Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

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water_n	great_a	place_n	sea_n	5,022	5	6.4533	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42822	Plus ultra, or, The progress and advancement of knowledge since the days of Aristotle in an account of some of the most remarkable late improvements of practical, useful learning, to encourage philosophical endeavours : occasioned by a conference with one of the notional way / by Jos. Glanvill.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1668 (1668)	Wing G820; ESTC R14223	65,458	192

through the two Glasses in Perspectives than any single one because they are so fashioned and ordered that the visive rays are better gathered and united by them for the advantage of sight But in the two Spectacles the case is contrary These things I suggested and some others from the Dioptricks in which this Sage Person was pleased then to conceal his knowledge and how great that was in these matters will appear by the Learned Problem he proposed at this period of our Discourse viz. Why we cannot see with two pair of Spectacles better than with one singly For saith the Man of Axioms Vis unita fortior A pleasant piece of Philosophy this and I 'le shew the Disputer how strongly he infers from his Maxim by another Question like it Why cannot he write better with two Pens than with a single one since Vis unita fortior When he hath answered this Quaere he hath resolved his own I said in the Discourse That the reason he gave why one would expect it should be so is the reason why 't is not and this is plain enough to sense from the confusion of Vision which shews that the rays are not united after the way requisite for the aiding the sight as I just now intimated and how that should be I had here shewn but that I am ashamed to add more in earnest about a grave foolery And I confess Sir I account these personal matters a kind of Digression from the main thing I intended To return therefore to my Subject CHAP. X. Our Advantages for Knowledge from Modern Improvements of Natural History HAving discourst the modern Help● vseful knowledge hath for deep Research I am next 2. To recount what Aids it hath received from our better acquaintance with the Phaenomena For this I must consider NATURAL HISTORY more particularly which is the Repository wherein these are lodg'd How this may be compiled in the best order and to the best advantage is most judiciously represented by the Immortal Lord Bacon and to shew how highly It hath been advanced in modern Times I need say little more than to amass in a brief Recollection some of the Instances of newly-discovered Phaenomena which are scatter'd under the Heads of the Arts and Instruments I have discours'd with the Addition of some others As In the HEAVENS those of the Spots and Dinettick motion of the Sun the mountanous protuberances and shadows in the body of the Moon about nineteen Magnitudes more of Fixed Stars the Lunulae of Iupiter their mutual Eclipsing one another and its turning round upon its own Axis the Ring about Saturn and its shadow upon the Body of that Star the Phases of Venus the increment and decrement of Light among the Planets the appearing and disaprearing of Fixed Stars the Altitude of Comets and nature of the Via Lactea By these Discoveries and more such the History of the Heavens hath been rectified and augmented by the Modern Advancers of Astronomy whom in their place I have cited In the AIR Its Spring the more ●ccurate History and Nature of Winds and Meteors and the probable height of the Atmosphere have been added by the Lord Bacon Des Cartes Mr. Boyle and others In the EARTH New Lands by Columbus Magellan and the rest of the Discoverers and in these new Plants new Fruits new Animals new Minerals and a kind of other World of Nature from which this is supplied with numerous conveniences of Life and many thousand Families of our own little one are continually fed and maintained In the WATERS the great Motion of the Sea unknown in elder Times and the particular Laws of flux and reflux in many places are discover'd The History of BATHES augmented by Savonarola Baccius and Blanthellus of METALS by Agricola and the whole SVBTERRANEOUS WORLD described by the universally Learned Kircher The History of PLANTS much improved by Matthiolus Ruellius Bauhinus and Gerard besides the late Account of English Vegitables publish'd by Dr. Merret a worthy Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY And another excellent Virtuoso of the same Assembly Mr. Iohn Evelyn hath very considerably advanced the History of Fruit and Forest-Trees by his Sylva and Pomona and greater things are expected from his Preparations for Elysium Britannicum a noble Design now under his hands And certainly the inquisitive World is much indebted to this generous Gentleman for his very ingenious Performances in this kind as also for those others of Sculpture Picture Architecture and the like practical useful things with which he hath inrich'd it The History of ANIMALS hath been much inlarged by Gesner Rondeletius Aldrovandus and more accurately inquir'd into by the Micrographers And the late Travellers who have given us Accounts of those remote parts of the Earth that have been less known to these have described great variety of Living Creatures very different from the Animals of the nearer Regions among whom the ingenious Author of the History of the Caribbies deserves to be mentioned as an Instance In our own BODIES Natural History hath found a rich heap of Materials in the above-mentioned Particulars of the Venae Lacteae the Vasa Lymphatica the Valves and Sinus of the Veins the several new Passages and ●landules the Ductus Chyliferus the Ori●ination of the Nerves the Circulation of ●he Blood and the rest And all the main Heads of Natural History have receiv'd ●ids and increase from the famous Verulam who led the way to substantial Wisdom and hath given most excellent Directions for the Method of such an HISTORY of NATURE CHAP. XI The Advantages of late Ages for spreading and communicating Knowledge Three great Instances of it in Printing the Compass and the Royal Society THus Sir I have dispatch'd the FIRST Part of my Method proposed in the beginning but stand yet ingaged for the other which is to shew II. That the later Ages since Aristotle have had great advantages of him in respect of Opportunities and Helps for the spreading and communicating Knowledge and thereby of improving and enlarging it And methinks the very mention of Age● and Aristotle by way of comparison in this case hath so much of absurdity in it tha● I am almost ashamed to proceed further in the proof of such a Proposition as this viz. That the Advantages of Mankind in the Succession of two thousand years are more than those of a single Person who lived but sixty three Certainly those that have the fondness to think the contrary have a Faith that exceeds all the Extravagancies of Fiction For never any Romance was so absurdly vain as to feign an Heroe whose single strength and valour exceeded Armies of other Mortals And 't is not less absurd to suppose the Wit of one man and he an Idolater and an Heathen to transcend the joynt Understandings of all the wiser World though assisted by his Knowledge the Light of Christianity and the aggregated Informations and Endeavours of many Learned Ages But my Reverend Opposite had this belief

coldness of the Air and exhibits many rare and luciferous Phaenomena which may help to better Informations about those Qualities than yet we have any And as to this I observe with the great Verulam and the other Bacon the Illustrious Mr. Boyle That Heat and Cold are the right and left hand of Nature The former is the great Instrument of most of her Operations and the other hath its Interest And yet the Philosophy of Aristotle hath neither done nor as much as attempted anything toward the Discovery of their Natures but contented it self with the jejune vulgar and general description That Heat is a Quality that gathereth together things of a like nature and severs those that are unlike and Cold congregates both But now if we will know any thing deeply in the business of Rarefaction and Condensation the Doctrine of Meteors and other material Affairs of Nature other Accounts about these things must be endeavoured and the bare informations of our Senses are not exact enough for this purpose for their Reports in this kind are various and uncertain according to the temper and disposition of our Bodies and several unobserved accidental mutations that happen in them This Instrument therefore hath been invented to supply their defects and it gives far more constant and accurate though perhaps not always infallible Relations but the justest are afforded by the Sealed Thermometer And besides the Vses of this Instrument I suggested it will help very much in framing the History of Weather which may be applied to many excellent purposes of philosophy and services of Life CHAP. VIII Of the Barometer and Air-Pump and what Advantages we have and may further expect from these Instruments But IV. The BAROMETER is another late Instrument very helpful to Vseful Knowledge That there is gravity even in the Air it self and that that Element is only comparatively light is now made evident and palpable by Experience though Aristotle and his Schools held a different Theory And by the help of Quicksilver in a Tube the way is found to measure all the degrees of Compression in the Atmosphere and to estimate exactly any accession of weight which the Air receives from Winds Clouds or Vapours To have said in Elder Times That Mankind should light upon an Invention whereby those Bodies might be weigh'd would certainly have appeared very wild and extravagant and it will be so accounted for some time yet till men have been longer and are better acquainted with this Instrument For we have no reason to believe it should have better luck than the Doctrine of the Circulation the Theory of Antipodes and all great Discoveries in their first Proposals 'T is impossible to perswade some of the Indians that live near the heats of the Line that there is any such thing as Ice in the World but if you talk to them of Water made hard and consistent by Cold they 'l laugh at you as a notorious Romancer And those will appear as ridiculous among the most of us who shall affirm it possible to determine any thing of the weight of the Wind or Clouds But Experience turns the laugh upon the confident incredulity of the Scoffer and he that will not believe needs no more for his conviction than the labour of a Tryal Let him then fill a Tube of Glass of some Feet in length with Quicksilver and having sealed one end let him stop the other with his Finger and immerge that which is so stop'd into a Vessel of Mercury the Tube being perpendicularly erected let him then substract his Finger and he will perceive the Quicksilver to descend from the Tube into the subjacent Vessel till it comes to 29 Digits or thereabouts there after some Vibrations it ordinarily rests The reason that this remainder of the Mercury doth not descend also is because such a Mercurial Cylinder is just equiponderant to one of the incumbent Atmosphere that leans upon the Quicksilver in the Vessel and so hinders a further descent It is concluded therefore That such a Cylinder of the Air as presses upon the Mercury in the Vessel is of equal weight to about 29 Digits of that ponderous Body in the Tube Thus it is when the Air is in its ordinary temper but Vapours Winds and Clouds alter the Standard so that the Quicksilver sometimes falls sometimes rises in the Glass proportionably to the greater or less accession of gravity and compression the Air hath received from any of those alterations and the Degree of increase beyond the Standard is the measure of the additional gravity This Experiment was the Invention of Torricellius and used to little more purpose at first but to prove a Vacuum in Nature and the deserted part of the Glass Tube was by many thought an absolute void which I believe is a mistake But it hath been since improved to this Design of weighing the degrees of compression in the Air a thing that may signifie much in giving us to understand its temper in several Places on Hills and in Caves in divers Regions and Climates which may tend to the disclosing many excellent Theories and helps in humane Life And the Air is so Catholick a Body and hath so great an influence upon all others and upon ours that the advantage of such an Instrument for the better acquainting us with its nature must needs be very considerable and a good Aid to general Philosophy And who yet knows how far and to what Discoveries this Invention may be improved The World a long time only rudely star'd upon the Wonders of the Loadstone before its use was found for the advantage of Navigation and 't is not impossible but that future Times may derive so much benefit one way or other from this Invention as may equal its esteem to that of the Compass The ROYAL SOCIETY by their Care and Endeavours in the using this Instrument give us hopes that they will let none of its useful Applications to escape us And I know not whether we may not mention it as the first great benefit we have from it that it was an occasion of the Invention of Mr. Boyle's famous Pneumatick Engine And this is the other Instrument I noted and call'd V. The AIR-PVMP concerning the usefulness of which that excellent Person himself hath given the best Accounts in his Discourse of Physico-Mechanical Experiments made in that Engine by which he hath discovered and proved a rare and luciferous Theory viz. the Elastick Power or Spring of the Air and by this hath put to flight that Odd Phancy of the Fuga Vacui and shewn that the strange Effects which use to be ascribed to that general and obscure cause do arise from the native self-expansion of the Air. The extent of which Elastical Expansion he hath found divers ways to measure by his Engine which also discovers the influence the Air hath on Flame Smoke and Fire That it hath none in Operations Magnetical That it is probably much interspersed in the Pores

and hath thereby out-done the largest excesses of Poetry For his sake therefore and those others that are of this more than hyperbolical Faith I add the SECOND Part of my proposed Method though what I have said already upon the First is I judge more than sufficient for that purpose And yet I think it not impertinent to subjoyn those other Considerations both because they will further discover the unreasonable vanity of the doating Spirits that oppose all generous Endeavours for the advance and improvement of Knowledge and which may signifie more will excite and encourage Hopes of Modern Attempts and Hope is the fuel of Activity and Endeavour I descend to demonstrate then by palpable and undeniable Instances That we have Advantages above Aristotle and which is much more above all elder Times for mutual Communications and impartments of our Notices Observations Experiments and Performances for the increase of Science My Instances are THREE PRINTING the COMPASS and the ROYAL SOCIETY For the FIRST PRINTING It was according to Polydore Vergil the Invention of Iohn Cuthenberg of Mentz in Germany though others give the honour to one Fust of the same City and some to Laurentius a Burger of Haerlem But whoever was the Author this is agreed That this excellent Art was first practiced about the year 1440. and was utterly unknown i● elder Times at least in all the parts of th● World that are on this side the Kingdom o● China which they say had it more early but it signifies not to our purpose Now by reason of the Ancients want of this Invention Copies of excellent things could not be so much dispersed nor so well preserv'd either from the Corruptions of Tim●● or Design The Charge of Books was very great forgeries frequent and mistakes o● Transcribers numerous They were quickly swept away out of those few Libraries in which they were by Fire and Violence o● spoiled by Dust and Rottenness And in th● absence of this Art 't was easie enough fo● one Aristotle to destroy the most considerable Remains of the Ancients that the power of his great Scholar put into his hands which 't is credibly reported of him tha● he did to procure more Fame for his own Performances as also to conceal his thefts and injurious dealings with those venerable Sages whom he seems to take a great delight to contradict and expose as I have elsewhere proved But now by this excellent Invention the Knowledge that is lodged in Books is put beyond the danger of such Corruptions Forgeries or any fatal inconvenience We communicate upon easie ●terms at the remotest distance converse with the Wisemen that went before us and se●●rely convey down our Conceptions to the Ages that shall follow So that by this means Knowledge is advantageously spread and improved especially since the Assistance modern Ingenuity hath brought us in that other admirable Invention 2. The COMPASS How defective the Art of Navigation was in elder Times when they Sailed by the observation of the Stars is easie to be imagin'd For in dark weather when their Pleiades Helice and Cynosura were hidden from them by the intervening Clouds the Mari●ner was at a loss for his Guide and exposed to the casual conduct of the Winds and Tides For which reason the Ancients seldom or never durst venture into the Ocean but steer'd along within sight of the safer Shore So that the Commerce and Communications of those Days were very narrow Their famed Travels in comparison were but domestick and a whole World was to them unknown But it hath been the happy priviledge of later Days to find the way to apply the wonderful Vertues of the Loadstone to Navigation and by the direction of the Compass we securely commit our selves t● the immense Ocean and find our path i● the vastest Wilderness of Waters So tha● Commerce and Traffique is infinitely improved the other half of the Globe disclosed and that on this side the great Sea better understood The Religions Laws Customs and all the Rarities and Varieties of Art and Nature which any the most distant Clim● knows and enjoys are laid open and made common and thereby the History of Nature is wonderfully inlarged and knowledge is both propagated and improved Who it was that first discovered this excellent Mystery is not certainly known ● But one Flavius Goia of Amalphis in the Kingdom of Naples is said to be the Author and to have found this incomparable Rarity about 300 years ago 'T is pity that one of the greatest Benefactors to mankind that ever was should lie hid in so neglected an obscurity when the great Troublers of the World who have vex'd it by the Wars of the Hand and of the Brain have so dear and so precious a Memory For my part I think there is more acknowledgment due to the name of this obscure Fellow that hath scarce any left than to a thousand Alexanders and Caesars or to ten times the number of Aristotles And he really did more for the increase of Knowledge and advantage of the World by this one Experiment than the numerous subtile Disputers that have lived ever since the erection of the School of talking And methinks it may not be improper for me here to take notice of that other great German Invention that useth to be mentioned in the Company viz. That of GVNPOWDER and ARTILLERY which hath done its Service also for the help and propagation of Knowledge as you will perceive when you shall consider that by the assistance of these terrible Engins of Death the great Western Indies were presently subdued which likely had not been so easily effected by the ancient and ordinary Methods of War 'T was this Thunder and Lightning and the invisible Instruments of Ruine that destroyed the Courage of those numerous and hardy People took away the hearts of the strongest Resisters and made them an easie prey to the Conquering Invaders And now by the gaining that mighty Continent and the numerous fruitful Isles beyond the Atlantick we have obtained a larger Field of Nature and have thereby an advantage for more Phaenomena and more helps both for Knowledge and for Life which 't is very like that future Ages will make better use of to such purposes than those hitherto have done and that Science also may at last travel into those parts and inrich Peru with a more precious Treasure than that of its golden Mines is not improbable And so these Engines of Destruction in a sense too are Instruments of Knowledge Of the first Author of this Experiment we know no more but that he was a German Monke who lighted on it chance when he was making some Chymical Tryals with Nitre near about the time of the Invention of the Compass but his Name and other Circumstances are lost Now whoever considers with the Noble Verulam how much the state of things in the World hath been altered and advanced by these THREE EXPERIMENTS alone will conceive great hopes of Modern