a faculty of knowing in every Creature do yet deny nay rail against Natures self-moving power condemning her as a dull inanimate senseless and irrational body as if a rational man could conceive that such a curious variety and contrivance of natural works should be produced by a senseless and irational motion or that Nature was full of immaterial spirits which did work Natural matter into such various figures or that all this variety should be caused by an Immaterial motion which is generated out of nothing and annihilated in a moment for no man can conceive or think of motion without body and if it be above thought then surely it is above act But I rather cease to wonder at those strange and irregular opinions of Man-kind since even they themselves do justifie and prove the variety of Nature for what we call Irregularities in Nature are really nothing but a variety of Natures motions and therefore if all mens conceits fancies and opinions were rational there would not be so much variety as there is Concerning those that say there is no variety in the Elemental Kingdom as Air Water and Earth Air and Water having no form at all unless a potentiality to be formed into globules and that the clods and parcels of Earth are all Irregular I answer This is more then Man is able to know But by reason their Microscopes cannot make such Hermaphroditical figures of the Elements as they can of Minerals Vegetables and Animals they conclude there is no such variety in them when as yet we do plainly perceive that there are several sorts of Air Fire Water Earth and no doubt but these several sorts and their particulars are as variously figured as other Creatures Truly it is no consequence to deny the being of that which we do not see or perceive for this were to attribute a Universal and Infinite knowledg to our weak and imperfect senses And therefore I cannot believe that the Omnipotent Creator has written and engraven his most mysterious Designs and Counsels onely in one sort of Creatures since all parts of Nature their various productions and curious contrivances do make known the Omnipotency of God not onely those of little but also those of great sizes for in all figures sizes and actions is apparent the curious variety of Nature and the Omnipotency of the Cretor who has given Nature a self-moving power to produce all these varieties in her self which varieties do evidently prove that Nature doth not work in all Creatures alike nor that she has but one Primary or Principal sort of motions by which she produces all Creatures as some do conceive the manner of wreathing and unwreathing which they have observed in the beard of a Wild-oat mentioned before to be the first foot step of sensation and animate motion and the most plain simple and obvious contrivance Nature has made use of to produce a motion next to that of rarefaction and condensation by heat and cold for this is a very wild and extravagant conceit to measure the infinite actions of Nature according to the rule of one particular sort of motions which any one that has the perfect use of his sense and reason may easily see and therefore I need not to bring many arguments to contradict it 16. Of the Providence of Nature and of some Opinions concerning Motion COncerning those that speak of the Providence of Nature the preserving of Vegetables to wit that Nature is very curious and careful in preserving their seminal principles and lays them in most convenient strong and delicate cabinets for their safer protection from outward danger I confess Nature may make such protections that one Creature may have some defence from the injuries and assaults of its fellow-Creatures but these assaults are nothing but dissolving motions as friendly and amiable associations are nothing else but composing motions neither can any thing be lost in Nature for even the least particle of Nature remains as long as Nature her self And if there be any Providence in Nature then certainly Nature has knowledg and wisdom and if she hath knowledg and wisdom then she has sense and reason and if sense and reason then she has self-motion and if Nature has self-motion then none of her parts can be called inanimate or soul-less for Motion is the life and soul of Nature and of all her parts and if the body be animate the parts must be so too there being no part of the animate body of Nature that can be dead or without motion whereof an instance might be given of animal bodies whose parts have all animal life as well as the body it self Wherefore those that allow a soul or an informing actuating and animating form or faculty in Nature and her parts and yet call some parts inanimate or soul-less do absolutely contradict themselves And those that say all the varieties of Nature are produced not by self-motion but that one part moves another must at last come to something that moves it self besides it is not probable that one part moving another should produce all things so orderly and wisely as they are in Nature But those that say Motion is no substance and consequently not material and yet allow a generation and annihilation of Motion speak in my opinion non-sence for first how can self-motion the Author and Producer of all things work all the varieties that are in Nature and be nothing it self Next how can that which is nothing for all that is not Material is nothing in Nature or no part of Nature be generated and annihilated Nay if Motion be Material as surely it is yet there can neither be a new generation nor an annihilation of any particular Motion in Nature for all that is material in Nature has its being in and from Infinite Matter which is from Eternity it being impossible that any other new Matter should be created besides this Infinite Matter out of which all natural things consist or that any part of this matter should be lost or annihilated But perhaps those that believe new generations and annihilations of particular motions may say that their opinion is not as if those particular Motions were generated out of some new matter but that the matter of such motions is the same with the matter of all other natural Creatures and that their perishing or annihilation is not an utter destruction or loss of their being out of Nature but onely of being such or such a motion like as some Vegetables and Elements are generated and perish in one night Truly if their meaning be thus then it were better to name it an alteration or change of Motion rather then a new Generation and a Perishing or Annihilation But my intention is not to plead for other mens opinions but rather to clear my own which is that Motion is material for Figure Motion and Matter are but one thing and that no particular Motion is or can be lost in Nature nor created anew as
be denied to be Material they can neither be accounted Irrational Insensible or Inanimate by reason there is no part nay not the smallest particle in Nature our reason is able to conceive which is not composed of Animate Matter as well as of Inanimate of Life and Soul as well as of Body and therefore no particular Creature can claim a prerogative in this case before an other for there is a thorow mixture of Animate and Inanimate Matter in Nature and all her Parts But some may object That if there be sense and reason in every part of Nature it must be in all parts alike and then a stone or any other the like Creature may have reason or a rational soul as well as Man To which I answer I do not deny that a Stone has Reason or doth partake of the Rational Soul of Nature as well as Man doth because it is part of the same Matter Man consists of but yet it has not animal or humane sense and reason because it is not of animal kind but being a Mineral it has Mineral sense and reason for it is to be observed that as Animate self-moving Matter moves not one and the same way in all Creatures so there can neither be the same way of knowledg and understanding which is sense and reason in all Creatures alike but Nature being various not onely in her parts but in her actions it causes a variety also amongst her Creatures and hence come so many kinds sorts and particulars of Natural Creatures quite different from each other though not in the General and Universal principle of Nature which is self-moving Matter for in this they agree all yet in their particular interior natures figures and proprieties Thus although there be Sense and Reason which is not onely Motion but a regular and well-ordered self-motion apparent in the wonderful and various Productions Generations Transformations Dissolutions Compositions and other actions of Nature in all Natures parts and particles yet by reason of the variety of this self-motion whose ways and modes do differ according to the nature of each particular figure no figure or creature can have the same sense and reason that is the same natural motions which another has and therefore no Stone can be said to feel pain as an Animal doth or be called blind because it has no Eyes for this kind of sense as Seeing Hearing Tasting Touching and Smelling is proper onely to an Animal figure and not to a Stone which is a Mineral so that those which frame an argument from the want of animal sense and sensitive organs to the defect of all sense and motion as for example that a Stone would withdraw it self from the Carts going over it or a piece of Iron from the hammering of a Smith conclude in my opinion very much against the artificial rules of Logick and although I understand none of them yet I question not but I shall make a better argument by the Rules of Natural Logick But that this difference of sense and reason is not altogether impossible or at least improbable to our understanding I will explain by another instance We see so many several Creatures in their several kinds to wit Elements Vegetables Minerals and Animals which are the chief distinctions of those kinds of Creatures as are subject to our sensitive perceptions and in all those what variety and difference do we find both in their exterior figures and in their interior natures truly such as most of both ancient and modern Philosophers have imagined some of them viz. the Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Creatures nay those several Creatures do not onely differ so much from each other in their general kinds but there is no less difference perceived in their particular kinds for example concerning Elements what difference is there not between heavy and contracting Earth and between light and dilating Air between flowing Water and ascending Fire so as it would be an endless labour to consider all the different natures of those Creatures onely that are subject to our exterior senses And yet who dares deny that they all consist of Matter or are material Thus we see that Infinite Matter is not like a piece of Clay out of which no figure can be made but it must be clayie for natural Matter has no such narrow bounds and is not forced to make all Creatures alike for though Gold and Stone are both material nay of the same kind to wit Minerals yet one is not the other nor like the other And if this be true of Matter why may not the same be said of self-motion which is Sense and Reason Wherefore in all probability of truth there is sense and reason in a Mineral as well as in an Animal and in a Vegetable as well as in an Element although there is as great a difference between the manner and way of their sensitive and rational perceptions as there is between both their exterior and interior figures and Natures Nay there is a difference of sense and reason even in the parts of one and the same Creature and consequently of sensitive and rational perception or knowledg for as I have declared heretofore more at large every sensitive organ in man hath its peculiar way of knowledg and perception for the Eye doth not know what the Ear knows nor the Ear what the Nose knows c. All which is the cause of a general ignorance between Natures parts And the chief cause of all this difference is the variety of self-motion for if natural motion were in all Creatures alike all sense and reason would be alike too and if there were no degrees of matter all the figures of Creatures would be alike either all hard or all soft all dense or all rare and fluid c. and yet neither this variety of motion causes an absence of motion or of sense and reason nor the variety of figures an absence of Matter but onely a difference between the parts of Nature all being nevertheless self-moving sensible and rational as well as Material for wheresoever is natural Matter there is also self-motion and consequently sense and reason By this we may see how easie it is to conceive the actions of Nature and to resolve all the Phaenomena or appearances upon this ground and I cannot admire enough how so many eminent and learned Philosophers have been and are still puzled about the Natural rational soul of man Some will have her to be a Light some an Entilechy or they know not what some the Quintessence of the four Elements some composed of Earth and Water some of Fire some of Blood some an hot Complexion some an heated and dispersed Air some an Immaterial Spirit and some Nothing All which opinions seem the more strange the wiser their Authors are accounted for if they did proceed from some ignorant persons it would not be so much taken notice of but coming from great Philosophers
can neither be always assured of knowing the Truth for particular Reason may sometimes be deceived as well as sense but when the Perceptions both of sense and reason agree then the information is more true I mean regular sense and reason not irregular which causes mistakes and gives false informations also the Presentation of the objects ought to be true and without delusion 19. Of preserving the Figures of Animal Creatures I Am absolutely of the opinion of those who believe Natural Philosophy may promote not onely Anatomy but all other Arts for else they would not be worth the taking of pains to learn them by reason the rational perceptions are beyond the sensitive I am also of opinion that there may be an Art to preserve the exterior shapes of some animal bodies but not their interior forms for although their exterior shapes even after the dissolution of the animal figure may be some what like the shapes and figures of their bodies when they had the life of an animal yet they being transformed into some other Creatures by the alteration of their interior figurative motions can no ways keep the same interior figure which they had when they were living animals Concerning the preserving of blood by the means of spirit of Wine as some do probably believe my opinion is That spirit of Wine otherwise call'd Hot-water if taken in great quantity will rather dry up or putrifie the blood then preserve it nay not onely the blood but also the more solid parts of an animal body insomuch as it will cause a total dissolution of the animal figure and some animal Creatures that have blood will be dissolved in Wine which yet is not so strong as extracts or spirit of Wine But blood mingled with spirit of Wine may perhaps retain somewhat of the colour of blood although the nature and propriety of blood be quite altered As for the instance of preserving dead fish or flesh from putrifying and stinking alledged by some we see that ordinary salt will do the same with less cost and as spirits of Wine or hot Waters may like salt preserve some dead bodies from corruption so may they by making too much or frequent use of them also cause living bodies to corrupt and dissolve sooner then otherwise they would do But Chymists are so much for extracts that by their frequent use and application they often extract humane life out of humane bodies instead of preserving it 20. Of Chymistry and Chymical Principles IT is sufficiently known and I have partly made mention above what a stir Natural Philosophers do keep concerning the principles of Nature and natural Beings and how different their opinions are The Schools following Aristotle are for the Four Elements which they believe to be simple bodies as having no mixture in themselves and therefore fittest to be principles of all other mixt or compounded bodies But my Reason cannot apprehend what they mean by simple bodies I confess that some bodies are more mixt then others that is they consist of more differing parts such as the learned call Heterogeneous as for example Animals consist of flesh blood skin bones muscles nerves tendons gristles and the like all which are parts of different figures Other bodies again are composed of such parts as are of the same nature which the learned call Homogeneous as for example Water Air c. whose parts have no different figures but are all alike each other at least to our perception besides there are bodies which are more rare and subtile than others according to the degrees of their natural figurative motions and the composion of their parts Nevertheless I see no reason why those Homogeneous bodies should be called simple and all others mixt or composed of them much less why they should be principles of all other natural bodies for they derive their origine from matter as well as the rest so that it is onely the different composure of their parts that makes a difference between them proceeding from the variety of self-motion which is the cause of all different figures in nature for as several work-men join in the building of one house and several men in the framing of one Government so do several parts in the making or forming of one composed figure But they 'l say it is not the likeness of parts that makes the Four Elements to be principles of natural things but because there are no natural bodies besides the mentioned Elements that are not composed of them as is evident in the dissolution of their parts for example A piece of Green wood that is burning in a Chimney we may readily discern the Four Elements in its dissolution out of which it is composed for the fire discovers it self in the flame the smoak turns into air the water hisses and boils at the ends of the wood and the ashes are nothing but the Element of earth But if they have no better arguments to prove their principles they shall not readily gain my consent for I see no reason why wood should be composed of the Four Elements because it burns smoaks hisses and turns into ashes Fire is none of its natural ingredients but a different figure which being mixt with the parts of the wood is an occasion that the Wood turns into ashes neither is Water a principle of Wood for Water is as much a figure by it self as Wood or Fire is which being got into the parts of the wood and mixt with the same is expelled by the fire as by its opposite but if it be a piece of dry and not of green wood where is then the water that boils out Surely dry wood hath no less principles then green wood and as for smoak it proves no more that it is the Element of Air in Wood then that Wood is the Element of Fire for Wood as experience witnesses may last in water where it is kept from the air and smoak is rather an effect of moisture occasioned into such a figure by the commixture of fire Others as Helmont who derives his opinion from Thales and others of the ancient Philosophers are only for the Element of Water affirming that that is the sole principle out of which all natural things consist for say they the Chaos where of all things were made was nothing else but water which first setled into slime and then condensed into solid earth nay some endeavour to prove by Chymical Experiments that they have disposed water according to their Chymical way so that it visibly turn'd into earth which earth produced animals vegetables and minerals But put the case it were so yet this doth not prove water to be the onely principle of all natural beings for first we cannot think that animals vegetables and minerals are the onely kinds of creatures in Nature and that there are no more but them for nature being infinitely various may have infinite Worlds and so infinite sorts of Creatures Next I say that the change of water
ingenuity and learning in the least but onely to shew by the difference of their opinions and mine that mine are not borrowed from theirs as also to make mine the more intelligible and clear and if possible to find out the truth in Natural Philosophy for which were they alive I question not but I should easily obtain their pardon 1. Vpon the Principles of Thales THales according to Historical Relation was the first that made disquisitions upon Nature and so the first Natural Philosoper His chief points in Philosophy are these 1. He says That Water is the Principle of all natural bodies 2. That Nature is full of Daemons and spiritual substances 3. That the Soul is a self-moving Nature and that it both moves it self and the body 4. That there is but one World and that finite 5. That the World is animate and God is the soul thereof diffused through every Part 6. That the World is contained in a place 7. That Bodies are divisible into infinite Concerning the First viz. That Water is the Principle of all natural things Helmont doth embrace this opinion as I have declared in my Philosophical Letters and in the foregoing part of this Book and have given withal my reasons why water cannot be a principle of natural things because it is no more but a natural effect for though humidity may be found in many parts or Creatures of Nature yet this doth not prove that water is a principle of all natural bodies no more then fire earth air or any other Creature of Nature and though most Philosophers are of opinion that Elements are simple bodies and all the rest are composed of them yet this is no ways probable to reason because they consist of the same matter as other bodies do and are all but effects of one cause or principle which is infinite Matter Next That Nature is full of Daemons or Spiritual substances is against sense and reason for what is incorporeal is no part of Nature and upon this account the soul cannot be immaterial although he makes her to be a self-moving Nature for what has a natural motion has also a natural body because Matter and Motion are but one thing neither can a Spiritual substance move a corporeal they being both of different natures As for the World That there is but one I do willingly grant it if by the World he did mean Nature but then it cannot be finite But Thales seems to contradict himself in this Theoreme when as he grants that Bodies are divisible in infinite for if there be infinite actions as infinite divisions in Nature then surely the body of Nature it self must be infinite Next he says That God is the Soul of the World which if so God being Infinite he cannot have a Finite body to animate it for a Finite Body and an Infinite Soul do never agree together but that God should be the Soul of the World no regular Reason can allow because the Soul of Nature must be corporeal as well as the Body for an incorporeal substance cannot be mixed with a corporeal Next the World as the body of Nature being dividable it would follow that God which is the Soul would be dividable also Thirdly Every part of the world would be a part of God as partaking of the same nature for every part if the Soul be diffused through all the Body would be animate Lastly Concerning Place as that the World is contained in a place my opinion is that place is nothing else but an affection of body and in no ways different or separable from it for wheresoever is body or matter there is place also so that place cannot be said to contain the world or else it would be bigger then the world it self for that which contains must needs in compass or extent exceed that which it contains 2. Some few Observations on Plato's Doctrine 1. PLato says That Life is two fold Contemplative and Active and that Contemplation is an office of the Intellect but Action an operation of the Rational soul To which I answer first That I know no other difference between Intellect and Reason but that Intellect is an effect or rather an Essential Propriety of Reason if Reason be the Principle of Nature for the Rational part is the most Intelligent part of animate Matter Next I say That Contemplation is as much an action as any other action of Nature although it be not so gross as the action of the body for it is onely an action of the mind which is more pure and subtile then either the sensitive or inanimate parts of matter are and acts within it self that is in its own substance or degree of Matter 2. He says That Sense is a passion of the Soul I answer There is as much difference between Sense and the Soul as there is between Sense and Reason or a sensitive life and a rational soul for the Rational parts of Matter are not the Sensitive nor the Sensitive the Rational a Fool may have his sense regular and his reason irregular and therefore sense and reason are not one and the same although they have an inseparable Communion in the body or substance of Nature 3. He argues thus That which moves in it self as being the principle of Motion in those things which are moved is always moved and consequently Immortal Ungenerable and Incorruptible but the Soul is so Ergo c. I answer Natural Matter being thus self-moving is the same 4. From says he is joined to Matter I answer Form and Matter are but one thing for it is impossible to separate Matter from Form or Form from Matter but what is not dividable is not composable and what cannot be separated cannot be joined 5. Qualities says he are incorporeal because they are accidents I answer If Qualities be Incorporeal they do not belong to Nature for since the Principle of Nature is Matter all that is natural must also be material or corporeal and therefore all natural qualities or accidents must of necessity be corporeal by reason quality can no more be divided from Matter then figure magnitude colour place and the like all which are but one and the same with body without any separation or abstraction 6. What Plato affirms of that which never is and never had a Beginning and of that which has a Beginning and not a Being is more then he or any body can rationally prove for what never was nor is no man can know or imagine because all what is known or imagined has its real being if not without yet within the Mind and all thoughts have not onely a being but a material being in Nature nay even the Thought of the existence of a Deity although Deity it self is Immaterial 7. I wonder so witty a Philosopher as Plato can believe that Matter in it self as it is the Principle of Nature is void of all form for he affirms himself That whatsoever hath parts hath also figure but Matter
motion but all agreed it was fixt and firm like a centre and therefore they generally called it the Sun-stone Then the Emperess asked them the reason Why the Sun and Moon did often appear in different postures or shapes as sometimes magnified sometimes diminished sometimes elevated otherwhiles depressed now thrown to the right and then to the left To which some of the Bird-men answered That it proceeded from the various degrees of heat and cold which are found in the air from whence did follow a differing density and rarity and likewise from the vapours that are interposed whereof those that ascend are higher and less dense then the ambient air but those which descend are heavier and more dense But others did with more probability affirm that it was nothing else but the various patterns of the Air for like as Painters do not copy out one and the same original just alike at all times so said they do several parts of the Air make different patterns of the luminous bodies of the Sun and Moon which patterns as several copies the sensitive motions do figure out in the substance of our eyes This answer the Emperess liked much better then the former and enquired further what opinion they had of those Creatures that are called the motes of the Sun To which they answered That they were nothing else but streams of very small rare and transparent particles through which the Sun was represented as through a glass for if they were not transparent said they they would eclipse the light of the Sun and if not rare and of an airy substance they would hinder Flies from flying in the air at least retard their flying motion Nevertheless although they were thinner then the thinnest vapour yet were they not so thin as the body of air or else they would not be perceptible by animal sight Then the Emperess asked Whether they were living Creatures They answered Yes Because they did encrease and decrease and were nourished by the presence and starved by the absence of the Sun Having thus finished their discourse of the Sun and Moon the Emperess desired to know what Stars there were besides But they answer'd that they could perceive in that World none other but Blazing-stars and from thence it had the name that it was called the Blazing-world and these Blazing-stars said they were such solid firm and shining bodies as the Sun and Moon not of a Globular but of several sorts of figures some had tails and some other kinds of shapes After this The Emperess asked them What kind of substance or creature the Air was The Bird-men answered That they could have no other perception of the air but by their own respiration For said they some bodies are onely subject to touch others onely to sight and others onely to smell but some are subject to none of our exterior senses For Nature is so full of variety that our weak senses cannot perceive all the various sorts of her Creatures neither is there any one object perceptible by all our senses no more then several objects are by one sense I believe you replied the Empress but if you can give no account of the Air said she you will hardly be able to inform me how Wind is made for they say that Wind is nothing but motion of the Air. The Bird-men answer'd That they observed Wind to be more dense then Air and therefore subject to the sense of Touch but what properly Wind was and the manner how it was made they could not exactly tell some said it was caused by the Clouds falling on each other and others that it was produced of a hot and dry exhalation which ascending was driven down again by the coldness of the air that is in the middle Region and by reason of its lightness could not go directly to the bottom but was carried by the Air up and down Some would have it a flowing water of the Air and others again a flowing Air moved by the blas of the Stars But the Emperess seeing they could not agree concerning the cause of Wind asked whether they could tell how Snow was made To which they answered That according to their observation Snow was made by a commixture of Water and some certain extract of the element of Fire that is under the Moon a small portion of which extract being mixed with Water and beaten by Air or Wind made a white froth called Snow which being after some while dissolved by the heat of the same spirit turned to Water again This observation amazed the Emperess very much for she had hitherto believed That Snow was made by cold motions and not by such an agitation or beating of a fiery extract upon water Nor could she be perswaded to believe it until the Fish-or Mear-men had delivered their observation upon the making of Ice which they said was not produced as some had hitherto conceived by the motion of the Air raking the Superficies of the Earth but by some strong saline vapour arising out of the Seas which condensed Water into Ice and the more quantity there was of that vapour the greater were the Mountains or Precipices of Ice but the reason that it did not so much freeze in the Torrid Zone or under the Ecliptick as near or under the Poles was that this vapour in those places being drawn up by the Sun-beams into the middle Region of the Air was onely condensed into water and fell down in showres of rain when as under the Poles the heat of the Sun being not so vehement the same vapour had no force or power to rise so high and therefore caused so much Ice by ascending and acting onely upon the surface of water This Relation confirmed partly the observation of the Bird-men concerning the cause of Snow but since they had made mention that that same extract which by its commixture with Water made Snow proceeded from the Element of Fire that is under the Moon The Emperess asked them of what nature that Elementary Fire was whether it was like ordinary fire here upon Earth or such a fire as is within the bowels of the Earth and as the famous mountains Vesuvius and AEtna do burn withal or whether it was such a sort of fire as is found in flints c. They answered That the Elementary Fire which is underneath the Sun was not so solid as any of those mentioned fires because it had no solid fuel to feed on but yet it was much like the flame of ordinary fire onely somewhat more thin and fluid for flame said they is nothing else but the airy part of a fired body Lastly the Emperess asked the Bird-men of the nature of Thunder and Lightning and whether it was not caused by roves of Ice falling upon each other To which they answered That it was not made that way but by an encounter of cold and heat so that an exhalation being kindled in the Clouds did dash forth Lightning and that there
answered That by an annihilation nothing could be produced and that the seeds of Vegetables were so far from being annihilated in their productions that they did rather numerously increase and multiply for the division of one seed said they does produce numbers of seeds out of it self But replied the Empress A particular part cannot increase of it self 'T is true answer'd they but they increase not barely of themselves but by joining and commixing with other parts which do assist them in their productions and by way of imitation form or figure their own parts into such or such particulars Then I pray inform me said the Emperess what disguise those seeds put on and how they do conceal themselves in their transmutations They answered That seeds did no ways disguise or conceal but rather divulge themselves in the multiplication of their off-spring onely they did hide and conceal themselves from their sensitive perceptions so that their figurative and productive motions were not perceptible by animal Creatures Again the Emperess asked them whether there were any Non-beings within the Earth To which they answered That they never heard of any such thing and that if her Majesty would know the truth thereof she must ask those Creatures that are called Immaterial Spirits which had a great affinity with Non-beings and perhaps could give her a satisfactory answer to this question Then she desired to be informed what opinion they had of the beginning of forms They told her Majesty That they did not understand what she meant by this expression For said they there is no beginning in Nature no not of Particulars by reason Nature is Eternal and Infinite and her particulars are subject to infinite changes and transmutations by vertue of their own corporeal figurative self-motions so that there 's nothing new in Nature nor properly a beginning of any thing The Emperess seem'd well satisfied with all those answers and inquired further whether there was no Art used by those Creatures that live within the Earth Yes answered they for the several parts of the Earth do join and assist each other in composition or framing of such or such particulars and many times there are factions and divisions which cause productions of mixt species's as for example weeds instead of sweet flowers and useful fruits but Gardeners and Husbandmen use often to decide their quarrels and cause them to agree which though it shews a kindness to the differing parties yet 't is a great prejudice to the Worms and other animal Creatures that live under ground for it most commonly causes their dissolution and ruine at best they are driven out of their habitations What said the Emperess are not Worms produced out of the Earth Their production in general answered they is like the production of all other natural Creatures proceeding from the corporeal figurative motions of Nature but as for their particular productions they are according to the nature of their species some are produced out of flowers some out of roots some out of fruits some out of ordinary Earth Then they are very ungrateful Children replied the Emperess that they feed on their own Parents which gave them life Their life answered they is their own and not their Parents for no part or creature of Nature can either give or take away life but parts do onely assist and join with parts either in the dissolution or production of other parts and Creatures After this and several other Conferences which the Emperess held with the Worm-men she dismissed them and having taken much satisfaction in several of their answers encouraged them in their studies and observations Then she made a convocation of her Chymists the Ape-men and commanded them to give her an account of the several Transmutations which their Art was able to produce They begun first with a long and tedious discourse concerning the Primitive Ingredients of Natural bodies and how by their Art they had found out the principles out of which they consist But they did not all agree in their opinions for some said That the Principles of all natural bodies were the four Elements Fire Air Water Earth out of which they were composed Others rejected this Elementary commixture and said There were many bodies out of which none of the four Elements could be extracted by any degree of Fire whatsoever and that on the other side there were divers bodies whose resolution by fire reduced them into more then four different ingredients and these affirmed that the onely principles of natural bodies were Salt Sulphur and Mercury Others again declared That none of the forementioned could be called the True principles of natural bodies but that by their industry and pains which they had taken in the Art of Chymistry they had discovered that all natural bodies were produced but from one Principle which was Water for all Vegetables Minerals and Animals said they are nothing else but simple water distinguished into various figures by the vertue of their seeds But after a great many debates and contentions about this subject the Emperess being so much tired that she was not able to hear them any longer imposed a general silence upon them and then declared her self in this following discourse I am too sensible of the pains you have taken in the Art of Chymistry to discover the principles of natural bodies and wish they had been more profitably bestowed upon some other then such experiments for both by my own contemplation and the observations which I have made by my rational and sensitive perception upon Nature and her works I find that Nature is but one Infinite self-moving body which by the vertue of its self-motion is divided into infinite parts which parts being restless undergo perpetual changes and transmutations by their infinite compositions and divisions Now if this be so as surely according to regular sense and reason it appears no otherwise it is in vain to look for primary ingredients or constitutive principles of natural bodies since there is no more but one Universal principle of Nature to wit self-moving Matter which is the onely cause of all natural effects Next I desire you to consider that Fire is but a particular Creature or effect of Nature and occasions not onely different effects in several bodies but on some bodies has no power at all witness Gold which never could be brought yet to change its interior figure by the art of Fire and if this be so Why should you be so simple as to believe that fire can shew you the principles of Nature and that either the four Elements or Water onely or Salt Sulphur and Mercury all which are no more but particular effects and Creatures of Nature should be the Primitive ingredients or Principles of all natural bodies Wherefore I will not have you to take more pains and waste your time in such fruitless attempts but be wiser hereafter and busie your selves with such Experiments as may be beneficial to the publick The Emperess having
either forwards onely or in an undulating motion which opinion in my judgment is as erroneous as any of the former and infers another absurdity which is that all Winds are of the same nature when as there are as many several sorts and differences of Winds as of other Creatures for there are several Winds in several Creatures Winds in the Earth are of another kind then those in the Air and the Wind of an animal breath is different from both nay those that are in the air are of different sorts some cold and dry some hot and moist and some temperate c. which how they can all produce the effect of cold or freezing by the compression of the air I am not able to judg onely this I dare say that if Wind causes cold or frost then in the midst of the Summer or in hot Climates a vehement wind would always produce a great Frost besides it would prove that there must of necessity be far greater winds at the Poles then under the AEquinoctial there being the greatest cold Neither will this principle be able to resolve the question why a man that has an Ague feels a shaking cold even under the Line and in the coldest weather when there is no stirring of the least wind All which proves that it is very improbable that Wind should be the principle of all Natural Cold and therefore it remains firm that self-moving Matter or corporeal figurative self-motion as it is the Prime and onely cause of all natural effects so it is also of Cold and Heat and Wind and of all the changes and alterations in Nature which is and hath always been my constant and in my simple judgment the most probable and rational opinion in Natural Philosophy 28. Of Thawing or dissolving of Frozen bodies AS Freezing or Congelation is caused by contracting condensing and retentive Motions so Thawing is nothing else but dissolving dilating and extending motions for Freezing and Thawing are two contrary actions and as Freezing is caused several ways according to the various disposition of congelable bodies and the temper of exterior cold so Thawing or a dissolution of frozen bodies may be occasioned either by a sympathetical agreement as for example the thawing of Ice in water or other liquors or by some exterior imitation as by hot dilating motions And it is to be observed That as the time of freezing so the time of dissolving is according to the several natures and tempers both of the frozen bodies themselves and the exterior objects applied to frozen bodies which occasion their thawing or dissolution for it is not onely heat that doth cause Ice or Snow or other frozen bodies to melt quicker or slower but according as the nature of the heat is either more or less dilative or more or less rarifying for surely an exterior actual heat is more rarifying then an interior virtual heat as we see in strong spirituous liquors which are interiously contracting but being made actually hot become exteriously dilating The like of many other bodies so that actual heat is more dissolving then virtual heat And this is the reason why Ice and Snow will melt sooner in some Countries or places then in others and is much harder in some then in others for we see that neither Air Water Earth Minerals nor any other sorts of Creatures are just alike in all Countries or Climates The same may be said of heat and cold Besides it is to be observed that oftentimes a different application of one and the same object will occasion different effects as for example if Salt be mixed with Ice it may cause the contracted body of Ice to change its present motions into its former state or figure viz. into water but being applied outwardly or on the out-side of the Vessel wherein Snow or Ice is contained it may make it freeze harder instead of dissolving it Also Ice will oftentimes break into pieces of its own accord and without the application of any exterior object and the reason in my opinion is that some of the interior parts of the Ice endeavouring to return to their proper and natural figure by vertue of their interior dilative motions do break and divide some of the exterior parts that are contracted by the motions of Frost especially those which have not so great a force or power as to resist them But concerning Thawing some by their trails have found that if frozen Eggs Apples and the like bodies be thawed near the fire they will be thereby spoiled but if they be immersed in cold water or wrapt into Ice or Snow the internal cold will be drawn out as they suppose by the external and the frozen bodies will be harmlesly though not so quickly thawed And truly this experiment stands much to reason for in my opinion when frozen bodies perceive heat or fire the motions of their frozen parts upon the perception endeavour to imitate the motions of heat or fire which being opposite to the motions of cold in this sudden and hasty change they become irregular in so much as to cause in most frozen parts a dissolution of their interior natural figure Wherefore it is very probable that frozen bodies will thaw more regularly in water or being wrapt into Ice or Snow then by heat or fire for Thawing is a dilating action and Water as also Ice and Snow which are nothing but congealed water being of a dilative nature may easily occasion a thawing of the mentioned frozen parts by Sympathy provided the Motions of the exterior cold do not over-power the motions of the interior frozen parts for if a frozen body should be wrapt thus into Ice or Snow and continue in an open cold frosty air I question whether it would cause a thaw in the same body it would preserve the body in its frozen state from dissolving or disuniting rather then occasion its thawing But that such frozen bodies as Apples and Eggs c. immersed in water will produce Ice on their out-sides is no wonder by reason the motions of Water imitate the motions of the frozen bodies and those parts of water that are nearest are the first imitators and become of the same mode By which we may see that some parts will cloath themselves others onely vail themselves with artificial dresses most of which dresses are but copies of other motions and not original actions It makes also evident that those effects are not caused by an ingress of frigorifick atomes in water or other congelable bodies but by the perceptive motions of their own parts And what I have said of Cold the same may be spoken of heat for it is known that a part of a mans body being burned with fire the burning may be cured by the heat of the fire which in my opinion proceeds from a sympathetical agreement betwixt the motions of the fire and the motions of the burned part for every part of a mans body hath its natural heat which is of an
particulars do oppose each other yet all opposition tends to the conservation of a general peace and unity in the whole But to return to Fire since Air is the proper matter of respiration for fire extream colds and frosts either of air or vapour are as unfit for the respiration of fire as water is which if it do not kill it quite yet it will at least make it sick pale and faint but if water be rarified to such a degree that it becomes thin vapour then it is as proper for its respiration as air Thus we see although fire hath fuel which is its food yet no food can keep it alive without breath or respiration The like may be said of some other Creatures Qu. 5. Whether Wood be apt to freeze My Answer is That I believe that the moist part of Wood which is sap may freeze as hard as Water but the solid parts cannot do so for the cracking noise of Wood is no proof of its being frozen because Wainscot will make such a noise in Summer as well as in Winter And it is to be observed that some bodies will be apter to freeze in a weak then in a hard frost according to their own dispositions which is as much to be considered as the object of cold or frost it self for some bodies do more and some less imitate the motions of some objects and some not at all and thus we see that solid bodies do onely imitate the contractive motions of cold but not the dilative motions of moisture which is the cause they break in a hard frost like as a string which being tied too hard will fly asunder and as they imitate Cold so they do also imitate Thaw Quest. 6. Whether Water be fluid in its nature or but occasionally by the agitation of the air I answer That Waters is fluid in its own nature needs no proof but 't is known enough by the force of its dilating motions for Water when it gets but liberty it overflows all and dilates everywhere which proves it is not air that makes it fluid but it is so in its own nature Quest. 7. What produces those great Precipices and Mountains of Ice which are found in the Sea and other great waters I answer That Snow as also thick Fogs and Mists which are nothing but rarified water falling upon the Ice make its out-side thicker and many great shelves and broken pieces of Ice joyning together produce such Precipices and Mountains as mentioned Quest. 8. Whether Fishes can live in frozen Water I answer If there be as much water left unfrozen as will serve them for respiration they may live for it is well known that Water is the chief matter of respiration for Fish and not Air for Fish being out of water cannot live long but whilst they live they gasp and gape for water I mean such kinds of Fish which do live altogether in Water and not such Creatures as are of a mixt kind and live in water as well as by land which the Learned call Amphibious Creatures as Otters and the like which may live in the air as well as in water Those Fish I say if the water be thorowly frozen or if but the surface of water be quite frozen over to a pretty depth will often die by reason the water that remains unfrozen by the contraction of Ice has altered for that time its dilative motions to retentive motions and like as men are smothered in a close air so Fish in close water that is in water which is quite covered and inclosed with Ice but at some men have not so nice and tender natures as others and some have larger organs for respiration then others and some are more accustomed to some sorts of air then others which may cause them to endure longer or respire more freely then others so some Fishes do live longer in such close waters then others and some may be like Men that are frost-bitten which may chance to live even in those waters that are quite thorowly frozen as Experimenters relate but yet I cannot believe that the water in which Fishes have been observed to live can be so thorowly frozen to solid Ice that it should not leave some liquidity or wetness in it although not perceptible by our sight by which those Fishes were preserved alive However it is more probable for Fish to live in Ice then for other Creatures because the Principle of Ice is Water which is the matter of the Fishes respiration which keeps them alive Quest. 9. Whether in decoctions of Herbs when congealed or frozen into Ice the figures of the Herbs do appear in the Ice This is affirmed for Truth by many Learned and though I do not deny but that such liquors in freezing may have some resemblance of their solid parts yet I do not believe it to be universal for if the blood of an animal should be congealed into Ice I doubt it would hardly represent the figure of an animal Indeed there 's much difference between the exterior figures of Creatures and their interior natures which is evident even in frozen water whose exterior Icy figures are numerous when as their interior nature is but water and there may also several changes and alterations of exterior figures be made by Art when their interior nature is but one and the same Quest. 10. Whether Cold doth preserve Bodies from Corruption I answer That in my opinion it may be very probable For Corruption or Putrefaction is nothing but irregular dissolving motions when as Freezing or Congelation is made by regular contracting and condensing motions and so long as these motions of Freezing are in force it is impossible the motions that make Corruption should work their effect But that such bodies as have been thorowly frozen after being thawed are most commonly spoiled the reason is that the freezing or congealing motions being not natural to those bodies have caused such a thorowalteration of the natural motions of their parts as a hundred to one but they will never move regularly and orderly again afterward but on the contrary their interior motions do quite and absolutelely change by which the figure is totally altered from its former nature but if a solid body be not throughly frozen it may be reduced to a perfect regularity again for those natural motions that are not altered may occasion the rest to act as formerly to the preservation of that figure 30. Of Contraction and Dilation THere have been and are still great disputes amongst the Learned concerning Contraction and Extension of bodies but if I were to decide their controversie I would ask first Whether they did all agree in one principle that is whether their principle was purely natural and not mixt with divine or supernatural things for if they did not well apprehend one anothers meaning or argued upon different principles it would be but a folly to dispute because it would be impossible for them to agree But
Earth do undergo continual alterations some do change into Minerals some into Vegetables some into Animals c. and these change again into several other figures and also some into Earth again and the Elements are changed one into another when as yet the Globe of the Earth it self remains the same without any general alteration or dissolution neither is there any want or decay of general kinds of Creatures but onely a change of their particulars And though our perception is but finite and must contain it self within its own compass or bounds so that it cannot judg of all particulars that are in Nature Nevertheless I see no reason why the Celestial parts of the World should not be subject to alteration as well as those of the Terrestrial Globe for if Nature be full of self-motion no particular can be at rest or without action but the chief actions of Nature are Composition and Division and changes of Parts Wherefore although to our humane perception the Stars and Planets do not change from their general nature as from being such or such composed figures but appear the same to us without any general or remarkable change of their exterior figures yet we cannot certainly affirm that the parts thereof be either moveless or unalterable they being too remote from our perception to discern all their particular motions For put the case the Moon or any other of the Planets were inhabited by animal Creatures which could see as much of this terrestrial Globe as we see of the Moon although they would perceive perhaps the progressive motion of the whole figure of this terrestrial Globe in the same manner as we do perceive the motion of the Moon yet they would never be able to discern the particular parts thereof viz. Trees Animals Stones Water Earth c. much less their particular changes and alterations generations and dissolutions In the like manner do the Celestial Orbs appear to us for none that inhabit this Globe will ever be able to discern the particular parts of which the Globe of the Moon consists much less their changes and motions Indeed it is with the Celestial Orbs as it is with other composed parts or figures of Nature which have their interior as well as exterior general as well as particular motions for it is impossible that Nature consisting of infinite different parts should have but one kind of motion and therefore as a Man or any other animal has first his exterior motions or actions which belong to his whole composed figure next his Internal figurative motions by which he grows decays and dissolves c. Thirdly As every several part and particle of his body has its interior and exterior actions so it may be said of the Stars and Planets which are no more then other parts of Nature as being composed of the same Matter which all the rest consists of and partaking of the same self-motion for although our fight cannot discern more then their progressive and shining or twinkling motion nevertheless they being parts of Nature must of necessity have their interior and exterior particular and general motions so that the parts of their bodies may change as much as the parts of this Globe the figure of the whole remaining still the same for as I said before they being too far from our perception their particular motions cannot be observed nay were we able to perceive the exterior actions of their parts yet their interior motions are no ways perceptible by humane sight we may observe the effects of some interior motions of natural Creatures for example of Man how he changes from infancy to youth from youth to old age c. but how these actions are performed inwardly no Microscope is able to give us a true information thereof Nevertheless Mankind is as lasting as the Sun Moon and Stars nay not onely Mankind but also several other kinds and species of Creatures as Minerals Vegetables Elements and the like for though particulars change yet the species do not neither can the species be impaired by the changes of their particulars for example the Sea is no less salt for all there is so much salt extracted out of salt-water besides that so many fresh Rivers and Springs do mingle and intermix with it Neither doth the Earth seem less for all the productions of Vegetables Minerals and Animals which derive their birth and origine from thence Nor doth the race of Mankind seem either more or less now then it was in former ages for every species of Creatures is preserved by a continued succession or supply of particulars so that when some die or dissolve from being such natural figures others are generated and supply the want of them And thus it is with all parts of Nature both what we call Celestial and Terrestrial nor can it be otherwise since Nature is self-moving and all her parts are perpetually active 33. Of the substance of the Sun and of Fire THere are divers opinions concerning the matter or substance of the Sun some imagine the Sun to be a solid body set on fire others that it is a fluid body of fire and others again that it is onely a body of Light and not of fire so as I know not which opinion to adhere to but yet I do rather believe the Sun to be a solid then a fluid body by reason fluid bodies are more inconstant in their motions then solid bodies witness Lightning which is a fluid fire and flashes out through the divided clouds with such a force as water that is pumpt and being extended beyond the degree of flame alters to something else that is beyond our humane perception Indeed it is of the nature of Air or else Air inflamed and as some sorts of Air are more rare subtil and searching then others so are some sorts of Lightning as 't is known by experience or it is like several sorts of flame that have several sorts of fuel to feed on as for example the flame of Oyl the flame of Wood the flame of Aqua-vitae the flame of Gums and the like all which are very different not onely in their several tempers and degrees of heat but also in their several manners of burning or flaming for the flame of Aqua-vitae is far thinner and blewer then the flame of Wax Wood Tallow or the like in so much that there is as much difference between them as there is between the Azure Skie and a white Cloud which shews that the flame of spirituous bodies is more airy and rare then the flame of others For Flame is onely the rare and airy part of fire and there is a natural body of Fire as well as of Air Earth and Water and as there are several sorts of Earth Water and Air so there are also several sorts of Fire and as there are springs of Water and springs of Air so there may also be springs of Fire and Flame But to return to the Sun though I am not
wicked Man or the Devil hath power over God for although one Part may have power over another yet not over Nature no more then one man can have power over all Mankind One Man or Creature may over-power another so much as to make him quit his natural form or figure that is to die and be dissolved and so to turn into another figure or creature but he cannot over-power all Creatures nay if he could and did yet he would not be an absolute destroyer and Creator but onely some weak and simple Transformer or rather some artificial disfigurer and misformer which cannot alter the world though he may disorder it But surely as there was always such a perpetual Motion in Nature which did and doth still produce and dissolve other Creatures which Production and Dissolution is nam'd birth and death so there is also a Motion which produces and dissolves Arts and this is the ordinary action and work of Nature which continues still and onely varies in the several ways or modes of dissolving and composing 6. Whether there be any Prime or Principal Figures in Nature and of the true Principles of Nature SOme are of opinion that the Prime or Principal figures of Nature are Globes or Globular figures as being the most perfect but I cannot conceive why a globular or spherical figure should be thought more perfect then any other for another figure may be as perfect in its kind as a round figure is in its kind for example we cannot say a Bird is a more perfect figure then a Beast or a Beast a more perfect figure then a Fish or Worm neither can we say Man is a more perfect figure then any of the rest of the Animals the like of Vegetables Minerals and Elements for every several sort has as perfect a figure as another according to the nature and propriety of its own kind or sort But put the case man's figure were more perfect then any other yet we could not say that it is the Principle out of which all other figures are made as some do conceive that all other figures are produced from the Globular or Spherical for there is no such thing as most or least perfect because there is no most nor least in Nature Others are of opinion that the Principle of all natural Creatures is salt and that when the World dissolves it must dissolve into salt as into its first Principle but I never heard it determined yet whether it be fixt or volatile salt Others again are of opinion that the first principle of all Creatures is Water which if so then seeing that all things must return into their first principle it will be a great hinderance to the conflagration of the world for there will be so much water produced as may chance to quench out the fire But if Infinite Nature has Infinite parts and those Infinite parts are of Infinite figures then surely they cannot be confined to one figure Sense and Reason proves that Nature is full of variety to wit of corporeal figurative motions which as they do not ascribe their original to one particular so neither do they end in one particular figure or creature But some will wonder that I deny any Part or Creature of Nature should have a supremacy above the rest or be called Prime or Principal when as yet I do say that Reason is the Prime Part of Nature To which I answer That when I say no Creature in Nature can be called Prime or Principal I understand Natural effects that is Natural composed Parts or Creatures as for example all those finite and particular Creatures that are composed of Life Soul and Body that is of the Animate both Rational and Sensitive and the Inanimate parts of Matter and none of those composed Creatures I mean has any superiority or supremacy above the rest so as to be the Principle of all other composed Creatures as some do conceive Water other Fire others all the four Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Natural Creatures and some do make Globous bodies the perfectest figures of all others for all these being but effects and finite particulars can be no principles of their fellow-creatures or of Infinite Nature But when I say that Reason or the Rational part of Matter is the Prime Part of Nature I speak of the Principles of Nature out of which all other Creatures are made or produced which Principle is but one viz. Matter which makes all effects or Creatures of Nature to be material for all the effects must be according to their principle but this matter being of two degrees viz. animate and inanimate the animate is nothing but self-motion I call it animate matter by reason I cannot believe as some do that Motion is Immaterial there being nothing belonging to Nature which is not material and therefore corporeal self-motion or animate matter is to me one and the same and this animate matter is again subdivided into two degrees to wit the rational and sensitive the rational is the soul the sensitive the life and the inanimate the body of Infinite Nature all which being so intermixed and composed as no separation can be made of one from the other but do all constitute one Infinite and self-moving body of Nature and are found even in the smallest particles thereof if smallest might be said they are justly named the Principles of Nature whereof the rational animate matter or corporeal self-motion is the chief designer and surveigher as being the most active subtil and penetrating part and the sensitive the workman but the inanimate part of Matter being thorowly intermixed with this animate self-moving Matter or rather with this corporeal self-motion although it have no motion in it self that is in its own nature yet by vertue of the commixture with the animate is moving as well as moved for it is well to be observed that although I make a distinction betwixt animate and inanimate rational and sensitive Matter yet I do not say that they are three distinct and several matters for as they do make but one body of Nature so they are also but one Matter but as I mentioned before when I speak of self-motion I name it animate matter to avoid the mistake lest self-motion might be taken for immaterial for my opinion is that they are all but one matter and one material body of Nature And this is the difference between the cause or principle and the effects of Nature from the neglect of which comes the mistake of so many Authors to wit that they ascribe to the effects what properly belongs to the cause making those figures which are composed of the foresaid animate and inanimate parts of matter and are no more but effects the principles of all other Creatures which mistake causes many confusions in several mens brains and their writings But it may be they will account it paradoxical or absurd that I say Infinite Matter consists of
into earth and of this again into vegetables minerals and animals proves no more but what our senses perceive every day to wit that there is a perpetual change and alteration in all natural parts caused by corporeal self-motion by which rare bodies change into dense and dense into rare water into slime slime into earth earth into animals vegetables and minerals and those again into earth earth into slime slime into water and so forth But I wonder why rational men should onely rest upon water and go no further since daily experience informs them that water is changed into vapour and vapour into air for if water be resolveable into other bodies it cannot be a prime cause and consequently no principle of Nature wherefore they had better in my opinion to make Air the principle of all things 'T is true Water may produce many creatures as I said before by a composition with other or change of its own parts but yet I dare say it doth kill or destroy as many nay more then it produces witness vegetables and others which Husbandmen and Planters have best experience of and though some animals live in water as their proper Element yet to most it is destructive I mean as for their particular natures nay if men do but dwell in a moist place or near marrish grounds or have too much watery humors in their bodies they 'l sooner die then otherwise But put the case water were a principle of Natural things yet it must have motion or else it would never be able to change into so many figures and this motion must either be naturally inherent in the substance of water or it must proceed from some exterior agent if from an exterior agent then this agent must either be material or immaterial also if all motion in Nature did proceed from pressure of parts upon parts then those parts which press others must either have motion inherent in themselves or if they be moved by others we must at last proceed to something which has motion in it self and is not moved by another but moves all things and if we allow this Why may not we allow self-motion in all things for if one part of Matter has self-motion it cannot be denied of all the rest but if immaterial it must either be God himself or created supernatural spirits As for God he being immoveable and beyond all natural motion cannot actually move Matter neither is it Religious to say God is the Soul of Nature for God is no part of Nature as the soul is of the body And immaterial spirits being supernatural cannot have natural attributes or actions such as is corporeal natural motion Wherefore it remains that Matter must be naturally self-moving and consequently all parts of Nature all being material so that not onely Water Earth Fire and Air but all other natural bodies whatsoever have natural self-motion inherent in themselves by which it is evident that there can be no other principle in Nature but this self-moving Matter and that all the rest are but effects of this onely cause Some are of opinion That the three Catholick or Universal principles of Nature are Matter Motion and Rest and others with Epicure that they are Magnitude Figure and Weight but although Matter and Motion or rather self-moving Matter be the onely principle of Nature yet they are mistaken in dividing them from each other and adding rest to the number of them for Matter and Motion are but one thing and cannot make different principles aud so is figure weight and magnitude 'T is true Matter might subsist without Motion but not Motion without Matter for there is no such thing as an immaterial Motion but Motion must necessarily be of something also if there be a figure it must of necessity be a figure of something the same may be said of magnitude and weight there being no such thing as a mean between something and nothing that is between body and no body in Nature If Motion were immaterial it is beyond all humane capacity to conceive how it could be abstracted from something much more how it could be a principle to produce a natural being it might easier be believed that Matter was perishable or reduceable into nothing then that motion figure and magnitude should be separable from Matter or be immaterial as the opinion is of those who introduce a Vacuum in Nature and as for Rest I wonder how that can be a principle of any production change or alteration which it self acts nothing Others are for Atomes and insensible particles consisting of different figures and particular natures not otherwise united but by a bare apposition as they call it by which although perhaps the composed body obtains new qualities yet still the ingredients retain each their own Nature and in the destruction of the composed body those that are of one sort associate and return into Fire Water Earth c. as they were before But whatever their opinion of Atoms be first I have heretofore declared that there can be no such things as single bodies or Atomes in Nature Next if there were any such particles in composed bodies yet they are but parts or effects of Matter and not principles of Nature or Natural beings Lastly Chymists do constitute the principles of all natural bodies Salt Sulphur and Mercury But although I am not averse from believing that those ingredients may be mixt with other parts of Nature in the composition of natural figures and that especially Salt may be extracted out of many Creatures yet that it should be the constitutive principle of all other natural parts or figures seems no ways conformable to truth for salt is no more then other effects of Nature and although some extractions may convert some substances into salt figures and some into others for Art by the leave of her Mistress Nature doth oftentimes occasion an alteration of natural Creatures into artificial yet these extractions cannot inform us how those natural creatures are made and of what ingredients they consist for they do not prove that the same Creatures are composed of Salt or mixt with Salt but cause onely those substances which they extract to change into saline figures like as others do convert them into Chymical spirits all which are but Hermaphroditical effects that is between natural and artificial Just as a Mule partakes both of the nature or figure of a Horse and an Ass Nevertheless as Mules are very beneficial for use so many Chymical effects provided they be discreetly and seasonably used for Minerals are no less beneficial to the life and health of Man then Vegetables and Vegetables may be as hurtful and destructive as Minerals by an unseasonable and unskilful application besides there may be Chymical extracts made of Vegetables as well as of Minerals but these are bestused in the height or extremity of some diseases like as cordial waters in fainting fits and some Chymical spirits are as far beyond cordial waters
on her in the air and Bear-and Worm-men to wait on her in Ships according to the Duchess's advice and indeed the Bear-men were as serviceable to her as the North-Star but the Bird-men would often rest themselves upon the Decks of the Ships neither would the Emperess being of a sweet and noble Nature suffer that they should tire or weary themselves by long flights for though by Lard they did often flye out of one Countrey into another yet they did rest in some Woods or on some Grounds especially at night when it was their sleeping time And therefore the Emperess was forced to take a great many Ships along with her both for transporting those several sorts of her loyal and serviceable Subjects and to carry provisions for them Besides she was so wearied with the Petitions of several others of her Subjects who desired to wait on her Majesty that she could not possibly deny them all for some would rather chuse to be drowned then not tender their duty to her Thus after all things were made fit and ready the Emperess began her Journey I cannot properly say she set Sail by reason in some Part as in the passage between the two Worlds which yet was but short the Ships were drawn under water by the Fish-men with Golden Chains so that they had no need of Sails there nor of any other Arts but onely to keep out water from entering into the Ships and to give or make so much Air as would serve for breath or respiration those Land Animals that were in the Ships which the Giants had so Artificially contrived that they which were therein found no inconveniency at all And after they had passed the Icy Sea the Golden Ships appeared above water and so went on until they came near the Kingdom that was the Emperess's Native Countrey where the Bear-men through their Telescopes discovered a great number of Ships which had beset all that Kingdom well rigg'd and mann'd The Emperess before she came in sight of the Enemy sent some of her Fish-and Bird-men to bring her Intelligence of their Fleet and hearing of their number their station and posture she gave order that when it was Night her Bird-men should carry on their backs some of the mentioned Fire-stones with the tops thereof wetted and the Fish-men should carry them likewise and hold them out of the Water for they were cut in the form of Torches or Candles and being many thousands made a terrible shew for it appear'd as if all the Air and Sea had been of a flaming Fire and all that were upon the Sea or near it did verily believe the time of Judgment or the Last Day was come which made them all fall down and Pray At the break of Day the Emperess commanded those Lights to be put out and then the Naval Forces of the Enemy perceived nothing but a Number of Ships without Sails Guns Arms and other Instruments of War which Ships seemed to swim of themselves without any help or assistance which sight put them into a great amaze neither could they perceive that those Ships were of Gold by reason the Emperess had caused them all to be coloured black or with a dark colour so that the natural colour of the Gold could not be perceived through the artificial colour of the paint no not by the best Telescopes All which put the Enemies Fleet into such a fright at night and to such wonder in the morning or at day time that they knew not what to judg or make of them for they knew neither what Ships they were nor what Party they belonged to insomuch that they had no power to stir In the mean while the Emperess knowing the Colours of her own Country sent a Letter to their General and the rest of the chief Commanders to let them know that she was a great and powerful Princess and came to assist them against their Enemies wherefore she desired they should declare themselves when they would have her help and assistance Hereupon a Councel was called and the business debated but there were so many cross and different Opinions that they could not suddenly resolve what answer to send the Emperess at which she grew angry insomuch that she resolved to return into her Blazing-world without giving any assistance to her Country-men But the Duchess of Newcastle in treated her Majesty to abate her passion for said she Great Councels are most commonly slow because many men have many several Opinions besides every Councellor striving to be the wisest makes long speeches and raises many doubts which cause retardments If I had long speeched Councellours replied the Emperess I would hang them by reason they give more Words then Advice The Duchess answered that her Majesty should not be angry but consider the differences of that and her Blazing-world for said she they are not both alike but there are grosser and duller understandings in this then in the Blazing-world At last a Messenger came out who returned the Emperess thanks for her kind profer but desired withal to know from whence she came and how and in what manner her assistance could be serviceable to them The Emperess answered That she was not bound to tell them whence she came but as for the manner of her assistance I will appear said she to your Navy in a splendorous Light surrounded with Fire The Messenger asked at what time they should expect her coming I 'le be with you answered the Emperess about one of the Clock at night With this report the Messenger returned which made both the poor Counsellers and Sea-men much afraid but yet they longed for the time to behold this strange sight The appointed hour being come the Emperess appear'd with Garments made of the Star-stone and was born or supported above the Water upon the Fish-mens heads and backs so that she seemed to walk upon the face of the Water and the Bird and Fish-men carried the Fire-stone lighted both in the Air and above the Waters Which sight when her Country-men perceived at a distance their hearts began to tremble but coming something nearer she left her Torches and appeared onely in her Garments of Light like an Angel or some Deity and all kneeled down before her and worshipped her with all submission and reverence But the Emperess would not come nearer then at such a distance where her voice might be generally heard by reason she would not have that of her Accoustrements any thing else should be perceived but the splendor thereof and when she was come so near that her voice could be heard and understood by all she made this following Speech Dear Country-men for so you are although you know me not I being a Native of this Kingdom and hearing that most part of this World had resolved to make War against it and sought to destroy it at least to weaken its Naval Force and Power have made a Voyage out of another World to lend you my assistance against
Bird-and Bear-men what Towns they should begin withall in the mean while she sent to all the Princes and Soveraigns of those Nations to let them know that she would give them a proof of her Power and check their Obstinacies by burning some of their smaller Towns and if they continued still in their Obstinate Resolutions that she would convert their smaller Loss into a Total Ruine She also commanded her Bird-men to make their flight at night lest they be perceived At last when both the Bird-and Worm-men came to the designed places the Worm-men laid some Fire-stones under the Foundation of every House and the Bird-men placed some at the tops of them so that both by rain and by some other moisture within the Earth the stones could not fail of burning The Bird-men in the mean time having learned some few words of their Language told them That the next time it did rain their Towns would be all on fire at which they were amaz'd to hear men speak in the air but withall they laughed when they heard them say that rain should fire their Towns knowing that the effect of Water was to quench not produce fire At last a rain came and upon a sudden all their Houses appeared of a flaming Fire and the more Water there was poured on them the more they did flame and burn which struck such a Fright and Terror into all the Neighbouring Cities Nations and Kingdoms that for fear the like should happen to them they and all the rest of the parts of that World granted the Emperess's desire and submitted to the Monarch and Soveraign of her Native Countrey the King of ESFI save one which having seldom or never any rain but onely dews which would soon be spent in a great fire slighted her Power The Emperess being desirous to make it stoop as well as the rest knew that every year it was watered by a flowing Tide which lasted some weeks and although their Houses stood high from the ground yet they were built upon Supporters which were fixt into the ground Wherefore she commanded both her Bird-and Worm-men to lay some of the Fire-stones at the bottom of those Supporters and when the Tide came in all their Houses were of a Fire which did so rarifie the Water that the Tide was soon turn'd into Vapour and this Vapour again into Air which caused not onely a destruction of their Houses but also a general barrenness over all their Countrey that year and forced them to submit as well as the rest of the World had done Thus the Emperess did not onely save her Native Countrey but made it the absolute Monarchy of all that World and both the effects of her Power and her Beauty did kindle a great desire in all the greatest Princes to see her who hearing that she was resolved to return into her own Blazing-World they all entreated the favour that they might wait on her Majesty before she went The Emperess sent word That she should be glad to grant their Requests but having no other place of reception for them she desired that they would be pleased to come into the open Seas with their Ships and make a Circle of a pretty large compass and then her own Ships should meet them and close up the Circle and she would present her self to the view of all these that came to see her Which Answer was joyfully received by all the mentioned Princes who came some sooner and some later each according to the distance of his Countrey and the length of the voyage And being all met in the form and manner aforesaid the Emperess appeared upon the face of the Water in her Imperial Robes in some part of her hair she had placed some of the Star-Stone near her face which added such a lustre and glory to it that it caused a great admiration in all that were present who believed her to be some Celestial Creature or rather an uncreated Goddess and they all had a desire to worship her for surely said they no mortal creature can have such a splendid and transcendent beauty nor can any have so great a power as she has to walk upon the Waters and to destroy whatever she pleases not onely whole Nations but a whole World The Emperess expressed to her own Countreymen who were also her Interpreters to the rest of the Princes that were present that she would give them an entertainment at the darkest time of night which being come the Fire-Stones were lighted which made both Air and Seas appear of a bright shining flame insomuch that they put all Spectators into an extream fright who verily believed they should all be destroyed which the Emperess perceiving caused all the Lights of the Fire-Stones to be put out and onely shewed her self in her Garments of Light The Bird-men carried her upon their backs into the Air and there she appear'd as glorious as the Sun Then she was set down upon the Seas again and presently there was heard the most melodious and sweetest Consort of Voices as ever was heard out of the Seas which was made by the Fish-men this Consort was answered by another made by the Bird-men in the Air so that it seem'd as if Sea and Air had spoke and answered each other by way of Singing Dialogues or after the manner of those Plays that are acted by singing Voices But when it was upon break of day the Emperess ended her entertainment and at full day light all the Princes perceived that she went into the Ship wherein the Prince and Monarch of her Native Country was the King of ESFI with whom she had several Conferences and having assured him of the readiness of her assistance whensoever he required it telling him withal that she wanted no Intelligence she went forth again upon the Waters and being in the midst of the Circle made by those Ships that were present she desired them to draw somewhat nearer that they might hear her speak which being done she declared her self in this following manner Great Heroick and Famous Monarchs I came hither to assist the King of ESFI against his Enemies he being unjustly assaulted by many several Nations which would fain take away his Hereditary Rights and Prerogatives of the Narrow Seas at which Vnjustice Heaven was much displeased and for the Injuries he received from his Enemies rewarded him with an absolute Power so that now he is become the Head-Monarch of all this World which Power though you may envy yet you can no ways hinder him for all those that endeavour to resist his Power shall onely get loss for their labour and no Victory for their profit Wherefore my advice to you all is to pay him Tribute justly and truly that you may live Peaceably and Happily and be rewarded with the Blessings of Heaven which I wish you from my Soul After the Emperess had thus finished her Speech to the Princes of the several Nations of that World she desired that their
peace and neighbourly sriendship it would not onely be worth their labour but of as much praise as could be given to them But as Boys that play with watry Bubbles or fling Dust into each others Eyes or make a Hobby-horse of Snow are worthy of reproof rather then praise for wasting their time with useless sports so those that addict themselves to unprofitable Arts spend more time then they reap benefit thereby Nay could they benefit men either in Husbandry Architecture or the like necessary and profitable imployments yet before the Vulgar sort would learn to understand them the world would want Bread to eat and Houses to dwell in as also Cloths to keep them from the inconveniences of the inconstant weather But truly although Spinsters were most experienced in this Art yet they will never be able to spin Silk Thred or Wool c. from loose Atomes neither will Weavers weave a Web of Light from the Sun's Rays nor an Architect build an House of the bubbles of Water and Air unless they be Poetical Spinsters Weavers and Architects and if a Painter should draw a Lowse as big as a Crab and of that shape as the Microscope presents can any body imagine that a Beggar would believe it to be true but if he did what advantage would it be to the Beggar for it doth neither instruct him how to avoid breeding them or how to catch them or to hinder them from biting Again if a Painter should paint Birds according to those Colours the Microscope presents what advantage would it be for Fowlers to take them Truly no Fowler will be able to distinguish several Birds through a Microscope neither by their shapes nor colours They will be better discerned by those that eat their flesh then by Micrographers that look upon their colours and exterior figures through a Magnifying-glass In short Magnifying-glasses are like a high heel to a short legg which if it be made too high it is apt to make the wearer fall and at the best can do no more then represent exterior figures in a bigger and so in a more deformed shape and posture then naturally they are but as for the interior form and motions of a Creature as I said before they can no more represent them then Telescopes can the interior essence and nature of the Sun and what matter it consists of for if one that never had seen Milk before should look upon it through a Microscope he would never be able to discover the interior parts of Milk by that instrument were it the best that is in the World neither the Whey nor the Butter nor the Curds Wherefore the best optick is a perfect natural Eye and a regular sensitive perception and the best judg is Reason and the best study is Rational Contemplation joyned with the observations of regular sense but not deiuding Arts for Art is not onely gross in comparison to Nature but for the most part deformed and defective and at best produces mixt or hermaphroditical figures that is a third figure between Nature and Art which proves that natural Reason is above artificial Sense as I may call it wherefore those Arts are the best and surest Informers that alter Nature least and they the greatest deluders that alter Nature most I mean the particular Nature of each particular Creature for Art is so far from altering Infinite Nature that it is no more in comparison to it then a little Flie to an Elephant no not so much for there is no comparison between finite and Infinite But wise Nature taking delight in variety her parts which are her Creatures must of necessity do so too 4. Of the Production of Fire by a Flint and Steel SOme learned Writers of Micrography having observed the fiery sparks that are struck out by the violent motion of a Flint against Steel suppose them to be little parcels either of the Flint or Steel which by the violence of the stroke are at the same time severed and made red hot nay sometimes to such a degree as they are melted together into glass But whatsoever their opinion be to my sense and reason it appears very difficult to determine exactly how the production of Fire is made by reason there are so many different sorts of Productions in Nature as it is impossible for any particular Creature to know or describe them Nevertheless it is most probable that those two bodies do operate not by incorporeal but corporeal motions which either produce a third corporeal figure out of their own parts or by striking against each other do alter some of their natural corporeal figurative parts so as to convert them into fire which if it have no fuel to feed on must of necessity die or it may be that by the occasion of striking against each other some of their looser parts are metamorphosed and afterwards return to their former figures again like as flesh being bruised and hurt becomes numb and black and after returns again to its proper figure and colour or like as Water that by change of motion in the same parts turns into Snow Ice or Hail may return again into its former figure and shape for Nature is various in her corporeal figurative motions But it is observable that Fire is like seeds of Corn sown in Earth which increases or decreases according as it has nourishment by which we may see that Fire is not produced from a bare immaterial motion as I said before for a spiritual issue cannot be nourished by a corporeal substance but it is with Fire as it is with all at least most other natural Creatures which require Respiration as well as Perception for Fire requires Air as well as Animals do By Respiration I do not mean onely that animal respiration which in Man and other animal Creatures is performed by the lungs but a dividing and uniting or separating and joyning of parts from and to parts as of the exterior from and to the interior and of the interior from and to the exterior so that when some parts issue others do enter And thus by the name of Respiration I understand a kind of Reception of forreign Matter and emission of some of their own as for example in Animals I mean not onely the respiration performed by the lungs but also the reception of food and of other matter entering through some proper organs and pores of their bodies and the discharging of some other matter the sameway and if this be so as surely it is then all or most Creatures in Nature have some kind of Respiration or Reciprocal breathing that is Attraction and Expiration receiving of nourishment and evacuation or a reception of some forreign parts and a discharging and venting of some of their own But yet it is not necessary that all the matter of Respiration in all Creatures should be Air for every sort of Creatures nay every particular has such a matter of Respiration as is proper both
parts of animal bodies after eating them would swell and burn more then the exterior onely by touching them And as for stings of Bees whether they be poysonous or not I will not certainly determine any thing nor whether their stings be of no other use as some say then onely for defence or revenge but this I know that if a Bee once looseth its sting it becomes a Drone which if so then surely the sting is useful to the Bee either in making Wax and Honey or in drawing mixing and tempering the several sorts of juices or in penetrating and piercing into Vegetables or other bodies after the manner of broaching or tapping to cause the Liquor to issue out or in framing the structure of their comb and the like for surely Nature doth not commonly make useless and unprofitable things parts or creatures Neither doth her design tend to an evil effect although I do not deny but that good and useful instruments may be and are often imployed in evil actions The truth is I find that stings are of such kind of figures as fire is and fire of such a kind of figure as stings are but although they be all of one general kind nevertheless they are different in their particular kinds for as Animal kind contains many several and different particular kinds or sorts of animals so the like do Vegetables and other kinds of Creatures 8. Of the beard of a wild Oat THose that have observed through a Microscope the beard of a wild Oat do relate that it is onely a small black or brown bristle growing out of the side of the inner husk which covers the grain of a wild Oat and appears like a small wreath'd sprig with two clefts if it be wetted in water it will appear to unwreath it self and by degrees to streighten its knee and the two clefts will become streight but if it be suffered to dry again it will by degrees wreath it self again and so return into its former posture The cause of which they suppose to be the differing texture of its parts which seeming to have two substances one very porous loose and spongy into which the watry steams of air may very easily be forced which thereby will grow swell'd and extended and a second more hard and close into which the water cannot at all or very little penetrate and this retaining always the same dimensions but the other stretching and shrinking according as there is more or less water or moisture in its pores 't is thought to produce this unwreathing and wreathing But that this kind of motion whether it be caused by heat and cold or by dryness and moisture or by any greater or less force proceeding either from gravity and weight or from wind which is the motion of the air or from some springing body or the like should be the very first foot-step of sensation and animate motion and the most plain simple and obvious contrivance that Nature has made use of to produce a motion next to that of rarefaction and condensation by heat and cold as their opinion is I shall not easily be perswaded to believe for if Animate motion was produced this way it would in my opinion be but a weak and irregular motion Neither can I conceive how these or any other parts could be set a moving if Nature her self were not selfmoving but onely moved Nor can I believe that the exterior parts of objects are able to inform us of all their interior motions for our humane optick sense looks no further then the exterior and superficial parts of solid or dense bodies and all Creatures have several corporeal figurative motions one within another which cannot be perceived neither by our exterior senses nor by their exterior motions as for example our Optick sense can perceive and see through a transparent body but yet it cannot perceive what that transparent bodies figurative motions are or what is the true cause of its transparentness neither is any Art able to assist our sight with such optick instruments as may give us a true information thereof for what a perfect natural eye cannot perceive surely no glass will be able to present 9. Of the Eyes of Flies I Cannot wonder enough at the strange discovery made by the help of the Microscope concerning the great number of eyes observed in Flies as that for example in a gray Drone-flie should be found clusters which contain about 14000 eyes which if it be really so then those Creatures must needs have more of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sense then those that have but two or one eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot believe that so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be made for no more use then one or two eyes are for though Art the emulating Ape of Nature makes often vain and useless things yet I cannot perceive that Nature her self doth so But a greater wonder it is to me that Man with the twinkling of one eye can observe so many in so small a Creature if it be not a deceit of the optick instrument for as I have mentioned above Art produces most commonly hermaphroditical figures and it may be perhaps that those little pearls or globes which were taken for eyes in the mentioned Flie are onely transparent knobs or glossie shining spherical parts of its body making refractions of the rayes of light and reflecting the pictures of exterior objects there being many Creatures that have such shining protuberances and globular parts and those full of quick motion which yet are not eyes Truly my reason can hardly be perswaded to believe that this Artificial Informer I mean the Microscope should be so true as it is generally thought for in my opinion it more deludes then informs It is well known that if a figure be longer broader and bigger then its nature requires it is not its natural figure and therefore those Creatures or parts of Creatures which by Art appear bigger then naturally they are cannot be judged according to their natural figure since they do not appear in their natural shape but in an artificial one that is in a shape or figure magnified by Art and extended beyond their natural figure and since Man cannot judg otherwise of a figure then it appears besides if the Reflections and Positious of Light be so various and different as Experimental Philophers confess themselves and the instrument not very exact for who knows but hereafter there may be many faults discovered of our modern Microscopes which we are not able to perceive at the present how shall the object be truly known Wherefore I can hardly believe the Truth of this Experiment concerning the numerous Eyes of Flies they may have as I said before glossy and shining globular protuberances but not so many eyes as for example Bubbles of Water Ice as also Blisters and watry Pimples and hundreds the like are shining and transparent Hemispheres reflecting light but yet not eyes Nay if Flies should have so many numerous Eyes why can
corruption which later will never be blood again and some may onely be metamorphosed from blood and reassume its own colour again for it is as natural for blood to be red as for the Sun to be light Wherefore when some learned are of opinion that those white or yellow or black juices which are found in the veins of small insects are their blood they might as well say that brains are blood or that the marrow in the bones is blood or if the brain should all be turned to water say that this water is brains which would be as much as if one should call a mans body turned to dust and ashes an animal Creature or a man for there are natural properties which belong to every Creature and to each particular part of a Creature and so is blood in some animals a natural vital part proper to the conservation of its life without which it cannot subsist for example a young Maid in the Green-sickness when her veins are fuller of water then blood appears pale and is always sickly weak and faint not able to stir by reason her veins are fuller of water then blood but were it all water she would presently die Wherefore all juices are not blood nay I cannot believe as yet that those they call veins in some insects are veins much less that they contain blood and have a circulation of blood nor that their motions proceed from Muscles Nerves and Tendons but this I may say that the veins are the proper and convenient vehicles or receptacles of blood as the head is of brains and the bones of marrow also it is as proper for blood to be red as for veins to contain blood for bones to contain marrow and for the head to contain brains and when they alter or change from their particular natures they are no more blood brains nor marrow Wherefore those Creatures that have a juice which is not red have no blood and if no blood they have no veins I will not say that all those that have veins must of necessity have them full of blood for in Dropsies as also in the Green-sickness as I mentioned above they are fuller of water then blood but they must of necessity have some blood in their veins by reason the veins are the most proper receptacles for blood and no man can live without blood but when all blood is turned to water he must of necessity die 14. Of Natural Productions I Cannot wonder with those who admire that a Creature which inhabits the air doth yet produce a Creature that for some time lives in the water as a fish and afterward becomes an inhabitant of the air for this is but a production of one animal from another but what is more I observe that there are productions of and from Creatures of quite different kinds as for example that Vegetables can and do breed Animals and Animals Minerals and Vegetables and so forth Neither do I so much wonder at this because I observe that all Creatures of Nature are produced but out of one matter which is common to all and that there are continual and perpetual generations and productions in Nature as well as there are perpetual dissolutions But yet I cannot believe that some sorts of Creatures should be produced on a sudden by the way of transmigration or translation of parts which is the most usual way of natural productions for both natural and artificial productions are performed by degrees which requires time and is not done in an instant Neither can I believe that all natural things are produced by the way of seeds or eggs for when I consider the variety of Nature it will not give me leave to think that all things are produced after one and the same manner or way by reason the figurative motions are too different and too diversly various to be tied to one way of acting in all productions Wherefore as some Productions are done by the way of transmigration or translation of parts as for example the Generation of Man and other Animals and others by a bare Metamorphosis or Transformation of their own parts into some other figure as in the Generation of Maggots out of Cheese or in the production of Ice out of water and many the like so each way has its own particular motions which no particular Creature can persectly know I have mentioned in my Philosophical Letters that no animal Creature can be produced by the way of Metamorphosing which is a change of Motions in the same parts of Matter but as I do also express in the same place I mean such animals which are produced one from another and where the production of one is not caused by the destruction of the other such Creatures I say it is impossible they should be produced by a bare Metamorphosis without Transmigration or Translation of parts from the Generator but such insects as Maggots and several sorts of Worms and Flies and the like which have no Generator of their own kind but are bred out of Cheese Earth and Dung c. their Production is onely by the way of Metamorphosing and not Trans-slation of parts Neither can I believe as some do that the Sun is the common Generator of all those insects that are bred within the Earth for there are not onely Productions of Minerals and Vegetables but also of Animals in the Earth deeper then the Sun can reach and the heat of the Sun can pierce no further then cold can which is not above two yards from the surface of the Earth at least in our climate But why may not the Earth without the help of the Sun produce Animal Creatures as well as a piece of Cheese in a deep Cellar where neither the Sun nor his Beams enter Truly I wonder men will confine all Productions to one principal agent and make the Sun the common Generator of all or most living insects and yet confess that Nature is so full of variety and that the Generations and Productions of insects are so various as not onely the same kind of Creature may be produced from several kinds of ways but the very same Creature may produce several kinds Nevertheless I believe that natural Creatures are more numerously and variously produced by dissolution of particulars by the way of Metamorphosing then by a continued propagation of their own species by the way of translation of parts and that Nature hath many more ways of Productions then by seeds or seminal Principles even in Vegetables witness the Generation or Production of Moss and the like Vegetables that grow on Stones Walls dead Animals sculls tops of houses c. so that he who doth confine Nature but to one way of acting or moving had better to deprive her of all motion for Nature being Infinite has also infinite ways of acting in her particulars Some are of opinion that the seed of Moss being exceeding small and light is taken up and carried to and fro in
interior figurative motions being dilating but yet this doth not prove that all other Creatures may as easily be metamorphosed into stone as they for the parts of water are composed but of one sort of figure and are all of the same nature and so is wood clay shells c. whose parts are but of one figure at least not of so many different figures as the parts of Animals or other Creatures for as Animals have different parts so these parts are of different figures not onely exteriously but intericusly as for example in some or most Animals there are Bones Gristles Nerves Sinews Muscles Flesh Blood Brains Marrow Choler Phlegme and the like besides there are several sorts of flesh witness their interior and exterior parts as the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen Guts and the like as also the Head Breast Armes Body Legs and the like all which would puzzle and withstand the power of Ovid's Metamophosing of Gods and Goddesses Wherefore it is but a weak argument to conclude because some Creatures or parts can change out of one figure into another without a dissolution of their composed parts therefore all Creatures can do the like for if all Creatures could or should be metamorphosed into one sort of figure then this whole World would perhaps come to be one Stone which would be a hard World But this Opinion I suppose proceeds from Chymistry for since the last Art of Chimystry as I have heard is the Production of glass it makes perhaps Chymists believe that at the last day when this Word shall be dissolved with Fire the Fire will calcine or turn it into Glass A brittle World indeed but whether it will be transparent or no I know not for it will be very thick 23. Of the Nature of Water THe Ascending of VVater in Pipes Pumps and the like Engines is commonly alledged as an argument to prove there is no Vacuum But in my opinion VVater or the like things that are moist liquid and wet their interior corporeal and natural motion is flowing as being of a dilating figure and when other parts or Creatures suppress those liquors so that they cannot rise they will dilate but when solid and heavy bodies are put into them as Stones Metals c. which do sink then they will rise above them as being their nature to over-flow any other body if they can have the better of it or get passage For concerning the floating of some bodies the reason is not so much their levity or porousness but both their exterior shape and the waters restlesness or activity the several parts of water endeavouring to drive those floating bodies from them like as when several men playing at Ball or Shittle-cock or the like endeavour to beat those things from and to each other or like as one should blow up a feather into the Air which makes it not onely keep up in the air but to wave about The like doth water with floating bodies and the lighter the floating parts are the more power have the liquid parts to force and thrust them about And this is also the reason why two floating bodies of one Nature endeavour to meet and joyn because by joyning they receive more strength to resist the force of the watry parts The same may be said when as floating bodies stick or join to the sides of Vessels but many times the watry parts will not suffer them to be at rest or quiet but drive them from their strong holds or defences Concerning the suppression of water and of some floating bodies in water by air or light as that air and light should suppress water and bodies floating upon it as some do conceive I see no reason to believe it but the contrary rather appears by the levity of air which is so much lighter and therefore of less force then either the floating bodies or the water on which they float Some again are of opinion That Water is a more dense body then Ice and prove it by the Refractions of light because VVater doth more refract the rays of light then Ice doth but whatsoever their experiments be yet my reason can hardly believe it for although Ice may be more transparent then water yet it may be more dense then water for Glass is more transparent then water and yet more dense then water and some bodies will not be trasparent if they be thick that is if they have a great number of parts upon parts when as they will be transparent if they be thin that is if they have few thin parts upon each other so that transparent bodies may be darkned and those that are not transparent of themselves may be made so by the thickness or thinness of parts that one may see or not see through them and thus a thin body of Water may be more transparent then a thick body of Ice and a thin body of Ice may be more transparent then a thick body of water As for the expansion of Water it doth not prove that Water is more dense then Ice but on the contrary it rather proves that it is more rare for that body whose parts are close and united is more dense then that whose parts are fluid and dilating Neither doth Expansion alter the interior nature of a body any more then contraction but it alters onely the exterior posture as for example when a man puts his body into several postures it doth not alter him from being a man to some other Creature for the stretching of his legs spreading out of his armes puffing up his cheeks c. changes his nature or natural figure no more then when he contracts his limbs close together crumpling up his body or folding his armes c. but his posture is onely changed the like for the expansions and contractions of other sorts of Creatures Nor can I readily give my assent to their opinion that some liquors are more dense then others I mean such as are perfectly moist liquid and wet as water is for there be numerous sorts of liquors which are not throughly wet as water and although their Circular lines may be different as some edged some pointed some twisted and the like yet they do not differ so much but that their inherent figures are all of Circular lines for the interior nature or figure of water and so of all other moist and wet liquors is Circular and it is observable that as Art may be an occasion of diminishing those points or edges of the Circular lines of some liquors or of untwisting them so it may also be an occasion that some liquid and wet bodies may become so pointed edged twisted c. as may occasion those circles to move or turn into such or such exterior figures not onely into triangular square round and several other forms or figures as appears in Ice Hail Frost and flakes of Snow but into such figures as they name Spirits which several sorts of figures belonging all to one sort of
is of the exterior object and the sentient or else the perception of all exterior objects would be made by such an intermixture which is against sense and reason and therefore even in such a commixture where the parts of the object enter into the body of the sentient as fire doth into fuel the perception of the motions of fire in the fuel and the fuels consumption or burning is not made by the fire but by the fuels own perceptive motions imitating the motions of the fire so that fire doth not turn the fuel into ashes but the fuel doth change by its own corporeal figurative motions and the fire is onely an occasion of it The same may be said of Cold. Neither is every Creatures perception alike no more then it can be said that one particular Creature as for example Man hath but one perception for the perception of sight and smelling and so of every sence are different nay one and the same sense may have as many several perceptions as it hath objects and some sorts of peceptions in some Creatures are either stronger or weaker then in others for we may observe that in one and the same degree of heat or cold some will have quicker and some slower perceptions then others for example in the perception of touch if several men stand about a fire some will sooner be heated then others the like for Cold some will apprehend cold weather sooner then others the reason is that in their perception of Touch the sensitive motions work quicker or slower in figuring or patterning out heat or cold then in the perception of others The same may be said of other objects where some sentient bodies will be more sensible of some then of others even in one and the same kind of perception But if in all perceptions of cold cold should intermix with the bodies of animals or other Creatures like as several Ingredients then all bodies upon the perception of cold would dissolve their figures which we see they do not for although all dissolving motions are knowing and perceptive because every particular motion is a particular knowledg and perception yet not every perception requires a dissolution or change of its figure 'T is true some sorts or degrees of exterior heat and cold may occasion some bodies to dissolve their interior figures and change their particular natures but they have not power to dissolve or change all natural bodies Neither doth heat or cold change those bodies by an intermixture of their own particles with the parts of the bodies but the parts of the bodies change themselves by way of imitation like as men put themselves into a mode-fashion although oftentimes the senses will have fashions of their own without imitating any other objects for not all sorts of perceptions are made by Imitation or patterning but some are made voluntarily or by rote as for example when some do hear and see such or such things without any outward objects Wherefore it is not certain steams or agitated particles in the air nor the vapours and effluviums of exterior objects insinuating themselves into the pores of the sentient that are the cause of the Perception of Heat and Cold as some do imagine for there cannot probably be such differences in the pores of animal Creatures of one sort as for example of Men which should cause such a different perception as is found in them for although exterior heat or cold be the same yet several animals of the same sort will have several and different perceptions of one and the same degrees of exterior heat and cold as above mentioned which difference would not be if their perception was caused by a real entrance of hot and cold particles into the pores of their bodies Besides Burning-Fevers and Shaking-Agues prove that such effects can be without such exterior causes Neither can all sorts of Heat and Cold be expressed by Wind Air and Water in Weather-glasses for they being made by Art cannot give a true information of the Generation of all natural heat and cold but as there is great difference between Natural and Artificial Ice Snow Colours Light and the like so between Artificial and Natural Heat and Cold and there are so many several sorts of heat and cold that it is impossible to reduce them all to one certain cause or principle or confine them to one sort of Motions as some do believe that all sorts of Heat and Cold are made by motions tending inward and outward and others that by ascending and descending or rising and depressing motions which is no more probable then that all Colours are made by the reflexion of Light and that all White is made by reflecting the beams of light outward and all black by reflecting them inward or that a Man when he is on Horse-back or upon the top of an House or Steeple or in a deep Pit or Mine should be of another figure then of the figure and nature of man unless he were dissolved by death which is a total alteration of his figure for neither Gravity nor Levity of Air nor Almospherical Pillars nor any Weather-glasses can give us a true information of all natural heat and cold but the several figurative corporeal motions which make all things in Nature do also make several sorts of heat and cold in several sorts of Creatures But I observe experimental Philosophers do first cry up several of their artificial Instruments then make doubts of them and at last disapprove them so that there is no trust nor truth in them so much as to be relied on for it is not an age since Weather-glasses were held the onely divulgers of heat and cold or change of weather and now some do doubt they are not such infallible Informers of those truths by which it is evident that Experimental Philosophy has but a brittle inconstant and uncertain ground and these artificial Instruments as Microscopes Telescopes and the like which are now so highly applauded who knows but may within a short time have the same fate and upon a better and more rational enquiry be found deluders rather then true Informers The truth is there 's not any thing that has and doth still delude most mens understandings more then that they do not consider enough the variety of Natures actions and do not imploy their reason so much in the search of natures actions as they do their senses preferring Art and Experiments before Reason which makes them stick so close to some particular opinions and particular sorts of Motions or Parts as if there were no more Motions Parts or Creatures in Nature then what they see and find out by their Artificial Experiments Thus the variety of Nature is a stumbling-block to moft men at which they break their heads of understanding like blind men that run against several posts or walls and how should it be otherwise since Natures actions are Infinite and Mans understanding finite for they consider not so much
stiff rare dense moist dry contracting dilating ascending descending and other numerous sorts of colds nay there are some sorts of candied figures made by heat which appear as if they were frozen Also there are fluid colds which are not wet as well as fluid heats that are not dry for Phlegm is fluid and yet not wet and some sorts of air are fluid and not wet I say some not all for some are hot and moist others hot and dry The same may be said of some sorts of heat and cold for some are moist and some dry and there may be at one and the same time a moist cold in the air and a dry cold in water which in my opinion is the reason that in sealed Weather-glasses according to some Experimenters relations sometimes the air doth not shrink but rather seems to be expanded when the weather grows colder and that the water contracts not that the cold contraction of water causes an expansion of the air to prevent a Vacuum for there cannot be any such thing as a Vacuum in Nature but that there is a moist cold in the air and a dry cold in the water whereof the dry cold causes a contraction and the moist cold an expansion nay there is often a moist and dry cold in the air at one and the same time so that some parts of the air may have a moist cold and the next adjoying parts a dry cold and that but in a very little compass for there may be such contractions and dilations in Nature which make not a hairs breadth difference Nature being so subtil and curious as no particular can trace her ways and therefore when I speak of contractions and dilations I do not mean they are all such gross actions perceptible by our exterior senses as the works of Art but such as the curiosity of Nature works Concerning the several sorts of animal heat and cold they are quite different from the Elemental and other sorts of heat and cold for some men may have cold fits of an Ague under the Line or in the hottest Climates and others Burning-Feavers under the Poles or in the coldest climates 'T is true that Animals by their perceptions may pattern out the heat or cold of the air but these perceptions are not always regular or perfect neither are the objects at all times exactly presented as they should which may cause an obscurity both in Art and in particular sensitive perceptions and through this variety the same sort of Creatures may have different perceptions of the same sorts of heat and cold Besides it is to be observed that some parts or Creatures as for example Water and the like liquors if kept close from the perception either of heat or cold will neither freeze nor grow hot and if Ice and Snow be kept in a deep Pit from the exterior object of heat it will never thaw but continne Ice or Snow whenas being placed near the perception of the Sun Fire or warm Air its exterior figure will alter from being Ice to Water and from being cold to hot or to an intermediate temper betwixt both nay it may alter from an extream degree of cold to an extream degree of heat according as the exterior object of heat doth occasion the sensitive perceptive motions of Water or Ice to work for extreams are apt to alter the natural temper of a particular Creature and many times so as to cause a total dissolution of its interior natural figure when I name extreams I do not mean any uttermost extreams in Nature for Nature being Infinite and her particular actions being poised and ballanced by opposites can never run into extreams but I call them so in reference onely to our perception as we use to say it is extream hot or extream cold And the reason of it is that Water by its natural perceptive motions imitates the motions of heat or cold but being kept from the perception of them it cannot imitate them The same reason may be given upon the experiment that some bodies being put into water will be preserved from being frozen or congealed for they being in water are not onely kept from the perception of cold but the water doth as a guard preserve them which guard if it be overcome that is if the water begin to freeze then they will do so too But yet all colds are not airy nor all heats sunny or fiery for a man as I mentioned before may have shaking fits of an Ague in the hottest climate or season and burning fits of a Fever in the coldest climate or season and as there is difference between elemental and animal cold and heat so betwixt other sorts so that it is but in vain to prove all sorts of heat and cold by Artificial Weather-glasses suppressions and elevations of water Atmosphaerical parts and the like for it is not the air that makes all cold no not that cold which is called Elementary no more then it makes heat but the corporeal figurative self-moving perceptive rational and sensitive parts of Nature which make all other Creatures make also heat and cold Some Learned make much ado about Antiperistasis and the flight of those two contrary qualities heat and cold from each other where according to their opinion one of them being surrounded and besieged by the other retires to the innermost parts of the body which it possesses and there by recollecting its forces and animating it self to a defence is intended or increased in its degree and so becomes able to resist its adversary which they prove by the cold expelled from the Earth and Water by the Sun-beams which they say retires to the middle region of the Air and there defends it self against the heat that is in the two other viz. the upper and the lower Regions and so it doth in the Earth for say they we find in Summer when the air is sultry hot the cold retreats into Cellars and Vaults and in Winter when the air is cold they are the Sanctuary and receptacle of heat so that the water in wells and springs and the like places under ground is found warm and smoaking when as the water which is exposed to the open air by cold is congealed into Ice But whatsoever their opinion be I cannot believe that heat and cold run from each other as Children at Boe-peep for concerning the Earths being warm in Winter and cold in Summer it is not in my opinion caused by hot or cold Atoms flying like Birds out of their nests and returning to the same nor is the Earth like a Store-house that hoards up cold and heat at several seasons in the year but there is a natural temper of cold and heat as well in the Earth as in other Creatures and that Vaults Wells and Springs under ground are warm in Winter when the exterior air is cold the reason is not that the heat of the air or the Calorifick atomes as they call them are retired
irregularity or some other ways yet next to the rational they are the best informers we have for no man can naturally go beyond his rational and sensitive perception And thus in my opinion the nature of Congelation is not effected by expanding or dilating but contracting and condensing motions in the parts of the sentient body which motions in the congelation of water do not alter the interior nature of water but onely contract its exterior figure into the figure either of Ice Snow Hail Hoar-frost or the like which may be proved by their return into the former figure of water whensoever they dissolve for wheresoever is a total change or alteration of the interior natural motions of a Creature when once dissolved it will never regain its former figure and therefore although the exterior figures of congealed water are various and different yet they have all but one interior figure which is water into which they return as into their principle whensoever they change their exterior figures by dissolving and dilating motions for as a laughing and frowning countenance doth not change the nature of a man so neither do they the nature of water I do not speak of artificial but of natural congealed figures whose congelation is made by their own natural figurative motions But although all congelations are some certain kind of motions yet there may be as many particular sorts of congelations as there are several sorts of frozen or congealed bodies for though I name but one figure of Snow another of Ice another of Hail c. yet I do not deny but there may be numerous particular sorts and figures of Ice Snow Hail c. all which may have their several freezing or congealing motions nay freezing in this respect may very well be compared to burning as being opposite actions and as there are various sorts of burning much differing from each other so there are of freezing for although all burning is of the nature of fire yet not all burning is an elemental fire for example Lime and some Vegetables and other Creatures have burning effects and yet are not an Elemental fire neither doth the Sun and ordinary fire burn just alike The same may be said of Freezing and I observe that fluid and rare parts are more apt to freeze then solid and dense bodies for I do not believe all sorts of metal can freeze so as water or watery liquors unless they were made liquid I will not say that Minerals are altogether insensible of cold or frost but they do not freeze like liquid bodies nay not all liquid bodies will freeze as for example some sorts of spirituous liquors Oil Vinous spirits Chymical extracts c. which proves that not all that is to say the infinite parts of Nature are subject to one particular kind of action to wit the action of freezing for if Congelation did extend to the infinite parts of Nature it would not be a finite and particular but an infinite action but as I said liquid bodies are more apt to freeze especially water and watery liquors then dense and hard bodies or some sorts of oil and spirits for as we see that fire cannot have the same operation on all bodies alike but some it causes to consume and turn to ashes some it hardens some it softens and on some it hath no power at all So its opposite Frost or Cold cannot congeal every natural body but onely those which are apt to freeze or imitate the motions of cold Neither do all these bodies freeze alike but some slower some quicker some into such and some into another figure as for example even in one kind of Creatures as animals some Beasts as Foxes Bears and the like are not so much sensible of cold as Man and some other animal Creatures and dead animals or parts of dead animals will freeze much sooner then those which are living not that living animals have more natural life then those we call dead for animals when dissolved from their animal figure although they have not animal life yet they have life according to the nature of the figure into which they did change but because of their different perceptions for a dead or dissolved animal as it is of another kind of figure then a living animal so it has also another kind of perception which causes it to freeze sooner then a living animal doth But I cannot apprehend what some Learned mean by the powerful effects of cold upon inanimate bodies whether they mean that cold is onely animate and all other bodies inanimate or whether both cold and other bodies on which it works be inanimate if the later I cannot conceive how inanimate bodies can work upon each other I mean such bodies as have neither life nor motion for without life or motion there can be no action but if the former I would fain know whether Cold be self-moving if not I ask What is that which moves it Is it an Immaterial Spirit or some corporeal being If an Immaterial Spirit we must allow that this Spirit is either self-moving or must be moved by another if it be moved by another Being and that same Being again by another we shall after this manner run into infinite and conclude nothing But if that Imaterial Spirit have self-motion why may not a natural corporeal being have the like they being both Creatures of God who can as well grant self-motion to a corporeal as to an incorporeal Being nay I am not able to comprehend how Motion can be attributed to a Spirit I mean natural motion which is onely a propriety of a body or of a corporeal Being but if Cold be self-moving then Nature is self-moving for the cause can be no less then the effect and if Nature be self-moving no part of Nature can be inanimate for as the body is so are its parts and as the cause so its effects Thus some Learned do puzle themselves and the world with useless distinctions into animate and inanimate Creatures and are so much afraid of self-motion as they will rather maintain absurdities and errors then allow any other self-motion in Nature but what is in themselves for they would fain be above Nature and petty Gods if they could but make themselves Infinite not considering that they are but parts of Nature as all other Creatnres Wherefore I for my part will rather believe as sense and reason guides me and not according to interest so as to extoll my own kind above all the rest or above Nature her self And thus to return to Cold as Congelation is not a Universal or Infinite action which extends to the Infinite parts of Nature and causes not the like effects in those Creatures that are perceptible of it so I do also observe that not any other sorts of bodies but Water will congeal into the figure of Snow when as there are many that will turn into the figure of Ice besides I observe that air doth not freeze beyond
its degree of consistency for if it did no animal Creature would be able to breath since all or most of them are subject to such a sort of respiration as requires a certain intermediate degree of air neither too thick nor too thin what respirations other Creatures require I am not able to determine for as there are several infinite parts and actions of Nature so also several sorts of Respirations and I believe that what is called the ebbing and flowing of the Sea may be the Seas Respiration for Nature has ordered for every part or Creature that which is most fitting and proper for it Concerning Artificial Congelations as to turn Water or Snow into the figure of Ice by the commixture of Salt Nitre Allum or the like it may very probably be effected for Water and watery liquors their interior figure being Circular may easily change by contracting that Circular figure into a Triangle or square that is into Ice or Snow for Water in my opinion has a round or Circular interior figure Snow a Triangular and Ice a square I do not mean an exact Mathematical Triangle or Square but such a one as is proper for their figures and that the mixture of those or the like ingredients being shaken together in a Vial doth produce films of Ice on the outside of the Glass as Experimenters relate proves not onely that the motions of Cold are very strong but also that there is perception in all parts of Nature and that all Congelations both natural and artificial are made by the corporeal perceptive motions which the sentient has of exterior cold which is also the reason that Salt being mixt with Snow makes the liquor always freeze first on that side of the Vessel where the mixture is for those parts which are nearest will imitate first the motions of frost and after them the neighbouring parts until they be all turned into Ice The truth is that all or most artificial experiments are the best arguments to evince there is perception in all corporeal parts of Nature for as parts are joyned or commix with parts so they move or work accordingly into such or such figures either by the way of imitation or otherwise for their motions are so various as it is impossible for one particulare to describe them all but no motion can be without perception because every part or particle of Nature as it is self-moving so it is also self-knowing and perceptive for Matter Self-motion Knowledg and Perception are all but one thing and no more differing nor separable from each other then Body Place Magnitude Colour and Figure Wherefore Experimental Philosophers cannot justly blame me for maintaining the opinion of Self-motion and a general Perception in Nature But to return to Artificial Congelations there is as much difference between Natural and Artificial Ice and Snow as there is between Chalk and Cheese or between a natural Child and a Baby made of Paste or Wax and Gummed-silk or between artificial Glass and natural Diamonds the like may be said of Hail Frost Wind c. for though their exterior figures do resemble yet their interior natures are quite different and therefore although by the help of Art some may make Ice of Water or Snow yet we cannot conclude from hence that all natural Ice is made the same way by saline particles or acid Spirits and the like for if Nature should work like Art she would produce a man like as a Carver makes a statue or a Painter draws a picture besides it would require a world of such saline or acid particles to make all the Ice that is in Nature Indeed it is as much absurdity as impossibility to constitute some particular action the common principle of all natural heat or cold and to make a Universal cause of a particular effect for no particular Part or Action can be prime in Nature or a fundamental principle of other Creatures or actions although it may occasion some Creatures to move after such or such a way Wherefore those that will needs have a Primum Frigidum or some Body which they suppose must of necessity be supremely cold and by participation of which all other cold Bodies obtain that quality whereof some do contend for Earth some for Water others for Air some for Nitre and others for Salt do all break their heads to no purpose for first there are no extreams in Nature and therefore no Body can be supreamely cold nor supreamly hot Next as I said it is impossible to make one particular sort of Creatures the principle of all the various sorts of heat or cold that are in Nature for there is an Elemental heat and cold a Vegetable Mineral Animal heat and cold and there may be many other sorts which we do not know and how can either Earth or Water or Nitre or Salt be the Principle of all these different colds Concerning the Earth we see that some parts of the Earth are hot and some cold the like of Water and Air and the same parts which are now hot will often in a moment grow cold which shews they are as much subject to the perception of heat and cold as some other Creatures and doth plainly deny to them the possibility of being a Primum Frigidum I have mentioned in my Poetical Works that there is a Sun in the Center of the Earth and in another place I have described a Chymical heat but these being but Poetical Fancies I will not draw them to any serious proofs onely this I will say that there may be degrees of heat and cold in the Earth and in Water as well as there are in the Air for certainly the Earth is not without Motion a dull dead moveless and inanimate body but it is as much interiously active as Air and Water are exteriously which is evident enough by the various productions of Vegetables Minerals and other bodies that derive their off-spring out of the Earth And as for Nitre and Salt although they may occasion some sorts of Colds in some sorts of Bodies like as some sorts of food or tempers of Air or the like may work such or such effects in some sorts of Creatures yet this doth not prove that they are the onely cause of all kinds of heat and cold that are in Nature The truth is if Air Water Earth Nitre or Salt or insensible roving and wandering atomes should be the only cause of cold then there would be no difference of hot and cold climates but it would freeze as well under the Line as it doth at the Poles But there 's such a stir kept about Atoms as that they are so full of action and produce all things in the world and yet none describes by what means they move or from whence they have this active power Lastly Some are of opinion that the chief cause of all cold and its effects is wind which they describe to be air moved in a considerable quantity and that
out the several proprieties of one body as it is for several Painters to draw the several parts of one figure as for example of a burning Candle one may draw the wax or tallow another the wick another the flame The like for the Perceptions of several senses Sight may pattern out the figure and light of a Candle Touch may pattern out its weight hardness or smoothness the Nose may pattern out its smell the Ears may pattern out its sparkling noise c. All which does evidently prove That Perception cannot be made by pressure and reaction or else a fire coal by the perception of sight would burn out the eye because it would by pressure inflame its next adjoining parts and these again the next until it came to the eye Besides it proves that all objects are material for were Light Colour Figure Heat Cold c. immaterial they would never be patterned out by corporeal motions for no Painter is able to copy out or draw an immaterial mode or motion Neither could immaterial motions make pressure nor be subject to reaction Lastly it proves That Perception is an effect of knowledg in the sentient and not in the external object or else there would be but one knowledg in all parts and not several knowledges in several parts whereof sense and reason inform us otherwise viz. that particular figures have variety of knowledges according to the difference and variety of their corporeal figurative motions But then some will say That the actions of Matter would be more infinite then the parts I answer There can be neither more nor less in infinite For infinite can be but infinite but since parts figures changes of motion and perceptions are one and the same and since division and composition are the chief actions of Nature it does necessarily follow That as the actions vary so do also their parts and particular perceptions Q. 14. How is it possible that any Perception of outward objects can be made by patterning since patterning doth follow perception for how can any one pattern out that which he has no perception of I answer Natural actions are not like Artificial for Art is but gross and dull in comparison to Nature and although I alledg the comparison of a Painter yet is it but to make my meaning more intelligible to weaker capacities for though a Painter must see or know first what he intends to draw or copy out yet the natural perception of exterior objects is not altogether after the same manner but in those perceptions which are made by patterning the action of patterning and the perception are one and the same for as self-knowledg is the ground of Perception so self-motion is the action of Perception without which no perception could be and therefore perception and self-action are one and the same But I desire that it may well be observed what I have mentioned heretofore to wit That although there is but one self-knowledg and one selfmotion in Nature yet they being material are divideable and therefore as from one infinite cause there may flow infinite effects and one infinite whole may be divided into infinite parts so from one infinite self-knowledg and self-motion there may proceed infinite particular actions and perceptions But some may perhaps ask 1. Why those particular knowledges and perceptions are not all alike as being all but effects of one cause To which I answer That if the actions or motions of Nature were all alike all parts would have the like knowledges and perceptions but the actions being different how can it be otherwise but the perceptions must be different also for since every perception is a particular self-action then as the actions of Nature vary and as parts do divide and compose so are likewise their perceptions 2. It may be objected That if the Perception of the exterior senses in animals be made by the way of patterning then when a part of the body feels pain the rational motions by patterning out the same would be pained or sick I answer This does no more follow then that the Eye patterning out the exterior figure of Water Fire Earth c. should become of the same nature for the original is one thing and the copy another the picture of a house of stone is not made of natural stone nor is the picture of a Tree a natural Tree for if it were so Painters would do more then Chymists by fire and furnace but by reason there is a very close conjunction between the rational and sensitive perceptive motions so that when the sensitive motions of the body pattern out some exterior object the rational most commonly do the same That which we call pain or sickness in the body when patterned out by the mind is called trouble or grief for as there are degrees in their purity subtilty and activity so their perceptions are also different But it is well to be observed That although some parts are ignorant of others when they work not to one and the same perception yet sometimes there is a more general knowledg of a disease pain or soreness for example a man may have an inflamation or soreness in one part of his arm or leg and all the rest of the parts of that limb may be ignorant thereof but if the inflamation soreness or pain extend throughout the whole arm or leg then all the parts of that limb are generally sensible of it 3. It may be objected That if the rational perceptive motions take patterns from the sensitive then reason can never judg of things as naturally they are but onely of their copies as they are patterned out by the sensitive motions I answer first That reason is not so necessitated as to have no other perception then what sense presents for Reason is the instructer and informer of sense as an architect or surveigher is in the extruction of a house Next I say That in the act of Perception Reason doth not onely perceive the copies of the senses but it perceives with the sense also the original for surely the rational part of Matter being intermixed with the sensitive must perceive as well the original as sense doth for it is not so involved within the sensitive that it cannot peep out as a Jack-in-a-Box but both being closely intermixed one makes perceptions as well as the other as being both perceptive and by reason the rational part makes the same perception as the sensitive doth it seemeth as if the rational did take copies from the sensitive which although it doth yet this doth not hinder it from making a perception also of the original But then some may say if the rational Part has liberty to move as it will then it may perceive without sense that is Reason may make perceptions of outward objects in the organs of the senses when the senses make none as for example the rational motions in the eye may perceive light when the sensitive do not and sound in the ear
I have declared before for particular motions are but effects of self-moving Matter But I call them principal because to our humane sense they seem to be some chief sorts of motions in those natural bodies that are subject to our perception but there may be infinite other sorts of motions which we know not of the same may be said when I speak of the ground of Infinite compositions which is symmetry and infinite divisions which is number for to speak properly there 's no other ground but self-moving Matter in Nature When I make a distinction between forced or Artificial and Natural Motions as that for example the motion of a Watch or a Clock is artificial and not natural my meaning is not as if artificial motions were something super or praeter-natural and had no relation to Nature but by the word Natural I understand the particular nature of some certain figure or Creature and when such a figure has some other exterior motions besides those which are proper to its particular nature caused by Art I call them artificial and do distinguish them from such motions as are proper and natural to it as for example mans exterior natural local motions are going leaping dancing running c. but not flying which is a motion to Birds and winged Creatures Now if a man should by some Artacquire this motion of flying and imitate such winged Creatures to whom it is natural then it would be an artificial or forced action to him and not a natural also the nature of Iron or Steel is not to have an exterior progressive local motion such as animals and other Creatures have and therefore the motion of the wheels of a Watch is forced or artificial Nevertheless I say that all these motions although they be forced or artificial do not proceed from some exterior agent any otherwise but occasionally and that all motions whatsoever are intrinsecally inherent in the body or which is in motion for motion cannot be transferred out of one body into another but every body moves by its own motion Thus the intrinsecal principle and cause of all particular both interior and exterior motions or actions is in the body which is in motion even of those we call forced or artificial and proceeds not from some exterior agent but occasionally for every part and particle of Nature is self-moving as consisting of a commixture of animate Matter and no motion can be imparted without body by reason there 's no such thing as an incorporeal motion When I say There is no rest in Nature I mean that all parts are either moving or moved for although the inanimate part of Matter has no self-motion yet it is moved and consequently never at rest Nor can we say that things do rest or have no motion at all when they have not exterior progressive motion such as is perceptible by our sight for this is but a gross exterior motion and a world of Gold may be as active interiously as a world of Air is exteriously that is the actions of Gold are as alterable as those of air When contradicting the opinion of Mr. Hobbes concerning voluntary motions who says That voluntary motions as going speaking moving our lips depend upon a precedent thought of whither which way and what c. I answer that it implies a contradiction to call them Voluntary Motions and yet say they depend on our imagination for if the imagination draws them this or that way how can they be voluntary My meaning is not as if those actions were not self-actions nor as if there were no voluntary actions at all for to make a balance between Natures actions there are voluntary as well as occasioned actions both in sense and reason but because Mr Hobbs says that those actions are depending upon Imagination and Fancy and that Imagination is the first internal beginning of them which sets them a going as the prime wheel of a Watch does the rest My opinion is that after this rate they cannot properly be called voluntary but are rather necessitated at least occasioned by the Mind or Fancy for I oppose voluntary actions to those that are occasioned or forced which voluntary actions are made by the self-moving parts by rote and of their own accord but occasioned actions are made by imitation although they are all self-actions that is move by their own inherent self-motion When I say That Animals by their shapes are not tied or bound to any other kind of Creature either for support or nourishment as Vegetables are but are loose and free of themselves from all others My opinion is not as if the animal figure were a single figure precised from all the rest of natural parts or figures or from the body of Nature and stood in no need either of nourishment or support but could subsist of it self without any respect or relation to other Creatures But I speak comparatively that in comparison to Vegetables or such like Creatures it is more free in its exterior progressive local motions then they which as we see being taken out of the ground where they grow wither and change their interior natural figures for animals may by a visible progressive motion remove from such parts to other parts which Vegetables cannot do nevertheless Animals depend as much upon other parts and Creatures as others depend on them both for nourishment and respiration c. although they may subsist without being fixt to some certain parts of ground The truth is some animals can live no more without air then fishes can live without water or Vegetables without ground so that all parts must necessarily live with each other and none can boast that it needs not the assistance of any other part for they are all parts of one body When discoursing of the growth of an Animal I say that attractive motions do gather and draw substance proper to and for that figure I mean that such sorts of corporeal motions attract and invite by sympathy other parts to help to form that Creature so that every where by several substances I mean several parts which are particular substances that is corporeal particular figures and by several places in the same Chapter I understand several distances of parts When in my Philosophical Letters I do mention that all Perception is made by Patterning I mean chiefly the perception of the exterior sensitive organs in animals as smelling hearing seeing tasting touching whose perception I mean is made by that sort of motion which is call'd patterning for in my Book of Philosophical Letters I do onely prove that all perceptions cannot be made by one sort of motion as also that perception is not immediately made by the exterior object but by the perceiving or sentient parts Nor do I treat in it of all kinds or sorts of perceptions belonging to all kinds or sorts of Creatures in Infinite Nature for they are too numerous to be known by one particular How can an
of light I cannot certainly tell The Emperess seeing the insufficiency of those Magnifying-glasses that they were not able to enlarge all sorts of objects asked the Bear-men whether they could not make glasses of a contrary nature to those they had shewed her to wit such as instead of enlarging or magnifying the shape or figure of an object could contract it beneath its natural proportion Which in obedience to her Majesties Commands they did and viewing through one of the best of them a huge and mighty Whale appear'd no bigger then a Sprat nay through some no bigger then a Vinegar-Eele and through their ordinary ones an Elephant seemed no bigger then a Flea a Camel no bigger then a Lowse and an Ostrich no bigger then a Mite To relate all their optick observations through the several sorts of their Glasses would be a tedious work and tire even the most patient Reader wherefore I 'le pass them by onely this was very remarkable and worthy to be taken notice of that notwithstanding their great skil industry and ingenuity in Experimental Philosophy they could yet by no means contrive such Glasses by the help of which they could spy out a Vacuum with all its dimensions nor Immaterial substances Non-beings and Mixt-beings or such as are between something and nothing which they were very much troubled at hoping that yet in time by long study and practice they might perhaps attain to it The Bird-and Bear-men being dismissed the Emperess called both the Syrenes or Fish-men and the Worm-men to deliver their observations which they had made both within the Seas and the Earth First she enquired of the Fish-men whence the saltness of the Sea did proceed To which they answered That there was a volatile salt in those parts of the Earth which as a bosom contain the Waters of the Sea which salt being imbibed by the Sea became fixt and this imbibing motion was that they call'd the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea for said they the rising and swelling of the water is caused by those parts of the volatile salt as are not so easily imbibed which striving to ascend above the water bear it up with such a motion as Man or some other animal Creature in a violent certainly those may be said to be of such a mixt nature that is partly flesh and partly fish But how is it possible replied the Emperess that they should live both in Water and on the Earth since those Animals that live by the respiration of air cannot live within Water and those that live in Water cannot live by the respiration of Air as experience doth sufficiently witness They answered her Majesty That as there were different sorts of Creatures so they had also different ways of respirations for respiration said they was nothing else but a composition and division of parts and the motions of nature being infinitely various it was impossible that all Creatures should have the like motions wherefore it was not necessary that all animal Creatures should be bound to live either by the air or by water onely but according as Nature had ordered it convenient to their species The Emperess seem'd very well satisfied with their answer and desired to be further informed Whether all animal Creatures did continue their species by a successive propagation of particulars and whether in every species the off-spring did always resemble their Generator or Producer both in their interior and exterior figures They answered her Majesty That some species or sorts of Creatures were kept up by a successive propagation of an off-spring that was like the producer but some were not of the first rank said they are all those animals that are of different sexes besides several others but of the second rank are for the most part those we call insects whose production proceds from such causes as have no conformity or likeness with their produced effects as for example Maggots bred out of Cheese and several others generated out of Earth Water and the like But said the Emperess there is some likeness between Maggots and Cheese for Cheese has no blood and so neither have Maggots besides they have almost the same taste which Cheese has This proves nothing answered they for Maggots have a visible local progressive motion which Cheese hath not The Emperess replied That when all the Cheese was turned into Maggots it might be said to have local progressive motion They answered That when the Cheese by its own figurative motions was changed into Maggots it was no more Cheese The Emperess confessed that she observed Nature was infinitely various in her works and that though the species of Creatures did continue yet their particulars were subject to infinite changes But since you have informed me said she of the various sorts and productions of animal Creatures I desire you to tell me what you have observed of their sensitive perceptions Truly answered they Your Majesty puts a very hard question to us and we shall hardly be able to give a satisfactory answer to it for there are many different sorts of Creatures which as they have all different perceptions so they have also different organs which our senses are not able to discover onely in an Oyster-shell we have with admiration observed that the common sensorium of the Oyster lies just at the closing of the shells where the pressure and reaction may be perceived by the opening and shutting of the shells every tide After all this the Emperess desired the Worm-men to give her a true Relation how frost was made upon the Earth To which they answered That it was made much after the manner and description of the Fish and Bird-men concerning the Congelation of Water into Ice and Snow by a commixture of saline and acid particles which relation added a great light to the Ape-men who were the Chymists concerning their Chymical principles Salt Sulphur and Mercury But said the Emperess if it be so it will require an infinite multitude of saline particles to produce such a great quantity of Ice Frost and Snow besides said she when Snow Ice and Frost turn again into their former principle I would fain know what becomes of those saline particles But neither the Wor-men nor the Fish-and Bird-men could give her an answer to it Then the Emperess enquired of them the reason Why Springs were not as salt as the Sea is also why Springs did ebb and flow To which some answered That the ebbing and flowing of some Springs was caused by hollow Caverns within the Earth where the Sea-water crowding thorow did thrust forward and draw back-ward the Spring-water according to its own way of ebbing and flowing but others said That it proceeded from a small proportion of saline and acid particles which the Spring-water imbibed from the Earth and although it was not so much as to be perceived by the sense of Taste yet was it enough to cause an ebbing and flowing motion And as for the Spring-water being fresh
they gave according to their observation this following reason There is said they a certain heat within the bowels of the Earth proceeding from its swift circular motion upon its own axe which heat distills the rarest parts of the Earth into a fresh and insipid water which water being through the pores of the Earth conveighed into a place where it may break forth without resistance or obstruction causes Springs and Fountains and these distilled waters within the Earth do nourish and refresh the grosser and dryer parts thereof This Relation confirmed the Emperess in the opinion concerning the motion of the Earth and the fixedness of the Sun as the Bird-men had informed her and then she asked the Worm-men whether Minerals and Vegetables were generated by the same heat that is within the bowels of the Earth To which they could give her no positive answer onely this they affirmed That heat and cold were not the primary producing causes of either Vegetables or Minerals or other sorts of Creatures but onely effects and to prove this our assertion said they we have observed that by change of some sorts of corporeal motions that which is now hot will become cold and what is now cold will grow hot but the hottest place of all we find to be the Center of the Earth Neither do we observe that the torrid Zone does contain so much Gold and Silver as the Temperate nor is there great store of Iron and Lead wheresoever there is Gold for these metals are most found in colder climates towards either of the Poles This observation the Emperess commanded them to confer with her Chymists the Ape-men to let them know that Gold was not produced by a violent but a temperate degree of heat She asked further Whether Gold could not be made by Art They answered That they could not certainly tell her Majesty but if it was possible to be done they thought Tin Lead Brass Iron and Silver to be the fittest metals for such an Artificial transmutation Then she asked them Whether Art could produce Iron Tin Lead or Silver They answered not in their opinion Then I perceive replied the Emperess that your judgments are very irregular since you believe that Gold which is so fixt a metal that nothing has been found as yet which could occasion a dissolution of its interior figure may be made by Art and not Tin Lead Iron Copper or Silver which yet are so far weaker and meaner metals then Gold is But the Worm-men excused themselves that they were ignorant in that Art and that such questions belonged more properly to the Ape-men which were Her Majesties Chymists Then the Emperess asked them Whether by their sensitive perceptions they could observe the interior corporeal figurative motions both of Vegetables and Minerals They answer'd That their senses could perceive them after they were produced but not before Nevertheless said they although the interior figurative motions of natural Creatures are not subject to the exterior animal sensitive perceptions yet by their rational perception they may judg of them and of their productions if they be regular Whereupon the Emperess commanded the Bear-men to lend them some of their best Microscopes at which the Bear-men smilingly answered her Majesty that their Glasses would do them but little service in the bowels of the Earth because there was no light for said they our Glasses do onely represent exterior objects according to the various reflections and positions of light and wheresoever light is wanting the glasses wil do no good To which the Worm-men replied that although they could not say much of refractions reflections inflections and the like yet were they not blind even in the bowels of the Earth for they could see the several sorts of Minerals as also minute Animals that lived there which minute animal Creatures were not blind neither but had some kind of sensitive perception that was as serviceable to them as sight taste smell touch hearing c. was to other animal Creatures By which it is evident That Nature has been as bountiful to those Creatures that live under ground or in the bowels of the Earth as to those that live upon the surface of the Earth or in the Air or in Water But howsoever proceeded the Worm-men although there is light in the bowels of the Earth yet your Microscopes will do but little good there by reason those Creatures that live under ground have not such an optick sense as those that live on the surface of the Earth wherefore unless you had such glasses as are proper for their perception your Microscopes will not be any ways advantagious to them The Emperess seem'd well pleased with this answer of the Worm-men and asked them further whether Minerals and all other Creatures within the Earth were colourless At which question they could not forbear laughing and when the Emperess asked the reason why they laught We most humbly beg your Majesties pardon replied they for we could not chuse but laugh when we heard of a colourless body Why said the Emperess colour is onely an accident which is an immaterial thing and has no being of it self but in an other body Those replied they that informed your Majesty thus surely their rational motions were very irregular For how is it possible that a natural nothing can have a being in Nature If it be no substance it cannot have a being and if no being it is nothing Wherefore the distinction between subsisting of it self and subsisting in another body is a meer nicety and non-sense for there is nothing in Nature that can subsist of or by it self I mean singly by reason all parts of Nature are composed in one body and though they may be infinitely divided commixed and changed in their particulars yet in general parts cannot be separated from parts as long as Nature lasts nay we might as probably affirm that Infinite Nature would be as soon destroyed as that one Atome could perish and therefore your Majesty may firmly believe that there is no body without colour nor no colour without body for colour figure place magnitude and body are all but one thing without any separation or abstraction from each other The Emperess was so wonderfully taken with this discourse of the Worm-men that she not onely pardoned the rudeness they committed in laughing at first at her question but yielded a full assent to their opinion which she thought the most rational that ever she had heard yet and then proceeding in her questions enquired further whether they had observed any seminal principles within the Earth free from all dimensions and qualities which produced Vegetables Minerals and the like To which they answered That concerning the seeds of Minerals their sensitive perceptions had never observed any but Vegetables had certain seeds out of which they were produced Then she asked whether those seeds of Vegetables lost their species that is were annihilated in the production of their off-spring To which they
counting for numbers are onely marks of remembrance But what do you think of the number of Four said she which Cabbalists make such ado withal and of the number of Ten when they say that Ten is all and that all numbers are virtually comprehended in four We think answered they that Cabbalists have nothing else to do but to trouble their heads with such useless fancies for naturally there is no such thing as prime or all in numbers nor is there any other mystery in numbers but what man's fancy makes but what men call Prime or All we do not know because they do not agree in the number of their opinion Then the Emperess asked whether the number of six was a symbole of Matrimony as being made up of Male and Female for two into three is six If any number can be a symbole of Matrimony answered the Spirits it is not Six but Two if two may be allowed to be a number for the act of Matrimony is made up of two joined in one She asked again what they said to the number of Seven whether it was not an Embleme of God because Cabbalists say that it is neither begotten nor begets any other number There can be no Embleme of God answered the Spirits for if we do not know what God is how can we make an Embleme of him Nor is there any number in God for God is the perfection himself but numbers are imperfect and as for the begetting of numbers it is done by Multiplication and Addition but Substraction is as a kind of death to numbers If there be no mystery in numbers replied the Emperess then it is in vain to refer the Creation of the World to certain numbers as Cabbalists do The onely mystery of numbers answered they concerning the Creation of the World is that as numbers do multiply so does the world The Emperess asked how far numbers did multiply The Spirits answered to Infinite Why said she Infinite cannot be reckoned nor numbred No more answered they can the parts of the Universe for God's Creation being an Infinite action as proceeding from an Infinite Power could not rest upon a finite number of Creatures were it never so great But leaving the mystery of numbers proceeded the Emperess Let me now desire you to inform me whether the Suns and Planets were generated by the Heavens or AEthereal Matter The Spirits answered That the Stars and Planets were of the same matter which the Heavens the AEther and all other natural Creatures did consist of but whether they were generated by the Heavens or AEther they could not tell if they be said they they are not like their Parents for the Sun Stars and Planets are more splendorous then the AEther as also more solid and constant in their motions But put the case the Stars and Planets were generated by the Heavens and the AEthereal Matter the question then would be out of what these are generated or produced if these be created out of nothing and not generated out of something then it is probable the Sun Stars and Planets are so too nay it is more probable of the Stars and Planets then of the Heavens or the fluid AEther by reason the Stars and Planets seem to be further off from mortality then the particular parts of the AEther for no doubt but the parts of the AEthereal Matter alter into several forms which we do not perceive of the Stars and Planets The Emperess asked further whether they could give her information of the three principles of Man according to the doctrine of the Platonists as first of the Intellect Spirit or Divine Light 2. Of the Soul of Man her self and 3. Of the Image of the Soul that is her vital operation on the body The Spirits answered that they did not understand these three distinctions but that they seem'd to corporeal sense and reason as if they were three several bodies or three several corporeal actions however said they they are intricate conceptions of irregular fancies If you do not understand them replied the Emperess hovv shall humane Creatures do then Many both of your modern and ancient Philosophers answered the Spirits endeavour to go beyond sense and reason vvhich makes them commit absurdities for no corporeal Creature can go beyond sense and reason no not we Spirits as long as vve are in our corporeal Vehicles Then the Emperess asked them vvhether there vvere any Atheists in the World The Spirits answered that there vvere no more Atheists then vvhat Cabbalists make She asked them further Whether Spirits vvere of a globous or round Figure They ansvvered That Figure belonged to body but they being immaterial had no figure She asked again Whether Spirits were not like Water or Fire They answered that Water and Fire was material were it the purest and most refined that ever could be nay were it above the Heavens But we are no more like Water or Fire said they then we are like Earth but our Vehicles are of several forms figures and degrees of substances Then she desired to know whether their Vehicles were made of Air Yes answered the Spirits some of our Vehicles are of thin Air. Then I suppose replied the Emperess That those airy Vehicles are your corporeal summersuits She asked further whether the Spirits had not ascending and descending motions as well as other Creatures They answered That properly there was no ascension or descension in Infinite Nature but onely in relation to particular parts and as for us Spirits said they we can neither ascend nor descend without corporeal Vehicles nor can our Vehicles ascend or descend but according to their several shapes and figures for there can be no motion without body The Emperess asked them further whether there was not a World of Spirits as well as there is of material Creatures No answered they for the word World implies a quantity or multitude of corporeal Creatures but we being Immaterial can make no world of Spirits Then she desired to be informed when Spirits were made We do not know answered they how and when we were made nor are we much inquisitive after it nay if we did it would be no benefit neither for us nor for you mortals to know it The Emperess replied That Cabbalists and Divine Philosophers said mens rational Souls were Immaterial and stood as much in need of corporeal Vehicles as Spirits did If this be so answered the Spirits then you are Hermaphrodites of Nature but your Cabbalists are mistaken for they take the purest and subtillest parts of Matter for Immaterial Spirits Then the Emperess asked when the souls of Mortals went out of their bodies whether they went to Heaven or Hell or whether they remained in airy Vehicles God's Justice and Mercy answered they is perfect and not imperfect but if you mortals will have Vehicles for your Souls and a place that is between Heaven and Hell it must be Purgatory which is a place of Purification for which action Fire is more
came to a fight they would moulder into dust and ashes and so leave the purer Immaterial Spirits naked nay were it also possible that those dead bodies could be preserved from stinking and dissolving yet the souls of such bodies would not suffer Immaterial Spirits to rule and order them but they would enter and govern them themselves as being the right owners thereof which would produce a War between those Immaterial Souls and the Immaterial Spirits in Material Bodies all which would hinder them from doing any service in the actions of War against the Enemies of my Native Countrey You speak Reason said the Emperor and I wish with all my Soul I could advise any manner or way that you might be able to assist it but you having told me of your dear Platonick Friend the Duchess of Neweastle and of her good and prositable Counsels I would desire you to send for her Soul and conser with her about this business The Emperess was very glad of this motion of the Emperor and immediately sent for the Soul of the said Duchess which in a minute waited on her Majesty Then the Emperess declared to her the grievance and sadness of her mind and how much she was troubled and afflicted at the News brought her by the Immaterial Spirits desiring the Duchess if possible to assist her with the best counsels she could that she might shew the greatness of her love and affection which she bore to her Native Countrey Whereupon the Duchess promised her Majesty to do what lay in her power and since it was a business of great Importance she desired some time to consider of it for said she Great Affairs require deep considerations which the Emperess willingly allowed her And after the Duchess had considered some little time she desired the Emperess to send some of her Syrenes or Mear-Men to see what passages they could find out of the Blazing-World into the World she came from for said she if there be a passage for a Ship to come out of that World into this then certainly there may also a Ship pass thorow the same passage out of this World into that Hereupon the Mear-or Fish-men were sent out who being many in number employ'd all their industry and did swim several ways at last having found out the passage they returned to the Emperess and told her That as their Blazing-World had but one Emperor one Government one Religion and one Language so there was but one Passage into that World which was so little that no Vessel bigger than a Packet-Boat could go thorow neither was that Passage always open but sometimes quite frozen up At which Relation both the Emperess and Duchess seemed somewhat troubled fearing that this would perhaps be an hinderance or obstruction to their Design At last the Duchess desired the Emperess to send for her Ship-wrights and all her Architects which were Giants who being called the Duchess told them how some in her own World had been so ingenious and contrived Ships that could swim under Water and asked whether they could do the like The Gyants answered They had never heard of that Invention nevertheless they would try what might be done by Art and spare no labour or industry to find it out In the mean time while both the Emperess and Duchess were in a serious Counsel after many debates the Duchess desired but a few Ships to transport some of the Bird-Worm-and Bear-men Alas said the Emperess What can such sorts of Men do in the other World especially so few They will be soon destroyed for a Musket will destroy numbers of Birds at one shot The Duchess said I desire your Majesty will have but a little patience and rely upon my advice and you shall not fail to save your own Native Country and in a manner become Mistress of all that World you came from The Emperess who loved the Duchess as her own Soul did so the Gyants returned soon after and told her Majesty that they had found out the Art which the Duchess had mentioned to make such Ships as could swim under Water which the Emperess and Duchess were both very glad at and when the Ships were made ready the Duchess told the Emperess that it was requisite that her Majesty should go her self in body as well as in Soul but I said she can onely wait on your Majesty after a Spiritual manner that is with my Soul Your Soul said the Emperess shall live with my Soul in my Body for I shall onely desire your Counseland Advice Then said the Duchess Your Majesty must command a great number of your Fish-men to wait on your Ships for you know that your Ships are not made for Cannons and therefore are no ways serviceable in War for though by the help of your Engines they can drive on and your Fish-men may by the help of Chains or Ropes draw them which way they will to make them go on or flye back yet not so as to fight And though your Ships be of Gold and cannot be shot thorow but onely bruised and battered yet the Enemy will assault and enter them and take them as Prizes wherefore your Fish-men must do you Service instead of Cannons But how said the Emperess can the Fish-men do me service against an Enemy without Canons and all sorts of Arms That is the reason answered the Duchess that I would have numbers of Fish-men for they shall destroy all your Enemies Ships before they can come near you The Emperess asked in what manner that could be Thus answered the Duchess Your Majesty must send a number of Worm-men to the Burning-Mountains for you have good store of them in the Blazing-World which must get a great quantity of the Fire-stone whose property you know is that it burns so long as it is wet and the Ships in the other World being all made of Wood they may by that means set them all on fire and if you can but destroy their Ships and hinder their Navigation you will be Mistress of all that World by reason most parts thereof cannot live without Navigation Besides said she the Fire-stone will serve you instead of light or torches for you know that the World you are going into is dark at nights especially if there be no Moon-shine or if the Moon be overshadowed by Clouds and not so full of Blazing-Stars as this World is which make as great a light in the absence of the Sun as the Sun doth when it is present for that World hath but little blinking Stars which make more shadows then light and are onely able to draw up Vapours from the Earth but not to rarifie or clarifie them or to convert them into serene air This Advice of the Duchess was very much approved and joyfully embraced by the Emperess who forthwith sent her Worm-men to get a good quantity of the mentioned Fire-Stone She also commanded numbers of Fish-men to wait on her under water and Bird-men to wait
your Majesty I shall endeavour to order your Majesties Theatre to present such Playes as my VVit is capable to make Then the Emperess told the Duchess That she loved a foolish Verse added to a wise Play The Duchess answered That no VVorld in Nature had fitter Creatures for it then the Blazing-VVorld for said she the Lowsemen the Bird-men the Spider-and Fox-men the Ape-men and Satyrs appear in a Verse extraordinary pleasant Hereupon both the Emperor and Emperess intreated the Duchess's Soul to stay so long with them till she had ordered her Theatre and made Playes and Verses fit for them for they onely wanted that sort of Recreation but the Duchess's Soul begg'd their Majesties to give her leave to go into her Native VVorld for she long'd to be with her dear Lord and Husband promising that after a short time she would return again VVhich being granted though with much difficulty she took her leave with all Civility and respect and so departed from their Majesties After the Duchess's return into her own body she entertained her Lord when he was pleased to hear such kind of Discourses with Forreign Relations but he was never displeased to hear of the Emperess's kind Commendations and of the Characters she was pleased to give of him to the Emperor Amongst other Relations she told him all what had past between the Emperess and the several Monarchs of that World whither she went with the Emperess and how she had subdued them to pay Tribute and Homage to the Monarch of that Nation or Kingdom to which she owed both her Birth and Education She also related to her Lord what Magnificent Stables and Riding-Houses the Emperor had built and what fine Horses were in the Blazing-World of several shapes and sizes and how exact their shapes were in each sort and of many various Colours and fine Marks as if they had been painted by Art with such Coats or Skins that they had a far greater gloss and smoothness than Satin and were there but a passage out of the Blazing-World into this said she you should not onely have some of those Horses but such Materials as the Emperor has to build your Stables and Riding-houses withall and so much Gold that I should never repine at your Noble and Generous Gifts The Duke smilingly answered her That he was sorry there was no Passage between those two Worlds but said he I have alwayes found an Obstruction to my Good Fortunes One time the Duchess chanced to discourse with some of her acquaintance of the Emperess of the Blazing-world who asked her what Pastimes and Recreations Her Majesty did most delight in The Duchess answered that she spent most of her time in the study of Natural Causes and Effects which washer chief delight and pastime and that she loved to discourse sometimes with the most Learned persons of that World and to please the Emperor and his Nobles who were all of the Royal Race she went often abroad to take the air but seldom in the day time always at Night if it might be called Night for said she the Nights there are as light as Days by reason of the numerous Blazing-stars which are very splendorcus onely their Light is whiter then the Sun 's Light and as the Suns Light is hot so their Light is cool not so cool as our twinkling Star-light nor is their Sun-light so hot as ours but more temperate And that part of the Blazing-world where the Emperess resides is always clear and never subject to any Storms Tempests Fogs or Mists but has onely refreshing Dews that nourish the Earth the Air of it is sweet and temperate and as I said before as much light in the Suns absence as in its presence which makes that time we call Night more pleasant there then the Day and sometimes the Emperess goes abroad by Water in Barges sometimes by Land in Chariots and sometimes on Horseback her Royal Chariots are very Glorious the body is one intire green Diamond the four small Pillars that bear up the Top-cover are four white Diamonds cut in the form thereof the top or roof of the Chariot is one intire blew Diamond and at the four corners are great springs of Rubies the seat is made of Cloth of Gold stuffed with Amber-greece beaten small the Chariot is drawn by Twelve Unicorns whose Trappings are all Chains of Pearl And as for her Barges they are onely of Gold Her Guard for State for she needs none for security there being no Rebels or Enemies consists of Gyants but they seldom wait on their Majesties abroad because their extraordinary height and bigness does hinder their prospect Her Entertainment when she is upon the Water is the Musick of the Fish-and Bird-men and by Land are Horseand Foot-matches for the Emperess takes much delight in making Race-matches with the Emperor and the Nobility some Races are between the Fox and Ape-men which sometimes the Satyrs strive to out-run and some are between the Spider-men and Lice-men Also there are several Flight-matches between the several sorts of Bird-men and the several sorts of Hy-men and Swimming-matches between the several sorts of Fish-men The Emperor Emperess and their Nobles take also great delight to have Collations for in the Blazing-world there are most delicious Fruits of all sorts and some such as in this World were never seen nor tasted for there are most tempting sorts of Fruit After their Collations are ended they Dance and if they be upon the Water they dance upon the Water there lying so many Fish-men close and thick together as they can dance very evenly and easily upon their backs and need not fear drowing Their Musick both Vocal and Instrumental is according to their several places Upon the Water it is of Water Instruments as shells filled with Water and so moved by Art which is a very sweet and delightful harmony and those Dances which they dance upon the Water are for the most part such as we in this World call Swimming Dances where they do not lift up their feet high In Lawns or upon Plains they have VVind-Instruments but much better then those in our World And when they dance in the VVoods they have Horn-Instruments which although they are a sort of VVind-Instruments yet they are of another Fashion then the former In their Houses they have such Instruments as are somewhat like our Viols Violins Theorboes Lutes Citherins Gittars Harpsichords and the like but yet so far beyond them that the difference cannot well be exprest and as their places of Dancing and their Musick is different so is their manner or way of Dancing In these and the like Recreations the Emperor Emperess and their Nobility pass their time THE EPILOGUE TO THE READER BY this Poetical Description you may perceive that my ambition is not onely to be Emperess but Authoress of a whole World and that the Worlds I have made both the Blazing and the other Philosophical World mentioned in the latter part of this Description are framed and composed of the most pure that is the rationalparts of Matter which are the parts of my Mind which Creation was more easily and suddenly effected then the Conquests of the two famous Monarchs of the World Alexander and Caesar Neither have I made such disturbances and caused so many dissolutions of particulars otherwise named deaths as they did for I have destroyed but some few men in a little Boat which died through the extremity of cold and that by the hand of Justice which was necessitated to punish their crime of stealing away a young and beauteous Lady And in the formation of those Worlds I take more delight and glory then ever Alexander or Caesar did in conquering this terrestrial world and though I have made my Blazing-world a Peaceable World allowing it but one Religion one Language and one Government yet could I make another World as full of Factions Divisions and Wars as this is of Peace and Tranquility and the rational figures of my Mind might express as much courage to fight as Hector and Achilles had and be as wise as Nestor as Eloquent as Ulysses md as beautiful as Helen But I esteeming Peace before War Wit before Policy Honesty before Beauty instead of the figures of Alexander Caesar Hector Achilles Nestor Ulysses Helen c. chose rather the figure of Honest Margaret Newcastle which now I would not change for all this terrestrivl World and if any should like the World I have made and be willing to be my Subjects they may imagine themselves such and they are such I mean in their Minds Fancies or Imaginations but if they cannot endure to be subjects they may create Worlds of their own and Govern themselves as they please But yet let them have a care not to prove unjust Vsurpers and to rob me of mine for concerning the Philosophical World I am Emperess of it my self and as for the Blazing world it having an Emperess already who rules it with great wisdom and conduct which Emperess is my dear Platonick Friend I shall never prove so unjust treacherous and unworthy to her as to disturb her Government much less to depose her from her Imperial Throne for the sake of any other but rather chuse to create another World for another Friend t I. c. 2. 6. C. 3. pag. 8. C. 4. pag. 15 C. 5. Pag. 16. Chap. 15. pag. 44. C. 16. pa. 47. Cap. 20. Pag. 63. Cap. 21. Pag. 76. Cap. 24. Pag. 83. Cap. 25. Pag. 93. Cap. 27. Pag. 100. Cap. 29. Pag. 126. Cap. 31. Pag. 136. Ibid. P. 140. Cap. 31. Pag. 138 Cap. 37. Pag. 212. Cap. 9. p. 33. Cap. 15. p. 49 a Glass-tubes b Atomes c Exterior figures Sect. 4. Let. 2 * Part 1. c. 20. Of Colours p. 63. * N. 5. Of Pores * Preface Poem Impres 2. p. 52. P. 53. * Sect. 4. Let. 33. p. 529. * Phil. Opin part 1. c. 24. * Part. 1. c. 3. * Part. 1. c. 4 9 11. * Sect. 4 Let. 33. p. 530. * Part 1. c. 13. * Phil. Opin part 2. c. 2. * Part. 2. c. 9. * Part. 1. c. 6. Phil. Opin part 1. c. 9. * Phil. Let. Sect. 1. Let. 5. p. 23. * Phil. Let. Sect. 1. 1. 12. Phil. Opin p. 2. c. 6. Phil. Opin part 2. c. 3. * Phil. Opin part 3. c. 19. Sect. 1. Let. 10. 12.
as fire is beyond smoak which cannot be but dangerous and unfit to be used except it be to encounter opposite extreams By extreams I mean not the extreams of Nature but the height of a distemper when it is grown so far that it is upon point of destroying or dissolving a particular animal figure for Nature being infinite has no extreams neither in her substance nor actions for she has nothing that is opposite to Matter neither is there any such thing as most or least in Nature she being infinite and all her actions are ballanced by their opposites as for example there is no dilation but hath opposite to it contraction no condensation but has its opposite viz. rarefaction no composition but hath its opposite division no gravity without levity no grossness without purity no animate without inanimate no regularity without irregularity All which produces a peaceable orderly and wise Government in Natures Kingdom which wise Artists ought to imitate But you may say How is it possible That there can be a peaceable and orderly Government where there are so many contrary or opposite actions for contraries make war not peace I answer Although the actions of Nature are opposite yet Nature in her own substance is at peace because she is one and the same that is one material body and has nothing without her self to oppose and cross her neither is she subject to a general change so as to alter her own substance from being Matter for she is Infinite and Eternal but because she is self-moving and full of variety of figures this variety cannot be produced without variety of actions no not without opposition which opposition is the cause that there can be no extreams in particulars for it ballances each action so that it cannot run into infinite which otherwise would breed a horrid confusion in Nature And thus much of Principles Concerning the particulars of Chymical preparations I being not versed in that Art am not able to give my judgment thereof neither do I understand their terms and expressions as first what Chymists mean by Fixation for there 's nothing in Nature that can properly be called fixt because Nature and all her parts are perpetually self-moving onely Nature cannot be altered from being material nor from being dependant upon God Neither do I apprehend what some mean by the unlocking of bodies unless they understand by it a separation of natural parts proper for artificial uses neither can natural effects be separated by others any otherwise but occasionally so that some parts may be an occasion of such or such alterations in other parts But I must say this that according to humane sense and reason there is no part or particle in Nature which is not alterable by reason Nature is in a perpetual motion and full of variety 'T is true some bodies as Gold and Mercury seem to be unalterable from their particular natures but this onely appears thus to our senses because their parts are more fixt and retentive then others and no Art has been found out as yet which could alter ther proper and particular figures that is untie and dissolve or rather cause an alteration of their corporeal retentive motions that bind them into so fixt and consistent a body but all that is mixt with them has hitherto been found too weak for the alteration of ther inherent motions Nevertheless this doth not prove that they are not altogether unalterable for though Art cannot do it yet Nature may but it is an argument that they are not composed of straying Atomes or most minute particles for not to mention what I have often repeated before that there cannot be such most minute bodies in Nature by reason Nature knows of no extreams it is altogether improbable nay impossible that wandering corpuscles should be the cause of such fixt effects and by their association constitute such indissoluble masses or clusters as some do conceive which they call primary concretions for there is no such thing as a primary concretion or composition in Nature onely there are several sorts and degrees of motions and several sorts of compositions and as no particular creature can know the strength of motion so neither can it know the degrees of strength in particular natural bodies Wherefore although composition and division of parts are general motions and some figures may be more composed then others that is consist of more or fewer parts then others yet there is none that hath not a composition of parts The truth is there is nothing prime or principal amongst the effects of Nature but onely the cause from which they are produced which is self-moving Matter which is above particular effects yet Nature may have more ways then our particular reason can apprehend and therefore it is not to be admired that Camphor and the like bodies do yield differing effects according to the different occasions that make them move thus or thus for though changes and alterations of particulars may be occasioned by others yet they move by their own corporeal figurative motions as it is evident by the power of fire which makes other bodies move or change their parts and figures not by its own transforming motion but onely by giving an occasion to the inherent figurative motions of those bodies which by imitating the motions of fire change into such or such figures by their own proper innate and inherent motions otherwise if the alteration of combustible bodies proceeded from fire they would all have the like motions which is contradicted by experience I will not deny but there is as much variety in occasioning as there is in acting for the imitation is according to the object but the object is not the immediate agent but onely an occasional efficient so that according to my opinion there is no such difference as the learned make between Patient and Agent when they call the exterior occasional cause as for example Fire the Agent and the combustible body the Patient for they conceive that a body thrown into fire acts nothing at all but onely in a passive way suffers the fire to act upon it according to the degree of its own to wit the fires strength which sense and reason perceives otherwise for to pass by what I mentioned before that those bodies on which they suppose fire doth work change according not to the fires but their own inherent figurative motions it is most certain that if Nature and all her parts be self-moving which regular reason cannot deny and if Self-motion be corporeal then every part of Nature must of necessity move by its own motion for no body can impart motion to another body without imparting substance also and though particular motions in particular bodies may change infinite ways yet they cannot quit those bodies so as to leave them void and destitute of all motion because Matter and Motion are but one thing and therefore though fire be commixed with the parts of the fuel yet