Creation of the World and that by time they only received that growth which was necessary to make them visible to our eyes Let it be how it will 't is certain they receive this growth from the general Laws of Nature according to which all other Bodies are formed upon which account their growth is not alwayes regular I say then that God by the first Natural Law positively will'd and consequently produced the Collision of Bodies and that he afterwards made use of it as an occasion to establish the second Natural Law which regulates the communication of Motions and that thus the actual shock is a Natural or Occasional Cause of the actual communication of Motions If we consider this well it will be visibly discovered that nothing could be better ordered But supposing God had not ordained it thus and that he had diverted Bodies when ready to hit each other as if there were a void to receive them First Bodies would not then have been subject to this continual vicissitude which causes the Beauty of the Universe for the generation of certain Bodies is only produced by the corruption of some others and 't is the contrariety of their Motions which produces their variety Nor Secondly Would God then act by the most simple wayes For that Bodies ready to shock each other might continue their Motion without striking it would be necessary that they should variously describe an infinite number of Curve-Lines and consequently we must admit different Wills in God to determine their Motions Lastly If there was no uniformity in the action of Natural Bodies and if their Motion was not performed in a right Line there would be no certain Principle for us to Reason upon in Natural Philosophy nor to guide us in many Actions of our Lives 'T is no disorder for Lyons to eat Wolves Wolves Sheep and Sheep the Grass which God has taken so much care of that he has given it all things necessary for its own preservation and also a Seed to preserve its Kind Yet this proves Second Causes no more than the Plurality of Causes or contrary Principles of Good and Evil which the Manichees invented to give a Reason for these Effects But 't is a certain Mark of the Wisdom Greatness and Magnificence of God for he does nothing unbecoming an Infinite Wisdom and performs all things with such a Munificence as sufficiently shows his Power and Greatness Whatever is destroy'd is again repair'd by the same Law which destroy'd it so great is the Wisdom Power and Fruitfulness of this Law God does not prevent the destruction of Beings by a New Will not only because the first is sufficient to repair them but chiefly because his Wills are much more valuable than the reparation of these Beings They are of much more value than all they produce And if God made this visible World although in it self unworthy of the action whereby it was produced 't was for ends unknown to Philosophers and to Honour himself in JESVS CHRIST with such an Honour as the Creatures are uncapable of giving him When a House by its fall crushes a good Man to death a greater Evil happens than when one Beast devours another or when one Body is forced to give way by the shock it receives at the meeting of another But God multiplies not his Wills to redress such disorders real or apparent as are necessary consequences of Natural Laws He ought neither to correct nor change these Laws although they should sometimes produce Monsters He must not confound the order and simplicity of his wayes He ought to neglect inconsiderable things I mean he should not have particular Wills to produce Effects of no value or unworthy the action of him who produces them God works Miracles only when the Order he always follows requires it and this Order wills that he should act by the most simple wayes and that there should be no exceptions in his Wills but when 't is absolutely necessary to his designs or on certain occasions which are wholly unknown to us For although we are all united to the Order or Wisdom of God we know not all the Rules of it We see in it what we ought to do but comprehend not by it what God ought to Will nor must we be too solicitous about it We have a great instance of what I have been saying in the damnation of an infinite number of persons that God has permitted to perish in times of Ignorance God is infinitely good loves all his works would have all Men be saved and come to this knowledge of the Truth for he has Created them to injoy him And yet the greatest number are damn'd They live and dye in blindness and will continue in it to all Eternity And does not this proceed from Gods acting by the most simple wayes and from his following Order We have shown that according to Order God ought not by preingaging Pleasures to have prevented the Will of the First Man although his Fall caused the disorder of Nature See the Explanation of the fourth Chapter of the Second Part Of Method It was requisite that all Men should descend from one not only because this is the most simple way but for Reasons too Theological and abstracted to be here explained See also the First Explanation of the Fifth Chapter In fine We ought to believe that this is conformable to the Order which God follows and the Wisdom he alwayes consults in the intention and execution of his designs The Sin of the first Man has produced an infinite number of Evils 't is true but certainly Order required that God should permit it and that he should place Man in an estate wherein he was capable of sinning God is willing to repair his work but rarely gives those victorious Graces which conquers the Malice of the greatest Sinners He often gives Graces that are useless to the Conversion of those who receive them although in respect to them he foresees
to the Sun he is very near the Earth and very distant when he is joyned to the Sun It is the same with the Superiour Planets Jupiter and Saturn as for the Inferiout ones such as Mercury and Venus to speak properly they are never opposite to the Sun The Lines that all Planets seem to describe about the Earth are not Circles but they approach very near to Elipses and all these Elipses appear very different because of the different Situation of the Planets in respect to us In short all that we observe in the Heavens with any Certainty concerning the Motion of the Planets agrees perfectly well with what we have said of their Formation according to the most simple Ways As for the fixed Stars Experience tells us some of them diminish and intirely disappear and some of them also there are which appear anew whose Brightness and Magnitude much augments They increase or diminish as the Vortices do of which they are the Centers and receive more or less of the first Element We cease to see them when they are made up of Spots and Crusts ' and begin again to discover them when these Spots which hindered their shining are wholly dissipated All these Stars keep near the same Distance amongst themselves since they are the Centers of Vortexes and are not drawn so much as they resist other Vortexes or as the Stars are They all shine like Suns because like the Sun they are the Centers of some Vortexes which are not yet swallowed up They are all equally distant from the Earth although they appear to the Eye as fastned to a concave Surface For if we have not yet compared the Parallax of the nearest with that of the most distant by the different Situation of the Earth from six Months to six Months it is because this Difference of Situation is not great enough to render this Parallax sensible because of the Distance we are from the Stars It may be by the means of Telescopes some small matter might be observed In fine all that we can discover in the Stars by our Senses and Experience is not different from what we have discovered by the Mind by examining the most Natural Relations which is between the Parts and Motions of Extension If we would examine the Nature of Bodies here below we must first consider that whereas the first Element being compounded of an infinite Number of different Figures the Bodies which have been formed out of the Congeries of the Parts of this Element would be manifold Some of their Parts would be branched others long and others round but irregular in every respect If their branched Parts are gross enough they would be hard but flexible and inelastick like Gold If their Parts are less gross they would be soft and fluid like Gums Fat or Oyles But if their branched Parts are extreamly delicate they will be like Air. If the long Parts of Bodies are gross and inflexible they will be sharp incorruptible easie to dissolve like Salt If these same long Parts are flexible they will be insipid like Water If they have gross and irregular Parts in every respect they will be like Earth and Stones In short we shall have Bodies of many different Natures and not two of them that will intirely be alike because the first Element is capable of an infinite Number of Figures and all these Figures never combine after the same manner in two different Bodies Whatever Figures these Bodies have if they have Pores great enough to permit the second Element to pass through they will be transparent like Air Water and Glass c. whatever Figures these Bodies are endued with if the first Element intirely surrounds some Parts of them and agitates them strongly and swift enough to repulse the second Element on all Sides they will be Luminous like Flame If these Bodies repulse all the second Element which shocks them they will be very white if they receive it without Opposition they will be very black In short if they repulse it by divers Shocks or Vibrations they will appear of different Colours As to their different Situation the heaviest that is those that have the least Power to continue their Motion in a right Line will be nearest the Center as Metals Earth Air Water will be more distant from it and all Bodies would keep the Situation we see them in because they ought to be placed so much the more distant from the Center of the Earth as their Motion is greater And we must not be surprized if I now say that Metals have less tower to continue their Motion in a right tine than the Earth Water and other Bodies less solid although I have before said that the most solid Bodies have more Power to continue their Motion in a right Line than others For the Reason why Metals have less Power to continue to move than the Earth or Stones is because they have much less Motion Since it is always true that two Bodies unequal in Solidity being moved with an equal Swiftness the most solid has the most Power to keep in a right Line because then the most solid has the most Motion and 't is the Motion that gives the Power If we would know the Reason why near the Center of the Vortices gross Bodies are heavy and yet are light when they are more distant from it we must consider that great Bodies receive their Motion from the subtle Matter which environs them and in which they swim Now this subtle Matter actually moves in a Circular Line and only inclinesto move in a right Line and communicates this Circular Motion to the gross Bodies which it carries along with it without communicating to them its Efforts to remove from the Center by a right Line only so much as this Effort is followed by the Motion it communicates to them For we must observe that the Parts of the subtle Matter making an Effort towards different Sides can only compress the gross Bodies they carry along with them For this Body cannot go to different Sides at the same Time But because the subtle Matter which is near the Center of the Vortex hath much more Motion than it imployes in the Circulation and communicates to the gross Bodies it draws after it only its Circular Motion which is common to all its Parts And if gross Bodies should chance to have more Motion than that which is common to the Vortix they would soon lose it by communicating it to the little Bodies they meet From when it is plain that gross Bodies near the Center of the Vortex have not so much Motion as the Matter in which they swim each Part of which is moved after many different Ways besides their circular or common Motion Now if gross Bodies have less Motion they certainly make a weaker Effort to pass into a right Line and if they make less Efforts they are obliged to give way to those that make more and consequently to approach
will not always be condemned although they say only impertinent things provided they speak them after a Scientific manner What makes men capable of thinking makes them fit to discover Truth but 't is neither Honour Riches nor Dignities nor false Learning that can give them this capacity it proceeds from their Nature They are made to think because they are made for Truth Even Health it self is not sufficient to make them think well all that it can do is not to be so great an impediment as Sickness is Our Body in some manner assists us by Sense and Imagination but it does not help our Conception For although without help of the Body we might by meditation oppose out Idea's to the continual Efforts of the Senses and Passions which perplex and efface them because we can only at present overcome the Body by the Body Yet it is plain that the Body cannot illuminate the Mind nor produce the Light of Understanding in it for every Idea which discovers the Truth comes from Truth it self What the Soul receives by the Body is only for the Body it self and when it persues those Phantoms it discovers nothing but Illusions and Chimera's I mean it does not see things as they are in themselves but only as they relate to the Body If the Idea of our own greatness or littleness is often an occasion of our Error the Idea we have of external things and what has any relation to us causes not a lest dangerous impression We have just said that the Idea of greatness is always attended with a great Motion of Spirits and that a great Motion of Spirits is always accompanied with an Idea of greatness and that on the contray the Idea of littleness is always attended with a weak motion of Spirits and that a weak Motion of the Spirits is always accompanied with an Idea of littleness From this Principle 't is easie to conclude that such things as produce a great Motion of to the Spirits in us must naturally appear to us to have more Greatness that is more Power more Reality and more Perfection than others for by Greatness I mean all these things and many such like So that Sensible Things must appear to us greater and more solid than those which cannot be felt if we judge of them by the Motion of the Spirits and not by the pure Idea of Truth A great House a magnificent Train fine Furniture Offices Honours Riches c. appear to have more greatness and reality in them than Virtue and Justice do When we compare Virtue with Riches by a clear view of the Mind then Virtue gains the preference but when we make use of our Eyes and Imaginations and judge of these things only by the emotion of the Spirits that they excite in us we undoubtedly prefer Riches to Virtue 'T is from this Principle that we have so mean an Opinion of Spiritual things which do not affect the Senses That the Idea's of our Minds are less Noble than the Objects they represent That there is less reality and substance in Air than in Metals in Water than in Ice That the spaces betwixt Earth and Heaven are avoid or else that the Bodies which fill it have not so much reality and solidity as the Sun and Stars have In fine if we fall into an infinite number of Errors about the Nature and Perfection of every thing 't is because we argue upon this false Principle A great motion of Spirits and consequently a strong Passion always accompanies a sensible Idea of greatness and a small motion of Spirits and a weak Passion likewise attends a sensible Idea of littleness We apply our selves much and bestow a great deal of our time in the Study of whatever may excite a sensible Idea of greatness and neglect what gives us a sensible Idea of littleness Those great Bodies for instance which move about us have always made an impression upon us we at first adored them because of the sensible Idea we had of their greatness and brightness Some bolder Genii have examined their Motions and in all Ages the Stars have been the Object either of the Study or Veneration of many Men. We may even say that the fear of these imaginary influences which at this day terrify Astrologers and some weak Persons is a kind of adoration that a depraved Imagination pays to the Idea of greatness which represents these Coelestial Bodies The Body of Man on the contrary tho' infinitely more admirable and worthy our application than whatever can be known of Jupiter and Saturn with all the rest of the Planets is almost unknown to us The sensible Idea of the dissected parts of the flesh hath nothing great in it and even causes disgust and horror so that 't is but a few years since Ingenious persons look'd upon Anatomy as a Science which merited their application Kings and Princes have been Astronomers and proud of that Title The grandeur of the Stars seemed to agree well with the greatness of their Dignities but I don't believe they thought it any honour to understand Anatomy and to be able to dissect a Heart or a Brain well It is the same with many other Sciences Rare and extraordinary things produce greater and more sensible Motions in the Spirits than those which we see every day we admire them and consequently affix some Idea of greatness to them and thus they excite in the Spirits Passions of esteem and veneration 'T is this which overturns the Reason of many Men for some are so curious and respectful for every thing of Antiquity what comes from far or is rare and extraordinary that their Minds become Slaves to it because the Mind dares make no Judgment upon what it respects Truth I grant is in no great danger because some Men wholly employ themselves about Medals Arms the Dress of the Ancients the Chinese or Barbarians It is not absolutely useless to know the Map of Old Rome or the Roads from Tomquin to Nanquin altho' it be more useful to know those we shall have more occasion to Travel In fine we have nothing to object against the knowledge of the true History of the War of the Greeks with the Persians or of the Tartars with the Chinese or that persons shou'd have an extraordinary inclination for Thucidides and Xenophon or for any other that pleases them But we cannot suffer that Reason shou'd be so subjected to the admiration of Antiquity that we must be forbidden to make use of our Understanding to examine the Opinions of the Ancients and that those who discover and show the falseness of them shou'd pass for presumptious and rash Persons There has been Truths in all Ages if Aristotle has discovered some of them further discoveries may be also made to this day The Opinions of this Author must be proved by good Reasons for if Aristotle's Sentiments were solid in his time they will be so now 'T is a pure illusion to pretend to
enough to confound the most evident things and in these Questions where 't is necessary to remove the Equivocation they see nothing to distinguish If we consider that the greatest Part of the Questions of Philosophers and Physicians include some equivocal Terms like those we have spoken of we cannot doubt but that these learned Men who have not been able to define them have delivered nothing Solid in all the great Volumes they have composed and what I have said may suffice to overthrow almost all the Opinions of the Ancients But for Descartes he perfectly knew how to distinguish these things He resolved no Question by Sensible Idea's and if we take the Pains to read him we shall see he explained every thing after a more clear and evident Manner and almost always demonstrated them only by the distinct Idea's of Extension Figure and Motion The other kind of equivocal Terms which Philosophers make use of comprehend all these general Terms of Logick by which it is easie to explain things without having any Knowledge of them Aristotle has made the most use of them all his Books are full of them and some are a mere Logick He proposes and resolves all things by these Specious Words Genus Species Power Nature Form Faculty Quality Causa per se Causa per accidens His Followers have had no small Trouble to apprehend the meaning of these Words which signifie nothing at all nor are they more learned than before when they have heard say that Fire dissolves Metals because it has a Faculty of dissolving them and that a Man digests not because he has a weak Stomach or that his Faculty of Concocting does not perform its Functions well It is true those who have made use of these Terms and general Idea's to explain all things by do not commonly fall into so great a Number of Errors as those who only make use of them to stir up the confused Ideas of the Senses The Philosophers of the Schools are not so subject to Error as certain Dogmatical decisive Physicians who form Systems upon some Experiments which they know not the reason of because they speak so generally that they run no great Hazzard The Fire warms dries hardens and softens because it has such Faculties as produce these Effects Senna purges by its Purgative Quality Bread nourishes by its Nutritive Quality These Proportions are not subject to Error for a Quality is that which denotes a thing by such a Name and we cannot deny it to Aristotle for indeed this Definition is indisputable Such or the like manner of speaking are not false but only in Effect they signifie nothing These indetermined Idea's ingage us not in Error but they are wholy useless in the Discovery of Truth For although we know there is a substantial Form in Fire accompanied with a thousand Faculties like to those of heating dilating melting Gold Silver and all Metals of clearing burning and baking If this Difficulty be proposed to me to be resolved viz. whether Fire can harden Dirt and soften Wax The Idea's of Substantial Form and of those Faculties that produce Heat Ratification Fluidity c. would be of no use to me in resolving the Question for there being no Connexion betwen the Idea's of the Hardness of Dirt and Softness of Wax and those of the Substantial Form of Fire and the Qualities of producing Rarification Fluidity c. It is the same with all general Idea's so they are wholly useless for the Ends designed But if we know that Fire is nothing else but the Parts of Wood put into continal Motion and that 't is only by this Agitation that it excites the Sensation of Heat in us If we knew at the same Time that the Softness of Dirt consists only in a Mixture of Earth and Water as these Idea's are not confused and general but distinct and particular It would not be difficult to see that the Heat of Fire must harden Dirt because one Body can move another being it self in Motion We likewise easily discover that since Heat which is felt near the Fire is caused by the Motion of the invisible Parts of the Wood which strike against the Hands if we expose Dirt to the Heat of the Fire the Watery Parts which are joyned to the Earth being more lose and consequently sooner agitated by the Shock of the little Bodies which go out from the Fire than the gross Particles of the Earth they must separate and leave it dry and hard It would also evidently apppear that Fire cannot harden Wax if we knew that the Particles which compose it are branched and very near of the same Bigness Thus particular Idea's are very useful in an Enquiry after Truth And indeterminate Idea's are hot only useless but on the contrary insensibly lead us into Error These Philosophers content not themselves with making use of general Terms and indetermined Idea's that answer nothing But they will have those Terms signifie certain particular Beings They pretend that there is some Substance distinct from Matter which is the Form of Matter and an infinite Company of little Beings really distinct from Matter and Form of which they suppose as many of them as they have different Sensations of Bodies and they think these Bodies produce different Effects Yet it is plain to any Man that is capable of Attention that all these little Beings distinct from Fire for instance and which we suppose to be contained therein for the Production of Heat Light Hardness Fluidity c are only Fictions of the Imagination which are contrary to Reason For Reason hath no particular Idea which represents these little Beings If we ask the Philosophers what Sort of Entity that Faculty in the Fire is which gives Light they will only answer that 't is a Being which is the Cause why Fire is capable of producing Light So that the Idea they have of the Faculty of Light is not different from the general Idea of the Cause and confused Idea of the Effect which we see They have therefore no clear Idea of what they say when they admit these particular Beings Thus they say what they conceive not and what indeed is impossible to be conceived CHAP. III. Of the most dangerous Error in Philosophy Of the Ancients PHilosophers have not only spoke what they did not conceive when they explained the Effects of Nature by certain Beings which they have no particular Idea of but even establish a Principle from whence may directly be drawn most false and dangerous Consequences For if according to their Opinion we suppose that in Bodies there are some Beings distinct from Matter and not having any distinct Idea of these Entities we might easily imagine that they are the true or principal Causes of the Effects which we see produced 'T is even the common Sentiment of most Philosophers For 't is chiefly to explain these Effects that they make use of Substantial Forms Real Qualities and other the like Entities
soon have seen an infinite number of Motions which are neither compounded of a right nor circular Line Or rather he should have thought that the Motions compounded of Motions in a right Line might have been infinitely different if we suppose that compounded Motions increase or diminish their Swiftness in an infinite number of different ways as is evident from what has been said before There are says he only these two simple Motions the Right and the Circular of which all Motions are composed But he is deceived the Circular Motion is not Simple we cannot conceive it without thinking of one point to which it relates and whatever includes a Relation is Relative and not Simple It is true we can conceive the Circular Motion as produced by two Motions in a right Line the Swiftness of which are unequal according to a certain Proportion for a Motion compounded of two others which are made in a right Line and which diversly increase or diminish their Swiftness cannot be Simple In the third place he says all simple Motions are of three sorts one from the Center another to the Center and the third about the Center But it is false the last is Simple as I have already said 'T is also false that there is no simple Motions but those that ascend and descend for all Motions in a right Line are Simple whether they approach to or remove from the Center the Poles or any other Point All Bodies says he are composed of three Dimensions Therefore all Bodies ought to have three Simple Motions What relation is there between these Simple Motions and Dimensions Nay more all Bodies have three Dimensions but no Bodies three Simple Motions In the fourth place he supposes that Bodies are either Simple or Compounded and he says Simple Bodies are such as have in themselves some Power of Motion as Fire Earth c. and that the compounded ones receive their Motion from those which compose them But in this Sense there is no Simple Bodies at all for there are none which have in themselves any Principle of their Motion Nor is there any compounded Bodies since Compounded suppose Simple which are not thus we should have no Bodies at all What Imagination can we have of defining the Simplicity of Bodies by a Power of moving themselves What distinct Idea's are united to these words of Simple and Compound Bodies if Simple Bodies are only defined by their relation to an Imaginary Power of moving themselves But let us examine the Consequences he draws from these Principles Circular Motion is a Simple Motion The Heavens move circularly therefore this Motion is Simple Now Simple Motion can proceed only from a Simple Body that is from a Body which moves by its own Power Therefore the Heavens are a Simple Body distinct from the four Elements which move by right Lines It is very evident that all this arguing contains only false and absurd Propositions Let us examine his other Proofs for he brings a great many to prove a thing as useless as it is false His second reason to prove that the Heavens are a Simple Body distinct from the four Elements supposes two sorts of Motions the one Natural and the other Violent or against Nature But it is plain enough to all those who judge of things by clear Idea's That Bodies having not in themselves the Nature or Principle of their Motion as Aristotle understood there can be no violent Motion or such as is contrary to Nature It is indifferent to all Bodies whether they are moved or not moved on one side or moved on the other But Aristotle who judges of things by the Impression of his Senses imagines that Bodies which are always placed by the Laws of the Communication of Motion in such or such a Situation in respect to others are placed there of themselves because they like it best and that it is more conformable to their Nature This is Aristotle's way of arguing The Circular Motion of the Heavens is Natural or else contrary to Nature If it is Natural as we have said it is a Simple Body distinct from the Elements since the Elements move not circularly by their Natural Motion If the Circular Motion is against the Nature of the Heavens the Heavens would be composed of some one of the Elements as Fire or some other thing But the Heavens cannot be composed of any of the Elements for if for instance it was Fire the natural Motion of Fire being to ascend the Firmament would have two contrary Motions the Circular and the ascending one which could not be since a Body cannot have two contrary Motions If the Firmament was composed of some other Body which by its Nature did not move circularly it would have some other Natural Motion which cannot be for if naturally it ascended it must be either Fire or Air if it descended it would be Earth or Water Therefore c. I shall not stop here to make particular Remarks of the Absurdity of these Arguments I only say in general that what Aristotle here says signifies nothing distinct and that there is nothing of Truth or Conclusion in it His third Reason is as follows The first and most perfect of all Simple Motions must be the Motion of a Simple Body and even of the first and most perfect of Simple Bodies But the Circular Motion is the first and most perfect of all Simple Motions because all Circular Lines are perfect and no right Line is so For if it is Finite we may add something to it if Infinite it is not yet perfect since it has no * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make the same Equivocation as Finish'd and End This Philosopher proves thus that an infinite Line is not perfect because 't is not finish'd End and things are perfect only when they are finished therefore Circular Motion is the first and most perfect of all Motion Therefore Bodies which more circularly are Simple and the first and most Divine of Simple Bodies His fourth Argument All Motion is either Natural or not so and all Motion that is Unnatural to one Body is Natural to some other We see that Motions that descend and ascend which are Unnatural to some Bodies yet are Natural to others For Fire descends not Naturally but the Earth does Now the Circular Motion is not Natural to any of the four Elements There must be then a Simple Body to which this Motion is Natural therefore the Heavens which are moved circularly are a Simple Body differing from the four Elements In fine The Circular Motion is Natural or Violent in some Body If it be Natural it is evident that Body must be the most Simple and Perfect If it is not Natural it is very strange that this Motion should continue always since we see all unnatural Motions endure but a little time We must therefore after all these Reasons believe that there is some other Body separate from all
things of the same kind and is not easily contained in its own Limits but in that of others Water is a cold and moist Element which gathers things together both of the same and of a different Nature which is hot easily contained within its own Bounds but in that of others And in fine the Earth cold and dry and therefore collects things of the same and of a different Nature which is not easily contained in its own Bounds and very difficultly in that of others Here the Elements are explained according to the Sentiment of Aristotle or according to the Definitions he has given of their chief Qualities and because if we will believe him the Elements are simple Bodies whereof all others are compounded the Knowledge of these Element and their Qualities must be most clear and distinct since all Physicks or the Knowledge of Sensible Bodies which are composed of them ought to be deduced from thence Let us see then what is defective in these Principles First Aristotle joyns no distinct Idea to the Word Quality We know not whether by Quality he means a real Being distinct from Matter or only the Modification of Matter It seems sometimes as if he meant it in one Sense and sometimes in another It is true in the Eighth Chapter of Categories he defines Quality to be that which causes a thing to have such or such a Name but that will not satisfie our Demands Secondly the Definitions he gives of his four first Qualities Heat Cold Moist and Dry are all false or useless This is his Definition of Heat Heat is that which assembles things of a like Nature First we do not see that this Definition perfectly explains the Nature of Heat although it should be true that Heat collects all things of the same Nature But secondly it is false for Heat does not collect all things of the same Nature Heat does not assemble the Parts of Water it rather dissipates them into a Vapour Nor does it assemble the Particles of Wine or those of all other Liquors or fluid Bodies whatever Nor even those of Quicksilver On the contrary it resolves and separates all solid Bodies and even Fluids although of a different Nature And if there are any whose Parts Fire cannot dissipate 't is not because they are of the same Nature but because some are too gross and too solid to be raised by the Motion of the Parts of Fire In the third place Heat indeed can neither assemble nor dissipate the Parts of any Body whether Homogeneous or Heterogeneous For to assemble to separate or dissipate the Parts of any Body it must move them Now Heat can move nothing or at least 't is not evident that Heat can move Bodies For although we consider Heat with all the Attention possible we can only discover that it may communicate to Bodies a Motion which it has not in it self Yet we see that Fire moves and separates the Parts of Bodies that are exposed to it It is true but it may be it is not from its Heat for even it is not evident that it has any at all 'T is rather by the Action of its Parts which are visibly in a continual Motion It is plain that the Parts of Fire which strike against any Body must communicate a Part of their Motion to it whether there is Heat in Fire or not If the Parts of this Body are but a little solid and gross the Fire cannot move them and make them slip one upon another In short if they are a Mixture of subtle and gross ones the Fire can only dissipate those that it can push strong enough to separate intirely from the rest Thus Fire can only separate them and if it assembles them 't is merely by Accident But Aristotle pretends quite the contrary Separation says he which some attribute to Fire is only a resembling of things of the same kind De gen corr l. 2. c. 2. for 't is only by Accident that Fire dissipates things of a different kind If Aristotle had at first distinguished the Sentiment of Heat from the Motion of the Particles whereof the Bodies we call Heat are composed and had afterwards defined Heat taken for the Motion of the Parts by saying Heat is that which agitates and separates the invisible Parts whereof visible Bodies are composed he would have given a tollerable Definition of Heat Nevertheless it would not perfectly have contented us because it would not precisely have discovered to us the Nature of the Motion of hot Bodies Aristotle defines Coldness to be that which assembles Bodies of the same or of a different Nature This Definition is good for nothing For 't is false that Cold assembles Bodies To assemble them it must move them but if we consult Reason 't is evident Cold can move nothing In Effect by Cold he means either what we feel when we are cold or that which causes the Sensation of Cold. Now it is plain that the Sensation of Cold can move nothing since it can push nothing What it is that causes Sensation we cannot doubt when we examine things by our Reason for 't is only Rest or a Cessation from Motion So Cold in Bodies being only a Cessation from this Sort of Motion which accompanies Heat it is evident that if Heat separates yet Cold does not Thus Cold assembles neither things that are of a like or different Nature for what can push nothing can assemble nothing In a Word as it does nothing it collects nothing Aristotle judging of things by the Senses imagines Cold is also positive as well as Heat because the Sensations of Heat and Cold are both real and positive And he also thinks that these two Qualities are active And indeed if we follow the Impression of our Senses we have Reason to believe that Cold is a very active Quality since cold Water congeals reassembles and in a Moment hardens melted Gold or Lead after a little is poured upon them although the Heat of these Metals is great enough to separate the Parts of any Body they touch It is evident by what we have said of the Errors of the Senses in the first Book that if we rely only upon the Senses to judge of the Qualities of Sensible Bodies it is impossible to discover any certain and undoubted Truth which can serve as a Principle to assist us in the Knowledge of Nature For by this Method only we cannot discover what things are hot and what cold For of many Persons who should touch Water that is luke-warm some of them would think it hot and others cold Those that are of a hot Constitution would think it cold and those that are of a cold would think it hot And if we supposed Fish capable of Sensation 't is very probable they would think it hot when all Men think it cold It is the same with the Air it seems hot or cold according to the different Dispositions of the Bodies that are exposed
to it Aristotle pretends 't is hot but I believe those that dwell towards the North are of another Mind since many learned Men whose Climate is not colder than that of Greece have maintained it to be cold But this Question which has always been considerable in the Schools has never been sufficiently resolved to affix any distinct Idea to the Word Heat The Definitions Aristotle gives of the Words Heat and Cold can fix no Idea to them The Air for instance and even Water though never so hot and scalding reassembles the Parts of melted Lead with those of any other Metal whatever Air collects all Fatness in Gums and other solid Bodies And one must be a Peripatetick indeed to think of exposing Mastich to the Air to separate the Ashes from the Pitch or any other compounded Bodies to dissolve them again The Air then is not hot according to the Definition Aristotle gives of Heat Air separates Liquors from Bodies which are imbibed in it hardens Dirt and dries Linnen that is extended in it although Aristotle makes it moist The Air therefore is hot and drying according to this same Definition We cannot then determine the Air to be hot or cold by this Definition We may affirm it is hot in respect to Dirt since it separates the Water from the Earth that is mixed with it But must we try all the divers Effects of Air upon all Bodies to know whether or no there is Heat in the Air we breath If so we can never know any thing of it the shortest Way therefore is not to Philosophize at all upon the Air we breath in But upon a certain Pure and Elementary Air which is not to be found here below and positively affirm with Aristotle that 't is hot without giving any Proof of it or even without knowing distinctly what we mean by this Air or by this Heat For this Way we shall give Principles that will not easily be overthrown not because of their Evidence and Solidity but because they are obscure like Phantoms which cannot be hurt because they have no Substances I shall not here stay upon the Definitions that Aristotle gives of Moisture and Dryness because it is plain enough that he has not explained the Nature of them For according to these Definitions Fire is not dry since it is not easily contained within its own Bounds and Ice is not moist since it is contained within its own Bounds and is not easily accommodated to the Limits of other Bodies It is true Ice is not moist if by moist he means fluid But if we understand it so we may say Flame is very hot as well as melted Gold or Lead It is likewise true that Ice is not moist if by moist we mean that which easily sticks to things that touch it but in this Sense Pitch Fat and Oyl are much more humid than Water since they stick more strongly than Water In the same Sense Quicksilver is moist for it sticks to Metals and even Water is not perfectly moist for it cleaves not to the Generality of Metals We must not then recur to the Testimony of the Senses to defend the Opinions of Aristotle But let us no further Examine the marvelous Definitions that this Philosopher has given us of the four Elementary Qualities and let us suppose also that all whatever the Senses tell us of these Qualities is indisputable Let us further excite our Faith and believe that all these Definitions are most just Let us only see if it be true that all Qualities of Sensible Bodies are compounded of these Elementary Qualities Aristotle pretends it and he ought so to do since he looks upon these four first Qualities as the Principles of those things he would explain in his Books of Physicks He teaches us then that Colours are engendered of the Mixture of die four Elementary Qualities that white is produced when Humidity surmounts Heat as when Old Men turn Grey Black when Humidity is overcome by Dryness as in the Walls of Cisterns and all other Colours by the like Mixtures that Tasts and Smells are also produced by a different Mixture of dry and moist caused by Heat and Cold that even Lightness and Heaviness depend upon it In a Word according to Aristotle it is necessary that all Sensible Qualities should be produced by the two Active Qualities of Heat and Cold and be compounded of the two Passive moist and dry that there may be some probable Connection between his Principles and the Consequences he draws from them However it is yet more difficult to perswade our selves of all these things than of all those that we have hitherto related of Aristotle We shall have some Trouble to believe that the Earth and other Elements would not be coloured or visible if they were in their Natural Purity and without any Mixture of Elementary Qualities although the learned Commentators of this Philosopher assures us of it We comprehend not what Aristotle means when he affirms the Whiteness of the Hair to be produced by Humidity because the Humidity of Old Men is stronger than their Heat although to endeavour to clear him of the Thought we put the Definition in the Place of the thing defined For it seems to be an incomprehensible Piece of Nonsence to say the Hairs of Old Men turn White because that which is not easily contained in its own Limits but in the Limits of other Bodies surmounts what assembles things of the same Nature Nor have we less Difficulty to believe that Taste is well explained when he says it consists in the Mixture of Dryness Humidity and Heat chiefly if we put instead of these Words the Definitions this Philosopher has given of them as it would be useful to do if they were good And it may be also that we could not forbear laughing instead of the Definitions of Hunger and Thirst that Aristotle gives of them by saying that Hunger is the Desire of Heat and Dry and Thirst the Desire of Cold and Moist we should substitute the Definition of these Words calling Hunger The Desire of what assembles things of the same Nature and of what is easily kept within its own Limits and difficultly in the Limits of others and define Thirst the Desire of what assembles things of the same and of different Natures and of what cannot be easily contained in its own Limits but easily in the Limits of others Certainly 't is a very useful Rule to discover if we have defined Terms well and not to deceive our selves in our Reasonings only often to put the Definition in the Place of the thing defined For by that means we know whether the Terms are equivocal and the Measures of the Relation false and imperfect Or if we reason consequently This being granted what can we say of the Arguments of Aristotle which become an impertinent and ridiculous Piece of Nonsence when we make use of this Rule And what must we say likewise of all those that reason
little Resistance It is difficult enough to perswade our selves that Descartes positively believed the Cause of Hardness was different from that of Elasticity And what appears most probable is that he has not sufficiently reflected upon the Matter When we meditate long upon any Subject and are satisfied in things we would know we often think no more of them We believe that the Thoughts that we have had are undoubted Truths and 't is useless to examine farther But in Men there are many things which disgust them against Application incine them to a rash Assent and make them subject to Error and although the Mind continues apparently satisfied it is not always because it is well informed of the Truth Descartes was a Man like us I confess we never saw more Solidity Exactness Extension and more Penetration of Mind than what appears in his Works yet he was not infallible So that it is probable he was so very strongly perswaded of his Opinion from not sufficiently reflecting that he asserted something elsewhere in nis Principles contrary to it He maintained it upon very specious and probable Reasons but such however as were not of sufficient Force to make us submit and therefore he might and ought to have suspended his Judgment It is not enough to examine in a hard Body what might be the Cause that made it so We ought also to think of the invisible bodies which might render them hard as he has done at the End of his Philosophical Principles when he attributes the Cause of Resistance to them He ought to have made an exact Division which comprised whatsoever might contribute to the Inflexibility of bodies It is not sufficient still to seek the Cause in God's Will he ought also to have thought of the Subtle Matter which environed them For although the Existence of this extreamly agitated Matter was not yet proved in that Place of his Principles where he speaks of Hardness it was not then rejected He ought then to have suspended his Judgment and to have remembered that what he had writ of the Cause of Hardness and Rules of Motion ought to have been reviewed anew which I believe he did not do carefully enough Or else he did not sufficiently consider the true Reason of a thing that is very easie to discover and which yet is of the utmost Consequence in Physicks I will explain it Descartes well knew that to maintain his System of the Truth which he could not reasonably doubt It was absolutely necessary that great bodies should always communicate their Motion to the lesser bodies they should meet and the less reflect at their meeting with the greater without a like Loss on their Side For without that the First Element would not have all the Motion that it is necessary it should have above the Second nor the Second above the Third and his whole System would be absolutely false as is sufficiently known to those that have but thought a little upon it But in supposing that Rest had Force enough to resist Motion and that a great Body in Rest could not be moved by another that is less than it although it strike it with a furious Agitation It is plain that great Bodies must have much less Motion than a like Mass of little Bodies since according to this Supposition they can always communicate what they have and cannot always receive from the lesser Thus this Supposition not being contrary to whatsoever Descartes has said in his Principles from the Beginning unto the Establishment of his Rules of Motion and agreeing very well with the Sequel of his Principles he believed that the Rules of Motions which he thought he had demonstrated in their Cause were also sufficiently confirmed by their Effects I agree with Descartes that great Bodies communicate their Motion much more easily than little Bodies do and therefore his First Element is much more agitated than the Second and the Second than the Third But the Cause of it is clear without having any Regard to his Supposition Little and fluid Bodies as Water Air c. can only communicate to great Bodies an uniform Motion which is common to all their Parts The Water in a River can only communicate to a Boat the Motion of Descent which is common to all the little Parts of which the Water is composed and every one of these Parts besides this common Motion has also an infinite Number of other Particulars Thus by this Reason 't is plain that a Boat for instance can never have so much Motion as an equal Bulk of Water since the Boat can only receive from the Water that Motion which is direct and common to all the Parts that compose it If Twenty Particles of a fluid Body push any other Body on the one Side and as many on the other it will continue immoveable and all the little Particles of the fluid Body in which it swims rebound up without losing any thing of their Motion Thus great Bodies whose Parts are united can only receive the Circular and Uniform Motion of the Vortex of the Subtle Matter which environs them This Reason seems sufficient to them to make it comprehended how great Bodies are not so much agitated as the lesser and that there is a Necessity for an Explanation of these things to suppose any Force in Rest to resist Motion The Certainty of Descartes's Principles cannot be a sufficient Proof to defend his Rules of Motion and we may believe that if Descartes himself had again without Prejudice examined his Principles and compared them with such Reasons as I have brought he would not have believed that the Effects of Nature had confirmed his Rules nor have fallen into a Contradiction by attributing the Hardness of Bodies only to the rest of their Parts and their Elasticity to the Force of a Subtle Matter Here follows now the Rules of the Communication of Motions in a Void which are only the Consequences of what I have established about the Nature of Rest Bodies not being hard in a Void since they are only hard by the Pressure of the Subtle Matter which surrounds them if Two Bodies meet they would flatten without rebounding we must therefore give these Rules Suppose them hard of themselves and not by the Pressure of this Subtle Matter Rest having no Power to resist Motion and many Bodies before being considered as one only in the moment of their meeting it is plain they ought not to rebound when they are equal in Magnitude and Velocity or that their Velocity supplies the Desect of their Magnitude or their Magnitude the Defect of their Velocity And it is easie from thence to conclude that in all other Cases they must always communicate their Motion A general Rule for the Communication of Motion so that they may afterwards proceed with an equal Swiftness So that to know what must happen in all the different Suppositions of Magnitude and Swiftness of Bodies which meet one another we need
only add together all the Degrees of Motion of two or many Bodies which must be considered only as one at the Time when they meer See Descartes's Rules in the second Part of his Principles and after divide the Sum of all the Motions in Proportion to the Magnitude of these Bodies From whence I conclude that of the Seven Rules that Descartes gives of Motion the Three first are good The Fourth is false and B must communicate its Motion to C in Proportion to the Magnitude of the same C and afterwards move together So that if C is double to B and B has Three Degrees of Motion it must communicate Two of them For I have sufficiently proved that Descartes ought not to have supposed Rest to have had any Force to resist Motion That the Fifth is true That the Sixth is false and that B must communicate the Half of its Motion to C. And that the seventh is false since B must always communicate its Motion to C in Proportion to the Magnitude and Motion of both B and C. That if according to the Supposition C is double to B and has three Degrees of Motion whilst C has but two they must necessarily move together since indeed C and B are but one Body at the Time of their Meeting and because we must add the Degrees of Swiftness which are five and afterwards divide them in Proportion to their Magnitude and so give 1â…” to B and 3â…“ to C the double of B. But these Rules although certain by what I have said are yet contrary to Experience because we are not in a Void The chief of all the Experiments which are contrary to what I have said of the Rules of Motion is that it always happens that hard Bodies which shock each other do still rebound different Ways or at least they do not follow one another after their meeting To answer to which we must call to mind what has been said about the Cause of Elactity that there is a Matter whose Agitation is strangely violent which continually passes between the Parts of hard Bodies and makes them so by compressing them as much upon the external as internal Parts For from thence 't is easily seen that in the Time of Percussion two Bodies which meet drive or divert the Course of this Matter from the nearest Places to those where they are shockt And this Matter resisting with a great Violence repels the two Bodies which meet and restores its Passage which the Percussion had stopt up That which proves yet more clearly what I have said is that if two Balls of Lead or some other less elastick Matter meet together they rebound not after their Shock but go on according to the Rules I have before established which they keep with so much the more Exactness as their Elasticity is less Bodies then rebound after their Percussion because they are hard that is as I have explained because there is a Sort of Matter much agitated which compresses them and which passing thro' their Pores with a great Violence repulses the Bodies which strike against one another But we must suppose that the Bodies which meet break not those they strike against by a Motion that conquers the Force which these little Parts of subtle Matter has to resist as when we discharge a Musket against a Piece of Wood It is true this subtle Matter compresses soft Bodies and passes very quickly thro' their Pores as well as it does thro' those of the hard and that nevertheless these soft Bodies make no Resistance The Reason is because the Matter which passes thro' soft Bodies can open its Passage on all Sides very easily because of the Smallness of the Parts which compose them or of some particular Configuration proper for this End which hard Bodies cannot suffer because of the Grossness and contrary Disposition of their Parts to this effect Thus when a hard Body shocks another that is soft it changes all the Ways by which the subtle Matter passes which is often visible as in a Musket Bullet that is flatted when we strike it But when a hard Body hits another like it self it produces none or very sew new Ways and the subtle Matter which is within its Pores is forced to return by the Way it came or else it repels those Bodies which shut up its little Passages Suppose A an hard and B a soft Body and C c the Channel of the subtle Matter I say that if A shocks B at the Point c the Channel C c is obstructed and the subtle Matter finds out new Ways in this soft Body Thus the subtle Matter having a free Passage it repels not the Bodies which hit against it but the Bodies themselves change their Figure and become a little flat And we must suppose that in the least hard Bodies there is an infinite Number of Channels like to C c. But if A and a are two hard Bodies which meet the Passage C c will be straightened and the subtle Matter which is there obstructed continuing its Motion in a right Line must for want of new Passages repel the Body which shocks it with so much the more Violence as its Difficulty is greater to find a Way or else the Parts of the Body A will break and separate from one another and be reduced into Powder or very small Pieces In short it appears evident that all Bodies in Motion continually endeavour to keep in a right Line and turning the least that is possible when they meet with any Resistance they must never reflect since by reflecting they deviate much from a right Line It must therefore be either that Bodies become flat or that the strongest overcome the weakest and make it move the same Way the other does But because Bodies are elastick and hard they cannot follow one another since if A pushes a a will repel A again and so they must keep asunder from one another Nevertheless if the two Bodies were in a Void altho' they were very Hard they would follow one another because having no Bodies about them they could have no elastick Force the shocked not at all resisting that which shocks it But Air Gravity c. resisting the great Motion that the striking Body gives to that it strikes the stricken resists the striking and hinders it from following it For Experience teaches us that Air and Gravity resists Motion and so much the more as the Motion is more violent It is easie to discover by what I have said why when different Bodies meet which are surrounded with Air or Water c. sometimes that which strikes rebounds and sometimes it communicates all its Motion and continues as if it were immovable and sometimes follows the stricken but always with less Swiftness if either of them is absolutely soft For the whole depends only upon the Proportion which is between their Magnitude Hardness and Gravity supposing they are moved with an equal Swiftness If they are very inflexible the
are in themselves or the Body which speaks only out of interest and in relation either to the preservation or conveniency of Life For in fine What Prejudices will not be justified if we take the Senses for Judges to whom almost all Prejudices owe their birth As I have already shewn in the Search after Truth When I see one Bowle hit another my Eyes tell me or seem to tell me that it is truly the Cause of the Motion it impresses For the true Cause which moves Bodies does not appear to my Eyes Bur when I ask my Reason I see evidently that Bodies cannot move themselves and their Moving power depending only upon the Will of God which successively preserves them in different places they cannot communicate a power which they have not nor could communicate if they had it For 't is plain there is a Wisdom requisite and one that is infinite too to regulate the Communication of Motions with the exactness proportion and uniformity that we see A Body moved cannot know the infinite number of Bodies it meets at every moment It is farther clear That although we should even suppose knowledge in it it could not have enough to regulate in the instant of the Shock the distribution of the Moving power it self is carried with If I open but my Eyes it appears plain to me that the Sun is very gloriously bright and seems not only to be visible it self but makes all the World so too 'T is that which covers the Earth with Flowers and Fruits which gives Life to Animals and which by its Heat penetrates into the very Bowels of the Earth and produces Stones Marbles and Metals there But when I consult Reason I see nothing of all this and if I consult it faithfully I clearly discover that my Senses seduce me and that it is God who performs all in all Things For knowing that whatever changes happen in the Body they have no other principle but the different communication of Motion which occur in visible or invisible Bodies I see that it is God who does all Things since it is his Will which Causes and his Wisdom which Regulates all these Communications I suppose that Local Motion is the principle of Generations Corruptions Alterations and generally of all the Changes which happen in the Body which is an Opinion that is now sufficiently received amongst the Learned But whatever Opinion they have about it signifies little for it seems much more easie to conceive that a Body drives another when it meets it than to apprehend how Fire produces Heat and Light and draw from the power of Matter a Substance which was not there before And if it be necessary to acknowledge That God is the True Cause of the different Communications of Motions by a much stronger Reason we ought to conclude That none but he can Create and Annihilate Real Qualities and Substantial Forms I say Create and Annihilate because at least it seems as difficult to me to draw from Matter a Substance which was not in it or to cause it to re-enter again as to Create or Annihilate it But I shall not stand upon Terms I only make use of them because there is no other which I know of that clearly and without Equivocation express the Changes which the Philosophers suppose every Moment to happen through the power of Second Causes I had some difficulty here to relate the other Proofs which they commonly give for the Power and Efficacy of Natural Causes for they appear so weak to those who are able to resist Prejudices and prefer their Reason to their Senses that it does not seem likely that reasonable Men should be perswaded by them Yet I will produce and Answer them since there are many Philosophers who make use of them The first Proof If Second Causes do effect nothing we could not says Suarez In his Metaph. Disp 18. Sect. 1. Assert 1. In Metaph. Arist qu. 7. Sect. 2. Fonseca and some others distinguish Animate from Inanimate Things for neither of them would have an inward principle of their Actions ANSWER I Answer That Men would have the same Sensible Proofs that have convinced them of the distinction they put between Animate and Inanimate Things They would alwayes see Animals perform Certain Actions as Eating Growing Crying Running Leaping c. Nor would they observe any thing like this in Stones And it is this only which makes the common Philosophers believe that Beasts live and Stones do not for it must not be imagined that they know by a clear and distinct View of the Mind what the Life of a Dog is It is their Senses which regulate their Decisions upon this Question If it were necessary I could here prove That the Principal of a Dog's Life differs very little if at all from that of the Motion of a Watch. For the Life of Bodies whatever they be can only consist in the motion of their parts and it is not difficult to judge that the same Subtil Matter which in a Dog causes the Fermentation of the Blood and Animal Spirits and is the principle of his Life is not more perfect than that which gives Motion to the Springs of a Watch or causes Gravitation in the Weights of a Clock which is the principle of their Life or to speak as others do of their Motion The Peripatetics ought to give to those whom they stile Cartesians a clear Idea of what they call The Life of Beasts Corporeal Soul Body which perceives desires sees feels wills and afterwards we will clearly resolve their difficulties if they continue to propose them The Second Proof We could not discover the Differences nor Powers of the Elements So that Fire might cool as Water does and the Nature of nothing would be settled and fixed ANSWER I Answer That Nature continuing as it is that is whilst the Laws of the communication of Motions remain constantly the same it is a contradiction that Fire should not burn or not separate the parts of certain Bodies Fire cannot cool like Water except it becomes Water For Fire being only fewel whose parts have been agitated with a violent Motion by an invisible Matter which incompasses them as is easie to be demonstrated it is impossible these parts should not communicate some of their Motion to the Bodies which they meet Now as these Laws are constant the Nature of Fire its vertues and qualities cannot change But this Nature and these Vertues are only consequences of the general and efficacious Will of God who does all in all things as we learn from the Scripture So that the study of Nature is false and vain in every respect when we seek for any other true Causes than the Will of the ALMIGHTY I own we must not have recourse to God or the Universal Cause when we inquire into the reason of particular Effects For we should make our selves ridiculous if for instance we said that 't was God who dryes the wayes or
freezes the Water in Rivers We must say that the Air dryes the Earth because it agitates and sucks up the Water which is tempered with it And that the Air or subtle Matter freezes Rivers in Winter because it does not then communicate motion enough to the parts of which the Water is composed In a word we must if we can give the Natural and Particular Cause of the Effects produced But as the action of these Causes consist only in the Moving Power which acts them and that this Moving Power is nothing else but the Will of God who creates them or successively preserves them in different places we must not say that they have in themselves a Strength or Power to produce any Effects And when in Reasoning we are at last come to a general Effect whose Cause we seek 't would be a very ill way of Philosophizing to imagine any other besides the general one And to feign a Certain Nature a First Moveable an Vniversal Soul or some such like Chimera of which we have no clear and distinct Idea would be to argue like the Heathen Philosophers For instance When we are ask't whence it comes that some Bodies are in Motion or how the Air when agitated communicates its Motion to the Water or rather from whence it proceeds that Bodies impell one another As Motion and its communication is a general Effect whereupon all others depend it is necessary I dont say to be a good Christian but to be a Philosopher to recur to God who is the Universal Cause since 't is his Will which is the Moving Power of Bodies and which also regulates the communication of their Motions If he had Will'd there should be no new production in the World he would not have put the parts of it in Motion And if he should hereafter Will the incorruptibility of any of the Beings he has Created he would cease to Will certain communications of Motions in respect to these Beings The Third Proof All Labour would be useless 't would be un necessary to water and to give certain preparatory dispositions to Bodies to fit them for what we desire of them For God has no need of preparing the subjects upon which he acts ANSWER Suarez in the same place To which I Reply That God can absolutely do what he pleases without finding any dispositions in the subjects he works upon But he cannot do it without a Miracle or by Natural wayes that is according to the general Laws of the communication of the Motions he has established and according to which he generally acts God never multiplies his Wills without Reason but alwayes acts by the most simple wayes and therefore he makes use of the meeting of Bodies in giving them Motion not as their shock is absolutely necessary to move them as our Senses tell us but because that being the occasion of the communication of Motion there needs only a few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects that we see For by this means we can reduce all the Laws of the communication of Motion to one only which is That Bodies which shock each other being look'd upon but as one in the moment of their contact or shock the Moving Power is at their separation divided between them according to the proportion of their magnitude But as concuring Bodies are incompassed with an infinite number of other Bodies which act upon them by vertue and efficacy of this Law how constant and uniform soever it may be it produces an infinite number of different communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which all relate to one another See the last Chap. of the Search after Truth It is necessary to water a Plant to make it grow because according to the Laws of the communication of Motions there is scarce any other but watery Particles which by their Motion and Figure can insinuate themselves and enter the Fibres of the Plants and by various uniting themselves together take the Figure necessary for their Nourishment The subtle matter which the Sun continually diffuses may by agitating the Water draw it up into the Plants but it has not Motion enough to raise gross Particles of Earth However the Earth and even the Air are necessary to the growth of Plants The Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and the Air to excite a moderate fermentation in the same Water But the action of the Sun Air and Water consist only in the Motion of their parts and to speak properly none but God can act For as I have just said there is only he who by the efficacy of his Will and infinite extent of his Knowledge can produce and regulate the infinite communications or Motions which are made every moment and according to an infinite exact and regular proportion The Fourth Proof Can God oppose or resist himself Bodies meet shock and resist one another therefore God acts not in them except by his concurrence For if he only produced and preserved Motion in Bodies he would divert them before their meeting since he knows very well that they are impenetrable Why should Bodies be impelled to be thrown back again or made to advance that they may recoil Or wherefore are useless Motions produced and preserved Is it not extravagant to say that God fights against himself and destroys his own works when a Bull opposes a Lion or a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which he gave growth to Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Then Second Causes do every thing and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself and to concur is to act Concurring to contrary actions is giving contrary concourses and consequently a performing contrary actions To concur with the action of the Creatures which resist one another is to act against himself and to concur to useless Motions is to act unusefully Now God does nothing in vain he performs no actions contrary to one another Therefore he concurs not in the action of the Creatures who often destroy one another and make useless actions and motions Hither 't is that this Proof of Second Causes conducts us but let us examine what Reason teaches us about it God does all in every thing and nothing resists him He performs all things since 't is by his Wills that all Motions are produced and regulated and nothing resists him because whatever he wills is effected And thus it ought to be conceived He having resolved to produce by the most simple wayes as the most conformable to order this infinite variety of Creatures that we admire he determined Bodies to move in a right line because this line is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions inclining to opposite lines or such as intersect they must necessarily meet one another and consequently cease to move in the same manner God foresaw this and nevertheless positively willed the meeting or opposition of Bodies not because he was pleased
Second Causes which I have just now Refuted Or perhaps it might be concluded That The Search after Truth is a Book full of visible and gross Contradictions as some Persons do who it may be have not equity or penetration enough to make them fit Judges of the Works of others The Holy Scripture the Fathers and most good Men oftener speak of sensible Goods Riches and Honours according to the common Opinion than according to the true Ideas they have of them JESVS CHRIST introduces Abraham speaking to the wicked Rich Man Fili recepisti BONA in vita tua Thou hast received thy good things in thy life time that is Riches Honours What we through prejudice call good our good that is our Gold or our Silver is in an hundred places in the Scripture called our Maintenance or our Substance and even our Honesty or that which honours us Pawpertas honestas á Deo sunt But must this manner of speaking used by the Holy Scripture Eccl. 11.14 and most Pious Persons make us think they contradict themselves or that they look upon Riches and Honours as real goods and that therefore we ought to love and seek after them No without doubt because these wayes of speaking complying with prejudices signifie nothing And we see in other places JESVS CHRIST has compared Riches to Thorns has told us we must renounce them because they are deceitful and that whatsoever is great and alluring in this World is an abomination before God We must not therefore collect the passages of Scripture or of the Fathers to judge of their Opinion by the greatest number of them except we would continually attribute the most unreasonable prejudices to them This once supposed Matth. 6.28 29 30. we see that the Holy Scripture positively sayes That 't is God who has Created every thing even the grass of the field That 't is he who cloaths the Lillies with such ornaments as our SAVIOVR prefers before the Glory of Solomon There is not only two or three but an infinite number of passages which ascribe to God the pretended Efficacy of Second Causes and which destroy the Nature of the Peripatetics Besides we are carried by a kind of Natural Prejudice not to think on God in common Effects and to attribute Power and Efficacy to Natural Causes and seldom any thing but Miracles induce us to think on him as the Author of them And the sensible impression ingages us in favour of Second Causes Philosophers hold this Opinion because say they the Senses convince us of it and this is their strongest Proof Lastly This Opinion is received by all those who follow the Judgments of the Senses Our common Language is formed from this prejudice and we as generally say that Fire has a power to burn as we call Gold and Silver our good Therefore the passages drawn from the Holy Scriptures or the Fathers for the Efficacy of Second Causes prove no more than those that an Ambitious or Covetous Man shall choose to justifie his own Conduct But 't is quite different with those passages we may bring to prove that God does all things For this Opinion being contrary to Prejudice these passages must be understood in their utmost rigour for the same Reason that we ought to believe that 't is the Sentiments of the Cartesians that Beasts are insensible although they have said it but two or three times and continually say to the contrary in all familiar Discourses affirming they feel see and understand In the First Chapter of Genesis God commands the Earth to produce Plants and Animals and likewise the Waters to bring forth Fish And consequently sayes the Peripatetics Water and Earth have received a Power capable of producing these Effects I don't see the certainty of this Conclusion And although we were even obliged to explain this Chapter by it self without having any recourse to other passages of Scripture there would be no necessity to receive this consequence This way of explaining the Creation is accommodated to our conception of things therefore 't is not necessary to take it literally nor ought we to make use of it to maintain Prejudices As Animals and Plants are upon the Earth Fowls live in the Air and Fish in the Water so God to make us apprehend 't is by his Order they are in these places has produced them there 'T is from the Earth that he formed Animals and Plants not that the Earth was capable of generating them or that God to that end gave it a Power or Vertue which it still keeps for we all agree that the Earth does not produce Horses or Oxen but because from the Earth the Bodies of these Animals were formed as is declared in the following Chapter Formatis igitur Dominus Deus de humo cunctis animantibus Terrae Ver. 19. universis volatilibus Coeli Animals were formed out of the Earth formatis de humo and not produced by the Earth Also after Moses has related how Beasts and Fish were produced by vertue of the Command which God gave the Earth and Water to produce them he adds that 't was God himself who made them that we might not attribute their production to the Earth and Water CREAVIT quae DEVS cete grandia omnem animam viventem atque notabilem quam PRODVXERVNT aquae in species suas omne volatile secundùm genus suum And a little lower after having spoken of the formation of Animals he adds Et FECIT DEVS bestias terrae juxta species suas jumenta omne reptile terrae in genere suo We may observe by the by that where the Vulgar reads it Producant aquae reptile animae viventis volatile super terram the Hebrew has it Volatile VOLITET For as it clearly appears by the passage I related from the Second Chapter this word omitted shows that Fowls were not produced from the Water and that the design of Moses is not here to prove that the Waters had received a true Power to bring forth Fish and Fowl but only to denote the place design'd for each by the Order of God whether to live or be produced in And volatile VOLITET super terram For commonly when we say that the Earth produces Trees and Plants we only design to show that it supplyed them with the Water and Salt which is necessary for their Germination and Growth But I will stay no longer to explain the other passages of Scripture which literally taken favour Second Causes for we are not obliged Besides 't would be very dangerous to understand such expressions literally as are maintained upon common Opinions agreeably to which the Language is formed the Vulgar speaking every thing according to the impression of the Senses and prejudices of Infancy The same Reason which obliges us to take such passages of the Scripture in the Letter as are directly opposite to Prejudices still gives us just cause to believe that the Fathers never