naturally and not accidentally Lucid If otherwise why might not this opiniative Monsieur as well Attribute Inherent transparency or shining unto Water that is so nearly ally'd to Air in being of a fluid and thin Substance But who ever observ'd any shining in either of these Elements in a cloudy Day or Night So that Experience assures That neither Air or Water have in themselves any Illuminating Propriety unless he could convincs us That a congeries of his Globuli of which he Asserts the vast quantity of Air and Water is Compos'd were glisteringly parcell'd like studded Diamonds But allowing neither them nor their Vortices and Elements from whence he derives them any such Capacity or so much as a Being in rerum natura I cannot but totally reject them wheresoever I find them as formerly I have done My next remarkable Consideration shall refer to his 48th Particular where he delivers the two main specifical Qualities that he annexes to the Nature of Water some of which he determines flexible others inflexible and if separated one from another some of them compose or produce Salt Water whilst others sweet or fresh This Principle of his can never be so perfectly Season'd as that it shall not taste of a Paradox in the very Sense of the Word as it is apply'd by common Understanding For what is more distastful to obvious Intelligence than to Attribute to the Fluidity of Water a flexible or inflexible Qualification Whereas Water by its appropriated Inclination may be properly said to flow but not to bend or consider'd as absolutely Inflexible A Stick or Cane may be bow'd by the Hand but can a Man so grasp a quantity of Water as he may be thought to Inflect or bend the liquid Material or feel in any of its fluid Substance such an Inflexible Part that he could not squeez or if he did immediately observe it stiffen'd into a Salt Composition Could this be readily perform'd by Manual Operation it would doubtless advantageously facilitate the Salt-Manufacture and gratifie the Inventer with a Pension and thanks from the Publick for his beneficial Project But I cannot perceive any such assurance in the Writings of this French Gentleman if not rather an Imaginary Perfection conferr'd by him on the Actings of his Globuli as he supposes them sometimes to thin Water into Air or thicken Air into Water Much like the pretended Experiments of Empiricks who boastingly teach That their Operations consist of such a quintessence of Things as were never understood before Whereas indeed 't is a devis'd Tale of so many Non-Entities as to any Use or Effect that could be actually perform'd by any real process of such Authors The next Exterior and Contiguous Element to Air is Water as it is by Philosophers Elementarily understood of which In his 49th Particular he offers a very confiderable Account as he applys it to the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea The external Superficies of the Earth being in some sort surrounded by the Ocean whereby the Globulous Form of the Earth is more exactly compleated There is no Speculation within the Precincts of Nature that has more perplex'd Learned Authors than the Discovery they would attain of the Causes that effect the Flux and Reflux of the Sea every six Hours of Day and Night as it is variously observ'd in different Climes and Situations of the Earth But as to the Ocean in general the same Compass of Time relating to its Floating and Refloating is usually expended Whereas in the Baltick as also in some other Seas there are no such Egressions and Regressions of the Waves of the Sea which failure is by some thought to proceed from the narrowness or streightness of the Shores and the adjoyning Caverns of the Earth not large enough to receive or be fill'd with the huge Billows of the rolling Water Or because the coldness of those Parts of the World obstruct the Rarifying of Exhalations requisitely conducing to the sufficient Tumefying or Swelling of the Waves that flow to their Shores Whether these Reasons or more that might be added have an effectual tendency in order to the various Fluxions and Refluxions of the Ocean observable in many Places of the Earth I will not dispute being more inclinable to believe that it is a Secret more deeply absconded by Nature than can be penetrated by the most accurate Inquisition of Humane Science Notwithstanding it may be Affirm'd That the remote Cause may probably be deriv'd from the Etherial vigour of divers Stars but most especially from the Moon when gradually arising above the Horizon she disperses her Beams obliquely on the Ocean and by that means warmes as also exhales from the bottom of the Sea such Exhalations that being Dilated Tumefy'd and consequently so weightily Increas'd as in a manner they Revolve to Shores The next Diversity may be apprehended from the Degrees of Motion made by the Moon as she departs from the Meridian towards the West Part of the Horizon by which Movement she disperses her Raies and Light less obliquely and therefore not so efficaciously transmitted to the Sea or generative of Vapors whence follows such a remission of the Tumidity of the Ocean that it seems to Reside and by so doing causes an Ebb or with-drawing from the Land Other Varieties of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Ocean as they depend on the Motion of the Moon by Day or Night might be mention'd here But I conceive the Instances I have given are enough and which I thought conveniently interpos'd because the most Remarkable Opinion amongst Philosophers before I came to the Judgment of Des-Cartes on this profound Subject To which purpose he rely's on the Phaenomena of his Vortices and Globuli together with the Motion of the Earth and Sea contiguous unto it and a Scheme delineated to that end On all which I am oblig'd to Insert no other Remark than by insisting on my absolute denial of the total Hypothesis of his Vortices and Globuli as also of the Earth's Motion either Diurnal or Annual which by the Diagram that I have given in the Third Part I doubt not is Geometrically demonstrated So that it were a needless Repetition should I reiterate the same Confutation In his 51st Particular I confess he has a Conceit which as to the Flux and Reflux of the Ocean could I Correspond with the dependence it has on his other Systems appears to be Mathematically acceptable by the Instance he gives and seeming probation why in Equinoctial Times or when the Moon is either at Full or at New the Flowing of the Sea is greater than at other Seasons Which he thinks he Confirms by alledging That the Moon at such Times and condition of her Light has always a Vicinity to the Plane of the Ecliptick and that the Earth which he supposes motional makes its Diurnal Progression according to the Plane of the Equator From whence saies he it comes to pass that those two Planes Intersect one another but in Solstitial
in the Sense of approv'd Philosophy Springs and Fountains together with the sweetness of their Waters may be deriv'd from Exhalations which being Condens'd in the hollow Passages of the Earth are converted into Water as may be observ'd of a kind of Breathings evaporated from a Pot of Liquor that by the frigidity of its Cover are thicken'd into small Drops of a liquid Nature From whence it ensues that great quantities of Sea-Water flowing in many Caverns of the Earth such tenuous Parts are exhal'd from them that being moistly Condens'd are turn'd into Fountains He bids us not wonder as indeed we need not if in the bottom of some Wells there may be found salt-Salt-Water Which he thinks might there remain because the brinish liquidity is not strain'd or clear'd from the Water of the Seas as it passes to such Profundities That Water in some Wells is Salt notwithstanding they are far distant from the Sea is not to be doubted but the reason he gives for their being so is not certain Because it is very likely that the Sea-Water might not pass to any remote Parts within the Earth and not be alter'd or purified from their saltness by meeting as also mixt with abundance of fresh Water that passes and repasses within the Earth Nor is it impossible that divers hot Substances as Minerals and the like contain'd in profound Places of the Earth might not so efficaciously rarifie such quantities of Water that the residue would remain thicken'd and therefore more aptly inclin'd to saltness But as the Supremer and not less Important Cause of the saltness of Water in Wells especially of some that are farthest distant from the Sea may be reasonably thought to proceed from the powerful Exhalations effected by the Sun and Stars by whose Influence and Heat the tenuous Parts of Water are Extracted tho' from deepest Wells leaving such a crassitudeness in the residue as gives to it a Salt Qualification Nothing being more certain than that whatsoever is thicken'd and thereby render'd more dryly adust especially where Earth has any Commixture with it saltness as its concomitant Quality will be there found The same Reason may be given for Salt discover'd in Mountains mention'd by this Author Nor is the Cause at all different if not more obviously expos'd from whence proceeds the briny Relish of the Superficies of the Ocean Which openly Revolving under the Celestial Luminaries has its tenuous Parts supremely Exhaled and consequently the Regions replenish'd with Clouds which being dissolv'd into Drops of Rain there is no Salt Acerbity to be perceiv'd in them which proves That the Moisture exhal'd from the Sea is of a more tenuous Substance than that which is left behind and therefore of a fresher Taste To which may be added experimental assurance that the Sea is less brackish at bottom than on its superficial Parts Which sufficiently confirms that the Saltness of Sea-Water is produc'd by the Motion and Heat that is Influenc'd by the Sun and Stars That the Waters of the Ocean are rather accidentally than naturally Salt as also that they purge themselves in their passage to Shores may be signally noted from the Experiment made by Julius Caesar who when Besieg'd in Alexandria caus'd Pits to be digg'd in the Shore of the Sea which reliev'd his Army with Water potably fresh by reason that the Sea-Water had its Saltness in a manner strain'd as it pass'd thorough the Sands on the Shore That the Southern Ocean is salter than the Northern can be effected from no other Cause than that the Sea in that Part of the World is Warmer than the other correspondent to the Air and Winds that coming from the South are Hotter to Sense than those which are blown from the North. There is no Question more Controverted by Philosophers then the Causes that limit and confine the Ocean tho' by its Elementary Propriety higher than the Superficies of the Earth and perpetually supply'd with innumerable Springs Fountains Rivers and Flouds that vastly Unite their Currents as they elapse from the inward and outward Parts of the Earth Yet do not so replenish the Sea however by Nature elevated above the Terrene World that it executes that Prerogative by a general Inundation Or by particular Exorbitancy gain more on any Part of the Earth's Surface than it loses in another The Reason of which as it is render'd by some of erudite Proficiency is because great quantities of the Water of the Sea are receiv'd by Caverns within the Earth as likewise that the Ocean is much commixt with Terrene Materials which depress in divers Places of the Sea the outragious height and swelling of its Waves before they arrive to Shores As also that the hard Composition and Dryness of the Earth contiguously resist the Attacks made by the Water These Instances I doubt not are sounder Probabilities tending to the Decision of the Grand Question before mention'd than any to be deduc'd from the Reasons given by Des-Cartes Which are so complicated if not intricately perplex'd that he might have spar'd his endeavour to explain them by any Draughts or Schemes which if duely Inspected would rather expose their Obscurity than Intelligibly clear them to the Sense of the Peruser And thus I pass to what he Writes of Things contain'd in the Internal Parts of the Earth together with their Causes The most principal of which relate to Earth-quakes the Eruption of Flames out of Mountains such as are observ'd of Aetna in Sicily and Vesuvius in Campania Of these proceeding from subterraneous Effects Operations and Causes I cannot find if granted his Principles That a more accurate Discovery is explicated by his Pen than what has been Written of their wonderful Productions and Consequences by others Much he Inscribes of Stones Minerals and in Summ without enumerating of their several Denominations of the principal Things that are contain'd in the Bowels of the Earth But most especially he Treats of the Magnet or Load-stone together with its admired Proprieties This precious Stone above all value for its commodious and extraordinary Use whose transcendent Excellencies untill discover'd in some few Ages past was wanted to the Conduct of most Approv'd Navigators Who before understood the Sympathetick Virtues and wonderful Attraction of the Magnet as by its affectionate Touch the Points of a Needle are directive on the Ocean were too frequently without a Guide benighted and wanderingly toss'd on the watery World or necessitated to Furl their Sails and fix Anchors in the bottom of the Main untill discern'd the Munificent appearance of some noted Star whose Motion being Calculated directed their Journey on the Waves of the Sea Whereas now the Pilot more certainly Sails by the Compass that contains his Magnetical Needle than he could before its Invention by any other Computation By what means or happy Accident this admirable Benefit whose secret Cause and Efficacy is so occultly reserv'd by Nature from the eruditest Search of the Learned was first Discover'd seems rather
magnifies that he exposes them as he finds occasion to the view of his Reader in other Parts of his Works besides those I have to do with witness the Fourth Particular of the First Chapter of his Dioptricks or of Light and the manner of Vision by the Telescope where he has this unintelligible Expression If we consider saies he the distinction that a Man Blind from his Nativity can make betwixt the Colour of Trees Water Stones and the like meerly by the use and touch of the Staff he walks with no less certainly than seeing Men can discern Red Yellow or Blew in any visible Object although their differences could be no other in such Bodies than diversities of Motion or the resistance they make to the Blind Man's Staff It has been an undoubted Maxim That whosoever is Blind is no judge of Colours But by the quaint Philosophy of this Author it seems a resolv'd Point That a Man may see without the use of Eyes So that a sightless Man who cannot make a safe Step without a Guide may if conducted to walk to the end of a Street declare certainly of what Shape Figure or Colour every Post is that he touches with the Staff that supports him I confess as I Read this Particular I expected that he would have somewhat more exalted the Conceit by Affirming That a Blind Man might perfectly inspect through the Glasses of the Telescope he there Writes of and next give an account of the Bigness Diameters and various appearances of the Stars colours of the Rain-bow and other Meteors In Summ he might have as well Asserted that the Ear could perform the Office of Seeing as by feeling it could be executed in any kind by a Blind Man's management Nor less unintelligible is the general Definition he gives in the before-mention'd Head of Colours which he Terms no other than various Modalities by which they are receiv'd in Objects of Colour Whereas they are certain Proprieties inseparably appertaining both to animated and inanimated Bodies as sure as a Brown Horse is naturally different from a Gray or Chesnut And 't were a weak Imagination to estimate Colour otherwise than Nature has appropriated it to particular Subjects And whosoever would fancy the contrary let him try whether he can wash a Blackmoor's Face untill it becomes White Another passage he Inserts in the 4th Chapter of his Dioptricks where he states his Idea of the Soul as a distinct Substance separated from the Senses by supposing that 't is the Soul alone and not the Body that is sensibly concern'd As he would infer from Extasie or distracted Contemplation in which Circumstance he conceives that the Soul is totally abstracted from the Corporeal Parts Whilst the Body remains stupified or bereav'd of Sense no less than when by Wounds or Diseases the Brain is prejudic'd But could be Think that in any such disturbance of Body and Mind the Soul does more than live as well as the Body since in that condition 't is impossible for the Soul to act deliberately of any Thing whilst the Senses are disabled or not assisting her Operations Yet in this plight of Body and Mind he is very inclinable to determine the Soul a separate Thinking Substance but incapable of sensibly executing her Intellectual Faculty which is much the same as to allow her in this Case a nonsensical Existence or not able to apprehend any Object without the concurring of the Senses This Objection is undeniably manifest if pertinently consider'd the main Potentials by which are actually effected and compleated the essential Capacities of the Life of the Intellect and Senses as they animatively conspire in the Body of Man For as there are always Extant a sufficient Quantity of the most refin'd Spirits or Quintessence naturally extracted from the Corporeal Temperament and in a wonderful and indiscernable Method diffus'd into the Cells and Crannies of the Brain by which means as the excellent Lord Bacon observes they are able to Move the whole mass or weight of the Body in the most swiftest Operations and Exercise Yet by no search or anatomical Inspection are these admirable Particles or Quintessences of our Nature at all discernable Tho' not to be denied that they consist of quantitative Parts because nothing but Quantity can operate on quantitative Dimensions as signified by Humane Composition Wherefore the wonderful Being and active Force of the material Spirits or Quintessence of the Corporeal Temper can have no other apter Epithet than was given by Democritus to his Notion of Atoms which he conceiv'd by Reason and Experience to be Things really Existing but not to be perceiv'd by the Sense of Seeing This Notion well apprehended is more than sufficient to convict the Tenent of Des-Cartes whereby he would define the Humane Soul to be a distinct Thinking Substance in the Body of Man where it has Being Action and Life yet discharg'd in point of Thought from the Accomplishment it has in the temperial Excellency that it admirably exerts and partakes so that in that Sense it may be term'd the Soul of the Body's temperature If at any time the Seat of the Intellect in the Brain is perplex'd confus'd or detrimentally wounded or stupified the Soul is obstructed for want of its contiguous Passage in the Nerves Arteries and Sinews however subtile the contexture which they derive from the Brain to the Parts of the Body Which could not be is the Soul according to this Author were in Substance essentially distinct from the most refin'd Operations and Attributes that sensibly emerge from the Corporeal Composition Let a Man Contemplate of any Object or Employment of his Senses he shall find is duely consider'd That in the same moment there is a ready Emanation of the Spirits of the Mind to the same purpose which are most contiguous to the several Uses Parts and Temperatures of the Body tho' not otherwise Spiritual Wherefore the Soul may not be improperly term'd equivalently such as by her imperceptible Essence She has in a manner an ubiquitary Efficacy in the total Body and every of its Parts and Members If the Souls of all Mankind be committed to Bodies by God as so many Thinking Substances it must necessarily follow that they all had a precedent Creation and therefore could lose nothing of their Perfection until joyn'd to the Body But if according to the Opinion of Some the Soul is traductionally produc'd and born with the Body as the disparities and temperatures of Men both in Mind and Person seem to be exerted either from Affinity in Blood or parentally propagated by the Connexion of the Bodily Parts and Senses it must according to that Tenent be materially produc'd Wherefore 't is far more probable if the Soul be granted a Thinking Substance united to the Senses by the Ordainment of the Almighty Than to allow it as does Des-Cartes seperately and actively intelligent in the Body of Man Of what kind of Substance this Author would define the Humane Soul
Spaces and such as contain Corporeal Substances indefinitely Extended Against which I offer a brief and obvious Exception by sensibly proving That as we cannot Imagine any Indefinite Extension or Space in the World in which we have Being so were another World equally Vast and Contiguous to this it were impossible to apprehend a boundless Corporeal Space within its total Continent By reason that uncircumscrib'd Space cannot be the Receptacle of Material Substance because whatever includes Body must have commensurable Attributes or such as in a Geometrical Sense may be defin'd a Superficies terminated by Length and Breadth Which demonstrably profligates his pretended Idea of Indefinite Space or Extension So little is in this Case the Doctrine of Nature beholding to the Philosophy of Des-Cartes His next Conception produc'd by his fruitful Idea is That Heaven and Earth are of one and the same Matter and that there is no possible Being of more than one World The first of this Head he no otherwise proves than as he takes it for granted That if there were Infinite or Innumerable Worlds they would be all of the same Matter wherefore he concludes there can be but One. The Objection that may be made against his Affirmation that the Matter of Heaven and Earth is the same is because Heaven can be no otherwise understood than as it has a Select and Primary Distinction from all Bodies of Elementary Composition Which is apparently manifest in its Figure Motion and Height absolutely different and far more Excellent than can be compar'd with other Substance Wherefore Zanchius writing of the Works of God gives to its most Sublime and Refin'd Perfection a spiritual Epithet to which purpose the Learned Pena in his Preface to Euclid defines it an Animated Spirit universally diffus'd To these may be added the Authority of Jamblichus a very considerable Author who in admiration of its Substance allows to its Perfections the nearest Attributes to Incorporeal Existence And who can doubt that the Judgment of any one of these erudite Persons in being more speculatively Refin'd and naturally suitable to the wonderful Objects Immensly distant from the Earth we tread on should not have a deference from our Understandings highly Superior to the gross Definition given them by Des-Cartes Who determines That the Substance of Heaven and Earth alike proceeds from the Heap of Nature's common Materials And whereas he Asserts in the latter Part of this Head That it is not possible to Imagine more Worlds than One. I think the contrary may be as certainly Affirm'd as that the World we reside in has a natural Confinement A Truth no less facile to Thought than 't is easie to delineate a Circle that in any Point shall touch another and yet leave betwixt them no Intervening Space that is not substantially repleted But this Speculation however readily exerted cannot be the proper Entertainment of the Mind unless I imagine a Similitude of Things and Beings Correspondent to the World in which I am As by the diligence of Thought I might observe in a devis'd World the same Persons Creatures Trees and Fields with such other Objects that had been visible to me in this Wherefore I take liberty to think contrary to the Opinion of this Author That the Intellect strengthned by the Senses is sufficiently enabled to Transport its Prospect to the plurality of Worlds To avoid which Imaginative Power of the Mind he annexes to his Idea of Matter undeterminate Extent A Notion absolutely Inconsistent with the Nature of Substance in all its Capacities which cannot have an Indefinite Being And therefore no less absurd than if suppos'd that Matter or Substance could be actually Infinite In some of his following Particulars he bestows many Words on the Motion of whatever may be deem'd Matter or Substance but finding nothing of Consequence to observe in most of them or that occasion any considerable Remark in being Dissentaneous to what he delivers I pass to his 25th Particular in which he Comprehends the main Fund of what he intends by Corporeal Movement the Instance which he gives is That any one Body or Substance in his Sense may be said to Move out of the Vicinity of other Bodies that were contiguous to it before and as at rest into the Vicinity of others By this Definition he proclaims an endless War in the Campains of Nature where the opposite Commotions and Powers of Individual Bodies endeavour to possess the natural Beings of their quiet Neighbours From which Problem could it be prov'd might be deduc'd a better Disciplin'd Argument in behalf of Exorbitant Potentates when Molesting or Intruding into the peaceable Vicinities and Provinces of others than has as yet been urg'd on their Part Because it might be dextrously grounded on the Toleration and Conduct dispens'd by Imperial Nature amongst her subordinate Dominions This War of Nature denounc'd by so Eminent a Philosophical Herald as Des-Cartes could not but Incense many Combats in the Schools of Science But how far prosperous there or disallow'd is not requisite in this Place to Discuss I shall therefore Imploy the Force of my Understanding without being oblig'd to the Assistance of any Tribe or Scholastical Association to attack his Arguments where they deserve the most Emphatical Opposition My first Assault on this Head shall be against the main Fort of his New-Modell'd Fortification where to defend his Principles he Exerts the Artillery of his Idea which according to the Level of his Notions must batter to pieces the entire Confederacies of Nature and so separate their Societies and Rooms in the Universe That unless a more pathetical Expedient can be found than what he offers Towns and Countries with whatever they contain may as soon be Remov'd out of this World and Situated in another as one Corporeal Substance can Usurp the Province or Being of another Because no quantitative Matter but must if Mov'd into the Place of any other possess the Space that naturally appertain'd to its Existence And whether could he suppose That a Bodily Thing could Remove that is by any means Expell'd by the Motion of another Substance from its proper Appartment Since neither his Brain or any other Man's can by an empty Idea so diminish the World as that any Particle of it might be conceiv'd to vanish to Vacuity Nor less Intolerably opposite to the Proprieties of Nature is the Maxim he Inserts of the Translation of Material Things into the proper Residence or Place of others Not that 't is deniable that Bodies are alterably Mov'd or Chang'd by Effects of Rarifaction or Condensation and other ordinary Methods of Nature as to their manner of Extension and Figure but not as to the Space that Circumscrib'd their Substances because it is Impossible for them for Reasons before mention'd to be naturally provided for by any other Room for their Existence And thus if any Receptacle or Vessel be suppos'd fill'd with Earth or Water and those Materials afterwards Remov'd the Air
Planets from the Sun as they relate to the before-mention'd System he thus accounts Mercury above 200 Diameters of the Earth Venus above 400 Mars 900 or 1000 Jupiter above 3000 Saturn 5 or 6000 Diameters of the Earth distant from her The Copernican Hypothesis is so much the same with his and so frequently Inscrib'd in Almanacks that I shall desire my Reader rather to Inspect any one of them there than to trouble my self with delineating of a Diagram to so thread bare a Purpose here The difference that he allows the Stars not only as some of them are greater than others but as the Planets receive their Illuminations communicated to them by the Light of the Sun Concenters with the general Opinion of all Astronomers Nor will I directly oppose the Imagination he Annexes by which he Attributes to every of the fix'd Stars a particular Fountain of Light and as distant from the Sun as the Sun is from us Concluding That were we Situated as near the six'd Stars as we are to the Sun we might observe any one of their Magnitudes as much Illuminated as the Sun appears to our Sight On which ground 't is possible he may be tho' but in Conceit as much in the right as any certain Argument or Proof that can be urg'd to the contrary by reason of the wonderful appearance and immense remoteness of the fix'd Stars from us Notwithstanding that the famous Tycho as far as his accurase Observation could elevate his Computation determines in general that the fix'd Stars are not nearer the Earth than 13000 of her Semidiameters But in the 11th and 12th Particulars of this Treatise this Author delivers a more unparallel'd Paradox than ever was Imputed to a Learned Pen The First is That the Earth tho' a very opacous Body is as perfectly enlightned by the Beams of the Sun as the Moon wherefore he conceives the Earth to be also a Planet And why might he not have Affirm'd the same of Glass Iron or any other solid Substance since we are assur'd by common Experience That every one of these are not only capable of being Illuminated by the Sun but will also have their Shadows So that according to his Opinion any gross opacous Matter may be estimated on a shining Day no less a Madam in Composition and Feature than the Moon or Planet Venus It seems he forgot that these Stars continue their Light whilst the Earth has not Sun-Light longer than the Sun shines on her But why he so cheaply compares the Dominion of the bright Queen of Night with the dull Earthly Lamp on which we Inhabit I connot guess unless by some one of those which he calls distinct and unerrable Ideas he imagin'd That his Person was elevated to a Market in the Moon and there observ'd some Utensils in a Ihon of all Trades-Shop marvellously reflecting the Illuminations and Beams of the Sun And surely he might as well allow the possibility of these Examples with whatsoever besides has Being on Earth as perfectly Existing in the Moon Since by his Tenent a very capacious World may be thought encompass'd by Her His other egregious Mistake depends on the Former which is That he fancies that the Earth performs the Part of the Sun by Illuminating the Face of the Moon beheld by us when she is in her New Estate or Conjunction with him Which Notion is very false both in a Philosophical and Astronomical Consideration Nothing being more unnatural than to Attribute Planetary Light either Communicable or Inherent to the unrefin'd Body of the Earth which can be no otherwise understood by reason that there is no such Thing as a pure Element of Earth but rather its Substance grosly Commixt and Corrupted by the Intercourse of the other Elements And thus Air Earth Fire and Water as Use and Observation assure us are impurely mixt And should the Earth as she does and must necessarily so Subsist receive Light or Flame from the Sun in common with the Planets Her corrupt Frame and combustible Materials would have been long ago totally burning to the utter dissolution of the Figure and Composition that she now possesses However Antecedent to the Opinion of some Learned Divines that defers her Conflagration to the Day of Judgment And this might have been effected with as much Facility as a Burning-glass kindles a Pipe of Tobacco Especially if granted the Earth a Planet according to this Author and always Moving because Motion where it is sufficiently continu'd Inflames every Thing that is materially capable to be set on fire as is visible in the Axletree of a Waggon caus'd by the Movement of the Wheel that round it turns The like might be determin'd in reference to the Moon and other Motional Stars if their Compositions were Elementarily mingled But their Substance is more Sublime and Excellent if not superlative to any Definition that can be given of their Nature and Manner of Existence As I doubt not is Emphatically prov'd by my Remarks on the 21th Particular of the Second Part of this Author 's Philosophical Treatise To which I refer the Reader And whereas he would confirm his Assertion by pretending That the Earth Illuminates some part of the Moon when she is in Conjunction with the Sun 'T is no less diametrically opposite to what we behold in that State of the Moon than it is to Astronomical Certainty and why might not the Moon as well receive Light from the Earth according to his Doctrine when at her Full she is sometimes so Eclipsically opposite to the Sun as twice a-Year he passes by the Nodes or is near unto them call'd the Dragon's Head and Tail that she appears totally Darken'd Which can be no otherwise caus'd than as the Earth is betwixt her and the Sun But could she then receive any glimpse or sign of Light from the Earth it would be as discernible as at any other Time Which enough Confirms That the Earth is no Luminary Planet and therefore none at All as will be prov'd by what is to come In the mean time 't is not improper on this Occasion to Explain the Phases or Figure of the Moon especially when in Conjunction with the Sun which without the trouble of a Diagram may be thus readily Express'd 'T is not to be doubted That the Moon as she moves round the Earth has always one half of her Illuminated by the Sun but not so as that half is always visible to us Tho' sometimes more or less or nothing of her Enlightned Half appearing towards us by reason that as so many Semicircles or as it were Semiglobes of the Moon 's Compass are turn'd to the Eye or Earth they cannot considering their Curvitures be discern'd in Plain by the Eye And this differently happens as the Light of the Sun to Sight may be obstructed by the Convex or Mountainous Part of the Earth or by the Intervening of Aerial Vapours which cause the Face of the Moon that is turn'd towards
may be as much in the wrong by his Inventing of so many separate Orbits Motions and Distances upwards and downwards from one another as by Imagination he has remov'd some Thousands of Stars from the Constellations to which all Former Astronomers determin'd them fix'd As also by defining of them no other to whomsoever will accept his Hypothesis than in Grandeur and Refulgency equal to the Sun were they as near our Eyes but wherever they are he continues them fastenâ—d to their single Circumferences in the same manner as he allows the Sun So that according to his Opinion had we longer Opticks we might behold every one of them in a separate Sphere as fully Conspicuous as the Days bright Phoebus But after all he offers not so much as a plain Triangle to prove his Conceit Some Schemes he has rais'd in which he so confusedly Represents and as it were Embroiders the above-mention'd Spheres of Stars and by so many Obliquities and Figurative windings together with their Curvitures on all sides upwards and downwards that there cannot be discern'd amongst them one Section of a Cone or conical Figure that can be Geometrically describ'd The Substance of the Heavens as also their Vicinities he calls Fluid into which he Infuses abundance of liquid Matter that may be compar'd to a Whirl-pool and these he denominates Vortices And next le ts go amongst them as he finds occasion such deminutive Substances which he Terms Moving Globuli or rather swimming Spawns of Matter much of fictitional Resemblance to the devis'd Atoms of Epicurus By these Things fancifully Imploy'd he undertakes to Revolve all the Motional Stars together with the Earth which he takes for a Copernican Planet instead of the Sun that he exempts from Motion whether Diurnal or Annual His Diagrams to this extravagant purpose I leave to the Inspection of the Reader as they are to be found in his Book being not desirous to Cumber mine or punish my Brain and Fingers by copying of such of his Draughts that I conceive are Improperly Applyed The main concern that I shall chiefly insist on shall be the Plea that he makes for the Motion of the Earth instead of the Sun which I shall question before a very Supreme Tribunal as he ought to be Philosophically and Mathematically accountable That the Earth is Globulous or naturally Round by the Coition and Knitting of its Parts to its Center is also Astronomically prov'd because to such as directly Travel towards the North or South Points of the Meridian the Pole appears either more or less Elevated or Depress'd Moreover that going farther Eastward or Westward the Eye may behold some Stars Rise sooner or Set later than others To which may be added that the Moon the more Easterly Eclips'd is by her proper Motion as it were backward from West to East more Hours from the Meridiam or Midnight than Westerly Eclips'd By the Globe of the Earth is comprehensively meant as Cosmographers Determine its being surrounded or being continu'd with the Orbicular Superficies of Water as its Parts appertain to one and the same Center with the Earth To which may be added the common Experience of Navigators who Sailing from a Port discern the Convex Superficies of the Water above the Land That the Earth is plac'd in the Center of the World is Philosophically prov'd because whatsoever is ponderous within the Compass of the Universe naturally tends downwards or which is all one to the Center of the Earth from whence should she Ascend 't were no less than to Recede from her Center on which she is pois'd by her own Weight in Moving upwards all which were absurdly Impossible By undoubted Astronomical Observations 't is certainly prov'd that the Earth is the Center of the Universe Otherwise the World could not be divided into two Hemispheres because neither more nor less than six Signs of the Zodiack above the Earth are at any time visible As also that the Moon could not be Eclips'd in Diametrical opposition to the Sun if the Earth did not Intervene And tho' the Globe of the Earth does Circumferentially contain near 26280 English Miles it is but as it were a Point if compar'd to the Firmament or Orb of the Sun above To which may be added the obvious Observation Demonstrated by the Hour-Lines of every Dial from whence it is very perceivable that the Shadow Moves no less Regularly about such Centers than it surrounds the Center of the Earth Nor could any Artist for the Use of his Profession raise a direct Perpendicular apply'd to any Height or Level if his Hand Line and Plummet were rapidly Revolv'd by the Motion of the Earth Which must by its swift Acceleration were there Truth in the Copernican Hypothesis Move according to Learned Computation at least 1111 of our Miles in one Minute of an Hour A Revolution far more allowable to the Sun as his Substance is defin'd in a manner Spiritual by erudite Authority than to the heaviest of Bodies the Earth Some undertake to alledge That the Motive was because that by his System he avoided some Epicycles and Circles that had been with greater difficulty us'd by Ptolemy Which may be allow'd on that Consideration or as mutatis mutandis Astronomers at this Day apply his Theory to the Sun instead of the Earth And if Affirm'd as the Copernicans usually argue That extraordinary Motion ought rather to be Conceded to the Earth than the Sun by reason that the Earth is so very small if compar'd to the vast Dimension of the other The Answer is That a swift Horse will sooner dispatch a long Journey before an Ant can go a Yard Whosoever would adhere notwithstanding the convincing Allegations here mention'd to the Copernican or Cartesian System might find his Opinion Ridicul'd by very young Experience Insomuch that the Boy who found the Roost or Nest of a Bird this Minute might seek it if he could above a Thousand Miles at the next Nor could the Bird find by the swiftness of its Wing when the Earth rapidly mov'd Eastward better then the Boy its Roost or Nest as it design'd to fly towards either Westward And doubtless the Brain of the Boy and Bird might be giddily discompos'd by the hasty Progression of the Earth which could not but totter every Thing that belong'd to her Surface And much more easily Imagin'd that Men had their Heels struck up as she Revolv'd than that one of Mankind could in that wonderful Circumstance Stand or Walk on her Superficies But what might become of Houses and Edifices if Revolving with the Durnal Motion of the Earth Why surely the best that could be hop'd from the Hypothesis by the World's Inhabitants would be That their Chimneys might smoak when arriv'd with them to their Antipodes Since as sure as Check the Copernican System would whirle um thither But 't is a Doubt they would be confusedly shatter'd and toss'd from their Foundations before swing'd to that Point of the Earth's Diameter If
Fluid Substances exceedingly thinn'd whilst others were as nimbly thicken'd As if the Hands of Nature had been busily imploy'd in kneading of their Clusters till thoroughly condens'd Yet grants them so insipidly temper'd that by no proper Term Naturally or Philosophically Intelligible he determines them either light or heavy as he distinguishes their Elements from whatsoever is Elementarily Compos'd And thus according to his Method he imagines That Nature made her first Entrance out of the Closet of Chaos and having not thoroughly wash'd her Face he supposes some of her Spots might afterwards visibly remain in the Figure and Substance of both Sun Moon and Earth If next he had been ask'd on what account he attributes Spots to the Luminary of Day or Night together with the Terrene Sphere of our Being that are within no compass of reasonable Apprehension he must have return'd a motly Answer Since undeniable That whatsoever is capable of Spots as its propriety must be naturally colour'd and therefore of a mixt Elementary Composition by reason that nothing can be observably spotted but is also colour'd by mixt Ingredients and consequently the Object of Sight But the Sun and Moon were never held by found Opinion Elementarily Constituted wherefore not of any of his suppos'd Elements no more than 't is possible to conceive how Air could be alterative or operate on Air or Water on Water without partaking of Elementary Mixtures A Truth confirm'd by Experience in every Thing that is Thinn'd Thicken'd Ascends or Descends as sure as Earth is more ponderous than any of the other Three Elements ordain'd by Providence to exert all such Operations of Nature as are with clearest Evidence understood by us From whence may be concluded that the seeming Spots in the Sun or Moon are no other than meteorous Exhalations or Vapours that interpose betwixt the Luminaries and the Eye of the Beholder as surely as we frequently discern more or less clear in Appearance the Sun and Moon and therefore no Spots Inherent in their Substance As for the Spots that he annexes to the outward Complexion of the Earth what Man ever heard of any of their Colours except of such Things as have Being and Growth on her Surface as Trees Plants Men Women Beasts Grain and such other Things as might from Causes be produc'd How to Reply had he been thus Interrogated I dare Answer for him he could not have told And thus I come to the farther Examination of his Third Element by which he undertakes to Exspand the Original of all Things within the Compass of the Earth To which purpose I will briefly Summ the Order and Materials by which he forms his Phaenomena's of the Earth's Production All which he supposes were produc'd of the Fragments of a certain Thinn and Fluid Composition which he Entitles The primary Element of Nature These Imaginary or Globuli Fragments proceeding as he derives them from Spots in the First Element and descensively operating on the next term'd by him a Second Element they confus'dly and exceedingly disorder'd in Motion and Figure tended downward from their first sublime Height till at last they became more congeriously Thick suitable to the grossness of the Earth's Composure and Settlement where it now remains So very intricately obscure or vainly perplex'd does this conceited Monsieur debase the original Wisdome and Conduct of Nature both as to her own Establishment and the Production of her Works which could never be so disproportionably and irregularly effected by the prudent Diligence and Intendment of her Operations Which as this Author commits them to her peculiar Conduct I do not see why they should not have been by her Management as highly refin'd and continu'd as he delivers the Materials of her first purest Celestial Element And consequently of them so sublimately ordain'd have produc'd the Substance of Man and Woman that being exalted to a Superior Room in the Etherial Heaven the Eyes of Beauty might have there shin'd instead of Stars now beheld of the first Magnitude And next to these why should she not have gradually Illuminated the Substance of Animals with all other Materials and Plants that being naturally cleans'd from such Terrestrial Ingredients Alterations and Mixtures that are now in them they might have remain'd splendent Parts above instead of being Revolv'd and whirl'd in globuli's or dispers'd Fragments of Nature downwards untill they clos'd in a Lump that compleated the Earth in Figure disposition of Parts and Situation suitable to the Opinion of this Author Such Queries may not be unfitly urg'd against his total Hypothesis with all its Appurtenances to which I add these palpable Objections First that it is egregiously preposterous if not an Impeachment or lessening of the Dignity of Nature supposing that by her voluntary Actings she debas'd the superiority of her Existence by crumbling of her Materials into innumerable Bits or Particles in all kinds of impurer Substance and next dispose them by a rambling or giddy Progression so grossly to meet as they might constitutively finish and sustain the small inferior Bulk of the Universe call'd Earth or rather denominated the spurious Daughter of Nature if so engender'd by her actual consent Whereas contrarily 't is the inseparable Attribute of Nature intentionally to Conserve whatsoever depends on her Regalia's in its proper and utmost Perfection And although that by such Elementary Compositions and Mixtures as are understood by us she is necessitated to vary her Conduct as Things are in course Generated or Corrupted in order to produce such Existencies that could not be continu'd in themselves and therefore Providentially convertible into other Beings Yet she constantly preserves her most genuine Progression which is that nothing shall so alter as not to have Matter and Form incident to their Corporeal Proprieties Not unlike a Sovereign Ruler within whose Dominions there is no period of his numerous Subjects by Death because enough are begotten that succeed them But no such Procreation could be consistent or produc'd as an Elementary Triplicity is devis'd by Des-Cartes and not at allaccomplish'd or season'd with such natural Ingredients as are the Elementary Adjunct to Bodily Existences But rather of such a simplicity and incommunicable Qualification that 't is as reasonable to imagine That Earth should proceed from meer Air or Water from Fier as that his imperfect and uncompounded Elements should by their Vortices and Globuli arrive to any Corporeal Production Because the Principles of all Things could be no other than Contarrieties and therefore Elementary Insomuch that had not Providence otherwise dispos'd natural Operations than are contriv'd by this Author neither the Heavens above however excellent and refin'd their Essence or the Earth we possess with all its Appurtenances could have been effected The next Objection is briefly thus Suppose it were conceded That his Hypothesis relating to the Constituting of the Earth's Existence were allowable could it be conceiv'd that the diversities of Being and Motion which he annexes to his Particles
height or utmost Distance from the Center of her Orb and at another a Perigaeon-nearness unto it Which were much the same as to think it feasible for clusters of Flies no bigger than Gnats when they numerously seem to Circulate in Sun-shine to remove the weighty firmness of the terrene World or perform instead of the Sun the Ecliptical Revolution of the Day or Year Yet on this preposterous and feeble Conduct is erected the main Hypothesis of this French Writer both as to the Composition Being and Motion of the Earth with all her Circumjacent Particulars Which shews that he takes to himself an unpresidented Dictatorship in Science whereby he would celebrate the Fictions of his Brain without any requisite or probable assurance that they ought to be Conceded To which purpose he Inserts the various Actings of his several Elements tho' by no Body but himself so nam'd and by these so Invented by him together with Vortices and Globuli form'd from them he judges That the Earth with whatsoever it Comprehends might be totally Constituted as he their prime Artificer has contriv'dly set them at work The first Action tending to the compleating of the most refin'd Substance or Parts of the Earth he considers as produc'd by the Motion of the most tenuous Matter of what he Terms a Third Element which he supposes so very pure that even to Transparency it may cause Bodies tho' appertaining to Earthly Composition very clearly to Shine And thus we have the Earth according to the Doctrine of Des-Cartes both a motional and illuminating Planet But should I account the numerous diversities of the fictitious Motions and shifted Inventions by which this Author confers a shining Capacity on some Particulars of the Earth's Substance I might more than fire if not abuse the Patience of an indefatigable Reader Neither could I do other than impertinently load my Pen with repeated Objections and manifest Confutations of his Theories of Motion as they have been diversly apply'd by him on this or other Subjects The Movements of Things in his Method as he annexes their Qualities and Motions being neither exactly agreeable to streight Lines or their proper Tendencies or to such Curv's as might be of Mathematical Construction and therefore inconsistent with the Geometry of Nature Which as to her Works must proceed from a regular Process to which purpose enough has been already written by me I will therefore in this place briefly Inspect the Fond of the shining Attributes that he confers on some Particulars of the Earth as they are stated by him The principal Reason that he offers is That 't is experimentally found that pure Liquor in the Earth of tenuous Consistence is also pellucidous or shining Which cannot be true if by clearness he means an Illuminating Quality No more than the purest Water that can be Imagin'd may be said to Shine because it is clear And who ever beheld any shining Part of the Earth otherwise than by diffus'd Beams of the Sun ' Moon or Stars it might be enlightned tho' without any Illumination as to its own Capacity Where are the Eyes that in a gloomy Day or Night ever observ'd the shining of a Mole-Hill on the Surface of the Earth Or such little Morsels of the Ground as Worms deject which might be compos'd of such Materials as he describes his diminutive Globuli to consist of for any reason given by him to the contrary To confirm these Objections this one that includes many may pertinently be added If as he imagines the diaphanous Parts of any of his Celestial Elements as they are defin'd by him should by any intelligible Movement so operate as they might be so qualitatively Constituted as to embue any particular Substance or Places of the Earth with a shining Capacity since he has undertook to Metamorphose our terrene Habitation into a Planetary Composition How can it be probably apprehended that his Fluid Globuli by their feeble Commotions should be conjoyn'd to the Surface of the Earth notwithstanding that the condense or crusty Parts of her Surface are thickly harden'd and nourish'd by the Roots of Grass Trees Minerals Stones of all kinds diversly temper'd and not possibly penetrable by any compulsive Motion of his diminutive and impotent Globuli unless so much of the gaping Superficies of the Earth could be suppos'd to receive their Fluid Descents to no other purpose than she does Rain when distill'd by the Dissolution of Clouds Which being done there could but a dewy gloss appear on the Ground that might not more imbrighten any Part of the Earth's Figure than when in some moist Seasons the Glow-worm with her Light is engender'd So that whosoever would persuade himself that the terrene World or any Part of it was ever primarily compleated or motionally dispos'd by the Globuli and Vortices comprehended in the Diagrams and Theories of Des-Cartes may as readily believe that the Globe of the Moon was originally produc'd by the efficacious Seeds of a Carret-Bed Nor does he deny in some respects the incongruity of his Principles as in his 18th Particulars he confesses The Materials by which he moulds the Frame of the Earth's Composure and first Existence to be confusedly operative by granting that the liquid Parts which he Attributes to the prime Formation of the Earth were disorderly complicated with his Celestial Globuli Yet might by their Operations in his judgment upwards downwards or transversly be separately distinguish'd by the Similitude he Porduces of a Glass of Wine in the Must having Dregs not only on the top and bottom correspondent to Gravity and Levity but also on the sides of the Glass When afterwards the Wine being clear notwithstanding that it before consisted of various Particulars it becomes pellucidous or shining and not more gross or thicker in any one Part than in another Here he presents his Reader with a Philosophical Weather Glass by which he would determine the temper of the Season when the Earth was forming by his diversified Globuli and whirling assistance of his Vortices Which petty Operators as he states the Metaphor of their Condition and Conduct might be as drunk as Flies may be suppos'd when some of them are as it were giddy on the top of a Glass of strong Liquor or lean to its Sides for supportance whilst others more ebrietously replenish'd heavily sink to the bottom All which may be assimulated without any wrong to the Brain of this Author unto the giddiness of his Phaenomena's It being impossible to conceive from what rational Course of Nature he could produce the Substances together with the Movements of his debauch'd Globuli by which he constitutes the Being of the Earth Considering that he deduces their original Descent from what he Terms his first pure Element In his 19th Head he positively assures us That the Third and main effect of his Celestial Globuli are so perfectly operative that they convert liquorous Drops residing in Air into rotund Figures the reason as he
Times are remotely distant Concluding from thence that the greatest Tides and Floatings of the Sea are in the Spring and Autumn of the Year This Theorem howsoever it may appear to have some fineness suitable to the Copernican Dialect much endear'd by this Author does undeniably Subvert that whole Hypothesis For were it granted true That the Earth by its Diurnal Motion did vicinely Revolve as he Asserts at the Time of the Equinoctial to the Plane of the Equator the Point or Zenith over our Heads must in that Instant be remov'd or under the Equinoctial and consequently some other Point in that great Circle of the Sphere be made our Zenith The like may be Affirm'd if the Earth were Imagin'd to be by her Annual and Diurnal Motion in any Parallel to the Equator In all of which diversities both the Zenith as also the Elevation of the Pole must more or less vary or alter in every Minute and Day of the Year throughout the World contrary to Astronomical Proof and Observation By which it is very manifest that both the Zenith and Elevation of the Pole are constantly the same suitable to the Situation of Climes to which they appertain All which in the former Treatise is lineally prov'd by me as certainly as that there is such a Figure as a spherical Triangle If wav'd the improbable conjecture of the Motion of the Earth by allowing the long receiv'd Hypothesis of the Sun 's Diurnal and Annual Revolution in the Ecliptick 'T is not to be doubted that when the Sun is in either of the Equinoctial Points that the Moon is more approximately and directly impower'd by the vicine Illuminations that she then receives from the Sun by reason that the Ecliptick only in those Seasons meets the Equator in one and the same Point And tho' when in opposition to the Sun that is to say at her Full or greatest plenitude of Light she has a greater horizantal Distance visible to the Eye at that instant of Time than at an other Yet receiving in that remote Aspect a more direct Illumination than she does in other positions of her Orb she operates more powerfully on the Ocean because the Sun has at that time no declination from the Equator The like effect may be attributed to the newness of her Light the Sun being in the Equator when in Conjunction with him there she is Illuminated nearest to a direct or perpendicular Line wherefore her Beams must necessarily operate more vigourously on the Sea and thus by the observable Propriety that she has to dilate and encrease Moisture the Waves and Tides of the Ocean may well be granted more Impetuously high and swell'd at Equinoctial Times than at other Seasons As also that the Earth allow'd the Center of the Equator as it is contiguously surrounded by the Ocean cannot but more efficaciously receive in that Estate and Position of the Luminaries and especially of the Moon a transcendent flowing of the Waters of the Main that are nearest to the Verge of the Earth's Circumference In a word when all is said that can be thought on this Subject there is no such Cause to be prov'd that in all Parts in every National Being and Situation of the Earth can be certainly applicable to the Flux and Reflux of the Sea which is Experimentally found so variously different both as to Time and Continuance in all Parts of the Habitable World Which cannot proceed from any uncertain Operation descending from above but rather caus'd by intervening Obstructions arising from the diversities of the Temper of the Air and Wind that alter and compell more or less the Motions of the Watery Element Other Reasons and Discussions of Authors tending to the Resolution of the fathomless difficulty appertaining to the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea might be here added But finding them to be rather disputative than clearly demonstrative I shall not burden the Ingenuity of a Reader by Inscribing their perplexities with my Pen Having I conceive deliver'd what is of greatest probability on this wonderful Subject Of what Extent or Compass the Sea is I find not in this or other Writers But that it is larger than the Earth is evident because it surrounds the Terrene World And 't is not to be doubted that whatsoever contains is greater than any Thing contained by it But as to the Depth of the Ocean 't is Computed by some accurate Navigators not to be more than two and a half of English Miles Which is very strange if the Depth of the Sea be taken for its Diameter Considering that the Sea for the reason here mention'd is bigger than the Earth but much less if by its Depth be accounted its Diameter As may be seen by the Computation of the Diameter of the Earth that I have formerly Inserted Thus far of the Earth and its Exterior Parts As to the Inferior I observe divers Particulars mention'd by Des-Cartes and which he supposes might be caus'd and produc'd by Materials according as he imagines their Operations and Effects But these being Things of small Consideration or Improvement to Knowledge as also that their Nature and Uses are for the most part as familiarly understood as that there are Plants and Minerals of several Tempers and natural Proprieties I shall therefore pass from them to Things of more Moment and next as very commodious Interials of the Earth relating to the necessary supportance of Humane Life examine the Philosophy of this Author where he Inserts his Reasons why Fountains and Springs that Emerge from within the Earth should taste liquidly fresh notwithstanding that in some Depths or Wells the Water is Salt To be sure he continues the Phaenomena's of his imaginary Elements Vortices and Globuli in order to the producing of Things as well under as above the Surface of the Earth And thus we have from him Fountains and Rivers replenish'd with Water To which purpose he has expos'd to the Eye some impress'd Diagrams by which he undertakes to explain such liquid Emanations underground in the Cranie's of the Earth in Similitude to the Circulation of Bloud in the Veins and Arteries of Men and Animals But this fanciful Monsieur having not been able as I have frequently observ'd to Demonstrate either the necessary Being Motion or Capacity of such Materials as he very confidently Introduces I am apt to conclude That if the Earth had not been naturally Impower'd by other means than such as are tender'd by Des-Cartes whereby to sustain and engender her liquid Existencies in all the necessary Parts and Compositions of her Body She had been endu'd with no more Moisture than is to be found in the Sun-burnt Sands of Africa Real Causes there are that may be defin'd perfectly Elementary and therefore not ally'd to any Impotent Existencies or such as may be term'd procreative Fathers and Mothers on whose Mixtures depend all Terrestrial Matter or Substances deliver'd with a simple Elementary Name by this Author And thus