this diuision of the Elements but because they and theire solutions are to be found in euery ordinary Philosopher and that they be not of any greate difficulty and that the handling them is too particular for the designe of this discourse and would make it too prolixe I referre the Reader to seeke them for his satisfaction it those authors that treate physickes professedly and haue deliuered a compleate body of Philosophy And I will end this Chapter with aduertising him least I should be misvnderstood that though my disquisition here hath pitched vpon the foure bodies of fire ayre water and earth yet it is not my intention to affirme that those which wee ordinarily call so and do fall dayly within our vse are such as I haue here expressed them or that these Philosophicall ones which arise purely out of the combination of the first qualities haue theire residence or consistence in great bulkes in any places of the world be they neuer fo remote as fire in the hollow of the moones orbe water in the bottome of the sea ayre aboue the cloudes and earth below the mines But these notions are onely to serue for certaine Idaeas of Elements by which the foure named bodies and the compoundes of them may be tryed and receiue theire doome of more or lesse pure and approaching to the nature from whence they haue theire denomination And yet I will not deny but that such perfect Elements may be found in some very litle quantities in mixed bodies and the greatest aboundance of them in these foure knowne bodies that we call in ordinary practise by the names of the pure ones for they are least compounded and approach most to the simplenesse of the Elements But to determine absolutely theire existence or not existence eyther in bulke or in litle partes dependeth of the manner of action among bodies which as yet we haue not meddled with THE FIFTH CHAPTER Of the Operations of the Elements in generall And of their Actiuities compared with one another HAVING by our former discourse inquired out what degrees and proportions of rarity and density compounded with grauity are necessary for the production of the Elements and first qualities whose combinations frame the Elements our next consideration in that orderly progresse we haue proposed vnto our selues in this treatise wherein our ayme is to follow successiuely the steppes which nature hath printed out vnto vs will be to examine the operations of the Elements by which they worke vpon one an other To which end lett vs propose to our selues a rare and a dense body encountring one an other by the impulse of some exterior agent In this case it is euident that since rarity implyeth a greater proportion of Quantity and quantity is nothing but diuisibility rare bodies must needes be more diuisible then dense ones and consequently when two such bodies are pressed one against an other the rare body not being able to resist diuision so strongly as the dense one is and being not permitted to retire backe by reason of the externe violence impelling it against the dense body it followeth that the partes of the rare body must be seuered to lett the dense one come betweene them and so the rare body becometh diuided and the dense body the diuider And by this we see that the notions of diuider and diuisible do immediately follow rare and dense bodies and do so much the more properly agree vnto them as they exceede in the qualities of Rarity and Density Likewise we are to obserue in our case that the dense or diuiding body must necessarily cutt and enter further and further into the rare or diuided body and so the sides of it be ioyned successiuely to new and new partes of the rare body that giueth way vnto it and forsake others it parteth from Now the rare body being in a determinate situation of the vniuerse which we call being in a place and is a necessary condition belonging to all particular bodies and the dense body coming to be within the rare body whereas formerly it was not so it followeth that it looseth the place it had and gaineth an other This effect is that which we call locall motion And thus we see by explicating the manner of this action that locall motion is nothing else but the change of that respect or relation which the body mooued hath to the rest of the vniuerse following out of Diuision and the name of locall motion formally signifyeth onely the mutation of a respect to other extrinsecall bodies subsequent to that diuision And this is so euident and agreeable to the notions that all mankinde who as we haue said is iudge and master of language naturally frameth of place as I wonder much why any will labour to giue other artificiall and intricate doctrine of this that in it selfe is so plaine and cleare What neede is there to introduce an imaginary space or with Ioannes Grammaticus a subsistent quantity that must runne through all the world and then entayle to euery body an ayery entity an vnconceiuable moode an vnintelligible Vbi that by an intrinsecall relation to such a part of the imaginary space must thereunto pinne and fasten the body it is in It must needes be a ruinous Philosophy that is grounded vpon such a contradiction as is the allotting of partes vnto that which the authors themselues vpon the matter acknowledge to be meerely nothing and vpon so weake a shift to deliuer them from the inconueniencies that in theire course of doctrine other circumstances bring them vnto as is the voluntary creating of new imaginary Entities in thinges without any ground in nature for them Learned men should expresse the aduantage and subtility of theire wittes by penetrating further into nature then the vulgar not by vexing and wresting it from its owne course They should refine and carry higher not contradict and destroy the notions of mankind in those thinges that it is the competent Iudge of as it vndoubtedly is of those primary notions which Aristotle hath ranked vnder ten heades which as we haue touched before euery body can conceiue in grosse and the worke of schollers is to explicate them in particular and not to make the vulgar beleeue they are mistaken in framing those apprehensions that nature taught them Out of that which hath been hitherto resolued it is manifest that place really and abstracting from the operation of the vnderstanding is nothing else but the inward superficies of a body that compasseth and immediately containeth an other Which ordinarily being of a rare body that doth not shew it selfe vnto vs namely the ayre is for the most part vnknowne by vs. But because nothing can make impression vpon our mind and cause vs to giue it a name otherwise then by being knowne therefore our vnderstanding to make a compleate notion must adde something else to this fleeting and vnremarkable superficies that may bring it vnto our acquaintance And for this end we may
other can be imagined vnlesse it were variety of figure But that can not be admitted to belong in any constant manner to those least particles where of bodies are framed as though determinate figures were in euery degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therefore the Elements would conserue themselues in those figures as well in their least atomes as in massye bulke for seeing how these litle partes are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily ioyne and take the figures which the dense ones giue them and that they againe iustling one an other do crush themselues into new shapes which their mixture with the liquide ones maketh them yield the more easily vnto it is impossible that the Elements should haue any other naturall figure in these their least partes then such as chance giueth them But that one part must be bigger then an other is euident for the nature of rarity and density giueth it the first of them causing diuisibility into litle partes and the latter hindering it Hauing then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies lett vs now beginne our mixture In which our ground to worke vpon must be earth and water for onely these two are the basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and that submitt themselues to tryall whereas if we should make the predominant Element to be ayre or fire and bring in the other two solide ones vnder their iurisdiction to make vp the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be eyther in continuall consumption as ordinary fire is or else imperceptible to our eyes or touch and therefore not a fitt subiect for vs to discourse of since the other two afford vs enough to speculate vpon Peraduenture our smell migh take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it selfe vpon our health but it concerneth not vs now to look so farre our designe requireth more maniable substances Of which lett water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three Elements in excesse ouer one an other by turnes but still all of them ouerswayed by a predominant quantity of water and then lett vs see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth preuayle aboue fire and ayre and arriue next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needes prooue hardly liquide and not easy to lett its partes runne a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holdeth it together Yet some inclination it will haue to fluidnesse by reason the water is predominant ouer all which also will make it be easily diuisible and giue very litle resistance to any hard thing that shall be applyed to make way through it In a word this mixture maketh the constitution of mudde durt honey butter and such like thinges where the maine partes are great ones And such are the partes of earth and water in themselues Lett the next proportion of excesse in a watry compound be of ayre which when it preuayleth it incorporateth it selfe chiefely with Earth for the other Elements would not so well retaine it Now because its partes are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it driueth the Earth and water likewise into lesser partes The result of such a mixture is that the partes of a boby compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibbe and generally it will burne and be easily conuerted into flame Of this kind are those which we call oyly or vnctuous bodies whose great partes are easily separated that is they are easily diuisible in bulke but the small ones very hardly Next the smallnesse and well working of the partes by meanes of the ayres penetrating euery dense one and sticking close to euery one of them and consequently ioyning them without any vneuennesse causeth that there can be no ruggednesse in it and therefore it is glibbe in like manner as we see plaster or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causeth it to be catcking and the shortenesse of euery part maketh that where it sticketh it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of ayre next vnto fire admitteth it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire vpon it And therefore oyles are the proper foode of that Element And accordingly we see that if a droppe of oyle be spilled vpon a sheete of paper and the paper be sett on fire att a corner as the fire cometh neere the oyle the oyle will disperse and spread it selfe vpon the paper to a broader compasse then it had which is because the heat rarifyeth it and so in oyle it selfe the fire rarifying the ayre maketh it penetrate the earthy partes adioyned vnto it more then it did and so subtiliseth them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate his owne nature vnto them and thus he turneth them into fire and carrieth them vp in his flame But if fire be predominant ouer earth and ayre in a watry compound it maketh the body so proportioned to be subtile rare penetratiue hoat in operation light in weight and subiect to burne Of this kind are all sortes of wines and distilled spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquauites in latine Aquae ardentes These will loose their vertues meerely by remaining vncouered in the ayre for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find meanes rayseth it selfe into the ayre as we see in the smoake of boyling water which is nothing else but litle bodies of fire that entring into the water do rarify some partes of it but haue no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can gett out they fly away but the humide partes of the water which they haue rarifyed being of a sticking nature do ioyne themselues vnto them and ascend in the ayre as high as the fiery atomes haue strength to carry them which when it faileth them that smoake falleth downe in a dew and so becometh water againe as it was All which one may easily discerne in a glasse vessell of water sett ouer the fire in which one may obserue the fire come in att the bottome and presently swimme vp to the toppe like a litle bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoake and that will att last conuert it selfe into droppes and settle vpon some solide substance thereabouts Of these fyry spirits some are so subtile as of themselues they will vanish and leaue no residue of a body behind them and Alchymistes profâ—sse to make them so etheriall and volatile that being poured out of a glasse from some reasonable height they shall neuer reach the ground but
that before they come thither they will be so rarifyed by that litle motion as they shall grow inuisible like the ayre and dispersing themselues all about in it they will fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seene The last excesse in watry bodies must be of water it selfe which is when so litle a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible out of this composition do arise all those seuerall sortes of iuices or liquors which we commonly call waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements haue peculiar properties beyond simple Elementall water The generall qualities whereof we shall not neede any further to expresse because by what we haue already said of water in common they are sufficiently knowne In our next suruay we will take earth for our ground to worke vpon as hitherto we haue done water which if in any body it be in the vtmost excesse of it beyond all the other three then rockes and stones will grow out of it whose dryenesse ad hardnesse may assure vs that Earth swayeth in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightnesse in respect of some other Earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceedeth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of pores wherewith their dryenesse causeth them to abound and hindereth not but that their reall solide partes may be very heauy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceede the fire and ayre but still inferior to the earth we shall produce mettalls whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainely telleth vs that the smallest of waters grosse partes are the glew that holdeth the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easye changing of partes being most proper to water Quickesiluer that is the generall matter whereof all the mettalls are immediately coÌ„posed giueth vs euidence hereof for fire worketh vpon it with the same effect as vpon water And the calcination of most of the mettalls proueth that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therefore must be rather of a watry then of an ayry substance Likewise the glibbenesse of Mercury and of melted mettalls without catching or sticking to other substances giueth vs to vnderstand that this great temper of a moyst Element with Earth is water and not ayre and that the watry partes are comprised and as it were shutt vp within the earthy ones for ayre catcheth and sticketh notably to all thinges it toucheth and will not be imprisoned the diuisibity of it being exceeding great though in neuer so short partes Now if ayre mingleth it selfe with earth and be predominant ouer water and fire it maketh such an oyly and fatt soile as husbandmen account their best mould which receiuing a betterment from the sunne and temperate heat assureth vs of the concurse of the ayre for wheresoeuer suâ—h heate is ayre can not faile of accompanying it or of being effected by it and the richest of such earth as port earth and marle will with much fire grow more compacted and sticke closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pottes or fine brickes Whereas if water were the glew betweene the dense partes fire would consume it and crumble them a sunder as it doth in those bodies it calcineth And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirmeth that ayre aboundeth in them for it is the nature of ayre to sticke so close where once it is kneaded in as it can not be seperated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscous holding together of the partes of glasse when it is melted sheweth euidently that ayre aboundeth in vitrifyed bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an ouerruling proportion ouer ayre and water And this I conceiue produceth those substances which we may terme coagulated iuices and which the latines do call Succi concreti whos 's first origine seemeth to haue beene liquors that haue beene afterwardes dryed by the force eyther of heate or of cold Of this nature are all kind of saltes niters sulfurs and diuers sortes of bitumens All which easily bewray the relikes an deffects of fire left in them some more some lesse according to their degrees And thus we haue in generall deduced from their causes the complexions of those bodies whereof the bulke of the world subiected to our vse consisteth and which serue for the production and nourishment of liuing creatures both animall and vegetable Not so exactly I confesse nor so particularly as the matter in it selfe or as a treatise confined to that subiect would require yet sufficiently for our intent In the performance whereof if more accurate searchers of nature shall find that we haue peraduenture beene mistaken in the minute deliuering of some particular bodies complexion their very correction I dare boldly say will iustify our principall scope which is to shew that all the great variety we see among bodies ariseth out of the coÌ„mixtion of the first qualities and of the Elements for they will not be able to correct vs vpon any other groundes then those we haue layed As may easily be perceiued if we cast a summary view vpon the qualities of composed bodies All which we shall find to spring out of rarity and density and to sauour of their origine for the most manifest qualities of bodies may be reduced to certaine paires opposite to one an other As namely some are liquide and flowing others are consistent some are soft others hard some are fatty viscous and smooth others leane gritty and rough some grosse othert subtile some tough others brittle and the like Of which the liquide the soft the fatt and the viscous are so manifestly deriued from rarity that we neede not take any further paines to trace out their origine and the like is of their contraries from the contrary cause to witt of those bodies that are consistent hard leane and gritty all which do euidently spring from density As for smoothnesse we haue already shewed how that proceedeth from an ayry or oyly nature and by consequence from a certaine degree of rarity And therefore roughnesse the contrary of it must proceede from a proportionable degree of density Toughnesse is also a kind of ductility which we haue reduced to watrynesse that is to an other degree of rarity and consequently brittlenesse must arise from the contrary degree of density Lastly grossenesse and subtilenesse do consist in a difficulty or facility to be diuided into small partes which appeareth to be nothing else but a certaine determination of rarity and density And thus we see how the seuerall complexions of bodies are reduced to the foure Elements that compound them and the qualities of those bodies to the two primary differencies of
phlegmes and earth Now these are not pure and simple partes of the dissolued body but new coÌ„pounded bodies made of the first by the operation of heat As smoake is not pure water but water and fire together and therefore becometh not water but by cooling that is by the fire flying away from it So likewise those spirits salts oyles and the rest are but degrees of thinges which fire maketh of diuers partes of the dissolued body by seperating them one from an other and incorporating it selfe with them And so they are all of them compounded of the foure Elements and are further resoluable into them Yet I intend not to say that there are not originally in the body before its dissolution some loose partes which haue the properties of these bodies that are made by the fire in the dissoluing of it for seeing that nature worketh by the like instruments as art vseth she must needes in her excesses and defects produce like bodies to what art doth in dissolution which operation of art is but a kind of excesse in the progresse of nature but my meaning is that in such dissolution there are more of these partes made by the working of fire then were in the body before Now because this is the naturall and most ordinary dissolution of thinges lett vs see in particular how it is done suppose then that fire were in a conuenient manner applyed to a body that hath all sortes of partes in it and our owne discourse will tell vs that the first effect it worketh will be that as the subtile partes of fire do diuide and passe through that body they will adhere to the most subtile partes in it which being most agile and least bound and incorporated to the bowels of the body and lying as it were loosely scattered in it the fire will carry them away with it Thâ—se will be the first that are seperated from the maine body which being retained in a fitt receiuer will by the coldenesse of the circumdant ayre grow outwardly coole themselues and become first a dew vpon the sides of the glasse and then still as they grow cooler condense more and more till att the length they fall downe congealed into a palpable liquor which is composed as you see of the hoatest partes of the body mingled with the fire that carried them out and therefore this liquor is very inflammable and easily turned into actuall fire as you see all spirits and Aquae ardentes of vegetables are The hoat and loose partes being extracted and the fire continuing and encreasing those that will follow next are such as though they be not of themselues loose yet are easyest to be made so and are therefore most separable These must be humide and those little dry partes which are incorporated with the ouerflowing humide ones in them for no partes that we can arriue vnto are of one pure simple nature but all are mixed and composed of the 4 Elements in some proportion must be held together with such grosse glew as the fire may easily penetrate and separate them And then the humide partes diuided into little atomes do sticke to the lesser ones of the fire which by their multitude of number and velocity of motion supplying what they want of them in bulke do carry them away with them And thus these phlegmaticke partes fly vp with the fire and are afterwardes congealed into an insipide water which if it haue any sauour is because the first ardent spirits are not totally separated from it but some few of them remaine in it and giue some little life to the whole body of that otherwise flatt liquor Now those partes which the fire separateth next from the remaining body after the firy and watry ones are carryed away must be such as it can worke vpon and therefore must abound in humidity But since they stirre not till the watry ones are gone it is euident that they are composed of many dry partes strongly incorporated and very subtilely mixed with the moist ones and that both of them are exceeding small and are so closely and finely knitt together that the fire hath much adoe to gett betweene them and cutt the thriddes that tye them together and therefore they require a very great force of fire to cary them vp Now the composition of these sheweth them to be aeriall and together with the fire that is mingled with them they congeale into that consistence which we call oyle Lastly it can not be otherwise but that the fire in all this while of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiseth hath hardned and as it were rosted some partes into such greatnesse and drynesse as they will not fly nor can be carried vp with any moderate heate But greate quantity of fire being mingled with the subtiler partes of his baked earth maketh them very pungent and acrimonious in tast so that they are of the nature of ordinary salt and are so called and by the helpe of water may easily be separated from the more grosse partes which then remaine a dead and vselesse earth By this discourse it is apparant that fire hath been the instrument which hath wrought all these partes of an entire body into the formes they are in for whiles it carryed away the fiery partes it swelled the watry ones and whiles it lifted vp them it digested the aeriall partes and whiles it droue vp the oyles it baked the earth and salt Againe all these retaining for the most part the proper nature of the substance from whence they are extracted it is euident that the substance is not dissolued for so the nature of the whole would be dissolued and quite destroyed and extinguished in euery part but that onely some partes containing the whole substance or rather the nature of the whole substance in them are separated from other partes that haue likewise the same nature in them The third instrument for the separation and dissolution of bodies is water Whose proper matter to worke vpon is salt And it serueth to supply what the fire could not performe which is the separation of the salt from the earth in calcined bodies All the other partes fire was able to seuer But in these he hath so baked the little humidity he hath left in them with their much earth as he can not diuide them any further And so though he incorporateth him selfe with them yet he can carry nothing away with him If then pure water be putt vpon that chalke the subtilest dry partes of it do easily ioyne to the superuenient moysture and sticking close to it do draw it downe to them but because they are the lighter it happeneth to them as when a man in a boate pulleth the land to him that cometh not to him but he remoueth himselfe and his boate to it so these ascend in the water as they dissolue And the water more and more penetrating them and by addition of its partes making the humidity which
gleweth their earthy partes together greater and greater doth make a wider and wider separation betweene those little earthy partes And so imbueth the whole body of the water with thē into which they are dispersed in little atomes Those that are of biggest bulke remaine lowest in the water And in the same measure as their quantities dissolue into lesse and lesse they ascend higher and higher in the water till att the length the water is fully replenished with them and they are diffused through the whole body of it whiles the more grosse and heauy earthy partes hauing nothing in them to make a present combination betweene them and the water do fall downe to the bottome and settle vnder the water in dust In which because earth alone doth predominate in a very great excesse we can expect no other vertue to be in it but that which is proper to meere earth to witt drynesse and weight Which ordinary Alchymistes looke not after and therefore call it Terra damnata but others find a fixing quality in it by which they performe very admirable operations Now if you powre the impregnated water from the Terra damnata and then euaporate it you will find a pure white substance remaining Which by its bulke sheweth it selfe to be very earthy and by its pricking and corrosiue tast will informe you much fire is in it and by its easy dissolution in a moist place that water had a great share in the production of it And thus the saltes of bodies are made and extracted Now as water doth dissolue salt so by the incorporation and vertue of that corrosiue substance it doth more then salt it selfe can doe for hauing gotten acrimony and more weight by the mixture and dissolution of salt in it it maketh it selfe a way into solide bodies euen into mettals as we see in brasse and iron which are easily rusted by salt dissoluing vpon them And according as the saltes are stronger so this corrosiue vertue encreaseth in them euen so much as neyther syluer nor gold are free from their eating quality But they as well as the rest are diuided into most small partes and are made to swimme in water in such sort as we haue explicated aboue and whereof euery ordinary Alchymist teacheth the practise But this is not all salts do helpe as well to melt hard bodies and mettalls as to corrode them for some fusible salts flowing vpon them by the heate of the fire and others dissolued by the streame of the mettall that incorporateth with them as soone as they are in fluxe they mingle with the naturall iuice of the mettall and penetrate them deeper then without them the fire could doe and swell them and make them fitt to runne These are the principall wayes of the two last instruments in dissoluing of bodies taking each of them by it selfe But there remaineth one more of very great importance as well in the workes of nature as of art in which both the former are ioyned and do concure and that is putrefraction Whose way of working is by gentle heate and moisture to wett and pierce the body it worketh vpon whereby it is made to swell and the hoat partes of it being loosened they are att length druncke vp and drowned in the moist ones from whence by fire they are easily separated as we haue already declared and those moist partes afterwardes leauing it the substance remaineth dry and falleth in pieces for want of the glew that held it together THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities af bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world OVt of what we haue determined concerning the naturall actions of bodies in their making and destroying one an other it is easy to vnderstand the right meaning of some termes and the true reason of some maximes much vsed in the schooles As first when Philosophers attribute vnto all sortes of corporeall Agents a Sphere of Actiuity The sense of that manner of expression in fire appeareth plainely by what we haue already declared of the nature and manner of operation of that Element And in like manner if we consider how the force of cold consisteth in a compression of the body that is made cold we may preceiue that if in the cooled body there be any subtile partes which can breake forth from the rest such compression will make them do so Especially if the compression be of little partes of the compressed body within themselues as well as of the outward bulke of the whole body round about for at first the compression of such causeth in the body where they are little holes or pores in the places they are compressed and driuen from which pores they filled vp when they were dilated att their owne naturall liberty But being thus forcibly shrunke vp into lesse roome afterwardes they squeese againe out of their croude all such very loose and subtile partes residing till then with them as can find their way out from among them And these subtile partes that thus are deliuered from the colds compression gett first into the pores that we haue shewed were made by this compression But they can not long stay there for the atomes of aduenient cold that obsesse the compressed body do likewise with all their force throng into those pores and soone driue out the subtile guestes they find there because they are more in number bigger in bulke and more violent in their course then they Who therefore must yield vnto them the little channels and capacities they formerly tooke vp Out of which they are thrust with such an impetuosity that they spinne from them with a vehemence as quickesiluer doth through leather when to purify it or to bring an Amalgame to a due consistence it is strained through the sides of it Now these shoures or streames of atomes issuing from the compressed body are on all sides round about it att exceeding little distances because the pores out of which they are driuen are so likewise And consequently there they remaine round about besieging it as though they would returne to their originall homes as soone as the vsurping strāgers that were too powerfull for thē will giue thē leaue And according to the multitude of thē and to the force with which they are driuen out the compasse they take vp round about the cōpressed body is greater or lesser Which besieging atomes are not so soone carried away by any exterior and accidentall causes but they are supplyed by new emanations succeeding them out of the said compressed body Now this which we haue declared by the example of cold cōpressing a particular body happeneth in all bodies wheresoeuer they be in the world for this being the vnauoydable effect of heate and of cold wheresoeuer they reside which are the actiue qualities by whose meanes not onely fire and water and the other two Elements but all other mixed bodies composed of the
it findeth within its power to master be they light or heauy or of what contrary natures soeuer it compresseth them as much as it can and draweth them into a lesse compasse and holdeth them strongly together making them sticke fast to one an other Which effect Aristotle tooke for the proper notion of cold and therefore gaue for definition of the nature of it that it gathereth thinges of diuers natures and experience sheweth vs in freesing and all great coolinges that this effect proceedeth from cold But if wee examine which of the two sortes of dense bodies the fluide or the consistent is most efficacious in this operation wee shall find that the lesse dense one is more capable of being applyed round about the body it shall besiege and therefore will stoppe closer euery litle hole of it and will more easily send subtile partes into euery litle veine of it and by consequence shrinke it vp together and coagulate and constringe it more strongly then a body can that is extremely dense which by reason of its great density and the stubbornesse of its partes can not so easily bend and plye them to worke this effect And therefore a body that is moderately dense is colder then an other that is so in excesse seeing that cold is an actiue or working power and that which is lesse dense doth excell in working On the contrary side rare bodies being hoat because theire subtile partes enuironing a compounded body will sinke into the pores of it and to theire power seperate its partes it followeth that those wherein the grauity ouercometh the rarity are lesse hoat then such others as are in the extremity and highest excesse of rarity both because the former are not able to pierce so litle partes of the resisting dense body as extreme rare ones are and likewise because they more easily take plye by the obstacle of the solide ones they meete with then these doe So that out of this discourse wee gather that of such bodies that differ precisely by the proportion of Rarity and Density those which are extremely rare are in the excesse of heate and are dry withall that weighty rare bodies are extremely humide and meanely hoat that fluide dense bodies are moist though not in such excesse as rare ones that are so but are coldest of any and lastly that extreme dense bodies are lesse cold then fluide dense ones and that they are dry But whether the extreme dense bodies be more or lesse dry then such as are extremely rare remaineth yet to be decided Which wee shall easily doe if wee but reflect that it is density which maketh a thing hard to be diuided and that rarity maketh it easie for a facility to yield vnto diuision is nothing else but a plyablenesse in the thing that is to be diuided whereby it easily receiueth the figure which the thing that diuideth it doth cast it into Now this plyablenesse belongeth more to rare then to dense thinges and accordingly wee see fire bend more easily by the concameration of an ouen then a stone can be reduced into due figure by hewing And therefore since drynesse is a quality that maketh those bodies wherein it raigneth to conserue themselues in theire owne figure and limits and to resist the receiuing of any from an other body it is manifest that those are dryest wherein these effects are most seene which is in dense bodies and consequently excesse of drynesse must be allotted vnto them to keepe company with theire moderate coldnesse Thus wee see that the number of Elements assigned by Aristotle is truly and exactly determined by him and that there can be neither more nor lesse of them and that theire qualities are rightly allotted to them which to settle more firmely in our mindes it will not be misse-spent time to summe vp in short the effect of what wee haue hitherto said to bring vs vnto this conclusion First wee shewed that a body is made and constituted a body by quantity Next that the first diuision of bodies is into rare and dense ones as differing onely by hauing more and lesse quantity And lastly that the coniunction of grauity with these two breedeth two other sortes of combinations each of which is also twofold the first sort concerning rarity out of which ariseth one extremely hoat and moderately dry and an other extremely humide and moderately hoat the second sort concerning density out of which is produced one that is extremely cold and moderatly wett and an other extremely dry and moderatly cold And these are the combinations whereby are constituted fire ayre water and earth So that wee haue thus the proper notions of the foure Elements and haue both them and theire qualities driuen vp and resolued into theire most simple principles which are the notions of Quantity and of the two most simple differences of quantatiue thinges Rarity and Density Beyond which mans witt can not penetrate nor can his wishes ayme att more in this particular seeing he hath attained to the knowledge af what they are and of what maketh them be so and that it is impossible they should be otherwise and this by the most simple and first principles which enter into the composition of theire nature Out of which it is euident that these foure bodies are Elements since they can not be resolued into any others by way of physicall composition themselues being constituted by the most simple differences of a body And againe all other bodies whatsoeuer must of necessity be resolued into them for the same reason because no bodies can be exempt from the first differencies of abody Since then wee meane by the name of an Element a body not composed of any former bodies and of which all other bodies are composed wee may rest satisfyed that these are rightly so named But whether euery one of these foure elements do comprehend vnder its name one onely lowest species or many as whether there be one onely species of fire or seuerall and the like of the rest wee intend not here to determine Yet wee note that there is a greate latitude in euery kind seeing that Rarity and Density as wee haue said before are as diuisible as quantity Which latitudes in the bodies wee conuerse withall are so limited that what maketh it selfe and other thinges be seene as being accompanied by light is called fire What admitteth the illuminatiue action of fire and is not seene is called ayre What admitteh the same action and is seene in the ranke of Elements is called water And what through the density of it admitteth not that action but absolutely reflecteth it is called earth And out of all we said of these foure Elements it is manifest there can not be a fifth as is to be seene att large in euery Aristotelian Philosopher that writeth of this matter I am not ignorant that there are sundry obiections vsed to be made both against these notions of the first qualities and against
it be in the streame of a riuer and notwithstanding it will still mooue downewardes we may answere that considering the litle decliuity of the bed of such a streame the strongest motion of the partes of the streame must necessarily be downewardes and consequently they will beate the stone downewardes And if they do not the like to a feather or other light body it is because other partes of the streame do gett vnder the light body and beate it vpwardes which they haue not power enough to do to the stone Sixthly it may be obiected that if Elements do not weigh in their owne spheres then their grauity and descending must proceede from some other cause and not from this percussion of the atomes we attribute it to which percussion we haue determined goeth through all bodies whatsoeuer and beateth vpon euery sensible part of them But that Elements weigh not in their owne spheres appeareth out of the experience of a syphon for though one legge of the syphon be suncke neuer so much deeper into the body of the water then the other legge reacheth below the superficies of the water neuerthelesse if once the outward legge become full of water it will draw it out of the other longer legge which it should not do if the partes of water that are comprised within their whole bulke did weigh seeing that the bulke of water is much greater in the sunke legge then in the other and therefore these should rather draw backe the other water into the cisterne then be themselues drawne out of it into the ayre To this we answere that it is euident the Elements do weigh in their owne spheres att least as farre as we can reach to their spheres for we see that a ballone stuffed hard with ayre is heauyer then an empty one Againe more water would not be heauyer then lesse if the inward partes of it did not weigh and if a hole were digged in the bottome of the sea the water would not runne into it and fill it if it did not grauitate ouer it Lastly there are those who vndertake to distinguish in a deepe water the diuers weights which seuerall partes of it haue as they grow still heauyer and heauyer towardes the bottome and they are so cunning in this art that they professe to make instruments which by their equality of their weight to a determinate part of the water shall stand iust in that part and neyther rise nor fall higher or lower but if it be putt lower it shall ascend to its exact equally weighing orbe of the water and if it be putt higher it shall descend vntill it cometh to rest precisely in that place Whence it is euident that partes of water do weigh within the bulke of their maine body and of the like we haue no reason to doubt in the other two weighty Elements As for the opposition of the syphon we referre that point to where we shall haue occasion to declare the nature of that engine of sett purpose And there we shall shew that it could not succeede in its operation vnlesse the partes of water did grauitate in their maine bulke into which one legge of the syphon is sunke Lastly it may be obiected that if there were such a course of atomes as we say and that their stroakes were the cause of so notable an effect as the grauity of heauy bodies we should feele it palpably in our owne bodies which experience sheweth vs we do not To this we answere first that their is no necessity we should feele this course of atomes since by their subtility they penetrate all bodies and consequently do not giue such stroakes as are sensible Secondly if we consider that dustes and strawes and feathers do light vpon vs without causing any sense in vs much more we may cōceiue that atomes which are infinitely more subtile and light can not cause in vs any feeling of them Thirdly we see that what is continuall with vs and mingled in all thinges doth not make vs take any especiall notice of it and this is the case of the smiting of atomes Neuerthelesse peraduenture we feele them in truth as often as we feele hoat and cold weather and in all catarres or other such changes which do as it were sinke into our body without our perceiuing any sensible cause of them for no question but these atomes are the immediate causes of all good and bad qualities in the ayre Lastly when we consider that we can not long together hold out our arme att length or our foote from the ground and reflect vpon such like impotencies of our resisting the grauity of our owne body we can not doubt but that in these cases we feele the effect of these atomes working vpon those partes although we can not by our sense discerne immediately that these are the causes of it But now it is time to draw our Reader out of a difficulty which may peraduenture haue perplexed him in the greatest part of what he hath hitherto gone ouer In our inuestigation of the Elements we tooke for a principle therevnto that grauity is sometimes more sometimes lesse then the density of the body in which it is But in our explication of rarity and density and againe in our explication of grauity we seeme to putt that grauity and density is all one This thorne I apprehend may in all this distance haue putt some to paine but it was impossible for mee to remedy it because I had not yet deliuered the manner of grauitation Here then I will do my best to asswage their greefe by reconciling these appearing repugnancies We are therefore to consider that density in it selfe doth signify a difficultie to haue the partes of its subiect in which it is seperated one from an other and that grauity likewise in it selfe doth signify a quality by which a heauy body doth descend towardes the center or which is consequent therevnto a force to make an other body descend Now this power we haue shewed doth belong vnto density so farre forth as a dense body being strucken by an other doth not yield by suffering its partes to be diuided but with its whole bulke striketh the next before it and diuideth it if it be more diuisible then it selfe is So that you see density hath the name of density in consideration of a passiue quality or rather of an impassibility which it hath and the same density is called grauity in respect of an actiue quality it hath which followeth this impassibility And both of them are estimated by the different respects which the same body or subiect in which they are haue vnto different bodies that are the termes whereunto it is compared for the actiue quality or grauity of a dense body is esteemed by its respect to the body it striketh vpon whereas its density includeth a respect singly to the body that striketh it Now it is no wonder that this change of comparison worketh a disparity
A to B is the proportion of CB to CA that is it goeth in the same time faster towardes D then it doth towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA. By which account the resistance it hath in the way towardes D must also be greater then the resistance it hath in the way towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA and therefore the more tardity must be in the way to D and not in the way to M and consequently the declination must be from Ewardes and to Mwardes For where there is most resistance that way likewise must the tardity be greatest and the declination must be from that way but which way the thickenesse to be passed in the same time is most that way the resistance is greatest and the thickenesse is clearely greater towardes E then towardes M therefore the resistance must be greatest towardes E and consequently the declination from the line BL must be towardes M and not towardes E. But the truth is that in his doctrine the ball would goe in a straight line as if there were no resistance vnlesse peraduenture towardes the contrary side of the cloth att which it goeth out into the free ayre for as the resistance of the cloth is greater in the way towardes D then in the way towardes M because it passeth a longer line in the same time as also it did formerly in the ayre so likewise is the force that mooueth it that way greater then the force which mooueth it the other And therefore the same proportions that were in the motion before it came to the resisting passage will remaine also in it att the least vntill coming neere the side att which it goeth out the resistance be weakned by the thinnenesse of the resistent there which because it must needes happen on the side that hath least thicknesse the ball must consequently turne the other way where it findeth greatest yielding and so att its getting out into the free ayre it will bend from the greater resistance in such manner as we haue said aboue Neither do the examples brought by Monsieur Des Cartes and others in maintenance of this doctrine any thing auayle them for when a canon bullett shott into a riuer hurteth the people on the other side it is not caused by refraction but by reflexion as Monsieur Des Cartes himselfe acknowledgeth and therefore hath no force to prooue any thing in refraction whose lawes are diuers from those of pure reflexion And the same answere serueth against the instance of a muskett bullett shott att a marke vnder water which perpetually lighteth higher then the marke though it be exactly iust aymed att For we knowing that it is the nature of water by sinking in one place to rise round about it must of necessity follow that the bullett which in entring hath pressed downe the first partes of the water hath withall thereby putt others further off in a motion of rising and therefore the bullet in its goeing on must meete with some water swelling vpwardes and must from it receiue a ply that way which can not faile of carrying it aboue the marke it was leuelled att And so we see this effect proceedeth from reflection or the bounding of the water and not from refraction Besides that it may iustly be suspected the shooter tooke his ayme too high by reason of the markes appearing in the water higher then in truth it is vnlesse such false ayming were duly preuented Neither is Monsieur Des Cartes his excuse to be admitted when he sayth that light goeth otherwise then a ball would do because that in a glasse or in water the etheriall substance which he supposeth to runne through all bodies is more efficaciously mooued then in ayre and that therefore light must go faster in the glasse then in the ayre and so turne on that side of the straight line which is contrary to the side that the ball taketh because the ball goeth not so swiftly For not to dispute of the verity of this proposition the effect he pretendeth is impossible for if the etheriall substance in the ayre before the glasse be slowly mooued the motion of which he calleth light it is impossible that the etheriall substance in the glasse or in the water should be more smartly mooued then it Well it may be lesse but without all doubt the impulse of the etheriall substance in the glasse can not be greater then its adequate cause which is the motion of the other partes that are in the ayre precedent to the glasse Againe after it is passed the glasse it should returne to be a straight line with the line that it made in the ayre precedent to the glasse seeing that the subsequent ayre must take off iust as much and no more as the glasse did adde the contrary whereof experience sheweth vs. Thirdly in this explication it would alwayes go one way in the ayre and an other way in the glasse whereas all experience testifyeth that in a glasse conuexe on both sides it still goeth in the ayre after its going out to the same side as it did in the glasse but more And the like happeneth in glasses on both sides concaue Wherefore it is euident that it is the superficies of the glasse that is the worker on both sides and not the substance of the ayre on the one side and of the glasse on the other And lastly his answere doth no wayes solue our obiection which prooueth that the resistance both wayes is proportionate to the force that mooueth and by consequence that the thing moued must go straight As we may imagine would happen if a bullett were shott sloaping through a greene mudde wall in which there were many round stickes so thinne sett that the bullett mighr passe with ease through them for as long as the bullett touched none of them which expresseth his case it would go straight but if it touched any of them which resembleth ours as by and by will appeare it would glance according to the quality of the touch and mooue from the sticke in an other line Some peraduenture may answere for Monsieur Des Cartes that this subtile body which he supposeth to runne through all thinges is stiffe and no wayes plyable But that is so repugnant to the nature of rarity and so many insuperable inconueniencies do follow out of it as I can not imagine he will owne it and therefore I will not spend any time in replying therevnto We must therefore seeke some other cause of the refraction of light which is made att the entrance of it into a diaphanous body Which is plainely as we said before because the ray striking against the inside of a body it can not penetrate turneth by reflexion towardes that side on which the illuminant standeth and if it findeth cleare passage through the whole resistent it followeth the course it first taketh if not then it is lost by many reflexions too and
fro And taking a body of concaue surfaces we shall according to this doctrine of ours find the causes of refraction iust contrary and accordingly experience likewise sheweth vs the effects to be so too And therefore since experience agreeth exactly with our rules we can not doubt but that the principles vpon which we goe are well layd But because crooked surfaces may haue many irregularities it will not be amisse to giue a rule by which all of them may be brought vnto a certainety And this it is that reflexions from crooked superficieses are equall to the reflexions that are made from such plaine superficieses as are tangents to the crooked ones in that point from whence the reflexions are made Which principall the Masters of Optikes do take out of a Mathematicall supposition of the vnity of the reflecting point in both the surfaces the crooked and the plaine But we take it out of the insensibility of the difference of so litle a part in the two different surfaces as serueth to reflect a ray of light for where the difference is insensible in the causes there likewise the difference is so litle in the effects as sense can not iudge of them which is as much as is requisite to our purpose Now seeing that in the Mathematicall supposition the point where the reflexion is made is indifferent to both the surfaces it followeth that it importeth not whether superficies you take to know the quality of reflexion by This principle then being settled that the reflexion must follow the nature of the tangent surfaces and it being prooued that in plaine surfaces it will happen in such sort as we haue explicated it followeth that in any crooked superficies of what figure soeuer the same also will happen Now seeing we haue formerly declared that refractions are but a certaine kind of reflexions what we haue said here of reflexions may be applyed to refractions But there remaineth yet vntouched one affection more of refractions which is that some diaphanous bodies do in their inward partes reflect more then others which is that which we call refraction as experience sheweth vs. Concerning which effect we are to consider that diaphanous bodies may in their composition haue two differences for some are composed of greater partes and greater pores others of lesser partes and lesser pores It is true there may be other combinations of pores and partes yet by these two the rest may be esteemed As for the first combination we see that because the pores are greater a greater multitude of partes of light may passe together through one pore and because the partes are greater likewise a greater multitude of rayes may reflect from the same part and may find the same passage quite throughout the diaphanous body On the contrary side in the second combination where both the pores and the partes of the diaphanous body are litle the light must be but litle that findeth the same passage Now that refraction is greater or lesser happeneth two wayes for it is eyther when one diaphanous body reflecteth light att more angles then an other and by consequence in a greater extent of the superficies or else when one body reflecteth light from the same point of incidence in a shorter line and in a greater angle then an other doth In both these wayes it is apparant that a body composed of greater partes and greater pores exceedeth bodies of the opposite kind for by reason that in the first kind more light may beate against one part a body in which that happeneth will make an appearance from a further part of its superficies whereas in a body of the other sort the light that beateth against one of the litle partes of it will be so litle as it will presently vanish Againe because in the first the part att the incidence is greater the surface from which the reflexion is made inwardes hath more of a plaine and straight superficies and consequently doth reflect att a greater angle then that whose superficies hath more of inclining But we must not passe from this question without looking a litle into the nature of those bodies in which refraction is made for if they as well as the immediate causes of refraction do likewise fauour vs it will not a litle aduance the certainety of our determination To this purpose we may call to mind how experience sheweth vs that great refractions are made in smoake and in mistes and in glasses and in thicke bodied waters and Monsieur Des Cartes addeth certaine oyles and spirits or strong waters Now most of these we see are composed of litle consistent bodies swimming in an other liquide body As is plaine in smoake and mistes for the litle bubbles which rise in the water before they gett out of it and that are smoake when they gett into the ayre do assure vs that smoake is nothing else but a company of litle round bodies swimming in the ayre and the round consistence of water vpon herbes leafes and twigges in a rynde or dew giueth vs also to vnderstand that a mist is likewise a company of litle round bodies that sometimes stand sometimes floate in the ayre as the wind driueth them Our very eyes beare wittnesse to vs that the thicker sort of waters are full of litle bodies which is the cause of their not being cleare As for glasse the blowing of it conuinceth that the litle dartes of fire which pierce it euery way do naturally in the melting of it conuert it into litle round hollow bodies which in their cooling must settle into partes of the like figure Then for crystall and other transparent stones which are found in cold places it can not be otherwise but that the nature of cold piercing into the maine body and contracting euery litle part in it selfe this contraction must needes leaue vacant pores betweene part and part And that such transparent stones as are made by heate haue the like effect and property may be iudged out of what we see in brickes and tiles which are left full of holes by the operation of the fire And I haue seene in bones that haue layne a long time in the sunne a multitude of sensible litle pores close to one an other as if they had beene formerly stucke all ouer with subtile sharpe needles as close as they could be thrust in by one other The Chymicall oyles and spirits which Monsieur Des Cartes speaketh of are likely to be of the same composition since that such vse to be extracted by violent fires for a violent fire is made by the coniunction of many rayes together and that must needes cause great pores in the body it worketh vpon and the sticking nature of these spirits is capable of conseruing them Out of all these obseruations it followeth that the bodies in which greatest refractions do happen are compounded as we haue said of great partes and great pores And therefore by onely taking light to be
or without by pressing vpon what containeth it and so making it selfe a way vnto it And that this latter way is able to worke this effect may be conuinced by the contrary effect from a contrary cause for take a bladder stretched out vnto its greatest extent by ayre shutt vp within it and hang it in a cold place and you will see it presently contract it selfe into a lesse roome and the bladder will grow wrinckeled and become too bigge for the ayre within it But for immediate proofe of this position we see that the addition of a very small degree of heate rarifyeth the ayre in a weather glasse the ayre receiuing the impression of heate sooner then water and so maketh it extend it selfe into a greater place and consequently it presseth vpon the water and forceth it downe into a lesse roome then formerly it possessed And likewise we see quickesyluer and other liquors if they be shutt vp in glasses close stopped and sett in sufficient heate and a little is sufficient for this effect they will swell and fill their glasses and att the last breake them rather then not find a way to giue themselues more roome which is then growne too straight in the glasse by reason of the rarefaction of the liquors by the fire working vpon them Now againe that this effect may be wrought by the inward heate that is enclosed in the bowels of the substance thus shutt vp both reason and experience do assure vs for they teach vs that if a body which is not extremely compacted but that by its loosenesse is easily diuisible into little partes such a one as wine or other spirittfull liquors be enclosed in a vessell the little atomes that perpetually moue vp and downe in euery space of the whole world making their way through euery body will sett on worke the little partes in the wine for example to play their game so that the hoat and light partes if they be many not enduring to be compressed and kept in by the heauy and cold ones do seeke to breake out with force and till they can free themselues from the dense ones that would imprison them they carry them along with them and make them to swell out as well as themselues Now if they be kept in by the vessell so that they haue not play enough they driue the dense ones like so many little hammers or wedges against the sides of it and att the length do breake it and so do make themselues way to a larger roome But if they haue vent the more fiery hoat spirits fly away and leaue the other grosser partes quiett and att rest On the other side if the hoat and light partes in a liquor be not many nor very actiue and the vessell be so full that the partes haue not free scope to remoue and make way for one an other there will not follow any great effect in this kind as we see in bottled beere or ale that worketh little vnlesse there be some space left empty in the bottle And againe if the vessell be very much too bigge for the liquor in it the fiery partes find roome first to swell vp the heauy ones and att the length to gett out from them though the vessell be close stopped for they haue scope enough to floate vp and downe between the surface of the liquor and the roofe of the vessell And this is the reason that if a little beere or small wine be left long in a great caske be it neuer so close stopped it will in time grow dead And then if att the opening of the bunge after the caske hath beene long vnstirred you hold a candle close to it you shall att the instant see a flash of flame enuironing the veâ—t Which is no other thing but the subtile spirits that parting from the beere or wine haue left it dead and flying abroad as soone as they are permitted are sett on fire by the flame that they meete with in their iourney as being more combustible because more subtile then that spiritt of wine which is kept in forme of liquor and yet that likewise though much grosser is sett on fire by the touch of flame And this happeneth not onely to wine and beere or ale but euen to water As dayly experience sheweth in the east Indian shippes that hauing beene 5. or 6. yeares att sea when they open some of their caskes of Thames water in their returne homewardes for they keepe that water till the last as being their best and most durable and that groweth lighter and purer by the often putrifyinges through violent motions in stormes euery one of which maketh new grosse and earthy partes fall downe to the bottome and other volatile ones ascend to the toppe a flame is seene about their bunges if a candle be neere as we said before of wine And to proceed with confirming this doctrine by further experience we dayly see that the little partes of heate being agitated and brought into motioÌ„ in any body they enter and pierce into other partes and incorporate themselues with them and sett them on fire if they be capable thereof as we see in wett hay or flaxe layed together in great quantity And if they be not capable of taking fire then they carry them with them to the outside and when they can transport them no further part flyeth away and other part stayeth with them as we see in new beere or ale and in must of wine in which a substance vsually called the mother is wrought vp to the toppe Which in wine will att the last be conuerted into Tartar when the spirits that are very volatile are flowne away and do leaue those partes from whence they haue euaporated more grosse and earthy then the others where the grosser and subtiler partes continue still mixed But in beere or rather in ale this mother which in them we call barme will continue longer in the same consistence and with the same qualities for the spirits of it are not so firy that they must presently leaue the body they haue incorporated themselues withall nor are hoat enough to bake it into a hard consistence And therefore bakers make vse of it to raise their bread which neyther it will do vnlesse it be kept from cold both which are euident signes that it worketh in force of heate and consequently that it continueth still a hoat and light substance And againe we see that after wine or beere hath wrought once a violent motion will make it worke anew As is dayly seene in great lightninges and in thunder and by much rocking of them for such motion rarifyeth and consequently heateth them partly by separating the little partes of the liquor which were before as glewed together and therefore lay quietly but now by their pulling asunder and by the liquors growing thereby more loose then it was they haue freedome to play vp and downe and partly by beating one part against an other which
when in Greeneland the extreme cold freeseth the whalefishers beere into yce so that the stewardes diuide it with axes and wedges and deliuer their portions of drink to their shippes company and their shallopes gings in their bare handes but in the innermost part of the butte they find some quantity of very strong liquor not inferior to moderate spiritt of wine Att the first before custome had made it familiar vnto them they wondered that euery time they drew att the tappe when first it came from their shippes to the shore for the heate of the hold would not lett it freese no liquor would come vnlesse they new tapped it with a longer gimlett but they thought that paines well recompenced by finding it in the tast to grow stronger and stronger till att the last their longest gimlets would bring nothing out and yet the vessell not a quarter drawne off which obliged them then to staue the caske that so they might make vse of the substance that remained The reason of this is euident that cold seeking to condense the beere by mingling its dry and cold partes with it those that would endure this mixture were imbibed and shrunke vp by them But the other rare and hoat partes that were squeesed out by the dense ones which entered to congeale the beere and were forced into the middle of the vessell which was the furthest part for them to retire vnto from their enuironing enemies did conserue themselues in their liquid forme in defyance of the assaulting cold whiles their fellowes remaining by their departure more grosse and earthy then they were before yielded to the conqueror they could not shift away from and so were dryed and condensed into yce which when the mariners thawed they found it like faire water without any spirits in it or comforting heate to the stomacke This māner of condensation which we haue described in the freesing of beere is the way most practised by nature I meane for immediate condensation for cōdentsation is secondarily wheresoeuer there is rarefaction which we haue determined to be an effect of heate And the course of it is that a multitude of earthy and dry bodies being driuen against any liquor they easily diuide it by meanes of their density their drynesse and their littlenesse all which in this case do accompany one an other and are by vs determined to be powerfull diuiders and when they are gotten into it they partly sucke into their owne pores the wett and diffused partes of the liquide body and partly they make them when themselues are full sticke fast to their dry sides and become as a glew to hold themselues strongly together And thus they dry vp the liquor and by the naturall pressing of grauity they contract it into a lesser roome No otherwise then when we force much wind or water into a bottle and by pressing it more and more make it lye closer then of its owne nature it would do Or rather as when ashes being mingled with water both those substances do sticke so close to one an other that they take vp lesse roome then they did each apart This is the methode of frostes and of snow and of yce both naturall and artificcall for in naturall freesing ordinarily the north or northeast wind by its force bringeth and driueth into our liquors such earthy bodies as it hath gathered from rockes couered with snow which being mixed with the light vapors whereof the wind is made do easily find way into the liquors and thē they dry thē into that consistēce which we call yce Which in token of the wind it hath in it swimmeth vpon the water and in the vessel where it is made riseth higher then the water did whereof it is cōposed and ordinarily it breaketh frō the sides of the vessell so giuing way to more wind to come in and freese deeper and thicker But because Galileus Nel discorso intorno alle cose che stanno in su l'acqua pag. 4. was of opinion that yce was water rarifyed and not condensed we must not passe ouer this verity without maintaining it against the opposition of so powerfull an aduersary His arguments are first that yce taketh vp more place then the water did of which it was made which is against the nature of condensation Secondly that quantity for quantity yce is lighter then water whereas thinges that are more dense are proportionally more heauy And lastly that yce swimmeth in water whereas we haue often taught that the more dense descendeth in the more rare Now to reply to these arguments we say first that we would gladly know how he did to measure the quantity of the yce with the quantity of the water of which it was made and then when he hath shewed it and shewed withall that yce holdeth more place then water we must tell him that his experiment concludeth nothing against our doctrine because there is an addition of other bodies mingled with the water to make yce of it as we touched aboue and therefore that compound may well take vp a greater place then the water alone did and yet be denser then it and the water also be denser then it was And that other bodies do come into the water and are mingled with it is euident out of the exceeding coldnesse of the ayre or some very cold wind one of which two neuer misseth to raigne whensoeuer the water freeseth and both of them do argue great store of little earthy dry bodies abounding in them which sweeping ouer all those that lye in their way and course must of necessity be mixed with such as giue them admittance which water doth very easily And accordingly we see that when in the freesing of water the yce groweth any thing deepe it eyther shrinketh about the borders or att the least lyeth very loose so as we can not doubt but that there is a free passage for more of such subtile bodies to gett still to the water and freese it deeper To his second argument we aske how he knoweth that yce quantity for quantity is lighter then water For although of a spunge that is full of water it be easy to know what the spunge weigheth and what the water that was soaked into it because we can part the one of them from the other and keepe each apart to examine their weights yet to do the like between yce and water if yce be throughout full of ayre as of necessity it must be we beleeue impossible And therefore it may be lighter in the bulke then water by reason of the great pores caused in it through the shrinking vp of the partes of water together which pores must then necessarily be filled with ayre and yet euery part by it selfe in which no ayre is be heauyer then so much water And by this it appeareth that his last argument grounded vpon the swimming of yce in water hath no more force then if he would proue that an iron or an earthen dish
were lighter and consequently more rare then water because it swimmeth vpon it which is an effect of the ayres being contained in the belly of it as it is in yce not a signe of the mettalls being more rare then water Whereas on the contrary side the proofe is positiue and cleare for vs for it can not be denyed but that the mingling of the water with other bodies more dense then it must of necessity make the compound and also the water it selfe become more dense then it was alone And accordingly we see that yce halfe thawed for then much of the ayre is driuen out and the water beginneth to fill the pores wherein the ayre resided before sinketh to the bottome as an iron dish with holes in it whereby the water might gett into it would do And besides we see that water is more diaphanous then yce and yce more consistent then water Therefore I hope we shall be excused if in this particular we be of a contrary opinion to this great personage But to returne vnto the thridde of our discourse The same that passeth here before vs passeth also in the skye with snow haile raine and wind Which that we may the better vnderstand lett vs consider how windes are made for they haue a maine influence into all the rest When the sunne or by some particular occurrent rayseth great multitudes of atomes from some one place and they eyther by the attraction of the sunne by some other occasion do take their course a certaine way this motion of those atomes we call a wind which according to the continuance of the matter from whence these atomes rise endureth a longer or a shorter time and goeth a farther or a shorter way like a riuer or rather like those eruptions of waters which in the Notherne partes of England they call Gypsies the which do breake out att vncertaine times and vpon vncertaine causes and flow likewise with an vncertaine duration So these windes being composed of bodies in a determinate proportion heauyer then the ayre do runne their course from their hight to the ground where they are supported as water is by the floore of its channell whiles they performe their carrire that is vntill they be wasted eyther by the drawing of the sunne or by their sticking and incorporating into grosser bodies Some of these windes according to the complexion of the body out of which they are extracted are dry as those which come from barren mountaines couered with snow others are moist as those that come out of marishy or watry places others haue other qualities as of heate or cold of wholesomenesse or vnwholesomenesse and the like partly from the source and partly frō the bodies they are mingled with in their way Such then being the nature and origine of windes if a cold one do meete in the ayre with that moist body whereof otherwise raine would haue been made it changeth that moist body into snow or into haile if a dry wind meete with a wett body it maketh it more dry and so hindereth the raine that was likely to be but if the wett body ouercome the dry wind it bringeth the wind downe along with it as we see when a shoure of raine allayeth a great wind And that all this is so experience will in some particulars instruct vs as well as reason from whence the rest may be euidently inferred For we see that those who in imitation of nature would conuert water into yce do take snow or yce and mingle it with some actiue dry body that may force the cold partes of the snow from it and then they sett the water in some fitt vessell in the way that those little bodies are to take which by that meanes entering into it do straight incorporate themselues therewith and of a soddaine do conuert it into yce Which processe you may easily trye by mingling salt armoniake with the snow but much more powerfully by setting the snow ouer the fire whiles the glasse of water to be congealed standeth in it after the manner of an egg in salt And thus fire it selfe though it be the enemy and destroyer of all cold is made the instrument of freesing And the same reason holdeth in the cooling of wine with snow or yce when after it hath beene a competent time in the snow they whose charge it is do vse to giue the vessell that containeth the wine three or foure turnes in the snow so to mingle through the whole body of the wine the cold receiued first but in the outward partes of it and by pressing to make that without haue a more forcible ingression But the whole doctrine of Meteores is so amply so ingeniously and so exactely performed by that neuer enough praysed Gentleman Monsieur Des Cartes in his Meteorologicall discourses as I should wrong my selfe and my Reader if I dwelled any longer vpon this subiect And whose Physicall discourses had they beene diuulged before I had entered vpon this worke I am persuaded would haue excused the greatest part of my paines in deliuering the nature of bodies It were a fault to passe from treating of condensation without noting so ordinary an effect of it as is the ioyning together of partes of the same body or of diuers bodies In which we see for the most part that the solide bodies which are to be ioyned together are first eyther heated or moistened that is they are rarifyed and then they are left to cold ayre or to other cold bodies to thicken and condense as aboue we mentioned of syrupes and gellies and so they are brought to sticke firmely together In the like manner we see that when two mettalls are heated till they be almost brought to runninge and then are pressed together by the hammer they become one continued body The like we see in glasse the like in waxe and in diuers other thinges On the contrary side when a broken stone is to be pieced together the pieces of it must be wetted and the ciment must be likewise moistened and then ioyning them aptly and drying them they sticke fast together Glew is moistened that it may by drying afterwardes hold pieces of wood together And the spectaclemakers haue a composition which must be both heated and moistened to ioyne vnto handles of wood the glasses which they are to grinde And broken glasses are cimented with cheese and chalke or with garlike All these effects our sense euidently sheweth vs arise out of condēsation but to our reasō it belōgeth to examine particularly by what steppes they are performed Frst then we know that heate doth subtilise the little bodies which are in the pores of the heated body and partly also it openeth the pores of the body it selfe if it be of a nature that permitteth it as it seemeth those bodies are which by heate are mollifyed or are liquefactible Againe we know that moysture is more subtile to enter into small creekes then dry bodies are especially
when it is pressed for then it will be diuided into very little partes and will fill vp euery little chinke and neuerthesse if it be of a grosse and viscous nature all the partes of it will sticke together Out of these two properties we haue that since euery body hath a kind of orbe of its owne exhalations or vapors round about it selfe as is before declared the vapors which are about one of the bodies will more strongly and solidely that is in more aboundant and greater partes enter into the pores of the other body against which it is pressed when they are opened and dilated and thus they becoming common to both bodies by flowing from the one and streaming into the other and sticking to them both will make them sticke to one an other And then as they grow cold and dry these litle partes shrinke on both sides and by their shrinking draw the bodies together and withall do leaue greater pores by their being compressed together then were there when by heate and moysture they were dilated into which pores the circumstant cold partes do enter and thereby do as it were wedge in the others and consequently do make them hold firmely together the bodies which they ioyne But if art or nature should apply to this iuncture any liquor or vapour which had the nature and power to insinuate it selfe more efficaciously to one of these bodies then the glew which was between them did of necessity in this case these bodies must fall in pieces And so it happeneth in the separation of mettalls by corrosiue waters as also in the precipitation of mettalls or of saltes when they are dissolued in such corrosiue waters by meanes of other mettalls or saltes of a different nature in both which cases the enterance of a latter body that penetrateth more strongly and vniteth it selfe to one of the ioyned bodies but not to the other teareth them asunder and that which the piercing body reiecteth falleth into little pieces and if formerly it were ioyned with the liquor it is then precipitated downe from it in a dust Out of which discourse we may resolue the question of that learned and ingenious man Petrus Gassendus who by experience found that water impregnated to fullnesse with ordinary salt would yet receiue a quantity of other salt and when it would imbibe no more of that would neuerthelesse take into it a proportion of a third and so of seuerall kindes of saltes one after an other which effect he attributed to vacuites or porous spaces of diuers figures that he conceiued to be in the water whereof some were fitt for the figure of one salt and some for the figure of an other Very ingeniously yet if I misse not my marke most assuredly he hath missed his For first how could he attribute diuers sortes of vacuites to water without giuing it diuers figures And this would be against his owne discourse by which euery body should haue one determinate naturall figure Secondly I would aske him if he measured his water after euery salting And if he did whether he did not find the quantity greater then before that salt was dissolued in it Which if he did as without doubt he must then he might safely conclude that his saltes were not receiued in vacuities but that the very substance of the water gaue them place and so encreased by the receiuing of them Thirdly seeing that in his doctrine euery substance hath a particular figure we must allow a strange multitude of different shapes of vacuities to be naturally in water if we will haue euery different substance wherewith it may be impregnated by making decoctions extractions solutions and the like to find a fitt vacuity in the water to lodge it selfe in What a difforme nette with a strāge variety of mashes would this be And indeed how extremely vncapable must it be of the quantity of euery various kind of vacuity that you will find must be in it if in euery solution of one particular substance you calculate the proportion between it and the water that dissolueth it and then multiply it according to the number of seuerall kindes of substances that may be dissolued in water By this proceeding you will find the vacuities to exceed infinitely the whole body of the water euen so much that it could not afford subtile thriddes enough to hold it selfe together Fourthly if this doctrine were true it would neuer happen that one body or salt should precipitate downe to the bottome of the water by the solution of an other in it which euery Alchymist knoweth neuer fayleth in due circumstances for seeing that the body which precipitateth and the other which remayneth dissolued in the water are of different figures and therefore do require different vacuities they might both of them haue kept their places in the water without thrusting one an other out of it Lastly this doctrine giueth no account why one part of salt is separated from an other by being putt in the water and why the partes are there kept so separated which is the whole effect of that motion which we call dissolution The true reason therefore of this effect is as I conceiue that one salt maketh the water apt to receiue an other for the lighter salt being incorporated with the water maketh the water more proper to sticke vnto an heauyer and by diuiding the small partes of it to beare them vp that otherwise would haue sunke in it The truth and reason of which will appeare more plaine if att euery ioynt we obserue the particular steppes of euery saltes solution As soone as you putt the first salt into the water it falleth downe presently to the bottome of it and as the water doth by its humidity pierce by degrees the little ioyntes of this salt so the small partes of it are by little and little separated from one an other and vnited to partes of water And so infusing more and more salt this progresse will continue vntill euery part of water is incorporated with some part of salt and then the water can no longer worke of it selfe but in coniunction to the salt with which it is vnited After which if more salt of the same kind be putt into the water that water so impregnated will not be able to diuide it because it hath not any so subtile partes left as are able to enter between the ioyntes of a salt so closely compacted but may be compared to that salt as a thing of equall drynesse with it and therefore is vnapt to moysten and to pierce it But if you putt vnto this compound of salt and water an other kind of salt that is of a stronger and a dryer nature then the former and whose partes are more grossely vnited then the first salt dissolued in the water will be able to gett in betwixt the ioyntes of the grosser salt and will diuide it into little partes and will incorporate his already composed partes of salt
vnto whom I intend this worke But to make these operations of nature not incredible lett vs remember how we haue determined that euery body whatsoeuer doth yield some steame or vent a kind of vapour from it selfe and consider how they must needes do so most of all that are hoat and moyst as blood and milke are and as all woundes and sores generally are We see that the foote of a hare or deere leaueth such an impression where the beast hath passed as a dog can discerne it a long time after and a foxe breatheth out so strong a vapour that the hunters themselues can wind it a great way of and a good while after he is parted from the place Now ioyning this to the experiences we haue already allowed of concerning the attraction of heate wee may conclude that if any of these vapours do light vpon a solide warme body which hath the nature of a source vnto them they will naturally congregate and incorporate there and if those vapors be ioyned with any medicatiue quality or body they will apply that medicament better then any surgeon can apply it Then if the steame of blood and spirits do carry with it from the weapon or cloth the balsamike qualities of the salue or pouder and with them do settle vpon the wound what can follow but a bettering in it Likewise if the steame of the corruption that is vpon the clodde do carry the drying quality of the wind which sweepeth ouer it when it hangeth high in the ayre vnto the sore part of the cowes foote why is it not possible that it should dry the corruption there as well as it dryeth it vpon the hedge And if the steame of burned milke caÌ„ hurt by carrying fire to the dugge why should not salt cast vpon it be a preseruatiue against it Or rather why should not salt hinder the fire from being carryed thither Since the nature of salt alwayes hindereth and suppresseth the actiuity of fire as we see by experience when we throw salt into the fire below to hinder the flaming of soute in the toppe of a chimney which presently ceaseth when new fire from beneath doth not continue it And thus we might proceed in sundry other effects to declare the reason and the possibility of them were we certaine of the truth of them therefore we remitt this whole question to the autority of the testimonies THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction AFter these lett vs cast our eye vpon an other motion very familiar among Alchymistes which they call Filtration It is effected by putting one end of a tongue or labell of flannen or of cotton or of flaxe into a vessell of water and letting the other end hang ouer the brimme of it And it will by little and little draw all the water out of that vessell so that the end which hangeth out be lower then the superficies of the water and will make it all come ouer into any lower vessell you will reserue it in The end of this operation is when any water is mingled with grosse and muddy partes not dissolued in the water to separate the pure and light ones from the impure By which we are taught that the lighter partes of the water are those which most easily do catch And if we will examine in particular how it is likely this businesse passeth wee may conceiue that the body or linguet by which â—hâ— water ascendeth being a dry one some lighter partes of the water whose chance it is to be neere the clymbing body of flaxe do beginne to sticke fast vnto it and then they require nothing neere so great force nor so much pressing to make them clymbe vp along the flaxe as they would do to make them mount in the pure ayre As you may see if you hold a sticke in running water sheluing against the streame the water will runne vp along the sticke much higher then it could be forced vp in the open ayre without any support though the Agent were much stronger then the current of the streame And a ball will vpon a rebound runne much higher vp a sheluing board then it would if nothing touched it And I haue beene told that if an eggeshell filled with dew bee sett att â—he foote of a hollow sticke the sunne will draw it to the toppe of the sheluing sticke whereas without a proppe it will not stirre it With much more reason then we may conceiue that water finding as it were little steppes in the cotton to facilitate its iourney vpwardes must ascend more easily then those other thinges do so as it once receiue any impulse to driue it vpwardes for the grauity both of that water which is vpon the cotton as also of so many of the confining partes of water as can reach the cotton is exceedingly allayed eyther by sticking vnto the cotton and so weighing in one bulke with â—hat dry body or else by not tending downe straight to the center but resting as it were vpon a steepe plaine according to what we said of the arme of a syphon that hangeth very sloaping out of the water and therefore draweth not after it a lesse proportion of water in the other arme that is more in a direct line to the center by which meanes the water as soone as it beginneth to clymbe cometh to stand in a kind of cone nether breaking from the water below its bulke being bigge enough to reach vnto it nor yet falling downe vnto it But our chiefe labour must be to find a cause that may make the water beginne to ascend To which purpose consider how water of its owne nature compresseth it selfe together to exclude any other body lighter then it is Now in respect of the whole masse of the water those partes which sticke to the cotton are to be accounted much lighter then water not because in their owne nature they are so but for the circumstances which accompany them and do giue them a greater disposition to receiue a motion vpwardes then much lighter bodies whiles they are destitute of such helpes Wherefore as the bulke of water weighing and striuing downewardes it followeth that if there were any ayre mingled with it it would to possesse a lesser place driue out the ayre so here in this case the water that is att the foote of the ladder of cotton ready to clymbe with a very small impulse may be after some sort compared in respect of the water to ayre by reason of the lightnesse of it and consequently is forced vp by the compressing of the rest of the water round about it Which no faster getteth vp but other partes att the foote of the ladder do follow the first and driue them still vpwardes along the towe and new ones driue the second and others the third and so forth So that with ease they clymbe vp to the toppe of the filter still driuing one
end being bigger then the rest of the trough made it somewhat like a ladle and the rest of it seemed to be the handle with a channell in it the little end of which channell or trough was open to lett the water passe freely away And these troughes were fastened by an axeltree in the middle of them to the frame of tymber that went from the bottome vp to the toppe so that they could vpon that center moue att liberty eyther the shutt end downewardes or the open end like the beame of a ballance Now att a certaine position of the roote wheele if so I may call it all one side of the machine sunke downe a little lower towardes the water and the other was raised a little higher Which motion was changed as soone as the ground wheele had ended the remnant of his reuolution for then the side thâ—t was lowest before sprung vp and the other sunke downe And thus the two sides of the machine were like two legges that by turnes trode the water as in the vintage men presse grapes in a watte Now the troughes that were fastened to the tymber which descended turned that part of them downewardes which was like a boxe shutt to hold the water and consequently the open end was vp in the ayre like the arme of the ballance vnto which the lightest scale is fastened and in the meane time the troughes vpon the asceÌ„ding timber were moued by a contrary motion keeping their boxe endes aloft and letting the open endes incline downewardes so that if any water were in them it would lett it runne out whereas the others retained any that came into them When you haue made an image of this machine in your fantasie coÌ„sider what will follow out of its motion You will perceiue that when one legge sinketh downe towardes the water that trough which is next to the superficies of it putting downe his boxe end and dipping it a little in the water must needes bring vp as much as it can retaine when that legge ascendeth which when it is att its height the trough moueth vpon his owne center and the boxe end which was lowest becometh now highest and so the water runneth out of it Now the other legge descending att the same time it falleth out that the trough on its side which would be a steppe aboue that which hath the water in it if they stood in equilibrity becometh now a steppe lower then it and is so placed that the water which runneth out of that which is aloft falleth into the head or boxe of it which no sooner hath receiued it but that legge on which it is fastened springeth vp and the other descendeth so that the water of the second legge runneth now into the boxe of the first legge that is next aboue that which first laded the water out of the riuer And thus the troughes of the two legges deliuer their water by turnes from one side to the other and att euery remooue it getteth a steppe vpwardes till it cometh to the toppe whiles att euery ascent and descent of the whole side the lowest ladle or trough taketh new water from the riuer which ladefull followeth immediately in its ascent that which was taken vp the time before And thus in a little while all the troughes from the bottome to the toppe are full vnlesse there happen to be some failing in some ladle and in that case the water breaketh out there and all the ladles aboue that are dry The other engine or rather multitude of seuerall engines to performe sundry different operations all conducing to one worke whereas that of Toledo is but one tenour of motion from the first to the last is in the minte at Segouia Which is so artificially made that one part of it distendeth an ingott of siluer or gold into that breadth and thicknesse as is requisite to make coyne of Which being done it deliuereth the plate it hath wrought vnto an other that printeth the figure of the coyne vpon it And from thence it is turned ouer to an other that cutteth it according to the print into due shape and weight And lastly the seuerall peeces fall into a reserue in an other roome where the officer whose charge it is findeth treasure ready coyned without any thing there to informe him of the seuerall different motions that the siluer or the gold passed before they came to that state But if he goe on the other side of the wall into the roome where the other machines stand and are att worke he will then discerne that euery one of them which considered by it selfe might seeme a distinct complete engine is but a seruing part of the whole whose office is to make money and that for this worke any one of them seperated from the rest ceaseth to be the part of a minte and the whole is maymed and destroyed Now lett vs apply the consideration of these different kindes of engines to the natures of the bodies we treate of Which I doubt not would fitt much better were they liuely and exactly described But it is so long since I saw them and I was then so very young that I retaine but a confufed and clowdy remembrance of them especially of the minte att Segouia in the which there are many more particulars then I haue touched as conueniency for refining the oore or mettall and then casting it into ingots and driuing them into roddes and such like vnto all which there is little helpe of handes requisite more then to apply the matter duly att the first But what I haue said of them is enough to illustrate what I ayme att and though I should erre in the particulars it is no great matter for I intend not to deliuer the history of them but only out of the remembrance of such note full and artificiall Masterpeeces to frame a modell in their fancies that shall reade this of something like them whereby they may with more ease make a right conception of what we are handling Thus then all sortes of plants both great and small may be compared to our first engine of the waterworke att Toledo for in them all the motion we can discerne is of one part transmitting vnto the next to it the iuice which it receiued from that immediately before it so that it hath one constant course from the roote which sucketh it from the earth vnto the toppe of the highest sprigge in which if it should be intercepted and stopped by any mayming of the barke the channell it ascendeth by it would there breake out and turne into droppes or gumme or some such other substance as the nature of the plant requireth and all that part of it vnto which none of this iuice can ascend would drye and wither and grow dead But sensible liuing creatures we may fittly compare to the second machine of the minte att Segouia For in them though euery part and member be as it were a complete thing
which I spoke of aboue in the round tower In the like manner they that are called ventriloqui do persuade ignorant people that the Diuell speaketh from within them deepe in their belly by their sucking their breath inwardes in a certaine manner whiles they speake whence it followeth that their voice seemeth to come not from them but from somewhat else hidden within them if att the least you perceiue it cometh out of them but if you do not then it seemeth to come from a good way off To this art belongeth the making of sarabatanes or trunkes to helpe the hearing and of Eccho glasses that multiply soundes as burning glasses do light All which artes and the rules of them do follow the lawes of motion and euery effect of them is to be demonstrated by the principles and proportions of motion and therefore we can not with reason imagine them to be any thing else Wee see likewise that great noises not only offend the hearing but euen shake houses and towers I haue beene told by inhabitants of Douer that when the Arch Duke Albertus made his great battery against Calais which for the time was a very furious one for he endeauoured all he could to take the towne before it could be relieued the very houses were shakē and the glasse windowes were shiuered with the report of his artillery And I haue beene told by one that was in Seuill when the gunnepouder house of that towne which was some two miles distant from the place where he liued was blowne vp that it made the wodden shutters of the windowes in his house beate and clappe against the walles with greate violence and did splitte the very walles of a faire church that standing next it though att a good distance had no other building betweene to shelter it from the impetuosity of the ayres soddaine violent motion And after a fight I once had with some galleasses and Galliones in the roade of Scanderone which was a very hoat one for the time and a scarce credible number of pieces of ordinance were shott from my fleete the English Consull of that place coming afterwardes aboard my shippe tould me that the report of our gunnes had during all the time of the fight shaken the drinking glasses that stood vpon shelues in his house and had splitte the paper windowes all about and had spoyled and cracked all the egges that his pigeons were then sitting vpon which losse he lamented exceedingly for they were of that kind which commonly is called Carriers and serue them dayly in their commerce betweene that place and Aleppo And I haue often obserued att sea in smooth water that the ordinance shott of in a shippe some miles distant would violently shake the glasse windowes in an other And I haue perceiued this effect in my owne more then once att the report of a single gunne from a shippe so farre off that we could not descry her I remember how one time vpon such an occasion we altered our course and steared with the sound or rather with the motion att the first obseruing vpon which poynt of the compasse the shaking appeared for as yet we heard nothing though soone after with much attention and silence we could discerne a dull clumsy noise and such a motion groweth att the end of it so faint that if any strong resisting body checke it in its course it is presently deaded and will afterwardes shake nothing beyond that body and therefore it is perceptible only att the outside of the shippe if some light and very moueable body do hang loosely on that side it cometh to receiue the impression of it as this did att the gallery windowes of my cabin vpon the poope which were of light moscouia glasse or talke and by then we had runne somewhat more then a watch with all the sayles abroad we could make and in a faire loome gale we found our salues neere enough to part the fray of two shippes that in a litle while longer fighting would haue sunke one an other But besides the motions of the ayre which receiueth them easily by reason of the fluidity of it we see that euen solide bodies do participate of it As if you knocke neuer so lightly att one end of the longest beame you can find it will be distinctly hard att the other end the trampling of men and horses in a quiet might will be heard some miles off if one lay their eare to the ground and more sensibly if one make a litle hole in the earth and putt ones eare into the mouth of it but most of all if one sett a drumme smooth vpon the ground and lay ones eare to the vpper edge of it for the lower membrane of the drumme is shaked by the motion of the earth and then multiplyeth that sound by the hollow figure of the drumme in the conueying it to the vpper membrane vpon which your eare leaneth Not much vnlike the tympane or drumme of the eare which being shaked by outward motion causeth a second motion on the inside of it correspondent to this first and this hauing a free passage to the braine striketh it immediately and so informeth it how thinges moue without which is all the mystery of hearing If any thing do breake or stoppe this motion before it shake our eare it is not heard And accordingly we see that the sound of belles or artillery is heard much further if it haue the conduct of waters then through the pure ayre because in such bodies the great continuity of them maketh that one part can not shake alone and vpon their superficies there is no notable vneuenesse nor no dense thing in the way to checke the motion as in the ayre hilles buildinges trees and such like so that the same shaking goeth a great way And to confirme that this is the true reason I haue seuerall times obserued that standing by a riuers side I haue heard the sound of a ring of belles much more distinctly and lowde then if I went some distance from the water though neerer to the steeple from whence the sound came And it is not only the motion of the ayre that maketh sound in our eares but any motion that hath accesse to them in such a manner as to shake the quiuering membranous tympane within them will represent vnto vs those motions which are without and so make such a sound there as if it were conueyed only by the ayre Which is plainely seene when a man lying a good way vnder water shall there heare the same soundes as are made aboue in the ayre but in a more clumsie manner according as the water by being thicker and more corpulent is more vnwieldy in its motions And this I haue tryed often staying vnder water as long as the necessity of breathing would permitt me Which sheweth that the ayre being smartly moued moueth the water also by meanes of its continuity with it and that liquid element being
followeth that the obiect must worke vpon our sense eyther by light or att the least with light for light rebounding from the obiect round about by straight lines some part of it must needes come from the obiect to our eye Therefore by how much an obiect sendeth more light vnto our eye by so much that obiect worketh more vpon it Now seeing that diuers obiects do send light in diuers manners to our eye according to the diuers natures of those obiects in regard of hardenesse density and litlenesse of partes we must agree that such bodies do worke diuersely and do make different motions or impressiōs vpon our eye and consequētly the passion of our eye from such obiects must be diuers But there is no other diuersity of passion in the eye from the obiect in regard of seeing but that the obiect appeare diuers to vs in point of colour Therefore we must conclude that diuers bodies I meane diuers or different in that kind we here talke of must necessarily seeme to be of diuers colours meerely by the sending of light vnto our eye in diuers fashions Nay the very same obiect must appeare of different colours whensoeuer it happeneth that it reflecteth light differently to vs. As we see in cloth if it be gathered together in fouldes the bottomes of those fouldes shew to be of one kind of colour and the toppes of them or where the cloth is stretched out to the full percussion of light it appeareth to be of an other much brighter colour And accordingly painters are faine to vse almost opposite colours to expresse them In like manner if you looke vpon two pieces of the same cloth or plush whose graines lye contrawise to one an other they will likewise appeare to be of different colours Both which accidents and many others like vnto them in begetting various representations of colours do all of them arise out of lightes being more or lesse reflected from one part then from an other Thus then you see how colour is nothing else but the disposition of a bodies superficies as it is more or lesse apt to reflect light sithence the reflexion of light is made from the superficies of the seene body and the variety of its reflexion begetteth variety of colours But a superficies is more or lesse apt to reflect light according to the degrees of its being more or lesse penetrable by the force of light striking vpon it for those rayes of light that gaine no entrance into a body they are darted vpon must of necessity fly backe againe from it But if light doth gett entrance and penetrate into the body it eyther passeth quite through it or else it is swallowed vp and lost in that body The former constituteth a diaphanous body as we haue already determined And the semblance which the latter will haue in regard of colour we haue also shewed must be blacke But lett vs proceede a little further We know that two thinges render a body penetrable or easie to admitt an other body into it Holes such as we call pores and softnesse or humidity so that dryenesse hardnesse and compactednesse must be the properties which render a body impenetrable And accordingly we see that if a diaphanous body which suffereth light to runne through it be much compressed beyond what it was as when water is compressed into yce it becometh more visible that is it reflecteth more light and consequently it becometh more white for white is that which reflecteth most light On the cōtrary side softnesse vnctuousnesse and viscousnesse encreaseth blacknesse as you may experience in oyling or in greasing of wood which before was but browne for thereby it becometh more blacke by reason that the vnctuous partes added vnto the other do more easily then they single admitt into them the light that striketh vpon them and when it is gotten in it is so entangled there as though the winges of it were birdlimed ouer that it can not fly out againe And thus it is euident how the origine of all colours in bodies is plainely deduced out of the various degrees of rarity and density variously mixed and compounded Likewise out of this discourse the reason is obuious why some bodies are diaphanous and others are opacous for sithence it falleth out in the constitution of bodies that one is composed of greater partes then an other it must needes happen that light be more hindered in passing through a body composed of bigger partes then an other whose partes are lesse Neyther doth it import that the pores be supposed as great as the partes for be they neuer so large the corners of the thicke partes they belong vnto must needes breake the course of what will not bowe but goeth all in straight lines more then if the partes and pores were both lesser since for so subtile a piercer as light no pores can be too litle to giue it entrance It is true such great ones would better admitt a liquid body into them such a one as water or ayre but the reason of that is because they will bowe and take any plye to creepe into those cauities if they be large enough which light will not do Therefore it is cleare that freedome of passage can happen vnto light only there where there is an extreme great multitude of pores and partes in a very litle quantity or bulke of body which pores and partes must consequently be extreme litle ones for by reason of their multitude there must be great variety in their situation from whence it will happen that many lines must be all of pores quite through and many others all of partes although the most will be mixed of both pores and partes And so we see that although the light do passe quite through in many places yet it reflecteth from more not only in the superficies but in the very body it selfe of the diaphanous substance But in an other substāce of great partes and pores there can be but few whole lines of pores by which the light may passe from the obiect to make it be seene and consequently it must be opacous which is the contrary of Diaphanous that admitteth many rayes of light to passe through it from the obiect to the eye whereby it is seene though the Diaphanous hard body do interuene betweene them Now if we consider the generation of these two colours white and blacke in bodies we shall find that likewise to iustify and second our doctrine for white thinges are generally cold and dry and therefore are by nature ordained to be receptacles and conseruers of heat and of moysture as Physitians do note Contrariwise blacke as also greene which is neere of kinne to blacke are growing colours and are the dye of heate incorporated in aboundance of wett as we see in smoake in pittecoale in garden ground and in chymicall putrefactions all which are blacke as also in yong herbes which are generally greene as long as they are yong
last their resoluing vpon some one of them and their steady pursuance of that afterwardes will not be matter of hard digestion to him that shall haue well relished and meditated vpon the contents of the last Chapter for it is euident that if seuerall obiects of different natures do at the same time present themselues vnto a liuing creature they must of necessity make diuers impressions in the hart of it proportionable vnto the causes from whence they proceed so that if one of them be a motion of hope and the other be of feare it can not choose but follow thence that what one of them beginneth the other will presently breake off by which meanes it will come to passe that in the beastes hart there must needes be such wauinges as we may obserue in the sea when at the beginning of a tide of stood it meeteth with a banke that checketh the coming in of the waues and for a while beateth them backe as fast as they presse vpon it they offer at getting ouer it and by and by retire backe againe from the steepenesse of it as though they were apprehēsiue of some danger on the other side and then againe attempt it a fresh and thus continue labouring one while one way an other while an other vntill at the length the flood encreasing the water seemeth to grow bolder and breaketh a maine ouer the banke and then floweth on till it meeteth with an other that resisteth it as the first did and thus you see how the sea can doubt and resolue without any discoursing In the like manner it fareth with the hart of a beast whose motions do steere the rest of his body when it beateth betwixt hope and feare or between any other two contrary passions without requiring any other principles from whence to deduce it then those we haue already explicated But now to speake of their inuention I must confesse that among seuerall of them there appeareth so much cunning in laying of their plots which when they haue compassed they seeme to grow carelesse and to vnbend their attention as hauing obtained what with earnestnesse they desired that one might thinke they wrought by designe and had a distinct view of an end for the effecting of which they vsed discourse to choose the likeliest meanes To this purpose the subtilities of the foxe are of most note They say he vseth to lye as if he were dead thereby to make hennes and duckes come boldly to him That in the night whē his body is vnseene he will fixe his eyes vpon poultry and so make them come downe to him from their rooste That to ridde himselfe of the fleas that afflict him in the summer he will sinke his body by litle and litle into the water while the fleas creepe vp to his head to saue themselues from drowning and from thence to a bough he holdeth in his mouth and will then swimme away leauing them there That to cosen the badger of his earth he will pisse in it as knowing that the ranke smell of his vrine will driue the othe cleanelier beast to quitt it That when doggs are close vpon him and catching at him he will pisse vpon his tayle and by firking that vp and downe will endeauour you may beleeue to make their eyes smarte and so retarde their pursuite that he may escape from them And there are particular stories that expresse yet more cunning then all these as of a foxe that being sore hunted hanged himselfe by the teeth among dead vermine in a warren vntill the dogges were passed by him and had lost him Of an other that in the like distresse would take into his mouth a broome bush growing vpon a steepe cliffe on the side hand neere his denne which had an other way to it easy enough of accesse and by helpe of that would securely cast himselfe into his hole whiles the doggs that followed him hastily and were ignorant of the danger would breake their neckes downe the rockes It is said that in Thracia the country people so know whether the riuers that are frozen in the winter will beare them or no by marking whether the foxes venture boldely ouer them or retire after they haue layed their eares to the yce to listen whether or no they can heare the noyse of the water running vnder it from whence you may imagine they collect that if they heare the current of the streame the yce must needes be thinne and consequently dangerous to trust their weight vnto it And to busye my selfe no longer with their suttleties I will conclude with a famous tale of one of these crafty animals that hauing killed a goose on the other side of the riuer and being desirous to swimme ouer with it to carry it to his denne before he would attempt it least his prey might proue too heauy for him to swimme withall and so he might loose it he first weighed the goose with a piece of wood and then tryed to carry that ouer the riuer whiles he left his goose behind in a safe place which when he perceiued he was able to do with ease he then came backe againe and ventured ouer with his heauy birde They say it is the nature of the Iacatray to hide it selfe and imitate the voyce of such beasts as it vseth to prey vpon which maketh them come to him as to one of their owne fellowes and then he seiseth vpon them and deuoureth them The Iaccall that hath a subtile sent hunteth after beasts and in the chace by his barking guideth the lyon whose nose is not so good till they ouertake what they hunt which peraduenture would be too strong for the Iaccall but the lyon killeth the quarry and hauing first fed himselfe leaueth the Iaccall his share and so between them both by the ones dexterity and by the others strength they gett meate for nourishment of them both Like storyes are recorded of some fishes And euery day we see the inuentions of beasts to saue themselues from catching as hares when they are hunted seeke alwayes to confound the sent sometimes by taking hedges other whiles waters sometimes running among sheepe and other beasts of stronger sents sometimes making doubles and treading the same path ouer and ouer and sometimes leaping with great iumpes hither and thither before they betake themselues to their rest that so the cōtinuatenesse of the sent may not lead doggs to their forme Now to penetrate into the causes of these and of such like actions we may remember how we shewed in the last Chapter that the beating of the hart worketh two thinges the one is that it turneth about the specieses or litle corporeities streaming from outward obiects which remaine in the memory the other is that it is alwayes pressing on to some motion or other out of which it happeneth that when the ordinary wayes of getting victuals or of escaping from enemies do faile a creature whose constitution is actiue it lighteth
sometimes though peraduenture very seldome vpon doing something out of which the desired effect followeth as it can not choose but fall out now and then although chance only do gouerne their actions and when their action proueth successefull it leaueth such an impression in the memory that whensoeuer the like occasion occurreth that animal will follow the same methode for the same specieses do come together from the memory into the fantasy But the many attēpts that miscarry and the ineffectuall motions which straightes do cast beasts vpon are neuer obserued nor are there any stories recorded of them no more then in the temple of Neptune were kept vpon the registres the relations of those vnfortunate wretches who making vowes vnto that god in their distresse were neuerthelesse drowned Thus peraduenture when the foxe seeth his labour in chaceing the hennes to be to no purpose and that by his pursuite of them he driueth them further out of his reach he layeth himselfe downe to rest with a watchfull eye and perceiuing those silly animals to grow bolder and bolder by their not seing him stirre he continueth his lying still vntill some one of them cometh within his reach and then on a suddaine he springeth vp and catcheth her or peraduenture some poultry might haue strayed within his reach whiles he was asleepe and haue then wakened him with some noise they made and so he happen to seise vpon one of them without eyther designe or paines taking before hand by such degrees he might chance to catch one the first time and they being settled in his memory together with the effect it happened that an other time when hunger pressed him and sent vp to his braine like spirits vnto those which ascended thither whiles he lay watching the hennes these spirits brought the other from his memory into his fantasy in such sort as we haue shewed in the last Chapter and so droue him to the same course vntill by frequent repetitions it became ordinary and familiar with him and then they that looke only vpon the performance of the artifice are apt to inferre discourse and a designe of reason out of the orderly conduct of it But how can we conceiue the foxe hath iudgement to know when the henne is come within his leape and accordingly offereth not art her till then vnlesse we resort to some other principle then what is yet declared The answere vnto this obiection I thinke will not be hard to find for if the motion which the presence of the obiect maketh in the hart be proportioned out by nature as there is no doubt but it is it will not be so great and powerfull as to make the foxe leape att it vntill it be arriued so neere him that by his nimblenesse he can reach it and so without any ayme further then by the meere fluxe of his passion conueniently raysed he doth the feate but if his passion be too violent it maketh him misse his ayme as we may frequently obserue both in men and beasts and particularly when feare presseth eyther of them to leapeouer a ditch which being too broad he lighteth in the middest of it The same watchfullnesse and desire to haue the poulen that sitt vpon a tree out of his reach maketh him fixe his eyes vpon them when they are att rooste and att length eyther the brightnesse and sparkling of them dazeleth the birdes and maketh them come downe to them as flyes do in the night about the flame of a candle or as fishes do to a light in a boates head or else they are affraid and their feare encreasing their spirits returne to the hart which thereby is oppressed and their outward partes are bereaued of strength and motion from whence it followeth necessarily that their footing looseth their hold fast and they tumble downe halfe dead with feare which happeneth also frequently to catts when they looke wistly vpon litle birdes that sitt quietly Or peraduenture their feare maketh them giddy as when some man looking downe a precipice from a dangerous standing he falleth by the turning of his braine though nothing be behind him to thrust him forewardes Or it may be some steame cometh from the foxe which draweth such creatures to him as it is reported that a great and very poysonous toade will do a weasell who will runne about the toade a great while and still make his circle lesser and lesser till at length he perisheth in the center where his foe sitteth still and draweth him to him which he doth in such sort as animated Mercury will draw leafe gold duely prepared or as the loadestone attracteth iron and yet it is apparent the weasell cometh not with his good will but that there are some powerfull chaines steaming from the body of the toade which plucke him thither against his liking for by his motions and running he will expresse the greatest feare that can be The methode which foxes do practise to ridde themselues of their fleas if it be true is obuious enough for them to fall vpon for in summer their fleas together with their thicke furred coate can not choose but cause an exceeding great itching and heate in their bodies which will readily inuite them to go into the water to coole themselues as the marchantes at the Isles of Zante and of Cephalonia told me when I was there it was the custome of our English doggs who were habituated vnto a colder clyme to runne into the sea in the heate of summer and lye there most part of the day with only their noses out of the water that they might draw breath and would sleepe there with their heads layed vpon some stone which raysed them vp whiles their bodies were couered with the sea and those doggs which did not thus would in one summer vsually be killed with heate and fleas Now when the foxe feeleth the ease that the coolenesse of the water affordeth that part of him which sitteth in it he goeth further and further yet would not putt himselfe to swimme which is a labour and would heate him and therefore he auoydeth it so that whiles he thus cooleth himselfe in some shady place for it is naturall vnto him in such an occasion to resort vnto the coole shade rather then to lye in the sunne and in such there being for the most part some boughes hanging ouer the water it happeneth naturally enough that he taketh some of the lowest in his mouth to support him and saue him the labour of swimming whiles he lyeth at his ease soaking and cooling himselfe in the riuer By which meanes it cometh to passe that the fleas finding no part of him free from water do creepe vp to the bough to rescue themselues from drowning and so when he is cooled enough he goeth away and leaueth them there In all which finding a benefitt and satisfaction whensoeuer the like occasion bringeth those specieses from his memory into his fantasy he betaketh himselfe to the same course and therein
of that afterwardes carry their discourse to a higher pitch she by an inborne vertue maketh a man do it orderly constantly and certainely The like may be obserued in the dayly vse men make of the maximes of humane action which are certaine knowledges that formerly they haue gotten but that thâ—y vsually thinke not of whiles they worke agreeable to them yet it seemeth they worke by them for if their action should iarre against any of them they would presently reflect vpon their Maxime and by it correct what they were about for example one who is skilled in the rules of Grammar or of accenting his speech or hath his eare vsed to Musike whiles he heareth true construction or euen verse or consonant song neuer reflecteth how it is made or at most doth but consider in grosse that it is right but if a solecisme or false quantity or discorde interuene he presently is aware not only that it is amisse but remembreth the very particular precise rule against which the breach is made This at the first sight might occasion vs to imagine that the rules by which any composition is made do wâ—â—ke only negatiuely in vs whiles we are busie about it that is that they contribute nothing to the making of the thing but only hinder vs from committing errors but if we consider the matter well we shall find it impossible but that they should worke euen positiuely in vs for we know that when we first learne any of these thinges we looke industriously for such a gender or number or case or tense for such a foote or quantity such a note or consonance and we are sure that vse and practise of the same thing doth not change but only facilitate the worke therefore it followeth of necessity that we still vse those very instructions by which at the first we could but slowly creepe but now manage them with such celerity as our fansy can not keepe pace with what we do And this is the reasoÌ„ why we do not perceiue that we thinke of them but may peraduenture at the same time thinke of a quite different matter as when a musitian playeth voluntary diuision vpon a ground he neuer saw before and yet hath all the while some other thought in his head or when a painter draweth a picture and all the while discourseth with a by stander This truth may be conuinced by an other argument as thus it can not be doubted but that a verse or song is made by the power of making such compositions but that power is the art of them and that art is nothing else but the rules whereby they are made and accordingly we see that who hath not the art can not make such compositions but who hath can when he pleaseth and if any man would be able to make them he presently studyeth the art so that it can not be doubted but that artificiall thinges are alwayes made by the vse of those rules which teach the making of them although for the most part we are not able to perceiue how such rules are vsed and besides this we are sure that we do not only make vse of those rules we learned at the first but when we are arriued to Maistery in any art we make vse of them in a quite different manner then we did in the beginning and then we do in any other thing wherein we find paine and difficulty In the second effect that we experience of our vnderstanding which is our casting about for new conceptions when those it already hath appeare not sufficient to direct what it hath in hand the force and working of it is very euident for this effect proceedeth out of a want of satisfaction and this belongeth properly to the vnderstanding for if euidence and satisfaction be qualities of it then of necessity the priuation of these qualities must likewise belong vnto it as also to discerne that priuation and to vse meanes to auoyde it and in the very casting about we see a choice made and that thinges are not taken promiscuously as they come of a rowe but that some of them are sett aside and others aduanced for vse which argueth plainely the knowledge and gouernement of the vnderstanding But the third operation is that which giueth clearest euidence of the peculiar and distinct working of the vnderstanding for if we marke the contestation and strife within vs betweene our sensuall part and his antagonist which mainteneth the resolution sett by reason and obserue how exceedingly their courses and proceedings differ from one an other we shall more plainely discerne the nature and power and efficacy of both of them We may perceiue that the motions against Reason rise vp turbulently as it were in billowes and like a hill of boyling water as truly Passion is a conglobation of spitits do putt vs into an vnquiet and distempered heate and confusion on the other side Reason endeauoureth to keepe vs in our due temper by sometimes commanding downe this growing sea otherwhiles by contenting in some measure the desires of it and so diuerting an other way its vnruly force sometimes she terrifyeth it by the proposall of offensiue thinges ioyned vnto those it is so earnest to enioy againe sometimes she preuenteth it by cutting of all the causes and helpes that promote on its impotent desires and by engaging before hand the power of it in other thinges and the like All which do euidently conuince that as Reason hath a great strength and power in opposition of sense so it must be a quite different thing and of a contrary nature vnto it we may adde that the worke of Reason can neuer be well performed but in a great quiet and tranquillity whereas the motions of Passion are alwayes accompanâ—ed with disorder and perturbation so as it appeareth manifestly that the force of Reason is not purely the force of its instruments but the force of its instruments as they are guided and as the quantities of them are proportioned by it and this force of Reason is different from the force of its instruments in themselues in such sort as the force of a song is different from the force of the same soundes whereof it is composed taken without that order which the musitian putteth in them for otherwise the more spirits that are raysed by any thought which spirits are the instruments whereby Reason performeth all her operations in vs the more strongly Reason should worke the contrary of which is euident for we see that too great aboundance of spirits confoundeth Reason This is as much as at present I intend to insist vpon for proofe that our vnderstanding hath its proper and distinct operations and worketh in a peculiar manner and in a quite different straine from all that is done by our senses Peraduenture some may conceiue that the watchfulnesse and recalling of our thoughts backe to their enioyned worke when they breake loose and runne astray and our not letting them
fountaine of blisse and cast my selfe headlong into that sea of felicity where I can neither apprehend shallow waters nor feare I shall be so litle immersed and drowned as to meete with any shelfe or dry ground to moderate and stinte my happinesse A selfe actiuity and vnbounded extent and essence free from time and place assure me sufficiently that I neede desire no more Which way soeuer I looke I loose my sight in seeing an infinity round about me Length without pointes Breadth without Lines Depth without any surface All content all pleasure all restlesse rest all an vnquietnesse and transport of delight all an extasy of fruition Happy forgetfulnesse how deepely am I obliged to thee for making roome for this soule rauishing contemplation by remouing this whiles all other images of things farre from me I would to God thou mightest endure whiles I endure that so I might be drowned in this present thought and neuer wake againe but into the enioying and accompletion of my present enflamed desires But alas that may not be The eternal light whom my soule and I haue chosen for Arbiter to determine vnto vs what is most expedient for vs will not permit it We must returne and that into feares and miseries For as a good life breedeth encrease of happinesse so doth an euell one heape vp Iliades of woe First my soule before I venture we should be certaine that thy parting from this life waft thee ouer to assured happinesse For thou well knowest that there are noxious actions which depraue and infect the soule whiles it is forging and moulding here it its body and tempering for its future being and if thou shouldest sally hence in such a peruerse disposition vnhappinesse would betyde thee insteed of thy presumed blisse I see some men so rauenous after those pleasures which cannot be enioyed out of the body that if those impotent desires accompany their soules into eternity I can not doubt of their enduring an eternity of misery I can not doubt of their being tormented with such a dire extremity of vnsatisfyable desire and violent greife as were able to teare all this world into pieces were it conuerted into one hart and to riue in sunder any thing lesse then the necessity of contradiction How high the blisse of a well gouerned soule is aboue all power of quantity so extreme must the rauenous inclemency and vulturelike cruelty be of such an vncompassable desire gnawing eternally vpon the soule for the same reason holdeth in both and which way soeuer the grauitation and desires of a separated soule do carry it it is hurried on with a like impetuosity and vnlimited actiuity Lett me then cast an heedfull and wary eye vpon the actions of the generality of mankind from whence I may guesse at the weale or woe of their future state and if I find that the greatest number weigheth downe in the scale of misery haue I not reason to feare least my lott should prooue among theirs For the greatest part sweepeth along with it euery particular that hath not some particular reason to exempt it from the generall law Insteede then of a few that wisely settle their hartes on legitimate desires what multitudes of wretched men do I see some hungry after flesh and bloud others gaping after the empty wind of honour and vanity others breathing nothing but ambitious thoughts others grasping all and groueling vpon heapes of melted earth So that they put me all in a horrour and make me feare least very few they be that are exempted from the dreadfull fate of this incomprehensible misery to which I see and grieue to see the whole face of mankind desperately turned May it not then be my sad chance to be one of their vnhappy number Be content then fond man to liue Liue yet till thou hast first secured the passage which thou art but once to venture on Be sure before thou throwest thy selfe into it to put thy soule into the scales ballance all thy thougths examine all thy inclinations put thy selfe to the reste try what drosse what pure gold is in thy selfe and what thou findest wanting be sure to supply before nature calleth thee to thy dreadfull account It is soone done if thou beest what thy nature dictateth thee to be Follow but euident reason and knowledge and thy wantes are supplyed thy accountes are made vp The same euershining truth which maketh thee see that two and two are foure will shew thee without any contradiction how all these base allurements are vaine and idle and that there is no comparison betweene the highest of them and the meanest of what thou mayest hope for hast thou but strength to settle thy hart by the steerage of this most euident science in this very moment thou mayst be secure But the hazard is great in missing to examine thy selfe truly and throughly And if thou miscarry there thou art lost for euer Apply therefore all thy care all thy industry to that Lett that be thy continuall study and thy perpetuall entertainement Thinke nothing else worth the knowing nothing else worth the doing but screwing vp thy soule vnto this hight but directing it by this leuell by this rule Then feare not nor admit the least doubt of thy being happy when thy time shall come and that time shall haue no more power ouer thee In the meane season spare no paines forbeare no diligence employ all exactnesse burne in summer freese in winter watch by night and labour by day ioyne monthes to monthes and entayle yeares vpon yeares Thinke nothing sufficient to preuent so maine a hazard and deeme nothing long or tedious in this life to purchace so happy an eternity The first discouerers of the Indies cast themselues among swarmes of maneaters they fought and strugled with vnknowne waues so horrid ones that oftentimes they perswaded themselues they climbed vp mountaines of waters and straight againe were precipitated headlong downe betweene the clouen sea vpon the foaming sand from whence they could not hope for a resource hunger was their foode snakes and serpents were their daynties sword and fire were their dayly exercise and all this only to be masters of a litle gold which after a short possession was to quitt them for euer Our searchers after the Northerne passage haue cutt their way through mountaines of yce more affrightfull and horrid then the Symplegades They haue imprisoned themselues in halfe yeare nights they haue chayned themselues in perpetuall stone cleauing coldes some haue beene found closely embracing one an other to conserue as long as they were able a litle fewell in their freesing harts at lenght petrifyed by the hardnesse of that vnmercifull winter others haue beene made the prey of vnhumane men more sauage then the wildest beasts others haue beene neuer found nor heard of so that surely they haue proued the foode of the vgly monsters of that vast ycy sea and these haue beene able and vnderstanding men What motiues what hopes had