a Beast these again by a putrid solution of the Compage are transmuted into Worms Flies and other Insects which often retain some shape of the Animal whence they proceed and that which even now was in the shape of a Beast as Beef Mutton c. is forthwith by the Ferment of an humane stomach transmuted into Man's Blood Flesh c. and these again degenerate into Worms or other Insects in Fevers and being let out of their vessels they undergo any other Analytical putrefaction they become animated in strange different shapes all which is but Water â—orâ—eus-like under various disguises transmuted by Seed and Ferments out of one shape into another according to the great round of Circulations And all as they have their beginning and subsistence so are also reducible into Water Yea further as Vegetables and Animals have their original from and are reducible in water so also Minerals and Metals And though this is not so demonstrable as the former because we have not that occasion usually to converse with the Subterraneal Products as with Vegetables and Animals yet I find to this purpose what the Learned Squire Boyle cites out of a French Author Monsieur De Rochas who as a Chymist speaking what he could perform by water Having saith he discerned such great wonders by the natural operation of water I would know what may be done with it by Art imitating Nature wherefore I took water which I well knew not to be compounded nor mixed with any other thing than the Spirit of Life and with an heat artificial continual and proportionate I prepared and disposed it by graduations of coagulation congelation and fixation until it was turn'd into earth which earth produced Animals Vegetables and Minerals the Animals did move of themselves eat c. and by the true Anatomy I made of them I found they were compos'd of much Sulphur little Mercury and less Salt The Minerals began to grow and encrease by converting into their own Nature one part of the earth they were solid and heavy and by this truly demonstrative Science namely Chymistry I found they were composed of much Salt little Sulphur and less Mercury By which Experiment according to the relation of the Author Minerals were generated out of water which I suppose was done by some Mineral Seeds or the Analysis of some Mineral Concretes into their secondary Principles which by due digestions assum'd Water for their bodies For Mineral Seeds in their due Matrixes concenter water more or less according to the nature of the Seed and fitness of the place and accordingly give more or less pondus as the purity of the Seed and disposition of the place is whence are lighter and heavier Minerals and Metals Also Metals are reducible into water witness what the foresaid Author saith That by a certain artificial way of handling Mercury without any addition may be separated therefrom a fourth or fifth part of water or clear liquor which for ought I have heard or seen saith he is not reducible into Mercury again and so is more then a disguise That Mercury or rather Quicksilver should in its weight to the like bulk of Water be as fourteen to one is from the Seed of the Quicksilver concentring the body of water according to that proportion towards whose reduction two credible Persons told the foresaid Ingenuous Author That after as he saith many trials which they made to reduce Mercury into Water in order to Philosophical work they did once by divers Cohobations reduce a pound of Mercury into almost a pound of water and this without the addition of any other thing but onely by pressing the Quicksilver by a skilful managed Fire in purposely-contriv'd vessels To the like purpose Isaac Holland and some others speak of separating a water from Quicksilver which they call Aqua Nubis quâ tanquam Hydrops Mercurius turget Not to mention the experiment of increasing the bulk of a stone by the single addition of fountain-water till it swell to the bigness and figure of the glass it 's put into for we see that water needs no more then a petrefying Seed to compress it self or other things it meets with whether Vegetables or the like into a stony concretion as for instance the petrefying well at Knarsborough which hath in continuance of time wrought the earth and grass thereabouts into a rocky Compages with petrefied Isicles hanging down where the very Streams of water as they run along are actually congealed into stones which I say can be from nothing els save a petrefying Seed connatural to that sort of water This Succus lapidificus may haue its Seminals I say from a petrefying Nitre according to the experiment of the learned Kircher Si saxum inquit quodcunque in tennissimum pollinem resolveris et aquâ perfectè commixtum permanicam Hippocratis colaveris illa nil prorsus saxcum sed praeter arenaceum solummodo sedimentum nil relinquet si verò Nitrum vel Tartarum aquae perfectè commixtum addideris illa quaecunque tetigerunt intra subjectam concham posita sive frondes similiaque post exiguum temporis curriculum aeri exposita vel in Saxum ejusdem generis conversum si non totum saltem cortice Saxeo vestient So that the petrefying Seed whether in Water or in Nitre or in the Stone it self is in effect all one So that understanding the nature of a petrefying Seed and the extent of subterraneall Channels from the Sea at great distances upon the Land we need not wonder that some fish is digged up in some places petrified several of which was to be seen amongst John Tradescan's Rarityes That there are Subterraneal Channels not onely from one sea to another but from the seas at very great distances upon the land the Ingenuous Kircher doth fully demonstrate The first by a Dolphin which was taken in the Red Sea which by the command of the Bassa of the place was put into the water again cum laminis in bronchia insertis with these words in Arabick Characters ingraven Amed Abdalla Bassa Sues tibi vitam unà cum hoc munere donavit anno Hegira 720 which Dolphin was the very same year taken in the Mediterranean Sea prope Damiatam which could not possibly be that the Dolohin should swim that vast compass round Affrica and take in at the Streits and so up to the furthest part of the Mediterranean Sea whereas from the Mare rubrum to Damiata is but a small neck of land little above 30 Miles and therefore must pass along those subterraneal channels whereby one Sea communicates with another As there are Subterraneal passages from one sea to another so as I said from the seas to great distances upon the land whence all Fountains Springs and Rivers have their Original and return again into the sea contrary to the opinion of Dr. Wittie In which Subterraneal currents the things carryed along with the water whether fish or the like may when they
like the water of the Spaw it self or the solution of Allom which with addition of Spirit of Vitriol or aqua fortis becomes clear and with Oyl of Tartar becomes white which may be again restored to its pristine Clarity by adding Spirit of Vitriol or aqua fortis c. 4. The fame Solution having some drops of Spirit of Harts-horn mixed therewith gives a white separation and with Spirit of Salt becomes clear again answerable in every particular to the Spaw water it self 5. Some of this clear Solution I distill'd in a Glass retort until what remained was a bright styriate floscule increasing the fire somewhat more it came to be a dry white Salt of a stiptick allumenous taste 6. The water which was distill'd off from this Salt being saved in a glass Receiver whose joints was close stopped would not give any alteration of colour either with solution of Gauls or with lixivium of Tartar which argued that no heterogeneous volatile parts of the same nature with the Salts came over the helm 7. All which put together evince no less than a parity or likeness of Principles between that Mineral earth and the Spaw water for from a parity of Principles in an homogeneal process results a likeness of products so that the Spaw is nothing else but this Essurine acid Salt in its Mineral earth in toro suo Metallico being an allumenish terrestrial Globe dissolv'd in the current Spring of water 8. For the specifical difference of all Mineral Salts depend upon these three viz. a Sulphurious acid essurine spirit water and a Mineral Glebe from the various solutions and mixtures of which arise the variety of Mineral Salts in the bowels of the earth 9. Water impregnate with this acid sulphurious spirit diffus'd thorough the occult Meanders of the terraqueous Globe according to the nature of the Mineral Glebe it meets withal it becomes coagulated into such and such a salt for if this acidulated water find a salsuginous Glebe it becomes coagulated according to the property of that Glebe together with its connate salt in a sal marine which with greater dashes of water passing thorough the subterraneal channels becomes dissolv'd and carryed into the Ocean thence the saltness of the Sea which hath its Minera from fossile salt from which also some Springs are fatturate as the Sulphur Well at Knarsbrough c. 10. If the suphurious acidulate water meet with Nitrous Veins it coagulates into Nitre which being by other current streams of water dissolv'd very probably become the original of intensely cold springs viz. such as Magnus Well Cockroft Well c. which though to touch extremely cold yet by an intrinsick sulphurious warming property doth so notably open the pores of such as are bathed therein as that it resolves the congealed blood and latex settled about the joints and outward parts of the body thence becoming the cause of Pains Aches Stiffness Numbness and Lameness of the joints which by the penetrating opening virtue of those Nitrous springs are resolv'd and thence a redintegration of the glyssent ferments of the blood and humours which give warmth and motion to all the parts again 11. If the aforesaid essurine water find a Mineral Iron bed it becomes determin'd thereby either into a Vitriol or becomes the original of most acid Spaws called Fontes aciduli sharp springs such as Tunbridge Epsom Knarsbrough c. amongst which this of Scarbrough is not the least 12. The sweet Spaw of Knarsbrough is but languid of Mineral principles having but a very slight touch of the Minera of Iron and hath the essurine acidity but in a very remiss degree thence it is that great quantities must be gulped down before any sensible operation by purgation 13. As the Minera of Iron terminates the sulphurious acidity into vitrioline sharp springs so in like manner the Minera or primum ens of Copper coagulates this essurine salt into a cuprous Vitriol and that either fossile to be digged out of Mines or iâ— further dissolv'd in a water spring which by exhaling the moisture by the Sun or by boyling it up over a fire it shoots into Vitriol Or lastly this acidity is coagulated in Mineral cuprous stones which being expos'd to the air become resolv'd by the falling of Rain water thereon which after filtration and boyling up shoot in great troughs into common Vitriol 14. But if this essurine sulphurious water find an allumenish Glebe or Rock it becomes thereby coagulated into natural Allom receiving a specifical difference from that particular Mineral Glebe whereby it becomes different from the other coagulations of the same Mineral acidity which by further dissolution in the current of a water spring give being to this of Scarbrough and other the like Spaws SECT 5. 1. NOw whence the great variety of Mineral glebes should proceed is a Philosophical query worthy our most choice consideration especially seeing that from the multiplicity hereof the sulphurious acid spirit becomes determined to this or that particular specifical salt of sal marine Nitre Vitriol and Allom. 2. For in these the Metals are in solutis principiis in their primitive juyces their Mercuries though volatile crude and undigested yet are spermatical and as such are the radical moisture of Metals not to say the Mercury of Philosophers these are apt to be coagulated and maturated into Metals by the embryonate Sulphurs which lurk in intimis Thalamis glebarum metallicarum which according to the purity or impurity of the terrestrial Matrix and degrees of the graduation of the Sulphurs are determined and specificated in imperfect and perfect Metals to the completing the septenary of the Metallick order besides their middle Minerals which are in the Road to Metalization 3. That all Metals and Minerals have their innate seeds shut up in themselves we shall not need to spend time to confirm in auro semina sunt auri quamvis abstrusas recedunt longius seeing that their spermatick principles become prolifick suo more whose seed operating in a volatile crude Mercury and an embrionate Sulphur become deducible after the manner of a natural genesis unto their state of maturation accord to the process of their concretes in the Vegetable kingdom 4. We may therefore consider that as God the original Founder of all beings hath implanted in the superficies of the earth that great variety of vegetable seeds whence the diversity of Plants not only sprung up at first but by their seminal beginings or somewhat analogous thereto have continued to propagate themselves in their species 5. Every Vegetable at its proper season by the instigation of the heavenly influences having its seminals set at work in which it hath its own specifick faber or if I may so call it Archeus which by its innate plastick power begins to hew forth it self a body out of the elementary principle of water shaping it self in stalk branches leaves flowers seeds and fruits according to the platform laid in the seminal beginings
earth to imbibe Rain-water as a sponge where it meeting with capillary veins as I may call them or small pores not clefts or crevises which are scarce to be found but amongst Rocks and Rocky Soyls sinks down by degrees into larger veins and those into Subterraneal Chanels where it makes Land-Springs which supply many Draw-wells yea and many of them run into Rivers too which help to keep Rivers high in Winter time above the ordinary pitch they are found to be upon droughts 29. The next difficulty that springs up which indeed is the most considerable is If Rain-water sink much deeper than ten foot into the caverns of the earth as he supposeth Then what shall fetch it up again to make it supply Springs that are upon Hills or high Heaths nay upon the very level of Plains themselves For it must be a retrograde motion of the same water which before descended into such low caverns of the earth Facilis descensus Averni Sed revocare gradum superasque ascendere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus 30. The next Objection he brings out of Seneca and his solution evince no more than what we grant viz. That there may be additional Land-Springs and that amongst Rocks which receive their supply from Rain and Snow-water which upon droughts are dryed up and therefore are not Quick-Springs whose Original I shall shortly hint to be otherwise besides he acknowledgeth that in solid Clay Soyls it is very rare to find any eruption of water because such are sad earth and have few or no caverns or chanels in them but our Springs Saith he break out ordinarily in rocky and gravelly ground especially the best and most lasting Springs such as we call Fontes perennes which indeed is most certainly true for they are not found but as accompanyed with a boyling gravel or sand called by Helmont Quellem or Sabulum Bulliens which makes nothing at all towards the proving his Assertion 31. The last Objection he brings out of Seneca is That in the dryest Soyl where they dig Pits two or three hundred foot deep there is often found great plenty of water which he calls living-Living-water as not coming from the Clouds Dr. Wittie's Solution of which Objection is thus From whence then should it come from the Sea Perhaps saith he the Sea is as many Miles from that water as the Superficies of the earth is feet from it Suppose it were say I What might hinder but that water might be carryed from the Sea by Subterraneal Chanels at far greater distances than so If Seas communicate with each other as we shall shortly endevour to prove it must be by Subterraneal Chanels many of which must be of far greater length 32. Perhaps it may come saith the Doctor from the Transmutation of Aer into Water for such a Transmutation I cannot saith he deny so that in short to me it seems as if he hovered between two whether to ascribe the Original of Spring-water to the Transmutation of Air into Water or to Snow and Rain-water Only he saith indeed It 's most probable to come from Rain so that That at the hardest and at the long run carries it yet that of the Transmutation of Air into water is not without its peradventure and that he thinks very well confirm'd too by an instance he brings in which is We see saith he Churches become wet before Rain falls from this cause Why What is the cause viz the transmutation of Air into Water and truely I am apt to believe that in moyst weather as sure as the Air is transmuted into water which moystens the Stone-Walls of buildings so sure is Air in the Bowels of the Earth transmuted into Water yea and so sure is the Original of Fountains from Rain and Snow Water 33. I wonder the Doctor 's Philosophy in his second Edition should not come forth more maturate then to adhere to this old and long since exploded transmutability of Elements which has no true solide Basis to be grounded upon For if the watryness we find in moyst weather upon stones of Walls and Floors of Buildings be from the transmutability of Air into Water and that he informs us before that reasons tells us that more then ten parts of Air will not serve for the making one of Water I think saith he twenty would be too little if so many parts I say of Air be too little to make one of water and yet so much water is made according to his own supposition as serves to moysten Stone-Walls and Floors in moyst weather before rain then what must supply the place and fall into the rear of so much transmuted Air The water thence made is but as onetoten or twenty which therefore cannot supply the necessary vacancy because one cannot make up nine much less nineteen Wherefore a horrible vacancy would if this Doctrine were true long ere this have surprised the body of Air. 34. Yea and suppose we should with him admit of the possibility of the transmutation of Air into Water in the bowels of the Earth for the furnishing of Springs for such Transmutation saith he I cannot deny and keep our proportion of twenty to one What a vast Vacuum long ere this had the Mundane Systeme groan'd under Which would have impos'd one of these two grand absurdities thereon viz. either the circulation of bodies one upon another requisite for the maintaining the unity and intirenes of the World would be intercepted by the great contiguous Vacuums which must follow wanting other bodies so to tear themselves in pieces as to supply the place of the deficient Air or else those who live in the last Ages or the longest might have cause to fear least the same mishap might fall to their lot as happens to those poor Animals that get into Squire Boyl's Air-pump viz. to dye of Spasmes and Convulsions through the thinness of the Air which would be so interspersed with contiguous Vacuums made wider yet by the frequent transmutation of Air into Water as that we should not be able to live therein or lastly we should constantly be expos'd to the same injury that those are who travail over the Mountains call'd Andes in America where the Air is so thin and rarified as they travayl not without danger of being stifled for want of Air and therefore usually they carry Sponges moystened with Water for the condensing the Air or the vapours therein which Air is so dispos'd there to Inflammations as that Travellers as the Ingenious Kircherus observes seeme to belch forth flames and being all in a sweat appear as if incircl'ed with Fire 35. I must needs indeed grant that the Air hath its Vacuolums or little Interstices its texture being like a net or spong by which it becomes the more capable of being as a vehicle for transmitting rarifyed Water and other vapours of the Atmosphere becoming thereby the better Subservient to the performing the great circulation of water from the Sea and
the Sea is found at sometimes great plenty of Naphtha and Bitumen which comes from the Bituminous Sea call'd Mortuum from its Lentor or toughness it 's call'd also Mare Asphalticum from Bitumen of which it has great plenty whose shores have great store of Bituminous Pits Into this Sea Jordan runs which having no other way to emptie it self but by these Subterraneal Chanels carries along with it its Bituminous offspring into the Red-Sea and that by a Chanel of 62 Leagues for so far is the Asphaltick from the Red-Sea The same happens to all Seas Lakes and great Rivers which receive others into themselves but let none forth by visible arms and therfore do it by Subterraneal passages 49. Other Lakes there are whose Superficies lies level with that of the Hydrophylacia and therefore are as Springs of the deep kept for a reserve for the furnishing upon occasion the grand Circulation Many other Rivers besides what are named do hide their Chanels in the Earth for many miles together and appear again as the Rhine in Germany Padus in the Alps but especially Guadiana of old call'd Anas a River in Spain which runs under ground in a subterraneal Chanel for 32 Miles together and breaks up again which gave occasion to the Spaniards to boast of their great Bridge which will feed so many thousand Sheep also the River Rye in Yorkshire as Dr. Wittie acknowledgeth runs under ground a quarter of a Mile and then appears again 50. And as by this Circulation of Water all Inland Seas Lakes c. communicate by Subterraneal Chanels or by visible arms one with another and at length with the common Ocean it self So by the mediation of the same hidden pipes conveyed along the Sabulum the Water circulates from the Seas and Hydrophylacia unto the Spring-heads which breaks forth at great distances either in Levels Valleys Hills or Mountains 51. Now to determine the cause of the Waters rising above the Level of the Superficies of the Sea up into the tops of Hills and Mountains a motion seemingly and indeeed really according to the Hydrostatick Laws of water considered as Extravasated contrary to the nature of the weight of Water will be here very considerable being the main thing objected against the Hypothesis of Springs taking their Original from the Sea To the better understanding of which we shall propound 52. First that this Thesis supposeth and has hitherto partly proved a Circulation of Waters or a running round from the Ocean into In-land Seas and Lakes and those into each other and back again into the Ocean but whilst running into each other they also run along other Subterraneal Chanels at great distances under the Earth until they break up into Springs Fountains and Rivers and those often as I said above the Level of the Sea Now in every Circulation or Circle there is strictly neither beginning nor end because round as a wheel or ring so that wherever you determine a beginning in a Circle there also is the end 53. But that we may be the more demonstrative I shall for better apprehension determine a beginning of this Circulation and that shall be from the Sea and from the efficient cause moving the Seas which will be the last again in the Circle and this we suppose to be the Winds Storms and pressure of the Atmosphere upon the surface of the Seas together with the influence and Ellipsis of the Moon which probably gives being to the Flux and Reflux of the Sea by causing a depression of the waters at two opposite places in the Terraqueous Globe and an accumulation of the Seas answerable thereto in the two other Quadrants of the Globous Circle which swelling of the Sea is always opposite each Tumor possessing a whole Quadrant of the vast Ocean these Tumors rowl about the earthy Globe in Twenty four hours thereby agitating the whole bulk of the Seas and driving up the waters by the Subterraneal Chanels into the Hydrophylâ—cia and from thence by Hydragogal Syphons up Hills Mountains and high Heaths to the heads of Springs and Fountains 54. That there is besides the weight of Clouds Storms Winds c. a pressure of Water by Air is evident in common Hydrostatick Experiments for if you put down a glass Tube into a vessel of water you will find the water in the Tube to be above the level of the water in the vessel and that for no other cause than that the pressure of the Air upon the surface of the water in the vessel is stronger than the resistance of that Ayr that is pent up in the Tube and that it is so is evident because if you stop up the upper end of the Tube with your thumb or the like you will find that the Ayr in the Tube not having the liberty of recoyling becomes strong and presseth so much upon the water as that it raiseth up the water in the vessel to such a height proportionable to the compass of the Tube which I have thus tryed by taking a pint-white-Viol fill'd with water to about a fingers breadth of the mouth into which I let down a glass Tube stopping the upper end closely with my thumb the Ayr in the Tube would so press upon the water as that the glass would in a manner be quite full but upon removing my thumb the water would immediately run up the Tube two or three fingers breadth above the level of the water in the Viol and bubble up to and again till it settled a little above the surface of the water in the Viol and that still because water follows the strongest impulse of Ayr which while the Tube is closely stop'd bears down the water and raiseth it on the surface thereof whereas when the Ayr in the Tube has liberty again then the water being pressed by the Ayr upon the Superficies thereof mounts up speedily above the level of the water in the Viol. 55. So in like manner we see in a Weather-glass which is suppose a Globe or Egg-glass inverted into a vessel of water which if you do without altering the tone of the Ayr in the glass the water riseth very little within the Tube and that because of the resistance that is made by the unaltered Ayr in the glass but if you heat the glass and thereby thin the Ayr you will find the water to ascend gradually to a considerable height above the level of the water in the vessel which suppose to be done in the foresaid pint-Viol and you shall see the water five or six fingers breadth above the surface of the water in the Viol which when cool set it before the fire or expose it to the heat of the Sun so the heat be proportionable and you will find it descend as fast as it ascended before 56. Which argues That Ayr when altered by heat gives a different and that a less pressure upon the body of water than when it is in its natural texture and therefore upon the
probably may become occult yea at length be reckoned amongst non entia 35. He tells us what Dioscordes will have Iron to do viz. to loose the belly especially commending the flower or filings of Brass to that purpose this is like the rest incongruous for I believe neither Dioscordes nor himself ever gave the flower or filing of Brass if they did at least never to have had ground-work of observing a solutive property therefrom for if I mistake not should the Doctor give filings of Copper to any Patient of his he would find that by that time the filings had got into the stomach and had become fret upon by the acid ferment thereof it would presently become desperately emetick being by that time become as violent a Vomiter as if so much viride aris or common Vitriol had been taken 36. Now Iron saith he being joyned with Vitriol in this water partakes of the nature of Brass and is therefore the more purging and opening from which conjunction I think it is that most of our Vitrioline Waters in England do loosen the belly which if it be true that Iron joyned with Vitriol in this water partakes of the nature of Brass then must it of necessity as I said before prove constantly emetick which the Doctors long experience witnesseth to the contrary what difference of operation would it have from so much viride aeris or common Vitriol dissolv'd in a large quantity of water seeing that both of them are made from the body of Copper or Brass fretted by the acidity of Vineger or other acid alumenous liquor so that the water wherein this nature of Brass is becoming wrought upon by the acid ferment of the stomach would certainly become as powerfully emetick as the other and then this Spring would lose its good report 37. We have already sufficiently ravell'd into the nature of both Vitriol and Iron throughly discovering their inconsistency in a Water-spring which we are loth again to repeat therefore what we have already said to that point being premiz'd his Thesis of the reason of Purgation of these Vitrioline Waters will naturally and of its own accord fall in as much as any sort of Vitriol made out of Copper or Brass is as I said before dangerously emetick and not fit for an honest Physician to prescribe SECT 7. 1. ALlom is another principle of which according to Gallen he reckons up three sorts all of which are of gross parts and very stiptick abstersive heating and something corrosive c. as say Gallen Oribasius Aetius Serapio Fernelius c. 2. Which of these sorts it is that is the Ingredient of this Water the Doctor had done well to have put the World out of doubt for otherwise he leaves us in as great a Mist nay greater than he found us for the describing the virtues thereof he seems to mean no other than that artificial factitious Allom used by Dyers and Chyrurgeons which as such is a Mineral compound Salt which no doubt if the Water have any such Ingredient must be a simple Mineral Salt centred in the bowels of the Mineral Stone of Allom without any superadditionary additaments of Urine Salt of Kelp c. 3. Nitre another Ingredient is he saith of two sorts natural and artificial the natural tends to a reddish colour as saith Serapio Gallen saith there is also a white sort so that unless Serapio or Gallen tell us the kinds of Nitre we shall have little account thereof from Dr. WITTIE of which white fort he saith it is plain that this of ours is I suppose he means the white natural sort and yet goes on without distinction describing the virtues of the artificial sort saying it is wont to be mixed in Medicines when we would attenuate and deterge it 's added he saith to Cerats and Plaisters in Distempers of the Nerves 4. By all which it should seem indeed by his discourse as if this artificial kind of Nitre used in Shops were the Nitrous Ingredient of the Water and then we should consult where those Salt-petermongers are those subterraneal nimble sons of Vulcan who must furnish this Spring with this artificial sort of Salt-peter and further query whether if the Troglodites knew the use of Sulphur and Dust of Charcole they might not envying Mortals this happiness unfortunately and to the great loss of the Doctor blow up this Spring 5. Salt is the fifth and last Principle or Ingredient of the Spaw perhaps because it is so neer the Salt Water of the Sea and indeed looking a little further I find he saith he thinks it receives the Salt from the Sea but how demonstrable I know not for if any such Marine Salt was in this Spring it would certainly upon distillation or evaporation be left in the sediment and then would as evidently be demonstrable by the taste as we see the Sulphur Well of Knarsbrough having a body of Salt in it upon evaporation leaves it all behind in the bottom of the vessel so here a little proportion of Sea Salt would make the sediment sufficiently brackish and that distinguishable enough if it were there 6. But we find not the least foot-step of any such Salt left after the evaporation or distillation of the water neither is any separable by any known art of separation of Mineral Salts for after the sediment of the Spaw is further calcined by the force of fire and another separation is made by solution filtration and evaporation yet is the separated Salt so far remov'd from any such brackish taste as that it is quite of another perceptible taste so that the presence of such a Marine Salt is no otherwise than meerly imaginary and therefore to be taken up by praecarious Philosophers 7. Thus you see I have run through his five Principles or Ingredients of the Spaw found him tripping at every turn and very much inconsistent with himself for notwithstanding the latitude of his assumed Principles wherein he might have had scope enough to have sported himself inter thaumata Dei amongst the Wonders of God in the Mineral Kingdom yet we find him ever and anon so and so narrowly pent up as if he had not room to turn him so streight lac'd is the Aristoletick and Gallenical Philosophy in the whole triplicity of Nature Pars Secunda SECT 1. IT is now high-time after the unhinging of Dr. WITTIES Principles to come to make a serious scrutiny into the real Principles of this Spaw and though I have made Animadversions upon all his five Ingredients shewing the inconsonancy and inconsistency of them as he hath laid them down yet without any intention or thought of denying them all but to hold to those which we might find demonstrable by experiment 2. For which intention I went purposely to Scarbrough and took along with me several Liquors and Spirits by which I thought I might best essay the native Ingredients of the water I took also along with me a solution of the five Ingredients
Concretes which we thus prove viz. That is the first material Principle of all Bodies into which they are ultimately by a natural or artificial Analysis reducible but all Bodies are ultimately by a natural or artificial Analysis reducible into Water Ergo Water is the first material Principle of all Bodies The Major is plain and granted on all hands for the Aristotelians who plac'd the Principles of all things to be in the quaternary of Elements did it because they suppos'd but could not prove that all Bodies were reducible into those four Elements viz. of Fire Air Water and Farth so in like manner the Hermetical Philosophers in their weaving all Concretes out of their Tria prima of Sal Sulphur and Mercury did suppose them to be the first Principles because many Bodies by the artifice of the fire were reducible into some what analogous thereto And so those who encrease those three into five Principles do it because some Concretes are resolvable by fire into those five distinguishable parts which indeed are rather new products of the fire than genuine resolutions into their first Principles The Minor thereof rests to be proved viz. That all Bodies are ultimately reducible into Water by Art or Nature That it may be done by Art I shall demonstrate from an infallible Experiment of the most profound Chymical Philosopher Van Helmont who in his Tractate Entituled Elementa saith thus Nostra Mechanica mihi patefecit omne corpus puta saxum Lapidem Gemmam Silicem Arenam Marcasitam c. transmutari in Salem actualem aequi ponderantem suo corpori unde factus est quòd iste Sal aliquoties cohobatus cum Sale circulato Paracelsi suam omnino fixitatem amittat tandem transmutetur in liquorem qui etiam tandem in aquam insipidam transit quòd ista aqua aequiponderet Sali suo unde manavit viz. That by his liquor Alkahest for so I understand his words Mechanica nostra every Body whether Stones Gems Flints Sand Marcasites Earth Brick Glass Calx Sulphur c. might be transmuted into an actual Salt of the same weight with the body it was derived from or was made from and that Salt being cohobated sometimes with Paracelsus his Sal cironlatum would lose all its fixity and be transmuted into a liquor which at length would be turned into an insipid water of equal weight with the Salt whence it came He saith further Plantam carnes ossa pisces quicquid similium est novi redigere in mera sua Tria unde postmodum aquam insipidam confeci motallum autem preptor sui seminis anaticam commistionem et arena quellem difficilimè in salem reducuntur vix by the same grand Solvent liquor he knew how to reduce any plant Flesh Bones Fish and the like into their three first Principles which also were further reducible yea actually by him reduc'd into an insipid water but the reduction of a Metal was difficult by reason of the equal mixture of its Seed and so also of the reduction of Sand. Further he saith Terrae originalis sive arma tam arti quâm naturae resistat nec queat ullis adminiculis a primaeva sui constantiâ recedere unico duntaxat Grheunae drtificialis igni excepto quo arena sal fit ac tandem aqua quia vim habet agendi super sublunaria quaevis absque reactione viz that the original Earth or Sand arena Quellem resists both art and nature as to its reduction nor can it by any means recede from it Primitive constancy unless by the onely artificial fire of the Alkahest call'd by the name of Gehenna by which Sand is made Salt and at length converted into water because this solvent hath power to act upon all sublunary bodies and that without any reaction of bodies upon it By all which we may see that all bodies whatsoever are by art so transmutable as that at length they may be reduced into their simple Element of water which if it were not their first material Pricipic they could not ultimately be resolv'd thereinto for both Vegetables Animals and Minerals are by the natural Analysis of the alkahest at last reducible into common water Concerning Vegetables he saith novi aquam cujus medio omnia vegetabilia in succum distillabilem sine ullâ sui in fundo vitri residentia commutantur qui succus adjuncto alkali totus in aquam transit insipidam This is perform'd by the same Solvent liquor as the other was so that Vegetables by the powerful operation of this liquor are changed into a distillable Juyce which will pass over the helm without any Faeces or Caput mort left behind which distilled Juyce being re-distilled from Alkalies becomes totally reduced into a simple Elemental water As to Animals he saith he reduc'd Flesh Bones Fish and the like into an insipid water and as to Minerals or Metals the same is done though with more difficulty Paracelsus tells us that his Circulatum majus which he also calls acetum acerrimum metallicum primum ens liquidum Mercurii if digested upon any of the Metals doth reduce them to any oyl or supernatant fat tinctured according to the property of the Metal by which Metals are deducable into a magistery Now Helmont saith Olea pinguedines per ignem separata adjecto pauco sale Alkali saponis naturam assumunt atque in aquam elementalem abeant viz. That oyls or fats separated by fire by the addition of a little Alkali becomes Saponary and afterwards passeth into a simple Elemental water So that whether minerals and metals be by the grand liquor resolvable into a salt or into an oyl they are either way at length reducible into a water He tells us that the most rectified spirit of wine which is totus cremabilis by the intimate touch of salt of Tartar may be transmuted into an incombustible salt to the quantity of the sixteenth part of the whole the rest viz. 15 parts becomes a simple Elementary water and further that every distilled Oyl is changeable into a salt Deposito semine pinguedinis and that salt per adjuncta is convertible into water Carboquercus inquit Helmontius aquâ quadam tepore balnei spatio tridui versus est in duos liquores diaphanos fundo colore varios Quibus distillatis nil faecum remansit at ambo aequiponderabant massae carbonis liquor dissolvens manet in fundo paris ponderis sibi virium by which the excellency of the Menstruum and the reducibility of Compound bodyes in to clear liquors and those again by other additions into simple water is evident viz. that a charr'd coale of Oak should by being digested with this solvent in the heat of a Balneum for the space of three dayes be turned into two diaphanous clear liquors distinguishable in colour and consistence which being distill'd should leave no Faeces behind but should be equal in weight to the Coal it self I say this is very remarkable towards
of earth dried in an Oven having put them in earthen vessel he moistened it with Rain-water after five years the Tree weighed One Hundred Sixty nine pound three Ounces and the earth being dried was of the same weight as at first Now Whence should proceed the great addition of weight to the Tree of no less than One Hundred Sixty four pounds unless from water than which it had no other additional The wood of which Tree I suppose no man will deny to be different from any other wood of the same species and therefore upon Distillation must yield a sowre Spirit an Oyl Phlegm and Salt if burnt and separated into soot and ashes that soot again would yield a velatile Salt Oyl Spirit Phlegm and Earth all which are but the products of water as by the Experiment is demonstrable To the like purpose the most ingenuous Robers Boyl Esq hath an Experiment which was thus In a weighed quantity of digged earth baked in an Oven and put into an earthen pot he set the seed of a Squash this he ordered to be watered only with Rain or Spring-water I did not saith he without much delight behold how fast it grew though unseasonably sown which was about the middle of May the hastening Winter hindred it from coming to its wonted magnitude About the middle of October it was taken up whose weight with the stalk and leaves was two Pound twelve ounces the earth he baked as formerly and found it the same weight The like Experiment he had of Cucumbers he had two fair ones the weight of which were ten pounds and an half the branches with the roots weighed three pounds fourteen ounces then baking the earth twice and its weight was decreased one pound and an half which twice baking might somewhat minorate the weight of the earth Now Whence should proceed that great bulk both in the Squash and Cucumbers unless from water which was the only matter additional thereto And what happens to these planted in earth and fed with water whose increase is found to be simply from water The same I say doth more than probably happen to all other Vegetables springing up from their innate Seeds or transplanted into other Soyls and that the Earth is only a receptacle or Matrix where the variety of Seeds conceive in the common Mercury Water or Leffas Terrae and bring forth a Salt and Sulphur from whose acting one upon another in the source of corruption ariseth the Vegetation and in that the formation of the Plant according to the Idea wrapt up in the bosom of the Seed for these two active secondary Principles being hewed out from the seminal Archeus work themselves extensively downward but chiefly upwards cloath themselves with a body from the primary Element of Water and shoot forth into stalks leaves flowers fruits seeds c. shapes the body according to the platform of the seminal Idea extraverteth the properties thereof whence the variety of colours odours sapours and other specifical qualities flowing from the essence thereof better known to the humane Archeus by assisting it against many Diseases than apparent to the reason of man As we have demonstrated Vegetables to have their original material Principles from water so also Animals have water for their constitutive Element For all Animals I mean superterrestrial have their nourishment either immediately or mediately from Vegetables and Water immediately as all manner of Cattle proper for the food of Man mediately as Man who feeds upon the flesh of Beasts and sometimes immediately upon Herbs themselves so that in Beasts that feed of Grass and Corn Water becomes once more remov'd from its primitive simplicity undergoes a further transmutation by an Animal Ferment that whereas before it had received a simple transmutation or coagulation into plants and fruits of the earth it now by Beasts feeding thereon suffers a second alteration and by the Ferment of an Animal is turn'd into a Chyle Chyme Milk Blood Urine Flesh Bones c. and all these different one from another according to the difference of the Species Now these Creatures or parts thereof are further transmutable by the Ferment of other Animals that feed upon them as for instance the flesh of Beasts or milk therefrom which is water twice remov'd by the Medium of Ferments is by the Ferment of an humane stomach altered again into a Chyle Chyme Milk Blood Flesh Bones Urines c. wherein the specifical Salt and Sulphur do act variously upon each other which in sound persons by the assistance of the Ferment of the heart work each other into a ruby balsamick Animal Elixir and that coagulated in the capillary vessels becomes Flesh And we see if Blood be distill'd the greatest portion thereof is Phlegm or Water so that above two thirds thereof is an Elementary water in like manner Urine is most part of it separable into a waterish Phlegm and Milk distill'd ariseth the most of it in an insipid water in the distillation of the flesh of an Animal a great part thereof ariseth into water amongst which the flesh of Eeles if distill'd as that great Naturalist Squire Boyle witnesseth yield a very great proportion of water in which while distilling they seem to boyl as in a pot of water or like Dantz Vitriol in an earthen pot placed in the fire seemed to be nothing else but water so these to be nothing else but Phlegm coneal'd To which purpose Helmont tells us Anguium Carnes pisces Mucilago semel glaciata eo ipso mucaginem amittunt in aquam redeunt itam emnis Terrae Mucilago qua aliàs facilè in vermes vertitur for that Izinglass Flesh Fish c. should by being frozen lose their form and thereby be reducible into water is no less than an evident Argument of what I am proving viz. That water is the primary subjective Principle of all Vegetable and Mineral Concretes And that Seed together with the potential Ferments thereof are the Authors of all transmutations by the operation of which Water becomes differently coagulated and specificated according to the variety of the Seed and the innate Ferments thereof into this or the other formal Concrete or part thereof which Ferments being connatural with the Seed is more powerful than fire and therefore fitter Agents for transmutation than fire and that because fire can only burn Stones into a Calx as the most profound Philosopher Helmont saith and wood or Vegetables are thereby turned into ashes than which unless by addition of Sand it may further make glass the solitary fire can operate no further and yet these very Calx-stones and ashes may by a Ferment in the earth be transmuted into the Succus or Leffas Terrae and thereby fertilize barren grounds and so assume the shape of Grass and Corn which a while before was in the form of Stones Dung Ashes c. and that which was lately Grass and Corn presently by the Ferment of an Animal becomes Blood Milk and Flesh of
are most vigorous and active for in the beginnings of Animals the Ferments are very languid especially I say in the Matrix and therefore the Transmutations they make are but very slender and tennious whence is the facil reduction of the minute Embryo into its first Spermatick Juyce or Elementary Liquor In Children the Ferments grow stronger but yet is very weak whence is their aptness to breed worms which proceed from a debilitude of the embalming Ferments as Children grow up in years the Ferments grow more strong and therefore they require stronger meat and the Transmutations of the Ferments are more vigorous whence the bones and flesh of young Men become more solid and firm and that increaseth till the body come to its full stature so that it is the vigour of the Ferments that gives flower and strength to the body and their defects give being to Diseases make the Spirits flag the sinews shrink and the flesh wast away by a lingring Tabes and that too oftentimes in the very spring of Youth even many times whilst we are upon the Meridian of our days occasionally from the assaults of many Diseases When we are once arrived to the Zenith of our Years that the florid strength of our bodies are demonstrable Indexes of the agil vigour of our Ferments and vital Functions we stay not long here but then begin to decline and to go down the hill our strength begins gradually to be impaired and that because our Ferments and Vital Powers when once mounted to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are labil and in continual Flux for so all mortal powers are they begin grow come to their full state decline and come to a Period either by a further transmutation or reduction into the first Hyle or primitive Chaos therefore they spontaneously decay and with them the Fabrick of the solid parts of the body so that old Men that live out the full number of days do but spin forth a longer consumptive thread than others they wear away with an insensible Tabes having their succulent parts dried up by the exiccating Blass of the Air and that through the deficiencies of the vital Ferments And thus Old Age performs that at the long run which a lingring Disease whose Seminals are deeply seated in any principal part as stomach lungs liver veins c. vitiating the Ferment thereof doth in a less time as perhaps in a year half a year three months or less viz. wear away the body by a continual wasting or Consumption until the parts are reduced to a Skeleton which being after entombed in the earth doth as all other bodies by the fracedinous odour thereof Fatiscere in succum suum primitivum legesque aquae subire turns into a sort of Leffas and that by a further reduction is nothing else but water not to say what a great quantity of effluvia or vapours which for the most part are materially water pass continually through the pores of our bodies perhaps if duly computed not much less than the one half of the weight of the food we take in and yet is nothing but water circulated in our bodies through various Fermentations and at length reduced to its primitive simplicity Thus we begin we grow we come to our full stature from the operation of Seed and Ferments upon water whose degrees of vigour upon the material stage thereof gives the various Stadiums of Life Then we bend to Diseases we decline we die when the vital Powers and formal Ferments march off the stage and have their exit into their primitive Hyle and the body then ultimately reducible into water by the Fracedo of the Grave Hence I conclude all bodies in the Mundane System whether Vegetable Animal or Mineral from water as the material Element and by Seed as the efficient Agent have not only the Beginning But THE END AN APPENDIX Concerning the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS 1. IT is not the least part of Dr. Wittie's Book to Discourse of the Original of Springs and therein to assert their original to be from Rain and Snow-water from the confluence of which two he supposeth all Springs to flow and that after this manner viz. the Snow and Rain falling from the Clouds in great abundance upon the Earth do by moistening the Superficies cause it to bring forth Vegetables which we grant viz. That the moisture exhal'd from the Sea and Earth carryed up into the Clouds becomes impregnated with an influential Nitrous Salt or Sal Hermeticum floting to and again in the Atmosphere And circulated or cohobated upon its Caput mortuum the Earth gives fertility to the ground and makes it apt to bring forth Vegetables 2. The remaining part saith he except what suddenly runs into Rivers sinks down by secret passages into the earth with which the Superficies doth abound and in rocky ground it runs through the clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Chanels more or less deep in the earth where it is concocted by the earth and moves as blood in the veins c. We shall indeed admit thus far of what he saith viz. That Rain and Snow-water are the proximate cause of all Land-Springs and sudden Flouds silling the Porosities and Chanels of the Superficies of the Earth the remaining part restagnates till it find declive Currents out of Brooks and Ditches into other Rivulets and those again by further passages swell into Rivers and thereby cause inundations of low grounds till those Rivers empty themselves by other intermediate ones into the Sea it self But that the same should be the cause of the Fontes perennes viz. of Living Springs I altogether deny as shall afterwards be evinc'd more clearly 3. This Water saith he at length in its passage through the veins of the Earth finds vent and runs forth which place of eruption we call a Spring or Fountain And this springing forth or eruption of the water I conceive saith he to be made from its own natural inclination and tendency towards its proper place assigned to it by the Creator which is the convex part of the earth it not resting till it meets with its natural correspondent the Air under which it must needs lie because of its greater gravity as above the Earth by reason of its levity And this I think saith he to be the natural reason of its ebullition out of the Earth 4. Here the Doctor hath at once conceiv'd and brought forth the causes as he supposeth of all manner of Springs and their manner of issuing out of the Earth viz. from rain and snow-Snow-Water and their tendency in the Channels of the Earth to their proper place the convex part thereof For he having numbred three general Opinions concerning the Original of Springs viz. first by percolation of the Sea secondly by transmutation of Earth or Air into Water within the Bowels of the Earth Or lastly by Rain or Snow with the last of which he closeth As for the second viz. the Opinion of the
transmutation of Earth into Water for the supply of Springs it 's so absurd that its enough to name it although the Dr. is too credulous in telling us he can easily believe That the thinner part of the Earth may be turned into Water as also the grosser parts of Water into Earth So the thinner and more subtile parts of Water into Air and the grosser parts of Air into Water arguing a Transmutability of the Quaternary of Elements amongst themselves which I wish he could make me believe too by any ocular demonstration 5. As for that Transmutation of Air into Water for the supposed supply of Springs it 's Aristotle's opinion and Dr. Wittie denying this Thesis yet saith that reason tells us that more then ten parts of Air will not serve for the making but of one part of Water I think saith he by Parenthesis twenty would be to little But if I should be heard to speak in this case it should be Paradoxical and that thus viz. that five parts of Air would be too much and five thousand parts thereof would be too little for the making one part of Water 6. I shall therefore first endeavour to impugne his Thesis of Snow and rain-Rain-Water to be the Original of all Springs by being Negative therein Next to which I shall assume a positive Thesis from the Circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Chanels from Sea to Sea yea and from the Sea to the Heads of Springs from them into Rivulets and those again into Rivers and those into the Ocean and so circulate round 7. First therefore that Snow and Rain-Water should give Original to living Springs as we call them cannot be because then upon deficiency of Snow and Rain-Water as usually happens in long droughts these Springs would certainly fail But we find the contrary viz. that in long continued droughts when all Land-Springs are thereby dried that yet the true Quick Springs are as fluent as ever Ergo they are not fed by Snow or Rain-Water I cannot indeed deny but that Quick-springs are not without their additional supplies from Land-Springs which are fed by Snow or Rain-Water and thereupon may in long droughts having those auxiliaries drawn off become less able to manage that strong current they had before yet doth it not therefore follow but that these Springs when solitary fetch their Original deeper then Rain Water can sink 8. Yea suppose we should grant that some few of these Quick-Springs should for the generality of them do not prove deficient through long continued droughts yet this may very probably happen upon a double account First because the Quick-Spring it self may be lengthened by the additional supply of a Land-spring being suppose but an arme of that larger Channel which is carried under ground at a greater distance to another Spring of a more strong current and therefore a drought taking away its Auxiliaries may thereby break off an arm and make it run in its strong single Channel along the Sabulum bulliens to an other Spring-head where it glides currently away 9. The next reason why some few Quick-Springs as I said may in long droughts prove dry'd up is because the Superficies of the earth is so exhausted of that Natural moysture which should supple it for Vegetation and the like as that it imbibes it into its self like a Spung and the Spring spends its stock to moysten the thirsty earth about it and so proves deficient in its current But when the earth becomes again satiated by irrigating showers then that which before was diverted to moysten the Earth finds its Channel again and runs as fluently as ever 10. The second reason why Springs have not their Original from Snow and Rain-Water is because we find Springs break forth upon the tops of Hills or Mountains which flow even in the greatest droughts Now if Rain-Water should at that season onely supply them then of necessity upon want of Rain and continuance of long droughts these must be dryed up yea and that very speedily too because they want a supply from their essential constituent Cause which according to his Thesis is Snow or Rain-water But by experience we find the contrary viz that Quick-Springs even in long droughts do keep their current therefore Snow and Rain-Water are not the constituent or efficient Cause of Quick-Springs 11. The third reason that makes me scruple the Veracity of this Hypothesis is because neither the Dr. nor the rest of the Assertors thereof have duly assign'd the manner or Method the Pipes Channels or Conduits how Springs having their Original from Snow or Rain should ascend and mount the tops of Hills and spring forth in the uppermost parts of high Heaths And why upon the truth of the assertion they should not rather alwayes be thrust down into Vallies and confin'd to low declive places as being more proper for the heavy body of Water according to their own supposition of its being next in weight to Earth to descend then contrary as they say to the nature thereof to ascend To make Water climb a Hill forcing it volens nolens up the inside when all the contrivance they have cannot do the same upon the outside thereof Methinks they should have indeavoured to have extricated themselves and the world from these suspicious doubts before they had impos'd their Thesis 12. For by this supposition a great part of Rain-Water falling for the supply of Springs sinks down by secret passages into the Earth What then must force this Water contrary to its natural inclination up the bank to make it spring forth out of the tops of Hills and high places Surely the contrivers of this Hypothesis had not their eyes every way did not cast about to salve all the incident Phaenomena of this Doctrine All the reason I find Dr. Wittie gives for its Ebullition out of the Earth is a tendency towards its proper place which is the convex part of the Earth By which it should seem that the Water while in the Bowels of the Earth is out of its place and therefore must by a certain force ab extra as to its self be reduc'd to its natural place What this should be that may make the Water recoyle or drive upward contrary to it own Nature the Doctor would have done well to have assign'd For no body can be suppos'd to have a natural tendency in that where a force is impos'd but here is a natural tendency to the proper place viz. the convex part of the Earth and yet this is carryed upwards a contrary motion to that that is proper to water so that in good earnest it implyes no less then a tacit contradiction 13. For he expresly saith That the Springing forth or Eruption of the Water is not made by any forcible agitation compulsion or violence that is put upon it ab extra within the Earth c. but from its own natural inclination and tendency towards its
Earth up to the Clouds and from thence down again to the Earth but that the moysture in the Air should be reputed Air transmuted into Water viz That which falls upon stone-walls in moyst seasons is so absurd as it 's enough to confute it to name it So that we may conclude that the moysture in the Air which settles it self upon the Walls and floors of Stone-buildings neither is nor ever was Air and that the transmutability of Air into Water in the bowels of the Earth is impossible and lastly that Springs viz. the fontes perennes have not their Original from Rain and Snow 36. Thus I have run through the most considerable things which the Doctor offers in order to the confirming his opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Quick-springs and all along I think have probably if not demonstratively overturn'd his Opinion together with the grounds arguments and reasons thereof I might I confess multiply more words in prosecuting at large his whole discourse but studying brevity I have couch'd all he hath to say that is any way pertinent to his purpose saving the story he relates out of Dr. Heylin concerning the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea which without reflection on that worthy Author who as well as other Historians may probably take many things upon trust which I say as to the verity of matter of fact I should very much scruple viz. That a drought should continue so long as thirty six years so as all the Springs Torrents or Rivers were dried up and that in the dayes of Constantine the Great It 's very probable he had it by Tradition which many times to wing Fame makes large plumes That an Island so near the Mediterranean Sea should want rain for 36 years together would certainly put an ordinary credulity upon the Tenter-hooks and stretch a Thomas beyond his ordinary pitch for of all places Islands are the most frequented with Showers And that it should be done designedly by God upon a miraculous divine account I do not well understand because that has its ends and aims for the punishing the Natives where judgements are brought forth which done they frequently cease but here according to the story they were forc'd to forsake the Island and to seek for new habitations so that probably it may pass for a drought in Utopia 37. And lastly the two Rarities he mentions that are to be found upon the Castle-Hill in Scarborough viz. the deep Well which reacheth to the bottom of the rock which hath no water and the spring-Well which is within half a yard of the edge of the rock towards the Sea which never wants water which he saith doth somewhat illustrate the point in hand The first of which seems to me onely to be a Well digg'd within whose compass no Chanels have happened and therefore it is dry for so narrow a compass as a Well is may sometimes happen to miss of subterraneal Chanels And as for the other which is so neer the edge of the Rock towards the Sea which never wants Water I look upon it as supply'd from the same cause that other digg'd restagnant Wells are viz. from Land-springs which are feed from Rain or Snow-Water which yet makes nothing in reality towards the confirming his Thesis for it is no current Spring to the best of my remembrance which yet suppose it were it will not be uneasy to conceive the manner and way of its supply when I have propounded what I have to say in order to the establishing a new Thesis which will be positive to the point in hand 38. And that is as I hinted before from a circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum bulliens from Sea to Sea yea and from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and those into Rivers and thence into the Ocean and so circulates round which also includes an other circle of Rain and Snow which first arising by exhalation from the Sea and Earth is carryed down again upon the Earth and Sea joyning Issue with rivulets from Springs swell Rivers which again discharge themselves into the Sea 39. So that a Circulation of water is as justly requisite according to the order and appointment of the primitive Cause for the upholding the Symmetry of parts and intirenes of the whole terraqueous Globe as the Cirulation of blood is necessary for the preservation of life and vital functions in the Microcosme or body of man The earth can no more produce Vegetables or Minerals without this connatural circulation of water replenish'd with Celestial influences than the blood in the body of man can produce Vital or Animal Spirits requisite for absolving the functions of life without its inbred circulation which concatenation of parts in the circulation thereof gave cause to some Philosophers of old to call the world a great Animal either because that animarum omnia plena viz. that the Seeds of all things are at hand and at the beck of the primitive Fiat alwayes at work or because of the great Symmetry of parts or coordinate circulations of the constituent Particles of the World whose proportions were so exact and actions upon each other in the circle of nature so uniform as if actuated by some Panspermion or universal operative Spirit Spiritus intus alit totumque infusa per orbem mens agitat molem 40. Not to say how Analogous the Sea and Hydrophylacia those great Cisterns of Water and Springs of the Deep that in Noah's Food joyn'd Issue with the Cataracts of Haven for drowning the World are to the heart of the Microcosme nor how Analogous the Channels of the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens which cary the Waters into the uttermost circle of the Earth for the supply of Mineral Glebes Minerals themselves and Vegetables upon the Green Carpet thereof are to the Arteries in the body of man by which the blood circulates from the Heart for the nourishment of the whole nor yet to determine the analogy of these circulating Waters further drawn up by Solar exhalations which clime up the slender Threds of Aereal Syphons into the Capitol of the Air to be impregnate there with Coelestial influences or Animal spirits if I may so call them which cohobated upon their own body promote vegetation yea and animation too by becoming that cibus occultus in aere of which the Cosmopolite and other Hermetical Philosophers discourse at large I say not to determine the Analogy of these Waters replenish'd in their circuit with Heavenly influences with those Animal spirits in the little World Man which in the Head receive a determination for obsolving the functions of sense and motion 41. Nor lastly to determine thoroughly the Analogy of water whilst circulating in the bowels of the Earth along the Channels of the Sabulum to the blood whilst circulating in the Veins and Arâ—â—ries of the humane body though
I confess to illustrate this Point will not a little conduce to the solving some Phaenomina incident to our Thesis 42. And first we see that blood whilst circulating in its proper vessels knows no such difference as either going up or down For it to ascend the Aorta and from thence up into other Arteries which are carried into the Head and Arms is the same as to descend by other Vessels into the lower parts The nourishment the blood gives in the habit of the body whether carried upwards or downwards is the same yea it ascends with as quick a motion as it descends and that because it 's carried in its own proper vessels and mov'd by the Systole of the heart whose vibration to parts whether upwards or downwards is equal 43. Now in like manner Water whilst circulating from Seas and the Hydrophylacia and carried in its proper Subterraneal Channels along the Quellem is in its proper place and becomes the Mother of Mineral Earths Minerals Metals Stones and Marcasites and so long knows neither up nor down and can as easily whilst in these Channels climb up the tops of Hills and Mountains and there make Springs as break forth in Valleys and in the Level of Plains yea it can as well mount the tops of Hills and high Heaths as the blood in the Arteries can ascend into the head and all by the natural circulation of Water set on work by the Original Fiat for the upholding the functions of the Terraqueous Globe where if such a thing be in rerum naturá you may view the Perpetual motion 44. Now that the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens is the proper Conduit and Subterraneal Channel for water to circulate in whilst in the bowels of the Earth is hereby apparent That a true Quick-Spring never breaks forth but this sand also appears yea where ever any dig in the Earth for the said Springs they are not found but at the bottom or verge of the Fundus of Mineral Earth Clay or marly ground where sand is alwayes seen to break up with the living Spring which frequently breaks forth under the Channels and banks of Rivers whence it is that plenty of sand is wrought up in Rivers also in Plains Valleys Heaths Hills and Mountains or in any places thereof digg'd for Springs are found as I said store of this Sand. 45. And that there are Subterraneal Channels by which Sea 's at great distance communicate with each other will appear first if we consider the Ocean which is the whole bulk of waters that compass the Globe of earth is but one which receives different names according to various Regions it washeth as Oceanus Atlanitcus Germanicus Deucalidonius Septentrionalis Tartaricus Aethiopicus Mare Arabicum Mar di India Mar Del Nort Mar Del Zur or Mare Pacificum Archipelagus c. And there is no In-land Sea which receive Rivers and let none forth visibly but they communicate with the Ocean Thus the Mediterranean Sea is joyn'd to the Atlantick Ocean per Fretum Herculeum and to the Red-Sea by occult Subterraneal Channels as the Story related by Kircherus of the Dolphin first taken in the Red and soon after in the Mediterranean Sea So the Caspian by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels is annexed to the Euxine or black-Sea and this to the Aegean and that to the Mediterranean Thus these great Seas in Asia communicate with each other according to the mind of Scaliger Wendeline and Kircherus So the Baltick communicates with the German and Deucalidonian Seas by the two Arms Bosnicum and Finicum per Fretum Cymbricum 46. In like manner the Asphaltick Sea or Mare Mortuum in Palestine communicates with the Red-Sea by the same Subterraneal Channels and thereby are conveyed into the Ocean So the Lake Zaire in Aethiopia by the same manner empties it self into the Aethiopian Ocean And that great River in Aethiopia call'd Fluvius Niger flowing from the Lake of Nilus and being shut up by a Chain of Mountains in the Kingdom of Nubia where privately breaking forth of the Western part of the Mountains empties it self by Subterraneal Meanders where meeting with several other Rivers increase them and at length is carried into the Atlantick Ocean After the same manner the River Tigris in Mesopotamia being carried through the Lake Arethusa meets with resisting Caucasus thrusts down its head into a large den and after a great space of ground peeps up again where scarce passing the Lake Thospis but it is begirt again with other Mountains and hides it self again in Subterraneal Chanels and breaks forth 24 Miles on the other side of the Mountains then continues to flow and neer Babylon is let into Euphrates 47. Now I say that these In-land Seas Lakes and great Rivers do communicate with each other and at length are carried into the main Ocean and that this is done by Subterraneal Channels will be apparent as followeth First that the Caspian hath intercourse with the Euxine or black Sea by such passages is evident because it receives into its bosome a constant flux of great Rivers and lets none forth visibly by any arme into the Sea and and yet notwithstanding is not at all increased and Kircher guesseth that before the deluge it might be contiguous with the Ocean overrunning all the Sandy Desarts of Tartaria and afterwards was broke off by the Chain of the Mountains of Caucasus This is onely conjectural but however it appears as if it were a Lake shut up on all hands having Rivers let into it but none let forth and yet shews no footstep of inundation and therefore must of necessity have communication with other Seas by private Chanels The same is also further confirm'd by observation That has been made upon that Sea as Kircher reports by Paradia Persa in Geograph viz. that when ever the Eastern Winds have rul'd strongly over the Caspian at the same time in the Euxine Sea the boylings has been observ'd greater then wonted with a great agitation of the whole Sea And on the contrary when the Western Winds blew strongly upon the Euxine the like perturbations have been seen in the Caspian Sea and when the Caspian hath by the agitation of winds emptied it self into the Euxine it is again replenished by the like secret passages from the Persian Sea which is done by a kind of Charybdis or Vortex along the shore of the Sinus Persicus whereby the Sea seems to be sometimes drunk up with a notable decrease which by a fresh flowing of the Sea the Vortex is hid again So that the Caspian by Subterraneal Chanels receives a supply from the Persian Sea and by the like Chanels communicates with the Euxine Sea 48. That the Asphaltick or Mare Mortuum communicates by the same hidden passages with the Red-Sea is evident because upon the coasts of the Red-Sea which looks towards the Desarts of Arabia at the noted place call'd Eltor as the inquisitive Kircher relates where not far from the shore from the bowels of
attenuating of Ayr by heat in an inverted oval glass the water seems to be drawn up by a kind of Suction as some would have it or to prevent a Vacuum as others think but most probably if not demonstratively it ascends gradually and sensibly for this cause viz That when the Ayr in the glass which before by heat was attenuated is either by cold reduced into its pristine form or having as so thinn'd but a languid pressure is therefore by a more strong Elastick force of Ayr upon the surface of the water forc'd up till it come to such a height as the pressure of Ayr within and that without the glass are brought to an Aequilibrium or equal poysure I mean till the springy power of the Ayr within and without the glass be of an equal force and there it stands till the springy power of the Ayr within the glass by heat becomes dilated and then it forceth down the water in the Tube and makes the water in the Viol rise higher proportionable to the degree of the attenuation of the Ayr. 57. That the Ayr receives a considerable alteration by heat is further confirm'd by the experiment of inverting a glass Cucurbit over a Candle fastened with tallow upon the bottom of a glass or earthen Bason wherein water is first poured to the height of two or three fingers breadths where the heat of the Candle doth so weaken the spring of the Ayr within the Glass that it wanting the help of the circulating Ayr always requisite to the perpetuating the motion of bodyes which is intercepted by the body of water that in stead thereof the Water it self circulates being forc'd thereto by the spring of the Air that presseth upon it from without and therefore it riseth up to a great height of the glass-body as I have sometime seen upon tryal thereof and puts out the Candle which Experiment seems somewhat to contradict the former of a Weather-glass though in reality it doth not for although there heat makes it descend but here it makes it ascend yet if we consider that in that of the Weather-glass the Air in it is first thinn'd by heat before the glass be put into water and therefore when it 's condensed by cold it draws up the water or rather the water is forced by the outward Spring of the Air and follows it to an Aequilibrium but in this last Experiment the glass is inverted into water without any previous alteration of the Air therein which being to supply the motion of a body viz. the burning of the Candle doth it for a while but wanting a fresh supply from other Air without to promote the Circulation thereof always necessary for the motion of bodies the want thereof makes the strong spring of the Air upon the surface of the water to force up the water it self into the glass-body From which Experiments result these following Corollaries viz. First That a Circulation of Air is requisite for the motion of all bodies the Candle in the glass we see extinguisheth for want thereof by forcing up the water in lieu of Air. Secondly That Air may be attenuated by the heat of the Sun whereby the same portion of Air may be made to extend it self over a larger space witness the heating the glass in the first of the two last Experiments Thirdly That this Air thus attenuated and extended by the heat of the Sun is the reason why culinary fire dies or goes out when the Beams of the Sun are cast upon it because they thin the Air and the Air is the natural Bellows of Fire which Fire burns according to the intenseness or remisness of the Air. Fourthly That the Air thus thinn'd makes way for water to ascend up the small veins thereof which are like so many slender Syphons by which it mounts from Earth Waters and Seas up into the Clouds for the supply of Rain and Snow which Syphons in droughty hot weather are mostwhat at work carrying it upward whereas in moist weather the water descends by the same Syphons and moisten the Ground with Dew and Walls or Floors of Stone-buildings in wet Seasons so that the reputed Exhalations of moisture by the Sun for the supply of Rain is no other than this gradual steaming up of slender Syphons whereby water mounts insensibly the uppermost part of the Atmosphere Fifthly That in great heat of weather many Diseases happen through the thinness of the Air for the Air in the Lungs is the Bellows of the vital Fire in the Heart which if it become attenuated either through a general heat in the Air whence ariseth frequently some Epidemical Disease or through the obstructions of the Lungs themselves whereby the Air for want of foundness of Organs becomes thinn'd before it come to volatize the Blood in its current from the right to the left Ventricle of the Heart causeth Faintings Lassitudes Candialgia's Asthma's Deliquiums and in Women Swoonings Palpitations rousing up the Spleen and Mother c. yea in fine makes the Lamp of Life burn dark and dimly whereas the Air by cold being reduc'd to its pristine form and the Lungs freed from obstructions quickens the vital Ferment sharpens the appetite makes the vital Fire burn clearly and makes evident that the Ferments of the several Digestions are vital for in cold weather we find our appetites more acuated our Ferments more vigorous and the Digestions more powerful But I will not though I might here further enlarge to shew how the Air in a due order contributes to the invigorating the Ferments and how much it conduceth in the change thereof towards the curing Diseases But I proceed Sixthly And which chiefly concerns our present purpose assert That the heat of the Sun contributes by thinning the Air towards the circulation of water from Seas to Springs and from water upon the earth to Clouds For the Sun whilst he is suppose in the Northern Signs especially towards the Tropick of Cancer casts his rays pretty powerfully upon those Places which are within the oblique position of the Sphere though not perpendicularly as it happens to those Places situated under the right position of the Sphere where the Aequator cuts the Horizon at right Angles whilst he is I say in the Northern Signs by his heat he thins the Air of those Regions especially as those Places fall under the Meridians as some Places must alwaies do the Sun in his supposed Diurnal Circuit making Twenty four Meridians the Air under these Meridians especially in those places where the Sun is or inclines to be Vertical being attenuated makes the Air circulate the more strongly towards the other Quadrants of the Terraqueous Globe causing there a stronger pressure upon the Surface of the Seas and this must be constantly done because the Sun really or apparently is alwayes in motion about the Earth who in his Circuit thins the Air of those Places which lie most directly under his Beams and so makes the Air as
I may say split it self I mean as to its uniform texture towards the Poles where it causeth a constant pressure upon the Northern and Atlantick Ocean and upon the Mare del Zur or Pacificum towards the South as also driving the Clouds whilst he is Northern into the South side of the Aequator enough almost alone to give Being to Springs by forcing the water along the Subterraneal Chanels up at great distances upon the Continents Seventhly That Air attenuated in one place of the Atmosphere is as much condensed in an other part thereof and what it is deficient of force in that thinn'd part so much more it is of force in the other so as to give a proportionable pressure answerable to the weakness of its Spring elsewhere 58. Now the natural pressure of Water by Air and of the upper parts of water upon those below is by perpendicular lines and that by Vorticles as Archimedes and after him Des Cartes and Kircher demonstrate Natural I said because accidentally by Winds or Storms the motion may be oblique so that supposing the Seas to be at their bottom perforated in many places with Subterraneal Chanels and secret Vortices the surface of the Sea being press'd with Winds Clouds and Storms the circulated and condensed Air which recoyls from the other thinner part of the Atmosphere where the Sun-Beams have attenuated it together with the oblique motion of the Flux and Re-flux of the Sea begins the motion towards the grand Circulation 59. For the Superficies of the Ocean being press'd by the foresaid weight sends down its water by Subterraneal Chanels into the Hydrophylacia or common Cisterns of water which are the Springs of the Deep where it not only comes to a level with the surface of the Sea keeping a Horizontal Parallel therewith which any water will do in a Syphon or duplicated Tube though unassisted by any considerable pressure of the Air but also by the force of the pressure upon the surface of the Sea it is easily carried up above the level thereof into Hills Mountains and high Heaths which breaking forth give Being to Springs and Fountains which run into many Rivulets and from those into larger Rivers especially joyning issue with Rain and snow-Snow-water and from Rivers are again carried into the Seas 60. That this is a Circulation whereby water is carried in a round is apparent because the Seas being pressed by the foresaid natural Causes are carried by Subterraneal Chanels along the Sabulum bulliens breaks forth at Spring-heads in Valleys Hills or Mountains runs along into Rivulets which with showers moisten the earth and then carried up again by Aereal Syphons in droughty Seasons into the Clouds makes the Atmosphere ponderous which together with Winds out of Subterraneal Caverns and the strong Spring of the Air recoyling from the rest attenuated by the heat of the Sun together with the Current of all Rivers into the Sea All these I say joyntly together conspire the pressure of the Seas again into the heads of Springs and so still more on in a circular motion and that in order to the supplying the grand Concerns of the Terraqueous Globe both for Mineral and Vegetable productions 61. That the Air doth press is evident in Pneumatick Engines as that of the Wine-Coopers Bellows which will by the meer pressure upon the surface of Wine from Air force forth the Liquor into other vessels the same happens in Pumps which by forcing forth Air carry up the water as also if a pair of Bellows be so contriv'd as to be plac'd over a vessel of water closed up on all sides with two Pipes going to the bottom of the vessel so ordered as whilst the one Bellows is drawn up the other falls down with its flap which pressing upon the surface of the water makes it yield which finding no other way will mount up suppose two Pipes which are carried into a Cistern at a competent distance above the vessel which again being let forth by an other Pipe at the opposite side falls into a chanel which carries it upon a Water-wheel and gives motion suppose thereto the Axis of which turns about a square handle to which is fastened the handle or pole of the Bellows poys'd upon a leaver plac'd equally betwixt the two Bellows so that as the water runs out of the Cistern it turns about the wheel and that moves the Bellows which pressing the water in the vessel forceth it up again into the Cistern and so in a round whereas if it could so be contriv'd that this water which moves the wheel about should by an other chanel be conveyed into the top of the water-vessel it might give a good probability of finding out at least fairly hinting a Perpetual Motion A Type of which may be seen in Kircherus his Mundus Subterraneus 62. So in like manner the surface of the Seas being press'd by the foresaid causes which joyntly together conspire its pressure as the bellows doth the water in the Vessel they force it up along Pipes or Subterraneal Chanels to the Head of Springs and Fountains Which Pipes by how much the more they are oblique in their windings by so much the more easily the Water is carried up to the tops of Hills and high Grounds 63. And as the Air by its own innate Spring doth press so sometimes it becomes more weighty by having the burden of Clouds lying and pressing upon it which also contributes to the former pressure upon the surface of the Sea For we see that when the Clouds are about to discharge themselves in Showers and that in large drops that they so compress the texture of the Air as they cause a Wind commonly to go before each Shower which is nothing else but a Latio Aeris or Motion of the Air from the pressure of the Clouds and the greatness of the drops which compress the Air and bear it down till it hath made its thorough passage to the Earth whereas when the Rain comes down in small drops and thin threds it passeth gently through the Vehicle and Colander of the Air without any considerable pressure thereof â—â—g i. pag 320 Fig ii pag 321 65. So in like manner the Air in the Atmosphere preffeth by its Spring set on work by the foresaid causes upon the Surface of the Sea which lyes in Right-Lines with the Hydrophylacia according to the Line F G which may represent the level-surface both of the Sea and springs of the deep Which being press'd at G towards I raiseth up the Water from F towards C which represents high Hills and Mountains where Springs break forth either at C or E. Hence we see that as the Spring of the Air is invigorated or weakned so its pressure upon water is more or less 66. The second Figure See the 2 Figure of the Scheme is the same save the Oval which it wants having instead thereof a small Concha where the Air from without has a free pressure
and that part of the Tube to be larger and the other part revers'd to be much smaller which suppose to be fill'd with Water at A where by the Solitary pressure of the Air contain'd within the cavity of the Tabe made by the Palm of the Hand laid thereon forceth the Water which is in the Pipe A B C. with a great sure from F to C and that too a great Height above C in the same manner the Air in the Atmosphere being pressed with Winds Storms Clouds and condensation thereof and the like causes aforesaid forceth upon the surface of the Sea which with the Hydrophylacia are alwayes at an Aequilibrium according to the Line F G beyond the Aequilibrium F G into the Concha's of Mountains E K C which are much higher then the Mathematical Circle of Water I mean then that circle of Water from which all Lines drawn to the Centre are equal So that supposing a constant pressure upon A or G which is certainly done at all times by some or all of the foresaid causes the Water must as constantly be press'd from F to K and C and there as certainly make Springs to break forth for from the same causes alwaies at work the same effects are alwaies produc'd 67. Hence the great difficulty may easily be resolv'd why Springs are sometimes found upon the tops of the highest Mountains and that because the bulk of Waters to be carried above the Aequilibrium F. G. is in a manner insensible in comparison of the great weight and pressure of the Water in the Ocean and that thus as the ingenious Kircher computes that the Semidiameter of the Earth is 3600 Miles of which 60 answer to every Degree of the Aequater which Semidiameter is computed from the Superficies of the Sea where the lines as I said from any part thereof to the Center are equal and seeing that the Basis of Mountains are level with the Mathematical globous earth so that the tops of these Mountains must be very protuberant Therefore it onely remains to be demonstrated how much higher the Sea ought to mount be yond its Aequilibrium F G or Periphery of its globous circle to make Springs break forth on Mountains 62. Fig iii. pag 323 68. To which purpose suppose the line See the 3 Figure in the Scheme A B to be the Semidiameter of the Earth 3600 Miles long which terminates in the line D E which cuts the Superficies of the Terraqueous Globe in the point B. Now suppose the height of the tallest Mountain to be C which added to the Semidiameter of the Earth A B will produce the line A C which expresseth the top of the highest Mountain Therefore as A B is to B C so is the Semidiameter of the Earth to the highest Mountain so is 3600 to 30 with which computing the immensness of the surface of the Ocean pressed on all hands with the foresaid causes makes it very easie to apprehend how readily Water may be carried from the Seas and Hydrophylcacia to the heads of Springs in the highest Mountains 69. For the proportion betwixt the Semidiameter of the Earth 3600 together with the vastness of the immense Ocean forc'd by the Spring of the Atmosphere to the Line B C viz. the top of the highest Mountain 30 is in a manner insensible and the more insensible by how much Hills or Mountains are less in height then 30 Miles insomuch that as the learned Kircher observes the Picke of Teneriff Olympus in Asia Aetna in Sicilia Caucasus in Asia Otho in Macedonia would as to their proportion with the vast Ocean disappear whence he concludes Unde infero inquit Kircherus Oceani aquas sive fluxa refluxuque sive tempestatibus ventorumque vi sive nubium descensu pressas nullo negotio etiam in altissimos vertices montium ejaculari posse 70. And as this pressure of the Sea by the said causes is constant and as constantly keeps Springs and Fountains in flowing upon Mountains and remore places upon Continents so also thereby the Hydrophylacia are alwayes kept fill'd from whence as from a Store-house the Alps comprehended by France Germany and Italy pour forth so many Torrents and Rivers which by a perpetual current never have ceased nor never will as long as the Wheels and Springs of Nature are kept at work by the Great Master Mechanick of the world cease to flow from which Springs of the deep Danubius Rhenus Mosella Mosa Rhodanus Arar Padus Ticinus together with other smaller Rivers have their supply 71. Besides Some Springs seeme to emulate the Flux and Reflux of the Sea as that which Pliny tells us of in the Gades which observes the motion of the Sea in ebbing and flowing and perhaps that in the Peake of Derby-shire may be from the same cause which ebs and flows every 12 hours And how Dr. Wittie comes to be sure that this last together with the Spring at Giggleswick in York-shire hath no correspondence with the Sea he might have done well to have inform'd us that we might have been as sure as he 72. As for the Spring at Gliggleswick which ebs and flows many times a-day we may perhaps not unaptly attain to some Foot-steps of the knowledge thereof if we remind what I have already delivered above viz. that if a glass Tube stop'd close at the one end with ones Thumb and the other end let down into a Vial or other vessel full of Water as soon as ever the air gets liberty by removing the thumb the Spring of air from without presseth up the Water 2 or 3 Finger breadths above the Level of the Water and bubbles up to and again for a while then settles to its ordinary pitch which is an exact resemblance of the Spring at Giggleswick and such like 73 For in these Springs the Air is so pent up by the streightness of the Chanels near the Spring-head and by the denseness of some interposing Glebe of earth which may and doth probably for a time very much though not totally intercepts the motion of the Air which hinders the Spring from flowing alwayes to high as if the Air had liberty it would therefore it onely flows at that time when the pressure of the Water forceth it through the dense Earth and gives thereby liberty for the Air which before was pent up for we see in all Hydrostatick Experiments that water follows Air as well as Air circulates after Water and that Water alwayes obeys the more strong impulse of Air though it be to ascend to a great height 74. Now having run through all the causes and demonstrated the reasons of those causes which promote the grand Circulation of Water it is now time to consider the final End Aim and Intention of the first Mover in Nature who sets all these Wheels and Springs a going in the great Clock-work of the World and who orders all things in Time Weight and Measure and that to the end that one part and Wheel
may mutually promote the motion of an other that all the parts and motions thereof may joyntly conspire the good and intirenes of the whole But that we may in some few particulars view the Wisdom of God in ordering this Circulation of Water and that it is not done in vain but hath its various uses and those of larg extent for the benefit of man and other Creatures and that as followeth 75. First Waters by this great Circulation are kept from putrefaction and corruption motion being to Waters as it is to the vapours in the Air viz. hinders them from corrupting and as wind fan the Air from putrid vapours so motion keeps Water from Stagnating and consequently from putridness and therefore a peice of raw flesh laid in a constant current of Water will keep from corrupting a considerable time 76 Secondly In times of drought when Land-Springs are mostwhat dryed up These viz the Springs Rivulets c. contain'd in the great Circulation serve for the use of Man and Cattle and that in places at great distance from large Rivers for the Quick-Springs constantly moving in the great Wheel are never dry and that by reason that where the cause doth perpetuate the effect must do the same but the causes as aforesaid are alwaies at work therefore Springs I mean Quick-Springs must never fail as long as the Fabrick of the World is upheld by the same Fiat as at first 77. Thirdly By great Rivers which are made of Rivulets and Fountains which in the great Circulation run thereinto we can easily pass from one Place and Country into an other and that by Oaken vessels which if the Water whether in Rivers or Seas were Stagnant could not move thereon half so well so that in Ships by the motion of the Sea and Winds we visit forreign Countrys and the Merchants Traffique abroad and that for a general good of Mankind 78. Fourthly By this grand Circulation all Mineral Springs for the health of man are produc'd For the Water circulating in the bowels of the earth being pressed by the foresaid causes as it meets with various Mineral Earths and Salts becomes impregnated with the Tinctures or tasts thereof making some slight solutions of the Mineral juyces into it self passeth on to the head of the next Spring where breaking forth makes Spaws of different sorts as Vitrioline Alluminous Nitrous Salinous Sulphureous c according to the nature of the mineral Glebe the Water passeth through to the Spring-head whence is the great variety of Waters 79. Fifthly Water by this great Circulation in the bowels of the Earth being dispers'd as I may say by capillary veins into the whole habit of the earthy body is coagulated by various Ferments and Specifick Mineral or Metalline Seeds into such like Bodyes For as we have else where demonstrated Water is the Material subject of all Minerals and consequently of Metalline Bodyes and that it needs onely different Seeds with their various Archeal Ferments to shape it into all sorts of bodyes found in Vulcan's shop each according to its Seminal difference For from whence proceeds the great variety of all Stones Marcasites Minerals Mineral Earths Metals c. but from Water shap'd by Seeds and Ferments into bodyes under various disguises Which here by this grand Circulation is alwayes at hand and ready for the Seminal Faber or Vulcan to work upon 80. Sixthly This circulation joyning Issue with that lesser one of Rain and Snow Impregnated with Coelestial influences doth make the ground fruitful and makes the Superficies thereof bring forth all manner of Seed Bearing plants and Trees according to the kinds of the first Seeds or Seminal Principles implanted by God therein at the first and so being impregnated with the Salt of the Earth promotes vegetation upon the green carpet thereof For when when I view Plants and Trees in their Verdure in the Spring or Summer times methinks I see nothing but Water altered by Seeds and Ferments which thereupon Proteus like puts on various Garbs and appears in different diesses and to me it s as easy to apprehend how Water moved by the foresaid causes riseth up into Hills and Mountains there breaking forth into Springs as to conceive how Water riseth up into the tops of the highest Trees and there to bud forth into leaves Fruit and Seed or how between the Bark and bole of the Tree Water should ascend up like as in Syphons and that in some Trees without any considerable alteration of tast or consistence from simple distill'd Water save a sleight touch of a Medicinal Odor as for instance cut a Vine in January or February but especially in March and you shall find it weep forth a deal of insipid Water at the knots or joynts where it 's cut so if you wound a Branch of the Birch Tree or lop the bole thereof in March if it be done below near the ground the Latex thence issuing is a mere insipid Water but if a Branch of about 3 Fingers thickness be wounded to the Semidiameter thereof and fill'd with Wooll it Weeps forth a Subacid Liquor in great abundance insomuch that in one day such a wounded Branch may give 8 or 10 pound of that Liquor concerning the vertue whereof Helmont saith Qui in ipso lithiasis tormento solatur afflictes tribus quatuorve cochlearibus assumptis viz. that it gives help in the torments of the Stone being taken to the quantity of three or four spoonfulls which he saith is Balsumus Lithioisis merus which great quantity of Water must come from the root and that must receive it by its Fibers from the Capillary Veins of the earth carryed thither by the grand Circulation of Water with its included circle of Rain and Snow which the one meeting with the other becomes the material subject of all Plants Trees and Fruits of the earth which earth is onely the Matrix where water becomes coagulated by the Fracedinous Odor thereof and by the Fermental operation of Seed into all sorts of Vegetable Concrets which spring up in the Superficies of the Earth Now the Medicinal virtue that this Liquor hath is from a Ferment which it receives from the Tree as it passeth along the Channels thereof for the same Liquor weeping from a wound of the bole near the Earth hath not that virtue Therefore it must be from a Medicinal Ferment it receives from the Tree above that place also if a Pompion be cut while it's growing will as a Friend of mine told me upon his own triall run a great deal of a limpid Water which by the heat of the Sun will be congeal'd into a pulpie substance and that because the Water which comes for the nourishment thereof hath received a Specifical Ferment from the Pompion which if it were intire would presently be coagulated for the growth and increase thereof but being let forth by a wound is at last by the heat of the Sun coagulated into somewhat Analogous thereto so probably Melons